Abstract
BACKGROUND: The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is the most widely accepted tool for assessing burnout among students worldwide. However, no studies have yet tested the validity of the student version of the MBI in Nigeria. The study aimed to assess the factorial structure and cross-cultural validity of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Version MBI-GS (S) in a Nigerian university. METHODOLOGY: An online cross-sectional study was conducted among 536 undergraduate students from three departments in the Faculty of Basic Medical Science at a Nigerian university. Data were collected using MBI-GS (S) and a confirmatory factor analysis was performed to explore its factor structure. RESULTS: The results revealed that the three-factor, 15-item structure of the MBI-GS (S) demonstrated a valid factorial structure among Nigerian undergraduate students, evidenced by the extraction of three components with eigen values exceeding 1, accounting for 73.7% of the variance, in line with the three-factor structure of the original MBI. The internal consistency of the questionnaire was high, with a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.901. The Cronbach's alpha for emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and academic efficacy were 0.901, 0.841, and 0.941, respectively. A weak negative correlation was observed between emotional exhaustion and cynicism, and a moderate negative correlation was found between emotional exhaustion and academic efficacy, and cynicism and academic efficacy. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the MBI-GS (S) is a reliable tool for assessing burnout levels among Nigerian university students. They provide strong evidence for the factorial validity and reliability of the MBI-GS (S), supporting its cross-cultural validation for assessing burnout.