Adaptation to military higher education: Academic success predictors

Abstract

Military culture requires high levels of adaptation at the psychological, physical and emotional levels. Students in military higher education are subject to high stress levels, particularly during the first year at the Military Academy of Portugal. Cadets face several challenges to graduate as permanent officers of the Portuguese Army and the Republican National Guard. This study aims to identify and describe the stressors during the adaptive effort to military higher education, analyzing how they evolve over the years and constitute possible predictors of academic success. The sample gathers 601 candidates and future students at the Military Academy. On this topic, two cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have shown that physical and psychological well-being and time management are the factors that most contribute to the perception of academic self-efficacy and partially explain academic success over the medium term (second year). The longitudinal nature of this research emphasizes the results obtained and suggests that future studies should establish correlations with self-esteem and performance measures as official in an operational context.