Longitudinal Relationship Between Evaluation Stress and Academic Burnout Among Elementary School Students: An Autoregressive Cross-Lagged Analysis

Objectives The purpose of this study is to analyze the longitudinal relationship between evaluation stress and academic burnout across the time span from 4th grade to 6th grade in elementary school, using a cross-lagged autoregressive model. Methods To this end, data from the Gyeongnam Education Longitudinal Study (GEL2021) collected over three years, from 2021 to 2023, were utilized. The analysis included a total of 2,957 elementary school students who were tracked as the same cohort from 4th to 6th grade. Considering the longitudinal nature of the data, descriptive statistics and correlation analyses were conducted, followed by an autoregressive cross-lagged (ARCL) model to examine the causal relationships between variables over time. This model enabled the simultaneous analysis of the stability and time-lagged effects between academic stress and academic burnout. Results First, it was found that the evaluation stress and academic burnout experienced by elementary school students showed stability over time. Second, evaluation stress in the 1st year (4th grade) had a significant positive impact on academic burnout in the 2nd year (5th grade), and evaluation stress in the 2nd year (5th grade) had a significant positive impact on academic burnout in the 3rd year (6th grade). On the other hand, academic burnout in the 1st year (4th grade) had a significant positive impact on evaluation stress in the 2nd year (5th grade), but academic burnout in the 2nd year (5th grade) did not have an impact on evaluation stress in the 3rd year (6th grade). Conclusions This study revealed the causal relationship in which earlier academic burnout significantly influences the subsequent evaluation stress. It suggests that the interaction between evaluation stress and academic burnout over time is important.