Association Between Academic, Cognitive and Health-Related Variables with Academic Stress in Health Sciences University Students.

Abstract

Academic stress arises from students facing academic demands and is linked to various academic and psychological factors. However, research has yet to explore its potential correlations with somatization, overall health issues, studying strategies, academic procrastination, academic performance, and intelligence scores. The objective of this study was to determine the potential correlations between such variables with academic stress in a sample of health sciences university students. University students of different bachelor's programs were invited to participate; they fulfilled an electronic questionnaire with personal and psychological variables, including academic stress, and performed an intelligence test, which measures verbal and non-verbal intelligence. Finally, their academic achievement was measured with the grade point average (GPA). A total of 437 students were included, of which 296 (67.7%) were women, with a mean age of 20.36 ± 2.61 years old. Academic stress was higher in women than in men and showed moderate positive correlations with anxiety, depression, and somatization and a low positive correlation with the sum of diseases. It also showed a low negative correlation with sleep quality. In addition, academic stress correlated negatively with self-motivation, emotion perception, and emotion management as well as with active coping, positive relations with others, and the studying strategies (self-regulation, effort regulation, critical thinking, and time and study environment). We also observed a low positive correlation between academic stress and academic procrastination, which was higher in women than in men. No correlations were found with GPA or intelligence scores. In conclusion, academic stress was positively correlated with somatization, depression, anxiety, the sum of diseases, and academic procrastination; it was negatively correlated with emotional intelligence (mainly self-motivation), active coping, and specific studying strategies.