The buffering effect of perceived teacher support on students’ academic burnout in online learning: a mini review

Abstract

The widespread adoption of online learning in higher education has brought increased attention to academic burnout among university students. Although numerous studies have explored the manifestations, influencing factors and interventions of college students’ online academic burnout, few have consolidated and summarized the buffering effect of perceived teacher support. This Mini-Review, informed by the PRISMA 2020 framework, identified and analyzed 26 empirical studies retrieved from Web of Science and Scopus, extracting key data on research design, sample characteristics, and analytical approaches into a structured Excel matrix. This synthesis identifies three main findings. First, academic burnout in online settings is characterized by emotional exhaustion, heightened anxiety, loss of control, and a paradoxical imbalance between learning anxiety and enjoyment, shaped by both internal resources (psychological capital, self-efficacy, digital resilience) and external barriers (pedagogical, technological, and social constraints). Second, perceived teacher support is associated with reduced burnout through a direct protective pathway and three indirect mechanisms: enhancing academic self-efficacy, regulating emotional experiences (e.g., enjoyment, boredom, and anxiety), and facilitating acceptance of online learning (perceived usefulness and ease of use). Third, individual factors (e.g., psychological capital, digital resilience) and contextual conditions (e.g., peer support, technical environment) are tentatively proposed to moderate these associations, pending direct empirical testing. By integrating existing research and identifying gaps in the field, this review provides theoretical and practical insights for alleviating university students’ online academic burnout, optimizing teacher-student interaction in online settings, and building a supportive teaching system.