In recent years with the development of technology in various areas, factors such as business tempo, movement rareness and people’s anxiety about getting a job have started to affect people psychologically, and led to increased level of stress. Besides the anxiety and stress, one of the topics that has come up lately is burnout.

The concept of burnout was first used by Freudenberger who stated that the burnout concept as the extreme tiredness was caused by the increased demand on energy, strength and resources or during  the  process  of burnout (Sezgin et al., 2012). It can also be defined as ‘a psychological syndrome of emotional exhaustion, de-personalization, and reduced personal accomplishment, which can occur among individuals who work with other people in some capacity' (Maslach, 1993). As this study is conducted from the standpoint of burnout being a stress syndrome, it is important to understand that burnout problems stem from social environments (Akansel et al., 2012). Maslach et al., 2001; Boren, 2013 handle  burnout as  a  3-factor  structure (Gündüz, 2005): emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and decrease of personal achievement.

Emotional exhaustion is the most clearly observable aspect of the complex burnout syndrome. People in this aspect mention it as the loss of energy, tiredness or exhaustion the other stress related symptoms. Another definition of natural exhaustion can be stated as the burnout of natural resources because of the demons which are caused by interpersonal communication with other people (Maslach and Jackson, 1981). In addition to the statements earlier mentioned, emotional exhaustion is regarded as the most notable dimension of burnout as it is the first symptom of the diagnosis and is conceived by many researchers as the ‘‘stress dimension of burnout’’ (Maslach et al,2001 Boren, 2013).

When it comes to depersonalization; to illustrate, workers who become distant from themselves and their jobs lose their idealism and an enthusiasm towards their jobs. Depersonalization is a negative, senseless and insensitive attitude towards individuals (Maslach and Jackson, 1981). It is a behavior that people are expressing negative and even hostile attitude towards their job as well as their colleagues.  Researches present an important relationship between emotional exhaustion and depersonalization (Lee and Ashforth, 1990; Lee and Ashforth, 1993; Cordes and Doughtry, 1993).

The lack of personal accomplishment can be illustrated by the example of people who have been exhausted emotionally and in a negative attitude state have lost their competent emotions because they are unable to fulfill required demands of the job. In this sense, the lack of personal accomplishment can be seen in two other structures. In addition, personal failure is a person’s tendency of negative self-evaluation in terms of self-service given to individuals by him or her (Gündüz, 2005).

Burnout has been observed on individuals who have close interaction with other people (health, education, social services) (Maslach and et al., 2001; Yang, 2004) but in recent years, the burnout syndrome has also been seen among the jobs that are less human focused. Even though Shirom (2009) noted that burnout and its related outcomes are the results of an accumulation of work-related stress, the burnout syndrome can be seen in different aspects of life including athletics, marriage or out of the working life (Schaufeli et al., 2002a).

Researches present a relationship between burnout syndrome and some demographic qualities such as gender and marital status. While researches state that women have higher emotional burnout levels than men, men’s depersonalization levels on the other hand are higher than women’s and it is also stated that men’s personal achievement levels are lower than that of women (Brewer and Clippard, 2002). Besides these, married people have lower level of burnout than single people (Cordes and Doughtry, 1993; Brewer and Clippard, 2002). Moreover, it is stated that the burnout syndrome can be seen among the students as well (Balogun et al., 1997; Chang et al., 2000; Yang, 2004).

Finally, it has also been restated that students are an important group of people who suffer from burnout (Gold et al., 1989; Fimian et al., 1989; Hu and Schaufeli, 2009).

Turkey has a highly competitive exam system during formal school period and even before the pre-professional period. For this reason, students have become stressful and have hard times to plan their careers. Burnout which was originally stated as a phenomenon was reported to have been seen among Turkish students (Çapri et al., 2011). For this reason, it can be said that the majority students suffered from burnout symptom. However, the stress level coming from the anxiety of being unemployed has been increasing daily among students who had completed their Higher Education. 

