A Correlation Study Among Perfectionism, Self-handicapping And Learning Burnout In Senior High School Students

Learning burnout refers to a group of negative symptoms such as emotional exhaustion,avoidance behavior and lack of learning achievement, when a student feels it is difficult tocope with the pressure of learning, or lack of interest in learning and other psychologicalfactors in learning process. Nowadays the senior high school students in our country bear alarge of study load and there is fierce competition between students and high school. Manystudents feel great pressure and burden of learning because of the high expectations of parentsand teachers. This kind of high competition, overload, intense study makes learning burnoutphenomenon increasingly prominent in the high school students which had a negative impacton the physical and mental health development of high school students. Therefore, it has greatsignificance to promote the development of mental health of high school students if weanalyze the reasons for this phenomenon timely and prevent this phenomenon positively andeffectively. This research investigated the condition of perfectionism, self-handicapping andlearning burnout among senior high school students combined with the environment they arelearning and living, as while as analyzed the relations of the three factors in-depth. By thismeans, we can provide richer information to understand the situation and influencing factorsof learning burnout of the modern high school students, so as to provide a more scientific andeffective suggestions to the prevention and intervention of learning burnout for them.In this study, we selected subjects form four middle school in Shi jiazhuang City, HebeiProvince by the method of cluster random sampling.653questionnaires were distributed and627questionnaires were valid. We investigated the condition of perfectionism,self-handicapping and learning burnout among senior high school students while analyzed therelations of the three factors in-depth through Chinese Frost Multidimensional PerfectionismScale, Self-handicapping Scale and Adolescent Learning Burnout Scale.The results are as follows:1. The perfectionism overall level of senior high school students is in general a littlehigher than the middle level. Male students have significant higher score than female studentson the demotion of parents’ expectations. The child with siblings got a remarkably higher score than the only child on the demotions of parents’ expectations and doubts about action.The students in city feel more worried about mistakes than the students in rural area, whilerural students feel more parents’ expectations. The students in ordinary schools have asignificant higher extent than the students in key school on the overall level of perfectionism.The results of variance analysis shows: there are no significant main effects of grade andschool type in the total score of perfectionism, but these tow variables have significantinteractions.2. The self-handicapping overall level of senior high school students is not very serious.In self-handicapping extent, the only child is significantly higher than that of the child withsiblings, not the class cadre is significantly higher than that of the class cadre, city high schoolstudents was significantly higher than that of the rural high school students. The results ofvariance analysis shows: there are no significant main effects of grade and school type in thetotal score of self-handicapping, but these tow variables have significant interactions.3. The learning burnout overall level of senior high school students is in general a littlelower than the middle level and it showed more in physical and mental exhaustion and lowachievement. Male students have significant higher score than female students on the learningburnout overall level and the demotion of the degree of academic alienation. The child withsiblings got a remarkably higher score than the only child on the learning burnout overalllevel and all the other demotions. Non class cadre students have significantly higher scorethan that of the class cadre on the learning burnout overall level and the demotion of thedegree of academic alienation and the low sense of achievement. Rural high school studentsfeel more exhausted in physical and mental than the students in city. The low sense ofachievement of the first grade is significantly higher than that of grade two and grade three.The results of variance analysis shows: both gender and grade variables have significantinteractions with school type in the total score of learning burnout.4. The total score of learning burnout and each factor and the total score ofself-handicapping showed significant positive correlation with the overall perfectionism andthe dimensions of worry about mistake, parental expectations, individual standard and fear ofaction, and at the same time they showed significant negative correlation with the dimensionsof organization of a rational. The total score of learning burnout showed a significant positive correlation with the score of self-handicapping.5. The demotions of parental expectations, fear of action, worry about mistake andindividual standard in perfectionism and self-handicapping had significant positive predictiveeffect on the learning burnout.6. Self-handicapping plays a partial mediating role between perfectionism and learningburnout. Perfectionism can directly affect learning burnout, and can also indirectly affectlearning burnout through the intermediary role of self-handicapping.