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They’ve been hearing about exams for ages. So it’s no surprise that lots of teens are feeling overwhelmed by the time exam season rolls in. To help you spot burnout in your teen, we’ll go over 4 signs to look out for– plus 4 ways you can support them through it, so they can get back to feeling their best.
Signs of teen burnout
- They’re not sleeping or eating well.
- They’re a lot more irritable.
- They want to spend all their time alone.
- They’ve lost interest in things they normally enjoy.
Exam anxiety can have a negative knock-on effect when it comes to your teen’s physical health. Thoughts like, ‘I’m going to fail,’ or ‘I have to do well or I won’t get into a good uni,’ can keep them up at all hours. Sleep is so important to their wellbeing, so you want to nip their worries in the bud….Story continues…
By: My Tutor
Source: 5 signs of burnout in teens | MyTutor
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Critics:
Evidence suggests that the etiology of burnout is multifactorial, with personality factors playing an important, long-overlooked role. Cognitive dispositional factors implicated in depression have also been found to be implicated in burnout.One cause of burnout includes stressors that a person is unable to cope with fully. A 2019 survey by Cartridge People concluded that workload was the main cause of workplace stress.
Burnout is thought to occur when a mismatch is present between the nature of the job and the job the person is actually doing. A common indication of this mismatch is work overload, which sometimes involves a worker who survives a round of layoffs, but after the layoffs the worker finds that he or she is doing too much with too few resources. Overload may occur in the context of downsizing, which often does not narrow an organization’s goals, but requires fewer employees to meet those goals.
The research on downsizing, however, indicates that downsizing has more destructive effects on the health of the workers who survive the layoffs than mere burnout; these health effects include increased levels of sickness and greater risk of mortality. The job demands-resources model has implications for burnout, as measured by the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI).
Physical and psychological job demands were concurrently associated with the exhaustion, as measured by the OLBI. Lack of job resources was associated with the disengagement component of the OLBI. Maslach, Schaufeli and Leiter identified six risk factors for burnout in 2001: mismatch in workload, mismatch in control, lack of appropriate awards, loss of a sense of positive connection with others in the workplace, perceived lack of fairness, and conflict between values.
Although job stress has long been viewed as the main determinant of burnout, recent meta-analytic findings indicate that job stress is a weak predictor of burnout. These findings question one of the most central assumptions of burnout research. In a systematic literature review in 2014, the Swedish Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Assessment of Social Services (SBU) found that a number of work environment factors could affect the risk of developing exhaustion disorder or depressive symptoms:
- People who experience a work situation with little opportunity to influence, in combination with too high demands, develop more depressive symptoms.
- People who experience a lack of compassionate support in the work environment develop more symptoms of depression and exhaustion disorder than others. Those who experience bullying or conflict in their work develop more depressive symptoms than others, but it is not possible to determine whether there is a corresponding connection for symptoms of exhaustion disorder.
- People who feel that they have urgent work or a work situation where the reward is perceived as small in relation to the effort develops more symptoms of depression and exhaustion disorder than others. This also applies to those who experience insecurity in the employment, for example concerns that the workplace will be closed down.
- In some work environments, people have less trouble. People who experience good opportunities for control in their own work and those who feel that they are treated fairly develop less symptoms of depression and exhaustion disorder than others.
- Women and men with similar working conditions develop symptoms of depression as much as exhaustion disorder.
The Stressmottagningen stress clinic believes “A certain type of person is considered to be at an increased risk of suffering from exhaustion disorder. The type includes creative, ambitious, perfectionist and emotionally committed individuals with a great need for appreciation, who find it difficult to delegate, find it difficult to say no to extra work and who find themselves in hierarchical organizations such as found in the healthcare, social care and education fields.
