Kevin Davidson

Effectively managing burnout is a critical skill for students of all levels. Of course, time management and reasonable workload play a role in avoiding feelings of tiredness and stress—two critical factors that influence burnout. Developing certain cognitive skills has been shown to help students prevent burn out and its correlates (Fleischhauer et al., 2019; Baghurst & Kelley 2014; Han, Lee, & Lee 2012). Psychological flexibility, the ability to cope with changes in ways that function in the context and align with one’s values (Kashdan & Rottenberg, 2010), is one such cognitive skill that may play a role in helping students to avoid and/or alleviate symptoms of burnout.

Recently, psychological flexibility has been identified as “a fundamental aspect of health” (Kashdan & Rottenberg, 2010). Researchers exploring the relationship between psychological flexibility and burnout have revealed that mindfulness-based trainings, such as those from the practices of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)- a strategy specifically designed to promote psychological flexibility- reduce stress and burnout (Rudaz et al., 2017). In another study, researchers applied the principles of ACT in a burnout intervention among a randomized group of professionals (Puolakanaho et al., 2020). The study found that the treatment group scored higher than the control in measures of well-being and psychological flexibility, and lower in measures of ill-being; and the intervention nearly eliminated the indicators of burnout from the experimental group.

Little work has been done applying this line of research to combatting burnout in student populations. And, despite these convincing findings, most students, even those within the field of psychology, will rarely have heard of ACT or psychological flexibility. And even less will have been taught mindfulness-based approaches to combatting burnout! This study seeks to examine the relationship of psychological flexibility and burnout in the SUNY Oneonta student population, and to further examine relationships in this context.