Burnout as an ecological outcome: multi-level systemic pressures on student affairs professionals in China

Tingting Huan ()
Additional contact information
Tingting Huan: Sichuan Normal University

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2025, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Burnout among student affairs professionals (fudaoyuans) is a growing concern in Chinese higher education, yet its systemic drivers remain underexplored. While international research has examined burnout in comparable roles, little is known about how China’s distinctive governance structures and cultural norms shape this phenomenon. This study applies Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory to reconceptualize burnout as an ecological burnout cascade, shaped by interlocking pressures across multiple system levels. A qualitative case study was conducted at a provincial Normal University, drawing on semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. Findings reveal that fudaoyuans’ burnout is driven by institutional, ideological, cultural, and temporal contradictions. At the microsystem, emotional exhaustion is exacerbated by “all-round, all-weather” grid governance and digital surveillance. The mesosystem reveals role ambiguity under the dual-track promotion system, fostering professional dislocation. At the exosystem, managerialist imperatives clash with student-centered values, producing depersonalization. Macrosystem analysis shows how marketization reconfigures educators into service workers. Chronosystem pressures-especially age-based “social clock” norms and stagnated career paths-trigger anticipatory burnout, a future-oriented form of stress. Theoretically, this study extends ecological systems theory by introducing the concepts of ecological burnout cascade and anticipatory burnout, offering a context-sensitive, structural explanation for professional demoralization. It also contributes to global discussions on student affair professionals, hybrid governance, and academic precarity in higher education systems undergoing neoliberal transformation.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-025-05842-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palcom:v:12:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-025-05842-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/palcomms/about

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-025-05842-4

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().