Examining university student burnout in relation to demands, resources and perfectionism: The mediating role of emotional regulation

Student burnout is an important mental health issue in higher education. The development of the symptoms is often described by the Demand-Resource Model. We aimed to explore how interpersonal factors interact with the educational context in the development of burnout. Therefore, perfectionism and emotional regulation were assessed in addition to study demands and resources. 331 university students participated in our online study. Structural Equation Modeling showed that demands are positively, while resources are negatively, linked to burnout. Maladaptive perfectionism and maladaptive emotional regulation were positively related to burnout, but contrary to our hypothesis, the adaptive dimensions of perfectionism and emotional regulation were not always negatively related to burnout. Moreover, the relationship between both maladaptive and adaptive perfectionism and burnout was positively mediated by maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. Our results suggest factors that may promote or protect against burnout and thus help both prevention and intervention.