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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1441465
This article is part of the Research Topic The Intersection of Psychology, Healthy Behaviors, and its Outcomes View all 3 articles

The association between intolerance of uncertainty and academic burnout among university students: The role of self-regulatory fatigue and self-compassion

Provisionally accepted
Jingyu Qiang Jingyu Qiang 1*Xiaowen He Xiaowen He 2*Zheng Xia Zheng Xia 2*Jing Huang Jing Huang 3*Cheng Xu Cheng Xu 2*
  • 1 Guangdong University of Petrochemical Technology, Maoming, Guangdong, China
  • 2 East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
  • 3 East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, Shanghai, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Increased uncertainty is a major feature of the current society that poses significant challenges to university students’ mental health and academics. However, current research has not paid sufficient attention to this issue, and no study has explored the underlying mechanisms between intolerance of uncertainty and academic burnout among university students. This study examined the association between uncertainty intolerance and academic burnout among university students and the role of self-regulatory fatigue and self-compassion in light of the theory of limited resources. Convenience sampling was used to survey 1,022 Chinese university students. The findings demonstrated that intolerance of uncertainty significantly influenced university students’ academic burnout with self-regulatory fatigue serving as a key mediator. Additionally, self-compassion can effectively moderate the effects of intolerance of uncertainty on self-regulatory fatigue and academic burnout. These results indicated that the depletion of cognitive resources brought about by uncertainty in the current highly uncertain social environment may be one of the key pathways to academic burnout among university students. Furthermore, current research provides insights into how to mitigate the negative effects of uncertainty on university students..

    Keywords: Intolerance of Uncertainty, Academic burnout, self-regulatory fatigue, self-compassion, university students

    Received: 31 May 2024; Accepted: 09 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Qiang, He, Xia, Huang and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Jingyu Qiang, Guangdong University of Petrochemical Technology, Maoming, 525000, Guangdong, China
    Xiaowen He, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
    Zheng Xia, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
    Jing Huang, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, Shanghai, China
    Cheng Xu, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.