An Italian Adaptation of the Burnout Assessment Tool-Core Symptoms (BAT-C) for Students

Abstract

Burnout is psychological, physical, and emotional suffering that may affect students with low or inadequate resources to face stressful events at school. Although the existing instruments are used worldwide to assess school burnout risk, they show several flaws and mainly focus on the emotional facets of the syndrome. No previous studies have developed a multi-component tool to reveal students’ burnout by simultaneously analyzing cognitive, behavioral, and emotional problems. The central core of the current study is to adapt the Burnout Assessment Tool-Core symptoms (BAT-C; Schaufeli et al., 2020), comprising four subscales, exhaustion, mental distance, cognitive impairment, and emotional impairment, for a sample of Italian students. The factor structure, the reliability, and the validity of the scale are investigated. The participants are 745 middle school students (male, 52.2%; aged 9–13, M = 11.84, and SD = 1.21). Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the best fit of the second-order model (four first-order factors and one second-order factor). Specifically, four factors were loaded onto a main high-order factor, which constitutes the BAT-C. Our findings support the Italian adaptation of the BAT-C for students’ samples as a valid instrument for measuring the core symptoms of school burnout.

Students’ Burnout at University: The Role of Gender and Worker Status

“…In the current study, female students were more at risk than male students to experience burnout in terms of exhaustion and cognitive and emotional impairment. This result is in line with the previous research described above, which referred to high school students (e.g., [ 24 , 38 , 39 ]) and, in a few cases, to university ones (e.g., [ 25 , 41 ]). Furthermore, the higher risk for females, particularly considering the exhaustion dimension, is a consistent result in most research addressing workers’ burnout (e.g., [ 56 ]), showing the strict relationship (e.g., for a review, see Koutsimani et al [ 81 ]) and, though somewhat debated, the overlap [ 82 ] between depression and burnout constructs.…”

“…The Italian version of the Burnout Assessment Tool–Core Symptoms short version (BAT-C-Short version; [ 19 , 20 , 24 , 60 ]) (see Appendix A ) was used to assess burnout. It is composed of 12 items and four dimensions: exhaustion (3 items: e.g., “I feel mentally exhausted”), mental distance (3 items: e.g., “I struggle to find enthusiasm for studying”), cognitive impairment (3 items: e.g., “I have trouble staying focused”), and emotional impairment (3 items: e.g., “I feel unable to control my emotions”).…”

“…The BAT, also available in a short version, is inspired by a more comprehensive approach that capitalizes on the long-tradition research where strict relationships among emotional, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions in burnout syndrome have been confirmed [ 19 ]. In the last two years, it has been translated and adapted to be used in several countries for adult workers (e.g., [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]), high-school students [ 24 ], and recently university students [ 25 ], showing brilliant psychometric properties.…”

“…Moreover, several studies have shown that university students with burnout symptoms tend to show a high risk of developing eating disorders [ 31 ], sleep disorders [ 32 ], addiction [ 33 ], and mental health issues [ 34 ]. Consequently, students’ burnout can strongly threaten their careers and the opportunity to conclude their academic paths positively [ 24 , 35 , 36 , 37 ].…”

“…Gender is a key dimension when burnout is analyzed from students’ perspectives. Findings from adolescent students have demonstrated that girls across education levels feel more exhausted compared to their male classmates [ 24 , 38 , 39 ]. However, while female students are more at risk of experiencing exhaustion and inadequacy compared to their male classmates, no gender differences have been observed, considering cynicism [ 40 ].…”