Profiling student’s psychological capital and risk for learner burnout: Results and implications of a Chinese study

The current study conducted the psychological capital profiles and the relation between profile memberships and learning burnout among undergraduates. Participants were 541 Chinese undergraduates ranging from 18 to 21 years old (48.2% male; Mean years = 19.54, SD = 1.09 years). Latent profile analysis revealed three categories of psychological capital profile consistent high psychological capital profile (50.5%), consistent low psychological capital profile (38.1%), and dominate loss-orientated psychological capital profile (11.4%). The undergraduates in consistent high profile reported high self-efficacy, resilience, hope, and optimism. Consistent low profile characterized by a little low (~0.50 SD below the M) self-efficacy, resilience, hope, and optimism. Dominant loss-orientated profile displayed low self-efficacy, hope, optimism, but a little relatively high resilience. Specifically, undergraduates in consistent high profile exhibited low level of learning burnout; while undergraduates with low level of psychological capital (i.e., consistent low profile and dominate loss-orientated profile) reported high level of learning burnout. The findings have theoretical significance which provides important knowledge about psychological capital profile among Chinese undergraduates. They have practical implications for student counselling and development providing person-centric support to students based on their individual psychological profiles.