Academic Burnout as a Pathway Linking Emotional Intelligence to Suicidal Ideation Among University Students: A Cross-Sectional Structural Equation Study
Abstract
Background: Suicidal ideation among university students is a serious and multifactorial concern. Emotional intelligence may be inversely associated with suicidal thinking, but the mechanisms linking emotional functioning with ideation remain insufficiently understood in Indian higher education. Objective: This study tested whether academic stress and academic burnout statistically accounted for part of the association between emotional intelligence and suicidal ideation. Methods: Data were drawn from an analytical cross-sectional survey of 760 undergraduate and postgraduate students aged 18–29 years from public and private institutions in Haryana and Rajasthan. Emotional intelligence, academic stress, burnout, and suicidal ideation were assessed using the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, Perception of Academic Stress Scale, Maslach Burnout Inventory–Student Survey, and Suicidal Ideation Attributes Scale. Robust regression and covariance-based structural equation modelling with 5,000 bootstrap resamples were used. Results: Emotional intelligence was inversely correlated with suicidal ideation (r = −.305, p < .001). In the primary adjusted model, emotional intelligence predicted lower suicidal ideation (β = −.294, 95% CI [−.367, −.221]) and added 8.6% explained variance. In the sequential model, emotional intelligence predicted lower stress (β = −.409) and lower burnout (β = −.305), stress predicted higher burnout (β = .494), and burnout predicted higher suicidal ideation (β = .318; all p < .001). The direct stress-to-ideation path was non-significant after burnout was included (β = .050, p = .258). Significant indirect associations operated through burnout alone (β = −.097) and sequentially through stress and burnout (β = −.064). Conclusion: Burnout appeared to be a more proximal statistical link with suicidal ideation than academic stress alone. Emotional intelligence may be one protective resource, but suicide prevention requires confidential clinical support, burnout reduction, financial assistance, and institution-level safety systems.
How to Cite
Kuldeep Singh , Preeti, "Academic Burnout as a Pathway Linking Emotional Intelligence to Suicidal Ideation Among University Students: A Cross-Sectional Structural Equation Study", Vol. 3, Issue 11, 26-02-2026, pp. 104-118.
