Student engagement and burnout have become the latest focus of attention among researchers and practitioners. This is because both are seen as the main factors connected with the meaningful and purposeful educational activities that lead to high learning outcomes and better physical and mental health. Specifically, burnout decreases, and engagements heightened these characteristics.

The aim of the present study was to explore the relationships between alienation, engagement and burnout in an educational context. Additionally, the mediation role of school engagement on the association between alienation and burnout was tested.

The study was conducted among 109 early adolescents, aged 13–15 years (NFemale=52). ESSBS (Elementary Student School Burnout Scale), PAI (Alienation Inventory – Short Form) and SSEM (Student School Engagement Scale) were used to measure the levels of burnout, alienation and engagement, respectively.

The results indicated that higher alienation was associated with lower engagement and with higher school burnout. Student engagement, productivity and belonging significantly mediated the links between alienation total score, normlessness, powerlessness and school burnout. The path analysis revealed that normlessness significantly predicted student engagement (-.44) and school burnout (-.20). The model explained 31% of the variances for school engagement, and 46% of the variances for school burnout.

In conclusion, alienated students – especially those suffering from normlessness – feel disconnected and overwhelmed by school duties. In addition, to diminish the risk of alienation and burnout in a school context of students, educational practitioners should include school engagement (especially belonging and productivity) improvement as one of the most significant protective factors.

Several psychological factors are strongly related to aggressive behaviours in university students, such as educational issues and problematic digital activity, namely Smartphone and social media addiction. At the same time, little is known about the role of student burnout syndrome in predicting these mental and social problems. Moreover, although most researchers agree with the notion of sex differences in aggression, excessive digital activity , and burnout syndrome, only a few studies have examined the role of cultural differences. Thus, the present study sought to examine whether digital technology addictions mediate the relationship between student burnout and aggressive behaviours in European and Japanese university students. For this purpose, a cross-sectional, non-experimental and online study was developed with 291 participants (202 females, M = 22.66; SD = 4.35). The findings highlighted how academic burnout and phone snubbing increase, and problematic Facebook usedecrease the risk of aggressive behaviours. In addition, phone snubbing (known as phubbing) mediates the association between student burnout and aggression. Men tend to have more aggressive behaviours than women, and Japanese students were less addicted to FB and less aggressive as well as scoring higher in phubbing than European students. In conclusion, the results confirmed the importance of including cross-cultural differences in digital technology health programs in order to minimise the risk of aggressive behaviours.