Academic stress and performance of high school students during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

PROBLEM: the global COVID-19 pandemic has directly influenced the academic practice of Unified General Baccalaureate students, and it is important to know the factors associated with their performance. OBJECTIVE: to establish the impact that academic stressors have had on the performance of students in the city of Guayaquil-Ecuador, during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: a non-experimental quantitative research with a cross-sectional design followed. The sample consisted of 600 active students in the public and private educational system, students in the first, second and third year of High School. RESULTS: the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the participating student body to be frequently stressed. The academic stressors, such as: the methodological deficiencies of the teaching staff who teach the classes, the overload in the fulfillment of the activities, the existence of a negative social climate during the virtual classes, the existing difficulty for there to be a real participation of the student body in the educational processes, the nature and purpose of the subjects they are studying, the way school performance is perceived, the academic evaluations that are imposed and, finally, the interventions during virtual classes, are effectively incident factors on the high levels of stress in the participants. CONCLUSION: the participating students are affected by the academic stress generated by the COVID-19 pandemic and this has had significant school repercussions.