Cynicism symptom “less interest in studies” played the most central role in the burnout network.

Depressive symptoms “anhedonia” and “fatigue” and burnout symptom “doubting the significance of studies” exhibited the most bridging effect to maintain burnout-depression comorbidity.

Community detection indicated three communities within burnout symptoms, which corresponded to the three dimensions identified via factor analysis, and there was no overlap between burnout and depression symptoms.

These findings substantiate the multidimensional structure of burnout and underscore burnout as a distinct concept separate from depression.

Research on burnout has garnered considerable attention since its inception. However, the ongoing debate persists regarding the conceptual model of burnout and its relationship with depression. Thus, we conducted a network analysis to determine the dimensional structure of burnout and the burnout-depression overlap. The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 were used to measure burnout and depression among 1096 college students. We constructed networks for burnout, depression, and a burnout-depression co-occurrence network. The results showed that cynicism symptom was the most central to the burnout network. In the co-occurrence network, depressive symptoms (“anhedonia”, “fatigue”) and burnout symptom (“doubting the significance of studies”) were the most significant in causing burnout-depression comorbidity. Community detection revealed three communities within burnout symptoms, aligning closely with their three dimensions identified through factor analysis. Additionally, there was no overlap between burnout and depression. In conclusion, our findings support a multidimensional structure of burnout, affirming it as a distinct concept separate from depression. Cynicism, rather than exhaustion, plays the most important role in burnout and the burnout-depression comorbidity.

Burnout

Depression

Network analysis

Comorbidity

© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.