Dispositional mindfulness associated with less academic burnout among Muslim students during the COVID-19 pandemic

In the study reported on here we examined the potential mediating role of perceived stress in the association between dispositional mindfulness and academic burnout among Muslim students. Seven hundred and seventy-five Yemeni university students were enlisted to complete the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey (MBI-SS), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). The results show that dispositional mindfulness was negatively correlated with perceived stress, emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced academic efficacy. Moreover, perceived stress was positively related to emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced academic efficacy. Structural equation modeling revealed that the mediation model fit the data well. That is, perceived stress partly mediated the dispositional mindfulness-burnout association. We found that dispositional mindfulness could predict academic burnout among Muslim students, and perceived stress may be one of the underlying factors of this association.


Introduction
Learning activities can exert pressure and stress on students, which was especially true during the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic (e.g., Mahapatra & Sharma, 2021).Some students may overcome these challenges with their social or emotional regulation and characteristic strengths, while others may fail.Academic burnout is one of the most recurrent learning problems (Zhang X, Klassen & Wang, 2013).High academic requirements may lead to greater depression, anxiety, and stress among university students (Bewick, Koutsopoulou, Miles, Slaa & Barkham, 2010).According to Portoghese, Leiter, Maslach, Galletta, Porru, D'Aloja, Finco and Campagna (2018), stress overload is linked to higher risks of psychological (such as anxiety, stress, and burnout), behavioural (such as eating disorders), physical health issues (such as ulcers, high blood pressure, and headaches), and even suicidal ideation.High stress is linked to reduced academic performance, low graduation, and a high drop-out rate (Portoghese et al., 2018).Therefore, many researchers are interested in what factors can mitigate the negative outcomes of stress overload.Mindfulness as a personal strength in dealing with academic pressures among university students has been examined in recent studies (Zenner, Herrnleben-Kurz & Walach, 2014).Mindfulness training can increase students' educational performance and make them more resilient to stress (e.g., Singh, Lancioni, Winton, Fisher, Wahler, McAleavey, Singh & Sabaawi, 2006).
Studies indicate that Islamic mindfulness can also treat stress and reduce depression (Alkusayer, 2018;Munif, Poeranto & Tami, 2019).Muslims who pray regularly with mindfulness have better mental health than those who do not (Ijaz, Khalily & Ahmad, 2017).More and more Muslim participants are becoming familiar with such practices (Alkusayer, 2018).Therefore, with this study we aimed to examine the potential mediating effects of perceived stress on dispositional mindfulness and academic burnout among Yemeni students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dispositional Mindfulness and Academic Burnout
According to Kabat-Zinn (2003, 2013), dispositional mindfulness is the awareness and nonjudgmental acceptance of present-moment sensations.Regardless of mindfulness techniques, they can also occur at various levels throughout the population (Brown, Ryan & Creswell, 2007).While Randal, Pratt and Bucci (2015) define mindfulness as a set of skills and a trait like propensity, one can learn to be aware through mindfulness training, which is the ability to pay attention and be focused on the present moment without passing judgment (Garland & Howard, 2013).

When
practicing mindfulness, one concentrates on what is happening rather than thinking about the past or the future.Intentional perception of feelings and emotions occurs without assessment of their morality or correctness.As a result, those with higher degrees of mindfulness demonstrate greater empathy, acceptance, and compassion for themselves and others.According to Burgoon, Berger and Waldron (2000) and Feltman, Robinson and Ode (2009), people in a mindful state have better lifestyles and can develop advanced personal abilities.Research suggests that mindfulness may predict psychological stress reduction, decreased anxiety, and decreased depressive symptoms (Alzahrani, Hakami, AlHadi, Batais, Alrasheed & Almigbal, 2020).
Academic burnout involves emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced academic efficacy in school (Dyrbye, West, Satele, Boone, Tan, Sloan & Shanafelt, 2014;Zhang Y, Gan & Cham, 2007).Students may feel less motivated, more exhausted and irritable, and less inspired and creative as a reaction to prolonged learning activities.
They may also experience psychosomatic problems such as insomnia, headaches, and depression (Maslach, Schaufeli & Leiter, 2001).Evidence shows that mindfulness practices may be effective ways to overcome academic burnout.

