Licencia CreativeCommons Atribución 4.0 Internacional (CC BY 4.0)

Revista Cátedra, 8(2), pp. 363-370 July - December 2025. e-ISSN: 2631-2875

https://doi.org/10.29166/catedra.v8i2.7909

The influence of academic stress on the

Universidad Central del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador

Facultad de Filosofía, Letras y Ciencias de la Educación, Carrera de Educación Básica

jadiazp1@uce.edu.ec

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2767-3868

Nadia Curipallo-Peralta

Universidad Central del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador

Facultad de Filosofía, Letras y Ciencias de la Educación, Carrera de Educación Básica

necuripallo@uce.edu.ec

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1612-4521

Unidad Educativa Fiscal “Pedro Luis Calero”, Quito, Ecuador

jenny.parra@educacion.gob.ec

https://orcid.org/0009-0000-7482-1248

(Received on: 10/04/2025; Accepted on: 25/05/2025; Final version received on: 30/06/2025)

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Suggested citation: Díaz-Parra, J., Curipallo-Peralta, N., Rojas-Avilés, H., & Parra-Muñoz, J.

(2025). The influence of academic stress on the performance of basic education students at

that 43.2% of students experience moderate academic stress. This research sought to

evaluate the level of stress in students of in-person basic education. To do so, a non-

experimental-descriptive methodology and a deductive method with a quantitative

approach were used. The SISCO SV-21 Inventory was applied to 586 students, selected

through stratified probability sampling by semester. The results showed that a severe level

of stress prevails among students, ranging from 61% to 100%. The main stressors identified

were homework overload (M=3.68) and the type of work required (M=3.58). The most

frequent consequences included concentration problems (M=4.10) and feelings of

depression (M=3.77). Coping strategies that stood out were emotional control (M=3.86) and

focusing on positive aspects (M=3.62). Statistical analysis (χ2=150.530, p<.001) confirmed

Resumen

El estrés académico afecta significativamente el rendimiento de los estudiantes

universitarios, manifestándose de diversas formas: físicas, emocionales y cognitivas.

Estudios previos indican que el 77 % de las personas a nivel global padecen estrés

moderado o grave (Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo, 2022). En Ecuador,

investigaciones como la de Moscoso y Barsallo (2018) revelan que el 43.2 % de los

estudiantes experimentan estrés académico moderado. La presente investigación buscó

evaluar el nivel de estrés en los estudiantes de Educación Básica Presencial. Para ello, se

empleó una metodología no experimental-descriptiva y un método deductivo con enfoque

cuantitativo. Se aplicó el Inventario SISCO SV-21 a 586 estudiantes, seleccionados mediante

aspectos positivos (M=3.62). El análisis estadístico (χ2=150.530, p < .001) confirmó la

relación entre el semestre cursado y el nivel de estrés. Estos hallazgos sugieren la necesidad

de implementar programas institucionales para manejar el estrés académico,

especialmente dirigidos a estudiantes del primer semestre y a aquellos en semestres

avanzados.

https://doi.org/10.29166/catedra.v8i2.7909

Palabras clave

academic load, tight deadlines, and the need to balance studying with other personal or

family responsibilities. This set of pressures can lead to various difficulties for students,

affecting both their physical and mental health and manifesting in symptoms such as

anxiety, exhaustion, frustration, and even serious illnesses that affect their health.

Stress significantly affects students' quality of life, negatively impacting their academic

performance and personal development. A stressed mind is constantly overwhelmed by

external concerns, which hinders concentration and memory, and causes sleep problems.

Consequently, these problems lead to decreased motivation and energy levels, which hinder

effective study and participation in academic activities.

According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Human Development

to implement effective strategies to prevent and reduce academic stress, in order to protect

the mental health and optimize the performance of university students.

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the levels of academic stress experienced by

students in the In-Person Basic Education program at the Central University of Ecuador by

applying the Sisco SV-21 Inventory. The research questions are: What is the level of stress

experienced by students? What factors generate it? How does it affect academic

performance?

The article is structured in five sections, consisting of a literature review on academic stress,

the methodology used, the results obtained, a discussion of the findings, and finally, the

conclusions.

difficult to concentrate and increasing anxiety levels in daily activities.

