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number of factors contribute to psychological disturbances among university students. Most important, such psychological factors may influence their academic satisfaction that associates with their performance.
To examine prediction power of academic stress and academic self-efficacy on academic satisfaction among nursing students.
A convenience sample of 117 nursing students recruited from two nursing programs in Jordan; one private and one governmental. Self-report format was used to collect data from students regarding academic stress, academic self-efficacy, and academic satisfaction.
Nursing students had moderate level of academic self-efficacy, high level of academic stress, and low to moderate level of satisfaction about curriculum and faculty performance. Positive relationship found between students Grade Point Average and academic stress and self-efficacy, while there was negative relationship with academic satisfaction (p < .05). None of the demographic variables had was a significant predictor of academic satisfaction (p > .05). regression showed that self-efficacy, interaction, explained 36% of academic satisfaction about faculties.
Academic self-efficacy anxiety among nursing students found to contribute to their academic satisfaction. Therefore, academics and psychological counselors at academic institutions need to give more attention to the psychosocial interaction and enhance mentoring and counseling skills to their students.
Stress is a dynamic interaction in which demands, limitations and opportunities are perceived as threats to an individual's capabilities [
Studies found that university students are experiencing increased levels of stress that inhibits their academic performance [
Furthermore, the emotional, cognitive and physical consequences of stress among nursing students believed to be interrelated and progressive [
The negative impact of stress on nursing students is buffered available personal and environmental support. For example, high level of self-efficacy interferes with students' ability to manage academic demands effectively, while low self-efficacy may cause additional psychological distress [
The literature has adequately addressed multiple stressors that nursing students are experiencing; however, negative impact of stress among nursing students on their academic performance, ability to fulfill course requirements, and satisfaction with curriculum and faculty supervision has not been adequately addressed. Little efforts have been done to connect nursing students' experience and academic nursing students’ performance and satisfaction. Nevertheless, there is still a need to find out the impact of negative experience and academic stress on students’ performance, their satisfaction, and their perceptions nursing education system. Therefore, the
This study used descriptive correlational design to collect data using a self-administered questionnaire from nursing students in two nursing programs in Jordan; one private and one governmental. Data were collected in relation to students' academic self-efficacy and stress, students' satisfaction with the nursing program, specifically advising, and instruction.
A convenience sample of 117 university students were recruited from one private and one governmental nursing program in Jordan. The inclusion criteria for the participants were: 1) current nursing students, and 2) had finished at least one semester of core nursing courses; therefore, students would be in their second year of the program.
Prior to data collection, ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee at the targeted universities. Students were recruited through an announcement at the students' communication boards. Those who expressed interest in participating were requested to contact principal investigator or directed to the research assistant located in the coordinator’s office at the university. Students were informed that the study is anonymous and voluntary. Interested students were given the package of two self-report questionnaires with a front page presenting the purpose of the study, its significance, and a note confirming the anonymity and confidentiality of the study. To ensure confidentiality, participants were assured in the consent letter that the data will be used for research purposes, and electronic data will be kept at researcher personal computer that no one has access to. Anonymity assured through having all identifiable information saved in a separate file using a coding system. Only the researcher was able to unlock the codes of participants' files. The cover letter included contact information of the principal investigator and instructions to where to return the questionnaires. The data collection started in the middle of the first term (fall terms). Two hundred and fifty packages were distributed and 117 were returned with a 47% response rate. Subject's information was kept confidential by the investigator. All projects' electronic versions were kept in the primary investigator's computer.
The data were collected using an Arabic version of a self-report questionnaire. The World Health Organization [
(1). Academic self-efficacy and stress was measured using Academic Self-Efficacy and Stress Scale [
(2). Academic satisfaction was measured using the students' Satisfaction Scale [
(3). Demographic data included students are asked to report information related to their age, gender, GPA, academic level, any penalties during their academic life, their choice of nursing, plans pursuing higher education, and general health status.
Variables of the study described using the central tendency measures (means, and medians) and the dispersion measures (standard deviation and ranges). Pearson correlation coefficient (Pearson
The sample consisted of 117 nursing students with mean age of 20.6 (SD = 1.90). The majority of students were females (n = 92, 78.7%). Almost two-thirds (57.2%) of the students were in their third and fourth academic year. The mean GPA (out of 4.0) for the students was 2.86 (SD = 0.59). About 13.3% (n = 16) students reported that they were employed, and 4.3% (n = 5) had academic penalties such as warning letter for misconduct or due to low grade notice as part of university policy. Moreover, 73.5% (n = 86) of students reported that studying nursing was their decision, and 88.0% (n = 103) are motivated to pursue their graduate studies in nursing.
The results (Table
Considering the subscales of academic stress scale, the analysis showed that the four subscales (interaction at school, academic performance out of class, academic performance in class, managing work, family, and school) indicate moderate level of academic stress except interaction at school in which students reported low level (Table
Regarding self-effecacy, the analysis (Table
Considering the subscales of academic self-efficacy scale, the analysis showed that the four subscales (interaction at school, academic performance out of class, academic performance in class, managing work, family, and school) indicated moderate to a high level of academic self-efficacy with lowest scores observed in interaction at school subscale (Table
The analysis related to students' satisfaction about curriculum showed that students had a mean score of 26.11 (SD= 3.72) while 50% of the students had a score of 24 to 28. Considering that the expected score range for this scale is 40, and that 50% of them had a score of 26, the analysis indicates that students had moderate to low level of satisfaction. On the other hand, students had higher score of satisfaction about their teaching and supervision activities at the school. The analysis also showed that students had a mean score of 33.91 (SD = 4.25) in satisfaction with teaching and supervision scale. The expected range of score in this scale is 50 and 50% of them had a score of 34. This indicates that students had moderate level of satisfaction related to teaching and supervision.
