Influence of college students’ professional identity on learning burnout: the mediating role of emptiness and the moderating role of career calling

Introduction: Existing research suggests that professional identity plays a critical role in shaping students' learning attitudes and academic behaviors; however, the underlying mechanisms remain insufficiently understood. This study aims to examine the impact of professional identity on learning burnout among Chinese university students and to investigate the mediating role of a sense of emptiness and the moderating role of career calling. Methods: In this study, undergraduate students from three universities in Western China were recruited as research participants, and data were collected through validated standardized questionnaires. Correlation analysis, mediation testing, and moderation analysis were conducted to examine the relationships among the key variables. Results: The results revealed that (1) professional identity significantly negatively predicts learning burnout and that (2) emptiness partially mediates the relationship between professional identity and learning burnout, indicating that professional identity can reduce learning burnout by lowering the sense of emptiness. (3) Career calling had a significant positive moderating effect on the relationship between emptiness and learning burnout, suggesting that when students' career calling is high, the positive impact of emptiness on learning burnout becomes more pronounced. Discussion: The findings further corroborated the negative association between professional identity and learning burnout. Moreover, the results revealed that emptiness served as a mediator linking professional identity to learning burnout, whereas career calling positively moderated the effect of emptiness on students' learning burnout. These findings highlight the importance of strengthening students' professional identity and career calling, as well as mitigating feelings of emptiness, in efforts to reduce learning burnout among university students.