Estrés cotidiano infantil y factores ligados al aprendizaje escolar como predictores del rendimiento académico

Background and objectives

Within the broad spectrum of variables that influence learning and consequently academic achievement, affective-motivational factors related to daily stress are particularly important. The aim of this study was to analyze associations between daily childhood stress, learning strategies and academic motivation, by analyzing how they differ across 3 achievement groups (low, medium and high), and the predictive-ability of these groupings.

Method

Non-experimental methodology in a cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational, inferential and multivariate study. A total of 535 primary school students from Cantabria, Spain, aged 9 to 12 (M = 10.72; SD = 0.67), participated in the study. They completed the Inventario de Estrés Cotidiano Infantil [Children's Daily Stress Inventory] and the Diagnóstico Integral del Estudio [Comprehensive Diagnosis of Study], and their school grades were recorded for the subjects of Language Arts, English as a Foreign Language, and Mathematics.

Results

The results showed positive, significant relationships between all the variables pertaining to learning and academic achievement; each of these variables, in turn, had negative, significant relationships with global daily stress (as well as with health, school and family stress). The multivariate discriminant analysis explained the predictive role of complementary strategies, school stress, attitude toward study and self-concept, in different levels of general academic achievement.

Conclusions

There is a need for interventions in self-regulated learning strategies that would serve as a preventive measure, and in development of coping strategies for stressful situations inside and outside the educational context.