Burnout is regarded as a crucial cognitive variable which affects education and teaching experience. It’s necessary to determine what factors affect this cognitive process and provide required support for the students and educators. Thus, purpose of this research is to evaluate the burnout levels of students at Anadolu University Faculty of Sport Sciences in terms of some variables. 

This study was designed as a descriptive research. Fowler (1993) noted that retrospective research can be used in order to deal with the facts that exist and survive, and to get individual feelings and thoughts right after the fact that takes place. Retrospective studies involve collecting data about past events (Jupp, 2006).

Participants

Participants of the study were 153 students; 46 of whom were female (aged: 20.88±1.86) and 107 male (aged: 22.15 ± 2.15).

Data collection tools

Maslach burnout inventory-student form (MBI-SF)

It was originally developed by Schaufeli et al. (2002a), and was adapted to Turkish by Çapri et al. (2011). As a result of structure validity scale, a structure that consists of 3 factor as and 13 items was acquired. It was observed that the correlations of sub-scales, the scale varied between 0.32 and 0.83. The total item test correlations were calculated and the values of the sub-scale correlation were found out between 0.32 and 0.69. In MBI-SF’s scale related validity research, the short version of burnout scale was applied and it was found out that the correlations between the total points of this scale and MEI-SF sub-scales were in order of 0.51, 0.45 and 0.38. While Cronbach alpha interior consistency coefficient calculated to determine validity of the scale was found as 0.76, 0.82, 0.61; and validity results of test- retest were 0.76, 0.74 and 0.73.

The scales that were used in the research were transformed into questionnaire batteries. The subjects had been informed about the research topic and scales were set for the completion of the scales. The participants completed  the scales in the classroom before the lecture.

Data analysis

Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the demographic data collected from subjects.

Due to the fact that dependent variable is normally distributed, sample size larger than 30 people, continuous, interval and ratio type variables used  and existence of two or more variables that affect dependent variables, MANOVA analysis was used to evaluate the data of the research (Fowler, 1993). 

Examining Table 1, the results of the evaluation in terms of gender, it was found out that there was a significant difference on sub-scales of the burnout scale, depersonalization (F=7.80; p < 0.05)  and emotional exhaustion (F=9.60; p < 0.05) however, no significant difference was found in terms of  competence (F=.075; p > 0.05). 

Examining the Table 2, in terms of grades of students, it was seen that while there was a statistically significant difference  only  in  depersonalization  sub-scale (F=5.35; p < 0.05), there was no difference in emotional burnout (F=2.11; p > 0.05) and competence (F=1.35; p > 0.05) sub-scales.

As for the Table 3 that showed the results related to  department, it was found out that there was a statistically significant difference only in terms of depersonalization (F=2.84; p < 0.05); there was no difference in emotional burnout (F=2.41; p > 0.05) and competence (F=1.50; p > 0.05) sub-scales.

The aim of this study was to evaluate burnout levels of the Sports Sciences Faculty students at Anadolu University. As a result of the data that were gathered and the series of analysis that were made; through the assessment done regarding genders of students, it was found that while there was a statistical difference at the lower burnout and depersonalization level of burnout scale, there wasn’t any statistical differences at the lower level of competence. Numerous studies were conducted on this issue. In one of those studies, it was found out that women experience more emotional exhaustion than men (Buick  and  Thomas,  2001;  Maslach  et  al., 2001).

Another study done on primary school students related to whether burnout changed considering gender, it was found out that while female students had more perception of emotional exhaustion male students had more perception of competence than female students. As for the sub-dimension of depersonalization, male students had more depersonalization perception than females (BaÅŸ, 2012).

The study conducted with midwife and nursing school students by Kaya and Arıöz (2014), revealed significant differences in terms of sub dimension of depersonalization in both genders. Another study, done in the Education Faculty of Pamukkale University, conducted on whether burnout changed in terms of gender, the result showed that average scores of the male students were higher than the average score of female teacher candidate’s only at the sub-dimension of depersonalization (Balkıs et al., 2011). As for another burnout research done on the medical students in Spain, no significant difference related to gender and the sub-dimensions of Maslach Burnout Inventory Students Form was identified (Gala ́n and et al., 2011). In parallel with this research, the outcomes of academic burnout among Organizational Sciences Faculty students, it was stated that there was no difference between the genders (Nikodijevic et al., 2012).

