Stress and components of burnout among Thai postgraduate students: Factor structure, construct validity and structural model

Abstract

This study aimed to investigated the factors relating to stress and burnout in Thai postgraduate student context by utilizing exploratory, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling technique. The sample was derived from postgraduate students in Thailand and simple random sampling was applied. There were 2 studies in this research. The first study analyzed a factor structure by using exploratory factor analysis. Self-developed 14 items rating scale questionnaires relating to stress, exhaustion and cynicism were distributed and clean 256 samples were analyzed. All 14 items were classified into 3 factors-5 items for stress, 6 items for exhaustion and 3 items for cynicism. Then newly classified 14 items with 3 factors rating scale questionnaires were distributed for the second study and clean 255 samples were analyzed. The confirmatory factor analysis results showed that 3 factors were reliable and valid. Moreover, indirect effect of stress to exhaustion through cynicism was significant as was direct effect of stress on exhaustion. This inferred that cynicism played a partial mediation role in the relationship between stress and exhaustion. Besides, the total effect of the model was significant. As per the results, even in this context, stress and cynicism could lead to exhaustion. Therefore, any educational-related workers should focus on these factors and find countermeasures to mitigate risks. Future studies should extend the results of this study by further analyzing the multi-group confirmatory factor analysis and multi-group structural equation model to test an invariance among different groups to generalize the result into a broader context.