Academic burnout among Venezuelan university students: a person-centered exploratory analysis

Abstract

Academic burnout does not manifest itself in the same way across all contexts. In universities undergoing severe structural crises, as in Venezuela, their manifestations may differ from those described in classical theoretical frameworks. The objective of this study was to explore the latent profiles of academic burnout among Venezuelan university students majoring in Architecture, Medicine, and Psychology at the University of Los Andes in Mérida, Venezuela, using the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey (MBI-SS). The design was quantitative, psychometric, and exploratory; the sample was a non-probabilistic purposive sample of 84 participants in advanced semesters. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) were applied. Exploratory factor analysis confirmed the instrument’s three-dimensional structure (KMO = 0.812). Confirmatory factor analysis was descriptive and showed a fit below conventional thresholds, attributable to sample size. LPA identified three profiles: low burnout (15.5%), moderate (29.8%), and high (54.7%). The most prevalent profile—representing the majority of the sample—turned out to be atypical. It combined high levels of exhaustion and cynicism with preserved perceived academic efficacy, a pattern not anticipated by normative models and interpreted here as adaptive over-exertion in the face of institutional collapse.