Personality Traits, Burnout and Coping among College Students: A Correlational and Comparative Study

Description

Radhika Gupta¹, Tenzin Dolma², and Anubhuti Bansal³ (School Counselor & PGT Psychology, Srijan International School, Delhi¹ and Department of Clinical Psychology, Amity University, Mohali, Punjab^2,3)

Mental health of college going students is the issue of paramount importance and with the increase in demands, students have become increasingly vulnerable to burnout. Given the escalating rates of burnout and the limited research on intrinsic psychological factors, the present study aimed to explore the interrelations among personality traits, burnout, and coping strategies, and to conduct a comparative analysis between students from science and non-science academic backgrounds. A cross-sectional correlational design was employed, involving a sample of 120 college students aged 18 to 26, selected through convenience sampling. Data was collected using the Big Five Inventory (John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991), the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory-Student Version (Demerouti et al., 2015), and the Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Inventory (Carver, 1997). Tests used included Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for normality, Spearman’s rank-order correlation and Mann-Whitney U test. The results revealed that science students exhibited significantly higher disengagement and greater use of avoidant coping strategies compared to the non-science students. Additionally, higher conscientiousness was negatively correlated with burnout, while neuroticism showed positive correlations with both burnout and avoidant coping strategies. These findings emphasise the need for personality-aware mental health support and coping-skills training in addressing academic burnout and fostering student well-being as preventive measures against academic burnout.