On the other hand, focused specifically on the educational field, academic stress is defined

as "the discomfort that the student experiences due to physical or emotional factors that

exert significant pressure, affecting their academic performance and their metacognitive

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ability to solve problems" (Zárate et al., 2018, p. 155). Given the multiple demands and

pressures inherent in university life, stress has become a recurring problem among

According to Estrada et al. (2024), “academic stressors are factors linked to the educational

environment that cause stress in students, which can have various adverse effects on their

physical and mental health, as well as on their academic performance” (p. 1132). Therefore,

academic stressors are considered to be the causes that negatively influence students.

Ovalle mentions that stressors arise from a mixture of individual, social, and academic

peer groups, and poor teaching practices by some teachers; these are some of the factors

that affect students' emotional and academic stability” (p. 784).

University students play different roles in their daily lives, whether in the academic, family,

social, and even professional spheres. This burden of responsibilities generates stress,

causing various problems such as lack of concentration, fatigue, poor nutrition,

carelessness, sadness, poor academic performance, nervousness, feelings of anger, and

aggression. On the other hand, Gusqui and Galárraga (2023) mention that "stress directly

affects students' cognitive development because it decreases the level of learning, attention,

concentration, and memory" (p. 4), which is the cause of poor academic performance.

https://doi.org/10.29166/catedra.v8i2.7909

Therefore, coping strategies are crucial for psychological well-being, mitigating stress and

anxiety and boosting self-esteem. Beyond the personal, their impact extends to the

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All questions are on a Likert scale: never, almost never, rarely, sometimes, almost always,

semester, the following sample was obtained: first semester (n=67), second semester

(n=70), third semester (n=90), fourth semester (n=59), fifth semester (n=65), sixth

https://doi.org/10.29166/catedra.v8i2.7909

semester (n=65), seventh semester (n=50), eighth semester (n=52), and ninth semester

(n=68), for a total of 586 students.

and 6 of the questionnaire, which are used to determine students' stress levels. The items

listed detail the stressors, symptoms, and coping strategies used by university students.

Table 3 shows the stressors that are the reasons why students experience academic stress.

According to Table 3, the most frequent stressors that university students present are the

following: the most frequent being the overload of tasks and schoolwork that I have to do

every day (M=3.68), followed by the type of work that the professors ask me to do (M=3.58),

the way my professors evaluate me (M=3.17) and the limited time to do the work (M=3.10).

Finally, the least frequent are the level of demand from my professors (M=2.28) and the

personality and character of the professors who teach me (M=2.12).

5.2 Feelings of depression and sadness (low mood)

0.79

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Table 4. Result of the questionnaire applied to students regarding the symptoms presented by students of the

Basic Education career

Table 4 shows the symptoms university students present when they are stressed. The most

mood) (M=3.77), chronic fatigue (permanent tiredness) (M=3.68), and reluctance to

argue or argue (M=3.12), and anxiety, anguish, or despair (M=2.69).

Figure 1 shows the stress level of students in the In-Person Basic Education program

according to the semester they are enrolled in during the 2024-2024 period. It can be seen

that the first, seventh, eighth, and ninth semesters have a severe stress level, ranging from

61% to 100%; the second, third, fourth, and fifth semesters have a moderate stress level,

ranging from 49% to 60%. Finally, sixth-semester students have a mild stress level, ranging

https://doi.org/10.29166/catedra.v8i2.7909

student is taking and the stress level. According to Hernández et al., the Chi-square analysis

is a statistical test developed by Carl Pearson, which uses the analysis of two or more groups

of categorical variables to determine whether or not there is a correlation and in turn the

null hypothesis is discarded or the alternative hypothesis is accepted. If the result of the Chi-

square coefficient is greater than 0.05, the null hypothesis is approved, therefore, there is

no relationship between variables, while if the result of the Chi-square coefficient is less

than 0.05, the alternative hypothesis is approved, therefore, there is a correlation between

variables (Hernández et al., 2017, p. 294).

In Table 6, the Chi-square analysis yielded a significant value of 0.000, indicating statistical

significance as it was less than the critical level of 0.05. This allows us to reject the null

hypothesis and confirm that there is a significant relationship between the semester

completed and the student's stress level, demonstrating that progress in the academic

career directly influences reported stress levels.

The influence of the semester on stress levels can be explained by the structure of the