Burnout as an ecological outcome: multi-level systemic pressures on student affairs professionals in China

Burnout among student affairs professionals (fudaoyuans) is a growing concern in Chinese higher education, yet its systemic drivers remain underexplored. While international research has examined burnout in comparable roles, little is known about how China’s distinctive governance structures and cultural norms shape this phenomenon. This study applies Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory to reconceptualize burnout as an ecological burnout cascade, shaped by interlocking pressures across multiple system levels. A qualitative case study was conducted at a provincial Normal University, drawing on semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. Findings reveal that fudaoyuans’ burnout is driven by institutional, ideological, cultural, and temporal contradictions. At the microsystem, emotional exhaustion is exacerbated by “all-round, all-weather” grid governance and digital surveillance. The mesosystem reveals role ambiguity under the dual-track promotion system, fostering professional dislocation. At the exosystem, managerialist imperatives clash with student-centered values, producing depersonalization. Macrosystem analysis shows how marketization reconfigures educators into service workers. Chronosystem pressures-especially age-based “social clock” norms and stagnated career paths-trigger anticipatory burnout, a future-oriented form of stress. Theoretically, this study extends ecological systems theory by introducing the concepts of ecological burnout cascade and anticipatory burnout, offering a context-sensitive, structural explanation for professional demoralization. It also contributes to global discussions on student affair professionals, hybrid governance, and academic precarity in higher education systems undergoing neoliberal transformation.