Education, Special Education, University of Ibadan, 2019
Academic achievement of learners is an important indicator of the academic success in school. How... more Academic achievement of learners is an important indicator of the academic success in school. However, some high-ability learners who show great academic potential fail to perform at a level commensurate with their previously displayed abilities. Meanwhile, it has been largely discovered that these discrepancies resulted from some affective and psychological factors. Depression and Stress are linked to lower academic performance. It is proposed that academic performance is reduced in young people with high levels of stress or depression as a function of increased test-specific worry that impinges on working memory central executive processes. Thus, this study investigated depression and stress as determinants of academic underachievement of high-ability learners in selected secondary schools in Oyo State, Nigeria.
The Social Cognitive Model of Achievement, Beck’s Cognitive Theory of Depression and Cognitive Activation Theory of stress provided the framework while the descriptive survey research design was adopted. Simple random sampling technique was used to select five secondary schools in Ibadan to cover for the research scope in Oyo State. However, purposive sampling was adopted to select 94 high-ability learners from SS1 and SS2 classes in the selected secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State. To screen for their eligibility as high-ability learners, students’ academic records were obtained from their class teachers in the various schools used in this study and those whose scores are above 70 on the scale of 100 in the key subjects like English and Mathematics were selected; about 8-10 students were selected from each class in the schools.
The respondents’ age was dominated by the age bracket of 13-16 which represents 84% of the total number of the respondents. Out of the 94 respondents, 55 were females (58.5%) while 39 were males representing 41.5%. likewise, those from the SS2 class were 55 (58.4%) while SS1 were 39 (41.5%). The study found out that depression (r=0.150) and stress (r=0.025) had negative contribution to academic achievement of high-ability learners. It was revealed that a unit increase in depression and stress will cause a decline in academic performance of high-ability learners- academic underachievement by 0.148. The findings from this study also revealed that gender has a significant influence on the effect of depression and stress among high-ability learners’ academic underachievement, even though gender in this study is a moderator variable. This was predominant in the Beck’s depression scale which showed that female high-ability learners are more prone to having mild mood disturbance, moderate depression, and borderline clinical depression than their male counterparts. Depression and stress determined academic underachievement among high-ability learners in Oyo State. Therefore, it is recommended that Educators, Counselors, Psychologists, Parents, Researchers and Policy Makers should develop strategies to reduce psychological problems like depression and stress among students and organize intervention programs to enhance high-ability learners’ psychological well-being which helps to increase their academic performance. Keywords: depression, stress, academic achievement, underachievement, high-ability learners. Word count: 464
Education, Special Education, University of Ibadan, 2019
Academic achievement of learners is an important indicator of the academic success in school. How... more Academic achievement of learners is an important indicator of the academic success in school. However, some high-ability learners who show great academic potential fail to perform at a level commensurate with their previously displayed abilities. Meanwhile, it has been largely discovered that these discrepancies resulted from some affective and psychological factors. Depression and Stress are linked to lower academic performance. It is proposed that academic performance is reduced in young people with high levels of stress or depression as a function of increased test-specific worry that impinges on working memory central executive processes. Thus, this study investigated depression and stress as determinants of academic underachievement of high-ability learners in selected secondary schools in Oyo State, Nigeria.
The Social Cognitive Model of Achievement, Beck’s Cognitive Theory of Depression and Cognitive Activation Theory of stress provided the framework while the descriptive survey research design was adopted. Simple random sampling technique was used to select five secondary schools in Ibadan to cover for the research scope in Oyo State. However, purposive sampling was adopted to select 94 high-ability learners from SS1 and SS2 classes in the selected secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State. To screen for their eligibility as high-ability learners, students’ academic records were obtained from their class teachers in the various schools used in this study and those whose scores are above 70 on the scale of 100 in the key subjects like English and Mathematics were selected; about 8-10 students were selected from each class in the schools.
