The Relationship Between Perceived Stress and Burnout Among University Students: The Mediating Role of Resilience

This study explores the link between perceived stress and burnout among university students and examines whether resilience mediates this relationship. Data were collected from 157 Hungarian minority students enrolled at a Romanian university using convenience and snowball sampling, which may introduce selection bias due to non-random participant recruitment. Participants completed the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey (MBI-SS), and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), all in Hungarian. All participants provided informed consent. Results showed a positive association between perceived stress and burnout, and a negative association between resilience and both perceived stress and burnout. Mediation analysis indicated that resilience partially mediates the relationship between perceived stress and burnout. These findings highlight resilience as a protective factor that mitigates the adverse impact of stress on student burnout. Moreover, results underscore the importance of targeted interventions for minority student populations in Eastern Europe. Keywords: perceived stress, burnout, resilience, university students, protective factor