This study examined the mechanism by which perceived social support influences academic burnout among college students, with a focus on the chain mediating role of active coping strategies and academic buoyancy, as well as the moderating effect of mindfulness. A cross-sectional design was employed to survey 3,891 college students using questionnaires that included the Perceived Social Support Scale, the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, the Active Coping Strategies Scale, the Academic Buoyancy Scale, and the Academic Burnout Scale. Data analysis was conducted using the PROCESS macro in SPSS, and the significance of mediation and moderation effects was tested with the Bootstrap method (5,000 resamples). The results showed that: (1) perceived social support negatively predicted academic burnout; (2) active coping strategies and academic buoyancy mediated this relationship separately, and also formed a significant chain mediation path; (3) mindfulness significantly moderated the relationship between perceived social support and active coping strategies. This study unveiled the complex pathways through which perceived social support alleviates academic burnout. In practice, emphasis should be placed on building student support systems, fostering their active coping ability and academic buoyancy, and incorporating mindfulness into university mental health intervention systems to effectively mitigate students’ academic burnout.
Song et al. (Mon,) studied this question.