PASSION AND BURNOUT IN COLLEGE STUDENTS

Previous research on passion and burnout has shown that teachers, including college faculty, who show high levels of harmonious passion toward their work experience lower burnout than teachers who have high levels of obsessive passion. In the present study, we extended this line of research to college students. We found that students who were harmoniously passionate about their academic activities experienced less burnout than obsessively passionate students, who, in turn, experienced less burnout than non-passionate students. Our results suggest that being passionate about one's academic activities may reduce burnout in college students and that the effect may be greatest when students are harmoniously passionate.