The respondents’ age was dominated by the age bracket of 13-16 which represents 84% of the total number of the respondents. Out of the 94 respondents, 55 were females (58.5%) while 39 were males representing 41.5%. likewise, those from the SS2 class were 55 (58.4%) while SS1 were 39 (41.5%). The study found out that depression (r=0.150) and stress (r=0.025) had negative contribution to academic achievement of high-ability learners. It was revealed that a unit increase in depression and stress will cause a decline in academic performance of high-ability learners- academic underachievement by 0.148. The findings from this study also revealed that gender has a significant influence on the effect of depression and stress among high-ability learners’ academic underachievement, even though gender in this study is a moderator variable. This was predominant in the Beck’s depression scale which showed that female high-ability learners are more prone to having mild mood disturbance, moderate depression, and borderline clinical depression than their male counterparts. Depression and stress determined academic underachievement among high-ability learners in Oyo State. Therefore, it is recommended that Educators, Counselors, Psychologists, Parents, Researchers and Policy Makers should develop strategies to reduce psychological problems like depression and stress among students and organize intervention programs to enhance high-ability learners’ psychological well-being which helps to increase their academic performance. Keywords: depression, stress, academic achievement, underachievement, high-ability learners. Word count: 464
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The Social Cognitive Model of Achievement, Beck’s Cognitive Theory of Depression and Cognitive Activation Theory of stress provided the framework while the descriptive survey research design was adopted. Simple random sampling technique was used to select five secondary schools in Ibadan to cover for the research scope in Oyo State. However, purposive sampling was adopted to select 94 high-ability learners from SS1 and SS2 classes in the selected secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State. To screen for their eligibility as high-ability learners, students’ academic records were obtained from their class teachers in the various schools used in this study and those whose scores are above 70 on the scale of 100 in the key subjects like English and Mathematics were selected; about 8-10 students were selected from each class in the schools.
The respondents’ age was dominated by the age bracket of 13-16 which represents 84% of the total number of the respondents. Out of the 94 respondents, 55 were females (58.5%) while 39 were males representing 41.5%. likewise, those from the SS2 class were 55 (58.4%) while SS1 were 39 (41.5%). The study found out that depression (r=0.150) and stress (r=0.025) had negative contribution to academic achievement of high-ability learners. It was revealed that a unit increase in depression and stress will cause a decline in academic performance of high-ability learners- academic underachievement by 0.148. The findings from this study also revealed that gender has a significant influence on the effect of depression and stress among high-ability learners’ academic underachievement, even though gender in this study is a moderator variable. This was predominant in the Beck’s depression scale which showed that female high-ability learners are more prone to having mild mood disturbance, moderate depression, and borderline clinical depression than their male counterparts.
Depression and stress determined academic underachievement among high-ability learners in Oyo State. Therefore, it is recommended that Educators, Counselors, Psychologists, Parents, Researchers and Policy Makers should develop strategies to reduce psychological problems like depression and stress among students and organize intervention programs to enhance high-ability learners’ psychological well-being which helps to increase their academic performance.
Keywords: depression, stress, academic achievement, underachievement, high-ability learners.
Word count: 464
The Social Cognitive Model of Achievement, Beck’s Cognitive Theory of Depression and Cognitive Activation Theory of stress provided the framework while the descriptive survey research design was adopted. Simple random sampling technique was used to select five secondary schools in Ibadan to cover for the research scope in Oyo State. However, purposive sampling was adopted to select 94 high-ability learners from SS1 and SS2 classes in the selected secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State. To screen for their eligibility as high-ability learners, students’ academic records were obtained from their class teachers in the various schools used in this study and those whose scores are above 70 on the scale of 100 in the key subjects like English and Mathematics were selected; about 8-10 students were selected from each class in the schools.
The respondents’ age was dominated by the age bracket of 13-16 which represents 84% of the total number of the respondents. Out of the 94 respondents, 55 were females (58.5%) while 39 were males representing 41.5%. likewise, those from the SS2 class were 55 (58.4%) while SS1 were 39 (41.5%). The study found out that depression (r=0.150) and stress (r=0.025) had negative contribution to academic achievement of high-ability learners. It was revealed that a unit increase in depression and stress will cause a decline in academic performance of high-ability learners- academic underachievement by 0.148. The findings from this study also revealed that gender has a significant influence on the effect of depression and stress among high-ability learners’ academic underachievement, even though gender in this study is a moderator variable. This was predominant in the Beck’s depression scale which showed that female high-ability learners are more prone to having mild mood disturbance, moderate depression, and borderline clinical depression than their male counterparts.
Depression and stress determined academic underachievement among high-ability learners in Oyo State. Therefore, it is recommended that Educators, Counselors, Psychologists, Parents, Researchers and Policy Makers should develop strategies to reduce psychological problems like depression and stress among students and organize intervention programs to enhance high-ability learners’ psychological well-being which helps to increase their academic performance.
Keywords: depression, stress, academic achievement, underachievement, high-ability learners.
Word count: 464