International Journal of

ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES

EISSN: 2313-3724, Print ISSN: 2313-626X

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 Volume 13, Issue 1 (January 2026), Pages: 217-227

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 Original Research Paper

The relationship between childhood trauma and academic burnout in vocational college students: A moderated mediation model

 Author(s): 

 Wenli Lu 1, Mohamad Abdillah Royo 1, *, Aede Hatib Musta'amal 1, Xueli Wang 2, Yuhui Lin 3, Peipei Tan 2

 Affiliation(s):

  1Faculty of Educational Sciences and Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Baharu, Johor, Malaysia
  2Faculty of Human Development, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Tanjong Malim, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia
  3Faculty of Education, Huanggang Normal University, Huanggang, Hubei, China

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 * Corresponding Author. 

   Corresponding author's ORCID profile:  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8053-0543

 Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2026.01.023

 Abstract

Academic burnout, marked by emotional exhaustion and disengagement caused by long-term stress, is a serious psychological concern among vocational college students. Although childhood trauma has been recognized as an important risk factor for academic burnout, the mechanisms linking early adverse experiences to academic outcomes remain unclear. This study tested a moderated mediation model among 811 Chinese vocational college students using validated measures of childhood trauma, psychological resilience, perceived teacher support, and academic burnout. The results showed that childhood trauma was significantly and positively associated with academic burnout (β = 0.564, t = 18.558, p < 0.001). Psychological resilience partially mediated this relationship, with a significant indirect effect (95% CI = [0.067, 0.137]). In addition, perceived teacher support moderated the direct association between childhood trauma and academic burnout (β = −0.119, t = −3.768, p < 0.001), such that higher levels of teacher support weakened the negative impact of childhood trauma. These findings indicate that childhood trauma influences academic burnout both directly and indirectly through reduced resilience, and they highlight the protective role of supportive teacher–student relationships. The study suggests that strengthening students’ resilience and fostering supportive educational environments may be effective strategies for reducing academic burnout in vocational higher education.

 © 2026 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords

 Academic burnout, Childhood trauma, Psychological resilience, Teacher support, Vocational students

 Article history

 Received 16 August 2025, Received in revised form 5 January 2026, Accepted 17 January 2026

 Acknowledgment

The authors express their sincere gratitude to all participants who participated in the study. The authors also thank the Hubei Provincial Department of Education Philosophy and Social Sciences Research Project (24Y107) for funding this research. 

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Ethical considerations

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Huanggang Normal University and was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Before the questionnaire survey, we informed the participants of the purpose of the study, the participation process, data storage and use, and the right to withdraw, and obtained the participants’ informed consent.

 Conflict of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

 Citation:

 Lu W, Royo MA, Musta'amal AH, Wang X, Lin Y, and Tan P (2026). The relationship between childhood trauma and academic burnout in vocational college students: A moderated mediation model. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 13(1): 217-227

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 Figures

  Fig. 1  Fig. 2  Fig. 3

 Tables

  Table 1  Table 2

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