Mediating Effect of Academic Self-Efficacy on the Relationship between Academic Stress and Academic Burnout in Chinese Adolescents

The current study investigated how academic stress, academic burnout, and academic self-efficacy relate to each other; in addition, this study examined the mediating effects of academic self-efficacy on the relationship between academic stress and academic burnout of Chinese adolescents. A total of 412 students attending third-grade from two different middle schools (ninth-grade in the United States) located in Jiading District of Shanghai participated in the final analysis. By using structural equation modeling (SEM) and the maximum likelihood estimation procedures of AMOS 20.0, the latent variable measurement models were confirmed. The results and conclusions of this study are summarized as follows. A positive correlation between academic stress and academic burnout was soundly supported by this study. Meanwhile, both academic stress and academic burnout indicated negative correlations with academic self-efficacy. The modeling indicated that academic self-efficacy has a partial mediating process and a direct effect on the relationship between academic stress and academic burnout. Thus, academic stress and academic burnout were significantly weaker when academic self-efficacy was higher. In the field of education and curriculum, these results are applicable for restructuring or developing Chinese middle school curriculum utilizing useful methods for adolescents to develop their academic self-efficacy.