The role of forgiveness in the relationship between incivility and students’ academic burnout

Abstract

Incivility has become an increasing concern recently, especially in educational settings, because it can have many consequences for mental health and academic performance. Through the Conservation of Resources Theory (COR), this study has verified the impact of incivility on students’ academic burnout through direct relationship and forgiveness as a mediating factor. The Partial Least Squares Structural Modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis was used to analyze data and consider related relationships through 265 collected survey samples. The surprising results showed that incivility did not affect academic burnout, whereas, through forgiveness, this relationship was proven to exist. This exciting finding provides relevant implications and recommendations for students and universities.