Relation between learning strategies and techniques, anxiety, and psychosomatic symptoms in 8th and 9th grade elementary school students

Abstract

The study presented in this paper aims to examine the frequency of psychosomatic symptoms in students and their interaction with learning strategies and techniques. In addition, it aims to examine anxiety as a personality trait and its mediation effect between learning strategies and psychosomatic symptoms, with self-regulated learning linking cognitive, motivational, and emotional aspects of learning, serving as a theoretical framework. The sample comprises 420 students, aged 13.7 years on average, with a balanced percentage regarding gender. Through a descriptive analysis, it has been established that the commonest psychosomatic symptoms are gastrointestinal, pseudo-neurological, and symptoms of pain/feeling of weakness. The results show that learning strategies are negatively related to both the frequency (r=-.22, p<.01) and the intensity of the interference with psychosomatic symptoms (r=-.17, p<.01), as well as to anxiety (r=-.21, p<.01). Anxiety as a personality trait has a significant mediation effect between learning strategies and the frequency of psychosomatic symptoms (R2 =.208, b=-.437, SE=.219, 95% CI [-.75, -.21]) and learning strategies and the intensity of interference with psychosomatic symptoms (R2 =.111, b=-.363, SE=.126, 95% CI [-.66, -.15]). The mediation effect of anxiety in relation to learning techniques - frequency/intensity of interference with psychosomatic symptoms has not been established. The results point to the need for providing training to students with regard to a self-regulated learning process and the application of efficient learning strategies from early grades, in order to reduce the risk of psychosomatic symptoms occurrence.