Women aged between 35 and 50 are overrepresented in this category.” Swedish worker health organisation Suntarbetsliv quoted statistics in 2017 showing that “women in their 30s are most affected.” The Gothenburg Institute of Stress Medicine’s Kristina Glise wrote about a number of risk factors in February 2023. Negative consequences of burnout on both the employee and the organization call for preventive measures in order to reduce the impact of the risk factors.
Burnout prevention strategies, either addressing to the general working population (primary prevention) or the occupational groups which are more vulnerable (secondary prevention), are focused on reducing the impact of risk factors. Reviews of healthcare professionals‟ burnout focusing on identifying risk factors have been conducted previously. A 2020 LinkedIn survey based on over 2.9 million responses concluded that employees struggling with work-life balance were 4.4 times more likely to show symptoms of occupational burnout.
The World Health Organisation has defined the effects of burnout as consisting of:
- feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
- increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job
- reduced professional efficacy.
This is in line with Christina Maslach and Susan E. Jackson‘s earlier findings that the syndrome is defined by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization (feeling low-empathy towards other people in an occupational setting), and reduced feelings of work-related personal accomplishment. The Swedish health department has defined the effects of exhaustion disorder as being:
- Concentration difficulties or impaired memory
- Markedly reduced capacity to tolerate demands or to work under time pressure
- Emotional instability or irritability
- Sleep disturbance
- Marked fatigability or physical weakness
- Physical symptoms such as aches and pains, palpitations, gastrointestinal problems, vertigo or increased sensitivity to sound
A 2023 study by Elin Lindsäter et al. found a wide range of symptoms had by people formally diagnosed with exhaustion disorder. The most common symptoms reported by people currently suffering with the condition were tiredness (48%), lack of energy (41%), difficulty recovering from exertion (33%), poor general cognitive functioning (33%), memory issues (32%) and difficulty coping with perceived stressors and demands (31%).
Some research indicates that burnout is associated with reduced job performance, coronary heart disease, and mental health problems. Examples of emotional symptoms of occupational burnout include a lack of interest in the work being done, a decrease in work performance levels, feelings of helplessness, and trouble sleeping. Maslach believes that the only way to truly prevent burnout is through a combination of organizational change and education for the individual.
Maslach and Leiter postulated that burnout occurs when there is a disconnection between the organization and the individual with regard to what they called the six areas of worklife: workload, control, reward, community, fairness, and values. Resolving these discrepancies requires integrated action on the part of both the individual and the organization.
With regard to workload, assuring that a worker has adequate resources to meet demands as well as ensuring a satisfactory work–life balance could help revitalize employees’ energy. With regard to values, clearly stated ethical organizational values are important for ensuring employee commitment.Supportive leadership and relationships with colleagues are also helpful.
Hätinen et al. suggest “improving job-person fit by focusing attention on the relationship between the person and the job situation, rather than either of these in isolation, seems to be the most promising way of dealing with burnout.” They also note that “at the individual level, cognitive-behavioural strategies have the best potential for success.”
One approach for addressing these discrepancies focuses specifically on the fairness area. In one study employees met weekly to discuss and attempt to resolve perceived inequities in their job. The intervention was associated with decreases in exhaustion over time but not cynicism or inefficacy, suggesting that a broader approach is required.
Barry A. Farber suggests strategies like setting more achievable goals, focusing on the value of the work, and finding better ways of doing the job, can all be helpful ways of helping the stressed. People who do not mind the stress but want more reward can benefit from reassessing their work–life balance and implementing stress reduction techniques like meditation and exercise. Others with low stress, but are underwhelmed and bored with work, can benefit from seeking greater challenge…
Burnout prevention strategies, either addressing to the general working population (primary prevention) or the occupational groups which are more vulnerable (secondary prevention), are focused on reducing the impact of risk factors. Reviews of healthcare professionals‟ burnout focusing on identifying risk factors have been conducted previously. A 2020 LinkedIn survey based on over 2.9 million responses concluded that employees struggling with work-life balance were 4.4 times more likely to show symptoms of occupational burnout.
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