Perceived Stress as a Mediator
Repeated, chronic, or acute stress harms wellbeing, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., O'Connor, Wetherall, Cleare, McClelland, Melson, Niedzwiedz, O'Carroll, O'Connor, Platt, Scowcroft, Watson, Zortea, Ferguson & Robb, 2021).Stress may result in psychological distress and poor cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning, such as nervousness, peevishness, dread, vacillation of state of mind, disarray, humiliation, or disruption (Cohen, Kamarck & Mermelstein, 1983).Perceived stress is an individual's emotions or thoughts about how much stress they are under at a given point, as expected, or throughout a given period (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).It involves feelings about uncontrollability and unpredictability in dealing with annoying troubles and how many changes have occurred in dealing with problems or difficulties.
Stress is responsible for burnout in both schools and workplaces.Chronic and insurmountable stress leads to feelings of helplessness and despair, which consequently cause loss of interest and low motivation.Studies also show that mindfulness might reduce the negative effects of prolonged stress.Mindfulness entails paying attention to the present moment without judgment, enhancing the ability to be less involved in stressful events.Mindfulness is also related to better emotion regulation.Studies show that mindfulness is negatively associated with perceived stress (Bao, Xue & Kong, 2015;Ramli, Alavi, Mehrinezhad & Ahmadi, 2018).Mindfulness practices show robust effects on reducing stress, depression, and anxiety.Valikhani, Kankat, Hariri, Salehi and Moustafa (2020) found that the negative effects of mindfulness on depression and anxiety were mediated by stress.According to other studies (Campbell, Thoburn & Leonard, 2017), stress also moderated the link between mindfulness and cognitive outcomes (Fiocco & Mallya, 2015) and parental responsiveness (Fiocco & Mallya, 2015).
According to a recent study on university students in Spain, behaving with awareness, not passing judgment on one's inner experience, reporting it without reacting, and non-reactivity to inner experience were all mindfulness features that adversely impacted perceived stress, which in turn predicted academic burnout (Martunez-Rubio, Sanabria-Mazo, Feliu-Soler, Colomer-Carbonell, Martunez-Brotóns, Solé, Escamilla, Giménez-Fita, Moreno, Pérez-Aranda, Luciano & Montero-Marín, 2020).These findings suggest that mindfulness can decompress and reduce stress, decreasing academic burnout risk.

This Study
Many more students experienced greater pressure and a sense of helplessness during the COVID-19 pandemic.Therefore, it is particularly important to identify factors associated with resilience to stress and prevent students from experiencing academic burnout.Literature suggests that interventions aimed at increasing the ability to focus nonjudgmentally on the present moment can decrease physical and psychological harm related to perceived stress.With this research we investigated whether dispositional mindfulness was negatively associated with academic burnout via decreased perceived stress.The findings from this study can help educators develop low-cost but effective intervention programmes.
Recent findings show that mindfulness can be applied to Islamic populations to enhance psychological functioning.For example, mindfulness can enhance academic and social functioning among Emirate Muslim women (Thomas, Raynor & Bakker, 2016).Salat, an Islamic meditation exercise, can lead to cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, postural, and compositional benefits in the healthy population and people with disabilities (Doufesh, Ibrahim, Ismail & Ahmad, 2014).In a new study, Durić, Sinanović and Turdiev (2020) found that Muslim students in the United States of America had higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression during the COVID-19 pandemica situation that could have been improved by the students engaging in spiritual practices.This suggests that regular prayer practices may help promote relaxation and reduce stress and anxiety.However, no study has been conducted to confirm the positive effects of mindfulness in Yemen, an Arab country with a population of more than 30 million.
With this study, we investigated the associations between dispositional mindfulness, perceived stress, and academic burnout in Yemeni university students.We examined the potential mediating effects of perceived stress on the dispositional mindfulness-burnout link.We expected that the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and three burnout dimensions (emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced academic efficacy) would be mediated by perceived stress.

Participants and Procedures
After giving informed consent to ensure the privacy of their responses, a total of 775 students (561 male and 214 female) who majored in the college of education at three public Yemeni universities (Sana'a University, Thamar University, and Ibb University) voluntarily participated in this study.The age of the sample ranged from 18 to 40 years (M = 1.66,SD = 0.755).All of the students were Muslims and had not received any mindfulness training before.The questionnaires were individually administered online and took between 15 and 30 minutes.Mplus (version 6) was used to estimate structural equation models (SEM) in the data analysis process.

Dispositional mindfulness
The reliability and validity of the Arabic edition of the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), comprising 15 items (Brown & Ryan, 2003), have been demonstrated in Arabic contexts (e.g., Najwani, 2019).Respondents assessed each item on a 6-point Likert-type scale from 1 (almost always) to 6 (almost never).Items formulated negatively were reversed, ensuring that elevated scores correspond to greater levels of dispositional mindfulness.The internal consistency of the scale in this study was measured using Cronbach's alpha, yielding a coefficient of 0.92.

Perceived stress
The Arabic edition of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), comprising 10 items on a 5-point Likerttype scale, was developed by Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet and Farley (1988), with response options ranging from 0 (never) to 4 (very often).Reliability and validity of the PSS has been confirmed (e.g., Tashtoush, 2015).In our study, the internal consistency of the PSS was assessed using Cronbach's alpha, yielding a coefficient of 0.82.

