Psychosocial Pathways Linking Mindfulness Traits and Burnout in University Students in China during The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Path Analysis Study

Background: The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic brings critical health problems to workers in many occupations, including the student population. Findings suggest university students are suffering from moderate to high levels of burnout. Mindfulness is considered to serve as a buffer against burnout, where the underlying mechanisms remains unknown. The aim of the study was to investigate the relationships between mindfulness and burnout among university students in China during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to explore the mediating roles of perceived social support and emotion in the association. Methods: A total of 982 participants were recruited to complete an online survey one year after the COVID-19 outbreak, which consisted of the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), and the Learning Burnout of University Students scale. Path analysis was adopted to test the hypothesized theoretical model. Results: Mindfulness was significantly ( p <0.01) correlated to burnout of university students, which relationship was mediated by the interactions between perceived social support, positive affect and negative affect (model fitness: χ 2 /df=1.14, SRMR=0.009, RMSEA=0.026, CFI=0.999, TLI=0.995). Conclusions: Mindfulness may be a protective factor against burnout of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic, while perceived social support, positive affect and negative affect play important roles in the association. Mindfulness-based interventions are suggested to reduce burnout in this population, and psychosocial factors like emotion and social support should be emphasized in the procedure.