Academic burnout and stigma of help seeking in Lithuanian psychology and social works students

Abstract

Background. Psychology and social work are considered as professions with high risk of professional burnout. Although students are just gaining skills necessary for the successful professional performance, high academic demands and professional training rules might cause significant pressure and lead to burnout already during study years. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate levels of academic burnout in a sample of Lithuanian psychology and social work students and to investigate the relationship between academic burnout and psychological help seeking. Methods. 197 psychology and social work students (38 (19%) males, 159 (81%) females) from first to sixth year of studies filled Maslach Burnout Inventory Students Survey and Self-Stigma of Seeking Help Scale and answered question about experience of seeking for mental heath services due to personal psychological problems. Findings. Levels of emotional exhaustion and cynicism significantly increase and sense of academic efficacy decrease from first to sixth year of studies. Observed levels of burnout in Lithuanian psychology and social work students seem to be higher than reported in other studies. Experience of seeking for mental health services was significantly related to higher levels of emotional exhaustion when year of study and gender were controlled. Stigma of help seeking was significantly related to higher levels of cynicism and lower academic efficacy independently from gender and year of study. Discussion. Psychology and social work students experience high levels of academic burnout and despite of professional education still have negative attitudes towards seeking for psychological help. Raising awareness of student burnout problem is needed.