Academic burnout among female adolescents: A resource-based model of social support, perfectionism, and academic self-efficacy

Abstract

Academic burnout is an increasingly recognized psychosocial challenge among adolescents exposed to sustained academic demands. Guided by Conservation of Resources theory, this study develops and tests a resource-based model examining how social support and perfectionism are associated with academic burnout through academic self-efficacy among female upper secondary students. Cross-sectional survey data were collected from 522 students aged 15–18 years in metropolitan Thailand and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Academic self-efficacy was negatively associated with burnout, whereas both adaptive and socially prescribed perfectionism were positively related to burnout. Adaptive perfectionism was positively associated with self-efficacy, while socially prescribed perfectionism showed no direct association. Family support was indirectly associated with lower burnout through self-efficacy, whereas teacher emotional support demonstrated a direct negative association with burnout. Mediation analyses indicated that academic self-efficacy partially explained the relationships between adaptive perfectionism, family support, and burnout. Overall, the findings extend Conservation of Resources theory by highlighting how interactions between internal psychological resources and external social resources shape burnout processes among female adolescents in high-pressure educational contexts. The study contributes to interdisciplinary social science research by providing gender-sensitive insights into adolescent well-being and informing resource-focused prevention strategies.