According to another study conducted with Medical School students at Hacettepe University, no significant difference was identified between the gender and sub-dimension of MBI-SF (Sevencan et al., 2011). Other studies related to burnout were carried out as well. For instance, Adelkola (2010) studied on the levels of burnout among the university personnel in terms of gender and found out that there was no significant difference between the male and female personnel at the sub-dimension of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization.

As for another research carried out on high school students demonstrated that while there was no indication of a significant change at the lower level of burnout in terms of gender, male students experienced much more burnout at the bottom scale of depersonalization and competence (Çapri and Sönmez, 2013). As to the current study, the results have similarities with the other studies, but the extent is different. For instance, the scores of women were less than men at the burnout and depersonalization levels in this study and another difference can be seen only at the bottom level of competence where women had higher scores than men, which had a parallelism with literature. According to an assessment conducted considering the classrooms of students there was a difference in burnout scale at the depersonalization level but no other differences were found at two other extents.

When the relationship between burnout and the grades at school was evaluated, the groups appeared different at the bottom level of depersonalization and emotional exhaustion (Balkıs et al., 2011). Another study conducted with high school students showed that in terms of discovering the relationship between the sub-scales of MBI-SF and grades of the students, it was found out that while there was a significant difference in depersonalization, no difference was observed in competence (Çapri and Sözmez, 2013).

A study conducted by Kaya and Arıöz (2014) on midwives and nursing students, revealed that there was a significant difference at the sub- level of depersonalization in terms of the grades of the students. Findings of this study are parallel with the results of current study. As for the occurrence of the burnout on the young and the old who work, the level of occurrence revealed variety in previous studies. According to the research that was done on burnout of young workers who had great expectations during the first year of their careers felt more burnout due to their high level of expectations (Cordes and Dougherty, 1993; Maslach et al., 2001).

A higher level of education leads to a higher level of expectation for future career and the thoughts of individuals who regard these expectations as the reason of their burnout and make it possible to explain the reason why dedicated people have higher level of burnout (Çimen, 2000; Maslach et al., 2001). Deriving from the findings, it can be said that the students who joined this research have high levels of burnout and depersonalization, and they cause stress and anxiety.

Considering the analysis made in terms of departments, there was a difference at - depersonalization sub dimension whereas there wasn’t any difference in two other sub dimensions. Another important finding of the research was that there wasn’t any significant difference between genders, in terms of department, and grades classes in terms of competence. The fact that no difference can be seen in terms of departments or classes can be interpreted as an issue that is related to post graduation from the universities; the students have to pass KPSS exam and if they can’t they can hardly have a decent job.

When it comes to the studies on burnout, various studies in different fields can be observed. For instance, according to a study conducted on kindergarten teachers, it was observed that young teachers experience more emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. In addition, it was also observed that married teachers had less burnout and depersonalization than single teachers (Cheng, 2008). Similar and different results have been gathered. The reasons for these varieties might be caused by variety of age groups, the discrepancy of medium of the study and the process of implementation of person who did the study.

As it can be seen from the explanations that have been given so far, the theory of burnout has been studied in several researches, and several outcomes have been gathered. In the current study, it was observed that the students at the Sports Sciences Faculty have different levels of burnout and depersonalization except competence. These findings show a parallelism with previous studies in literature. The results were limited with the number of people who joined the study. Their high level of depersonalization was due to not studying their actual dream subjects and such problems increased the level of burnout. Including more participants for further studies of burnout; and using assessment tools for different variances that are regarded to affect the theory of burnout would make it possible to receive new insights and outcomes. It is believed that with the results of this study, a certain point of view will be created for people at sports sciences community in both academic and practical way, and regarding the psychological development of students, a much more qualified education life will be provided.

The author has not declared any conflicts of interest.