To be successful in academic studies and to feel energised and well, students are often told to take care of themselves and use strategies to manage their studies effectively. An educational psychology researcher is especially interested in learning about the wellbeing of university students in the university she works for, and, specifically, about their academic burnout and the extent they practice academic self-care, attending to their wellbeing during studies.

Previous international research (Atalayin et al., 2015) noted that university students are ‘at risk’ for developing burnout during their studies, with many experiencing emotional exhaustion, high level of cynicism, and reduced academic efficacy, being the result of feeling overloaded with university work and other life commitments for relatively prolong period of time. Ultimately, this can lead to adverse consequences, such as academic drop out and poor academic achievement. Lewis and King (2019) suggested that learning self-care skills could help to tackle fatigue and burnout. This sparked the interest of the educational psychologist.

PART A

The educational psychology researcher takes a random sample of 46 students at the University and asks those students to complete a 14-item scale that measures academic self-care (sample item: I take breaks throughout my studies) and a 9-item scale that measures academic burnout (sample item: I feel overwhelmed by my course work). The higher the score, the higher the level of self-care and burnout.

The average score for the sample on academic self-care is 52.22 (X = 52.22) and the standard deviation is 6.56 (sx = 6.56).

The average score for the sample on academic burnout is 27.04 (X = 27.04) and the standard deviation is 7.68 (sx  = 7.68).

Question 1

For the following students’ scores on academic burnout, what is the corresponding z-score and what does the z-score communicate about each student’s score on academic burnout?

a) X = 9

b) X = 42

Question 2

If a student has a z-score on academic self-care of 0 (i.e., z = 0) and a z-score on academic burnout of 0 (i.e., z = 0), what would this tell us about this student’s scores?

Question 3

Eva, one of the students, scored 41 on academic self-care (X = 41) and 36 on academic burnout (X = 36). Use z-scores to decide if Eva scored higher on academic self-care or academic burnout and explain your response.

Question 4

The distribution for the scores on academic burnout is approximately normal.

a) What proportion of students in the sample scored below 14 on academic burnout?

b) What percentage of students in the sample scored above 29 on academic burnout?

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