پژوهشنامه روانشناسی مثبت (Nov 2023)
The Effect of Positive Thinking Intervention on Academic Burnout and Academic Engagement among Elementary School Students
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of positive thinking intervention on academic burnout and academic engagement of fifth-grade elementary school students in Kerman, Iran. The research method was semi-experimental. At first, 100 students were given the questionnaire on academic burnout and academic engagement. Subsequently, 40 students who had weak to moderate academic engagement and high academic burnout were selected as the study sample and were randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. In this study, two standard questionnaires on academic burnout and academic engagement and also a standard package of positive thinking interventions were used. The participants of the experimental group were trained for the eight sessions of 90 minutes, while the control group did not participate in positive thinking classes during this period. Before starting the training, a pre-test was administered to both experimental and control groups. The results showed that positive thinking training had a significant effect on students' academic burnout and their academic engagement. Therefore, it can be concluded that teaching positive thinking to students is especially important for positive relationships with others with the help of features such as establishing warm and reliable relationships, high empathy, and interpersonal intimacy. Also, teaching positive thinking in students removes negative thoughts and cultivates positive thoughts, increases the energy level and capability of students, and provides the possibility for them to turn failure into success and threat into opportunity by getting rid of negative thinking. IntroductionThis study aimed to investigate the effect of positive thinking intervention on academic burnout and academic engagement of fifth-grade elementary school students in District One of Kerman, Iran. The research method was quasi-experimental. The present study is important due to the fact that academic burnout and academic engagement are common problems in educational environments and a significant percentage of students face such issues (Soltani et al., 2016). In addition to the negative effects that burnout has during education, it has other long-term effects. For instance, students who experience burnout during their studies are less able to master their job duties in the future and are not responsible (Rudman& Gustavsson, 2012). Therefore, the general purpose of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of positive thinking intervention on academic burnout and academic engagement of fifth-grade elementary students. MethodThe research method was practical and based on a quasi-experimental research design with a pre-test, a post-test, and a three-month follow-up. The statistical population of the research included all students of all fifth-grade primary schools in Kerman, Iran. First, with the consultation of teachers, 100 students who were suspected of high burnout and low academic engagement were given a questionnaire of academic engagement and academic burnout. Then, those with low academic engagement (below average) and high academic burnout (higher than average) were selected and were randomly assigned to two groups (20 students in the control group and 20 students in the experimental group). The researchers used two questionnaires named Agentic Engagement Scale and School Burnout Inventory and also a standard package of positive thinking interventions. Participants of the experimental group were trained for the eight sessions of 90 minutes, while the control group did not participate in positive thinking classes during this period. In the post-test phase, after the completion of the sessions and after three months in the follow-up phase, the questionnaires were administered to the participants of both groups again. The data were analyzed with the help of SPSS 22 software and repeated measurement tests. ResultsThe research hypothesis was analyzed using multivariate covariance analysis with repeated measurements. The most important assumptions were normality of data distribution, homogeneity of variances, homogeneity of covariance, homogeneity of regression line slope, absence of outlier data, and non-collinearity of dependent variables.To check the normality of the data, the skewness and elongation index were used. The results showed that the skewness and elongation index of the components of academic burnout (emotional fatigue, pessimism, and efficiency) were in the range of -2 and +2. It means that the data were normal. To check the assumption of homogeneity of the variance of the components of academic burnout using Levene's test, the non-significance of F was observed (p>0.05). Levene's test indicated that the assumption of homogeneity of variances is valid.To check the assumption of homogeneity of the slope of the regression line, the significance of the pre-test interaction with the grouping variable was used in the post-test and follow-up stages. The related multivariate statistics, Wilks's lambda, was not significant at the 95% confidence level, so the assumption of homogeneity of the regression coefficients was maintained.The results showed that the effect of the group on the combination of variables of emotional exhaustion, pessimism, and efficiency in primary school students was significant. The results also indicated that the difference between the two groups according to the dependent variables was significant and the amount of this difference in the society was 32.7%. That is, 32.7% of the variance related to the difference between the two groups was explained by the mutual influence of the dependent variables. In this way, the interventions carried out had a significant effect on the components of academic burnout of elementary school students.The results also revealed that the effect of the group on the combination of the variables of behavioral involvement, agent involvement, cognitive involvement, and emotional involvement in primary school students was significant. Moreover, the difference between the two groups according to the dependent variables was significant and the amount of this difference in the society was 52%. That is, 52% of the variance related to the difference between the two groups was due to the mutual influence of the dependent variables.In this way, the interventions carried out had a significant effect on the components of academic burnout of elementary school students. Also, the effect of group time on the combination of variables of emotional exhaustion, pessimism, and efficiency in primary school students was significant. The effect of time on the combination of variables of emotional exhaustion, pessimism, and efficiency in primary school students was significant as well.The findings also showed that difference between the scores of emotional exhaustion, pessimism, and efficiency in the post-test and follow-up phases was significant (p<0.001). Also, the average scores of these variables in the two experimental and control groups had a significant difference (p<0.001). In addition, the interaction between research stages and group membership was significant (p<0.001). which shows that the difference between the stages at the levels of the groups was not the same. ConclusionThis study was conducted with the aim of examining the effect of positive thinking intervention on academic burnout and academic involvement of fifth-grade elementary students in Kerman, Iran. The results of the research showed that positive thinking training affects students' academic burnout and academic engagement. Therefore, the main hypothesis of the research was confirmed. The findings of this research are in line with the findings of Mashhadi et al., (2022), Sadat (2019), Reeve and Tseng (2011), Abbasi et al. (2018), Kiamarsi et al., (2017) and Qhasem Zadeh (2016). Based on the results, in explaining this hypothesis, it can be stated that positive thinking means having optimistic attitudes, thoughts, behavior, and actions in life. Paying attention to the positive aspects of life and not paying attention to the negative aspects means that we have a good image of ourselves, not that we always blame ourselves. Therefore, by increasing positive thinking and avoiding negative thoughts, a person's focus in life is on the positive aspects of life, and this problem improves academic burnout and increases academic engagement in students (Heidari & Saedi, 2020). The present study has some limitations. For example, the data were collected only through students' self-report questionnaires, therefore, it is appropriate to interpret the results with more caution and caution should be observed in generalizing the results to other groups. As such, it is suggested that researchers in future studies investigate the role of positive thinking intervention on other groups such as students in other cities, students, employees, etc. Another limitation of this study is related to the research population which included only the fifth-grade female students of the first district of Kerman, Iran. Also, the data for the present study were collected only via self-report scales, which is another imitation of the present study. Ethical ConsiderationCompliance with Ethical Guidelines: All ethical issues such as confidentiality of participants' identity were attended to and informed consent was obtained from the participants.Authors’ Contributions: This article is extracted from the master's thesis of the second author. Extraction, preparation, editing, and submission of the article was done by the first author of the supervisor.Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest for this research study.Funding: The authors received no financial support for the study.Acknowledgment: The authors thank all the participants of this study
Keywords
