Polish Adaptation of the ESSBS School-Burnout Scale: Pilot Study Results

The paper presents the problem of burnout in children at the age of 12 - 16 years. This is one of the factor responsible for the negative attitude of students towards school and significant decreases in motivation to learn in secondary-school-aged. The expectations of parents and teachers regarding children’s grades surpass the grades the children might realistically receive. There is no scale available in Poland applicable to the problem of school burnout, thus the Elementary School Students Burnout Scale (ESSBS) was translated and adapted by the authors of the present article. The aim of the study was to report the results of the Polish adaptation of the ESSBS. The data collection was obtained from a total of 166 secondary school students, including 84 girls and 82 boys. They were asked to complete the school burnout scale (ESSBS), the sense of alienation inventory (PAI), the Type B scale (TAB) and the coping stress strategies scale (How are you coping?; JSR). The students were also asked some questions about their school performance and family and school relationships. The analyses are tested with the help of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) ver. 21. An exploratory factor analysis endorsed the four-factor structure of the original scale and adequate intercorrelations were identified among the subscales. The results prove the reliability and accuracy of the scale. The adapted Polish version of the ESSBS is valid and reliable and can be used as a measure of school burnout in Polish adolescents. The implications of these findings are discussed