Academic burnout
The Arabic version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey ([MBI-SS] Schaufeli, Martínez, Pinto, Salanova & Bakker, 2002) features three distinct subscales, each comprising 15 items scored on a scale ranging from 0 (never) to 6 (always).This measurement tool has demonstrated its reliability and validity within Arabic populations.Illustrative items include "experience emotional exhaustion in studies (emotional exhaustion)", "develop cynicism regarding the usefulness of studying (cynicism)", and "lack feelings of being a competent student (reduced academic efficacy)."The MBI-SS and its subscales respectively exhibited Cronbach's alpha coefficients of .87,.71,and .68.

Correlations
The results (Table 1) show that dispositional mindfulness correlated negatively with perceived stress, emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced academic efficacy.Moreover, perceived stress was positively related to emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced academic efficacy.

Mediating Effects
Mediation analysis was conducted using Mplus (Preacher & Hayes, 2008), with dispositional mindfulness as the predictor, perceived stress as a mediator, and academic burnout as the outcome.As MAAS is a one-dimensional structure scale with over 10 items, items were packaged into three dimensions using the random packaging method.Model fit statistics (χ 2 /df = 2.465, CFI = 0.939, TLI = 0.931, and RMSEA = 0.044) indicated that the hypothesis model fitted the data well.Standardised path coefficients in Figure 1 indicate that dispositional mindfulness negatively predicted perceived stress, emotional exhaustion, and reduced academic efficacy, while the effect of dispositional mindfulness on cynicism was insignificant.Furthermore, perceived stress positively predicts emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced academic efficacy.The bias-corrected bootstrap method (5,000 samples, 95% CI) revealed that perceived stress significantly mediated the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and emotional exhaustion (95% CI: [-0.219, -0.093]), cynicism (95% CI: [-0.212, -0.097]), as well as reduced academic efficacy (95% CI: [-0.237, -0.105]) (Table 2).Note.LLCL: Lower level of confidence for all confidence intervals.ULCL: Upper level of confidence for all confidence intervals.

Discussion
In this study we found that dispositional mindfulness was negatively related to perceived stress, emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced academic efficacy.Moreover, perceived stress was associated negatively with emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced academic efficacy.These findings confirm the role of dispositional mindfulness in reducing academic burnout (Tu, 2019;Xu et al., 2017) and the mediating role of perceived stress (Bao et al., 2015;Ramli et al., 2018).This result is consistent with that of Martunez-Rubio et al. (2020) who found that different facets of mindfulness negatively predicted perceived stress, which in turn predicted burnout.Our study was different because it disclosed the relationship between dispositional mindfulness awareness measured by MAAS and three academic burnout dimensions among Muslim students.
Mindfulness practice has been adapted to include various belief systems and is no longer tied to any specific religion, as indicated by Palitsky and Kaplan in 2021.This adaptation involves distancing from explicit Buddhist teachings to accommodate practitioners' diverse religious viewpoints.Scientific evidence supports the notion that the effects of mindfulness practice have a biological foundation and are not constrained by cultural contexts.This that individuals of different faiths, such as Muslims, Christians, or Buddhists, can experience the advantages of mindfulness.
Furthermore, awareness is a benefit rather than a drawback within the Islamic religion.Islamic traditions, for instance, advocate for the development of mental presence.Muslims are urged to focus entirely on the present moment and to avoid tasks automatically while they are in a state of prayer.This is emphasised in the work of Mitha in 2019.The act of eliminating distractions and preventing the mind from wandering is deemed crucial for the effective development of strategies for regulating emotions.Islamic followers are also prompted to incorporate momentary awareness into everyday activities, such as eating, dressing, and using the restroom.They are encouraged to observe their internal and external experiences with a gentle, open, and receptive attitude without any intention to alter these encounters.This perspective was highlighted by Thomas, Furber and Grey in 2017.
Based on the findings of our study, personalised mindfulness interventions are recommended in academic contexts to prevent the occurrence of student burnout.For example, the Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Intervention (MSCBI) programme is better at promoting mindful description and non-reactivity and is more effective in reducing stress.In comparison, the Mindfulness and Positive Stress Management (MPSM) programme is better at enhancing autonomy and environmental mastery, promoting task engagement and performance.The effects of mindfulness may depend on the stage of burnout.
Limitations of our study include adopting a cross-sectional design and self-reported measures for data collection.Participants were Yemeni students from three public colleges; it is debatable whether the findings from the research can be generalised.Despite the flaws of the study, we demonstrated the value of dispositional mindfulness in lowering students' perceptions of stress and preventing academic burnout.Educators can conduct dispositional mindfulness intervention programmes in their classes and encourage students to practice mindfulness daily.During the COVID-19 pandemic, dispositional mindfulness practices (e.g., mindful breathing, walking, eating, and socialising) were useful in protecting against stressors, revitalising the mind, and maintaining good academic performance.We conclude that dispositional mindfulness or mindfulness practice can relieve perceived stress among Muslim students, thereby preventing academic burnout.Mindfulness practice can enhance the psychological well-being and academic performance of students from different religious and cultural backgrounds.

Table 2
The standardised specific indirect effect of dispositional mindfulness on academic burnout