Investigation of burnout syndrome among electrical and building technology undergraduate students in Nigeria

BACKGROUND: The investigation of burnout among undergraduate students is yet to receive the same amount of attention as burnout in employees. Despite the negative effects of burnout among students, there is dearth of literature on burnout problem among electrical and building technology undergraduate students. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the burnout levels and the effect of rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT) on symptoms of burnout among electrical and building technology undergraduate students in South–East zone of Nigeria. METHOD: A group randomized trial design involving a treatment group versus no-treatment group was adopted for this study. One hundred fifty four undergraduate students of electrical and building technology who met the study's inclusion criteria were selected from public universities in the South–East zone of Nigeria. The intervention consisted of 10 weeks of REBT treatment and 8 weeks of follow-up meetings conducted at 4 months. A self-report questionnaire was used for data collection. Repeated-measures analysis of variance, paired sample t test, and Chi-Squared were used for data analysis. RESULTS: The outcome indicated that the levels of burnout syndrome among the students are high and REBT had a significant effect on the symptoms of burnout syndrome among the electrical and building technology students in the treatment group compared to their counterparts in the no-treatment group. Finally, the positive gains were significantly maintained by the treatment group at follow-up. CONCLUSION: The current study suggests that an REBT program can be effective for dealing with burnout syndrome among the population of undergraduate students of electrical and building technology in Nigeria.