Group Music Activities and Academic Burnout Among Non-Music-Major College Students with Recent Group Music Participation: A Cross-Sectional SEM–fsQCA Study

Academic burnout among college students is an important concern in educational psychology and student well-being. This cross-sectional study examined the associations among group music activity participation, social connectedness, collective effervescence, and academic burnout among non-music-major college students with recent group music participation. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 1027 college students in China who had participated in at least one group music activity during the previous semester. Covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) was used to examine whether group music activity participation was associated with academic burnout directly and indirectly through social connectedness and collective effervescence, including a proposed sequence from social connectedness to collective effervescence. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was further used to examine which combinations of group music activity participation, social connectedness, and collective effervescence were associated with low academic burnout. The SEM results showed that higher group music activity participation was significantly associated with lower academic burnout. Social connectedness and collective effervescence were involved in significant individual indirect associations, and the serial indirect association involving social connectedness followed by collective effervescence was also statistically supported. The fsQCA results showed that no single condition constituted a necessary condition for low academic burnout. The joint presence of high group music activity participation, high social connectedness, and high collective effervescence formed a sufficient configuration associated with low academic burnout (consistency = 0.896, coverage = 0.647) under the present sample and analytical conditions. Taken together, the findings suggest that group music participation, relational connectedness, and shared emotional experience are meaningfully associated with differences in academic burnout among non-music-major college students. These findings provide a complementary variable-centered and configurational perspective on the psychosocial correlates of group music participation and may inform future longitudinal research and campus-based student well-being initiatives.