Burnout and irrational beliefs in Romanian students
Burnout and irrational beliefs in Romanian students

Summary/Abstract: The study aims to evaluate the impact of study programs and the degree of loading of students with other work activities on their burnout, as well as to highlight the impact of irrational cognitions along with other organizational factors as predictors of burnout in the academic environment. The participants in the study were 771 students from five fields of study - economic, socio-humanistic, medical, engineering and law, enrolled in undergraduate or master's studies, aged between 18 and 27. The design used was uni- or multifactorial intergroup and the statistical methods used were analysis of variance and multilinear regression. Results. Regarding the type of educational program in which students were enrolled, we observed that students in medical programs exhibited lower levels of burnout on the mental distancing component compared to students in economics programs. The latter demonstrated higher detachment and self-orientation, avoiding relationships with others, including colleagues [F(4,767) = 3.43, p = .009]. A similar tendency was observed between medical and engineering students, with engineering students being more self-oriented and avoiding interpersonal relationships [F(4,767) = 3.43, p = .009, post-hoc Hochberg GT2, p = .068].Significant differences were also noted in emotional expression levels between students in social sciences and medical programs, [F(4,767) = 2.45, p = .045*, post-hoc Games-Howell, p = .075, and effect size r² < .01].With respect to students’ involvement in productive activities exceeding 40 hours per week alongside studies, our research identified significant differences only in the emotional impairment component. [t(770) = -2.56, p = .01]. Regarding burnout on the exhaustion subdimension, depreciation was the most significant predictor (β = .217; t = 4.934, p < .001), explaining 7.34% of the variance. For the mental distance subdimension, depreciation was again the most significant predictor (β = .316; t = 7.36, p < .001). For emotional impairment, depreciation remained the strongest predictor (β = .291; t = 6.69, p < .001). The cognitive impairment subdimension was largely explained by students’ irrational cognitions. Depreciation had the most significant impact (β = .320; t = 7.517, p < .001) with a medium effect size. The study demonstrates the role of irrational cognitions as moderators of burnout among students, with depreciation being the most impactful irrational cognition.

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