The feeling of burnout among students writing their theses

Abstract

Aim. The present paper focuses on students working on their theses and on any burnout or aversion to the topics of their own theses that may occur during this time. The conducted research aimed to verify how big the scale of burnout among those students and to check what kind of burnout symptoms and factors hampering writing may occur and whether those symptoms are short- or long-term.

Methods. So as to get answers to the given research questions and verify the hypotheses, there was conducted research with the usage of a survey form. The obtained results were discussed in detail.

Results. Despite the fact that respondents were mostly choosing the thesis’ topics due to their hobbies and interest areas, almost 90% of them felt or still feel burnout, and nearly 70% also feel averse to the topic related to their thesis. Factors hampering the writing process differ depending on the degree of the studies. However, both groups indicated that the biggest problem is procrastination (despite the fact that over half of the respondents spent more than three months preparing their thesis) and the occurrence of random situations. The assessment of the supervisor’s support proved to be moderately significant for the occurrence of aversion and burnout. Most students with burnout feel tiredness, high stress, nervousness and irritation, aversion to the topic of their thesis and prefer to avoid the topic related to their thesis.

Conclusion. The topic of burnout among students preparing their thesis is not closed. The exact causes of the occurrence of burnout should be searched for, especially now that the exact scale of this phenomenon is known and the fact that for many students, it is a long-term stress. The results may lead to further research and searching for the resolvings to this problem as well as highlight the necessity of education in the area of mental health and expanding the knowledge on the topic of self-care.