Analyzing the Role of School Psychosocial Climate in Predicting Students’ Academic Burnout Through the Mediating Roles of Performance Anxiety and Academic Self-Efficacy
Keywords:
School psychosocial climate, academic burnout, performance anxiety, academic self-efficacy, students, qualitative research, TehranAbstract
This study aimed to explain how the psychosocial climate of school contributes to students’ academic burnout through the perceived mediating mechanisms of performance anxiety and academic self-efficacy. This qualitative study was conducted using thematic analysis. The participants were 24 secondary school students from Tehran, Iran, selected through purposive sampling with maximum variation in gender, grade level, school type, and perceived academic pressure. Data were collected exclusively through semi-structured interviews. Sampling continued until theoretical saturation was reached; saturation occurred at the twenty-first interview, and three additional interviews were conducted to confirm thematic stability. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using NVivo software. To enhance trustworthiness, member checking, peer review, analytic memoing, and constant comparison of codes were employed. Ethical principles, including voluntary participation, confidentiality, informed consent, and the right to withdraw, were observed throughout the research process. The analysis yielded five main categories: “quality of supportive relationships at school,” “evaluation culture and performance anxiety,” “academic self-efficacy as a psychological protective resource,” “pathways of academic burnout experience,” and “the combined mechanism linking school climate to burnout.” Findings indicated that a supportive school climate reduced burnout when students experienced psychological safety, teacher support, peer belonging, respectful communication, and opportunities to make mistakes without humiliation. Conversely, excessive competition, constant comparison, high-stakes grading, and outcome-centered expectations intensified performance anxiety and weakened students’ beliefs in their academic capabilities. Academic burnout should not be understood merely as a consequence of academic workload. Rather, it emerges from the interaction between the emotional-relational structure of school, evaluative practices, students’ performance anxiety, and their perceived academic self-efficacy. School-based interventions should therefore simultaneously improve teacher-student relationships, reform assessment culture, reduce performance anxiety, and strengthen students’ academic self-efficacy.
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