TY - JOUR

T1 - Psychometric Properties of the German Short Version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory - Student Survey

AU - Turhan, Derya

AU - Scheunemann, Anne

AU - Schnettler, Theresa

AU - Bäulke, Lisa

AU - Thies, Daniel O.

AU - Dresel, Markus

AU - Fries, Stefan

AU - Leutner, Detlev

AU - Wirth, Joachim

AU - Grunschel, Carola

N1 - This research was funded by the German Federal Ministry ofEducation and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung undForschung, BMBF, Grant Numbers 01PX16011A/

PY - 2021/4/1

Y1 - 2021/4/1

N2 - Background: Higher education is a challenging context in which students particularly those endowed with a small array of resources are susceptible to suffer from burnout. To screen, identify, and support students that are at risk of burnout, psychometrically robust instruments are essential. To this end, we extended the validation of the German short version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory Student Survey (MBI-SS-KV) that allows measuring burnout among German-speaking university students. Method: We conducted a longitudinal study and analyzed the factorial validity, reliability, measurement invariance, and convergent as well as discriminant validity of the MBI-SS-KV in a sample of German university students (N = 1,435). Results: Our results replicated the original three-factor structure of the MBI-SS-KV. Yet, a bi-factor structure of the MBI-SS-KV composed of a general factor (i.e., student burnout) and three domain-specific factors (i.e., emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy) revealed a comparable fit and was used for further analyses due to theoretical and methodological advantages. Based on the bi-factor structure of the MBI-SS-KV, nested models with increasing invariance constraints provided support for measurement invariance of this instrument across female and male university students and across time. Besides, the average variance extracted estimates and the comparisons of these estimates with shared variances demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity of the factors emotional exhaustion and cynicism, but not for the factor reduced professional efficacy. Conclusion: To sum up, we found that the MBI-SS-KV is a reliable and for the most part valid instrument for the assessment of student burnout in German higher education.

AB - Background: Higher education is a challenging context in which students particularly those endowed with a small array of resources are susceptible to suffer from burnout. To screen, identify, and support students that are at risk of burnout, psychometrically robust instruments are essential. To this end, we extended the validation of the German short version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory Student Survey (MBI-SS-KV) that allows measuring burnout among German-speaking university students. Method: We conducted a longitudinal study and analyzed the factorial validity, reliability, measurement invariance, and convergent as well as discriminant validity of the MBI-SS-KV in a sample of German university students (N = 1,435). Results: Our results replicated the original three-factor structure of the MBI-SS-KV. Yet, a bi-factor structure of the MBI-SS-KV composed of a general factor (i.e., student burnout) and three domain-specific factors (i.e., emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy) revealed a comparable fit and was used for further analyses due to theoretical and methodological advantages. Based on the bi-factor structure of the MBI-SS-KV, nested models with increasing invariance constraints provided support for measurement invariance of this instrument across female and male university students and across time. Besides, the average variance extracted estimates and the comparisons of these estimates with shared variances demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity of the factors emotional exhaustion and cynicism, but not for the factor reduced professional efficacy. Conclusion: To sum up, we found that the MBI-SS-KV is a reliable and for the most part valid instrument for the assessment of student burnout in German higher education.

KW - convergent validity

KW - discriminant validity

KW - factorial validity

KW - Maslach Burnout Inventory - Student Survey

KW - measurement invariance

KW - Psychology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85101226977&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/f1ea8f91-5115-3117-9689-a3e85d36907c/

U2 - 10.1027/2512-8442/a000067

DO - 10.1027/2512-8442/a000067

M3 - Scientific review articles

AN - SCOPUS:85101226977

VL - 28

SP - 45

EP - 58

JO - European Journal of Health Psychology

JF - European Journal of Health Psychology

SN - 2512-8442

IS - 2

ER -