SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Psychology in Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1673812
JOB STRESS AND BURNOUT AMONG LECTURERS: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW AND META ANALYSIS
Provisionally accepted
- Universiti Putra Malaysia Fakulti Pengajian Pendidikan, Serdang, Malaysia
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Background: The significance of higher education is essential for human progress. University lecturers face increasing demands in teaching, research and management, which often leads to increased job stress and burnout. Although numerous studies have investigated this relationship, the results are still inconsistent. This study performed an extensive literature review and meta-analysis to elucidate the association between lecturer job stress and burnout. Method: We conducted a systematic search in four major databases, SCOPUS, Web of Science, PubMed, and Google Scholar, and obtained all studies published until 2025. All studies set inclusion and exclusion criteria, and all cross-sectional studies were quality assessed using the JBI literature quality assessment form. Finally, 20 articles were included. The overall correlation coefficient of all literature was calculated by meta-analysis, and possible moderating factors such as country and gender were explored by subgroup analysis. Results: According to the meta-analysis, a strong positive correlation exists between job stress and burnout among university lecturers, as evidenced by a combined correlation coefficient of r = 0.452, a confidence interval of [0.380, 0.519], Z = 10.911, and p < 0.001, which was a moderate-high effect size. In the regression analysis, gender was not significant; however, in the subgroup analysis, cultural background and measurement tools exerted significant effects as moderator variables. Conclusions: This study aimed to further explore the relationship between job stress and burnout among university lecturers. The results provide comprehensive and accurate data support for how job stress affects burnout among lecturers in higher education, and have practical implications for universities to formulate targeted intervention measures.
Keywords: Job stress, burnout, Lecturers, Meta-analysis, Systematic Literature Review
Received: 26 Jul 2025; Accepted: 18 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shi, Omar and Ismail. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Muhd Khaizer Omar, khaizer@upm.edu.my
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