From Self-Leadership to Well-Being: Understanding Student Engagement and Burnout in Universities

Abstract

The problem of burnout in university students has become a matter of concern because academic stress and psychosocial problems often affect their health and success in studies. This paper aims to explore the link between self-leadership, burnout, and student engagement, where student engagement mediates the aforementioned connections. It also evaluates the impact of self-leadership and engagement on burnout reduction and examines the mediating effect of engagement on the association between self-leadership and burnout. The data collected was in the form of a cross-sectional survey design that sampled 300 students in three faculties of the University of Sargodha. Data collection was done using the Revised Self-Leadership Questionnaire, Utrecht Work Engagement Scalestudent version, and Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey. SPSS was used to conduct data analysis using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and regression analysis, and mediation analysis using Process Macro. The findings showed that students had reported moderate self-leadership, engagement, and burnout levels. The results showed that the increased self-leadership had a strong connection with the increased engagement and reduced burnout. Besides, heightened interaction is associated with decreased burnout. Regression models showed that self-leadership was a strong predictor of burnout and engagement. The predicting factor of burnout was also engagement itself, where the greater the engagement, the lower the burnout levels. Nonetheless, mediation analysis reveals that whereas self-leadership has a direct negative impact on burnout and consequential positive impact on engagement, engagement has no significant mediation effect between self-leadership and burnout. The results can be used by higher education institutions to implement interventions that can promote self-leadership among students and enhance engagement as protective measures in burnout reduction.