ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1662109
This article is part of the Research TopicMental Health Challenges in Vulnerable Groups: Psychological Well-Being, Learning, and Support in Disadvantaged ContextsView all 5 articles
Academic stress and performance in first-year health sciences students in Chile: A cross-sectional study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Valparaíso, Chile
- 2Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaiso, Chile
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Academic stress can negatively influence academic performance, particularly in health science programs with high demands. Objective: To analyze the association between perceived academic stress and academic performance in first-year kinesiology students, considering gender differences and stress dimensions (stressors, reactions, and coping strategies). Methods: This cross-sectional study included 82 students assessed using the SISCO-IIA inventory. Academic performance was measured via final course grades. Descriptive analyses, chi-square tests, t-tests, and binary logistic regression models were applied. Results: Students with high levels of academic stressors were significantly more likely to underperform (OR = 4.62, 95% CI [1.24, 17.22], p = .023). Female students reported higher emotional and behavioral responses to stress but were less likely to underperform (OR = 0.30, 95% CI [0.11, 0.79], p = .014). Age was not significantly associated with performance (p = 0.433). Conclusion: Academic stress negatively influences academic outcomes among first-year students. Gender differences in stress response patterns may affect vulnerability and coping effectiveness. These findings highlight the need for early screening, targeted interventions, and support systems to mitigate academic stress and promote student success.
Keywords: Academic stress, academic performance, first-year students, Health scienceseducation, gender differences, university students, Chile
Received: 08 Jul 2025; Accepted: 15 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Granada, Valencia-Narbona, Lizana and González-Rojas. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Andrea González-Rojas, andrea.gonzalez.r@pucv.cl
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.