Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Date

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Counseling Psychology

Committee Chair

Suzanne Lease

Committee Member

Jacquelyn Pelzer

Committee Member

Madeline Brodt

Committee Member

Michelle Brasfield

Abstract

Rates of burnout are known to be markedly high among veterinary professionals but less is known about burnout among U.S. veterinary students. The Job Demands-Resource (JD-R) Theory provides a framework through which veterinary students’ experiences can be investigated in a way that centers supportive organizational and personal resources, instead of focusing on the detrimental aspects of training that have dominated the literature. Using a sample of 469 students enrolled in U.S. colleges of veterinary medicine, the current study examined if two personal resources (self-compassion and work as meaning) mediated the relationship between two sources of support (student peer support and faculty/supervisor support) and burnout. Although many studies combine sources of social support or do not use work-centric sources of support, the effects of both faculty and peer social support were included in the model allowing for the effect of each source of support to be examined while controlling for the effect of the other source. Additionally, this study explored whether clinical level students demonstrated higher burnout scores on average than pre-clinical students. In line with hypotheses, self-compassion and meaningful work fully mediated the relationship between peer support and burnout and partially mediated the relationship between faculty/supervisor support and burnout. Contrary to the hypothesis for the exploratory research question, pre-clinical students were found to have higher rates of burnout on average than clinical students. The findings of this study revealed that peer support appears to ‘activate’ personal resources to a greater degree than supervisor support, but that supervisor support has a greater direct relationship to decreased burnout. These findings indicated that both sources of support are important but might function in slightly different ways. Both self-compassion and a sense of meaning from work are personal resources that can be enhanced in ways that might contribute to lower risk of burnout. Implications of these findings, limitations of the present study, and recommended future interventions and research are discussed.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest/Clarivate.

Notes

Embargoed until 09-01-2026

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Available for download on Tuesday, September 01, 2026

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