Academic stress and emotional exhaustion in university students: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction:Academic stress is acommon experience among university students and often results from the pressure and demands associated with academic life. This type of stress can arise due to exams, assignments, deadlines, peer competition, and uncertainty about the future. Objective: To determine if academic stress is related to emotional exhaustion in students majoring in education at a public university in Peru. Methods: Quantitative, non-experimental, correlational, and cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of 252 students administered the SISCO Academic Stress Inventory and the Emotional Exhaustion Scale, instruments with adequate psychometric properties. The data were processed using SPSS software version 25, and Spearman's rho correlation coefficient was used to identify the relationship between the study variables. Results: It was found that 76.2 % of the total students had moderate levels of academic stress, and regarding emotionalexhaustion, 59.5 % ofstudents also reported moderate levels of emotional fatigue. On the other hand, it was determined that Spearman's rho correlation coefficient between both variables was 0.393, and the p-value was lower than the significance level (p<0.05). Conclusions: There is a relationship between academic stress and emotional exhaustion in students majoring in education at a public university in Peru.