Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Academic burnout is not uncommon and interferes with the role shift from nursing students to qualified nurses, aggravating a shortage of workforce in global healthcare system. However, there is currently a lack of research examining the relationship between family functioning, academic self-efficacy, and academic burnout in nursing students. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship among family functioning, academic self-efficacy, and academic burnout among nursing students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional survey recruited 2,847 nursing students from a three-year vocational school located in Henan province in eastern China and used an online questionnaire to measure the participants' basic information, family functioning, academic self-efficacy and academic burnout. Descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation, multiple linear regression and mediation analyses were used. RESULTS: The mean (SD) score of academic burnout among nursing students was 53.98 (10.87). Family functioning (r = -0.39, p < 0.001) and academic self-efficacy (r = -0.64, p < 0.001) were negatively correlated with academic burnout. Family functioning (r = 0.46, p < 0.001) was positively correlated with academic self-efficacy. At the same time, academic self-efficacy plays a partial mediating role (indirect effect = -1.009; 95% CI, -1.114 to -0.910) in the influence of family functioning on academic burnout. CONCLUSION: Nursing students with higher level of family functioning may have a stronger sense of academic self-efficacy, which could lead to a lower level of academic burnout. This finding provides important guidance for educational administrators to formulate targeted strategies to prevent academic burnout of nursing students.