School stress, social support and burnout in adolescence: how are they connected?

Recently described as a syndrome of exhaustion, cynicism and inadequacy, school burnout is arousing growing interest among school professionals. This phenomenon was associated with several variables, such as school stress and the social support provided by parents and teachers. However, we still know little about how these variables interact. The objective of this study is to explore the moderating and mediating effects of school stress and social support to better understand their connections with school burnout. A questionnaire evaluating these variables was completed by 441 adolescents from Francophone Switzerland. First, the analyses show that social support does not moderate the effect of stress on school burnout. Then it appears that school stress has a mediating effect on the relationship between social support and school burnout. This effect also varies according to the source of support. On one hand, stress partially mediates the relationship between parental support and school burnout. On the other hand, stress completely mediates the connection between teacher support and school burnout. Thus, it seems that adolescents who benefit from a good level of support from parents and teachers perceive school demands as less stressful, which lowers the risk of burnout.