Academic burnout and depression of Chinese medical students in the pre-clinical years: the buffering hypothesis of resilience and social support

Abstract

The present study explored whether the two psychosocial resources including resilience and social support serve as moderating factors in the process between academic burnout and depression among medical students, and investigated factors that associated with depression. We applied Learning Burnout Scale of Undergraduates, Beck Depression Inventory-II, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and Social Support Rating Scale as tools for an investigation with 1722 Chinese medical students. Academic burnout positively correlated with depression while resilience and social support negatively related to depression. Hierarchical regression implied that resilience moderated burnout and depression while social support did not show a buffer effect between the same variables. Building resilience and enhancing their social support are essential for preventing depression in their college life. It is also worth noting that resilience can still work against depression even when academic burnout emerged.