Relationship between Academic Support and Academic Burnout among High School Students: The Mediating Role of Quality of Life in School

The present study aimed to explore the relationship between academic support and academic burnout by considering the mediating role of quality of life in school among female students. This study was descriptive with a correlational design. The statistical population was all female second-round high school students in 2016 in Qom, Iran. Morgan’s Table was used to select 357 students via stratified random sampling. The data collection instruments included Maslach Burnout Inventory, Sands & Plunkett Academic Support scale, and Ainley & Bourke Quality of life in School Questionnaire. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics as well as inferential statistics including Pearson Product Moment Correlation, Hierarchical Regression Analysis, and Sobel Z Test. The correlation results indicated that there is a statistically significant negative relationship between academic support and quality of life in school, in one hand, and sub-scales of academic burnout including academic disinterest, emotional exhaustion, ineffectiveness, on the other hand; moreover, there was a statistically significant positive relationship between academic support and quality of life in school. As to Hierarchical Regression Analysis, the results showed academic support can predict academic burnout, and quality of life in school has a mediating role in the relationship between academic support and academic burnout. The findings imply that academic support has a preventive role in developing academic burnout; furthermore, careful planning and effective interventions should be performed to enhance students’ quality of life and their academic guidance.