To examine the relationship between academic stress, self-efficacy, satisfaction about curriculum and satisfaction about teaching and supervision, Pearson coefficient (
The magnitude of correlated; however, is low. On the other hand, students' satisfaction about teaching and supervision has a significant and positive association with self-efficacy during academic performance in-class, self-efficacy with academic performance outclass, self-efficacy with interaction at school, and with satisfaction with curriculum (
Items | M | SD | Min | Max |
---|---|---|---|---|
Least stressful tasks | ||||
Making friends at school | 2.63 | 3.17 | 0 | 10 |
Doing well on my toughest tests | 2.72 | 2.72 | 0 | 10 |
Participating in class discussions | 2.77 | 2.87 | 0 | 10 |
Most stressful tasks | - | - | - | - |
Having more test in the same week | 6.35 | 3.03 | 0 | 10 |
Talking to college staff | 5.58 | 3.49 | 0 | 10 |
Doing well on exams | 5.35 | 3.25 | 0 | 10 |
Total scale | 4.16 | .99 | 2.64 | 6.35 |
Least confident tasks | - | - | - | - |
Managing time effectively | 5.81 | 2.88 | 1.0 | 10 |
Managing both school and work | 5.83 | 3.21 | 0 | 10 |
Having more test in the same week | 5.84 | 2.75 | 0 | 10 |
Most confident | - | - | - | - |
Participating in class discussions | 8.00 | 2.24 | 0 | 10 |
Making friends at school | 7.95 | 2.36 | 0 | 10 |
Doing well on my toughest tests | 7.57 | 2.43 | 0 | 10 |
total scale | 6.74 | .64 | 5.73 | 8.01 |
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Stress-Interaction | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Stress-Outclass | .81** | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Stress-In class | .78** | .87** | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Stress-Managing work | .69** | .75** | .78** | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
SE-managing work | -.43** | -.46** | -.38** | -.43** | - | - | - | - | - | - |
SE-In class | -.27* | -.38** | -.33** | -.26* | .73** | - | - | - | - | - |
SE-Outclass | -.30** | -.41** | -.31** | -.31** | .86** | .80** | - | - | - | - |
SE-Interaction | -.37** | -.38** | -.32** | -.28* | .84** | .79** | .86** | - | - | - |
Sat-Curriculum | -0.06 | -0.15 | -0.11 | -0.08 | 0.22* | 0.15 | 0.31** | 0.20 | - | - |
Sat-teaching, supervision | 0.06 | -0.09 | 0.01 | -0.01 | 0.39** | 0.38** | 0.37** | 0.37** | 0.44** | - |
In this study, self-efficacy subscales showed significant and negative correlation with subscales of stress related to academic tasks with correlation magnitudes ranging from low of correlation (
Two- steps multiple hierarchical regression analysis was performed to examine prediction power of academic stress and academic self-efficacy on academic satisfaction controlling for selected demographic characteristics.
the analysis (Table
The results indicate that 37% of the variation in academic satisfaction are explained by the model that contains self-academic stress and academic self-efficacy controlling for demographic variables. In model 1 (the demographic factors), none of the variables was a significant predictor of academic satisfaction. While, in model 2, only academic self-efficacy was a significant positive predictor (B = 0.95,
Regarding differences related to personal and demographic characteristics. The analysis (Table
Variables | Model 1 | Model 2 | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
B | SEM | β |
|
B | SEM | β |
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Gender | 3.9 | 3.2 | 0.26 | 0.221 | 2.8 | 2.86 | 0.19 | 0.332 | |
Age | -0.46 | 0.91 | -0.13 | 0.623 | -0.53 | 0.85 | -0.15 | 0.532 | |
Academic level | 1.2 | 1.4 | 0.20 | 0.415 | 0.62 | 1.3 | 0.11 | 0.626 | |
Grade point average | 2.2 | 2.6 | 0.19 | 0.390 | 1.9 | 2.5 | 0.16 | 0.440 | |
Grade in high school | -0.21 | 0.21 | -0.23 | 0.322 | -0.33 | 0.21 | -0.36 | 0.116 | |
Working status | 0.95 | 3.0 | 0.05 | 0.751 | 0.18 | 2.7 | 0.01 | 0.947 | |
Academic stress | - | - | - | - | .04 | .03 | .28 | 0.133 | |
Academic self-efficacy | - | - | - | - | 0.10 | 0.03 | 0.58 | 0.001 | |
|
0.156 | 0.373 | |||||||
|
F = 0.762, |
F = 1.90, |
|||||||
|
- | 0.22 |
Variable | M | SD | t-test | p-value | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Self-efficacy | - | - | ||||
Interaction at school | Gender | Male | 23.27 | 7.80 | -2.27 | 0.026 |
Female | 27.39 | 7.40 | ||||
Academic performance out of class | Gender | Male | 41.00 | 14.56 | -.199 | 0.049 |
Female | 48.00 | 13.42 | ||||
Academic performance in class | Gender | Male | 37.37 | 11.00 | -2.04 | 0.044 |
Female | 42.74 | 10.06 | ||||
Interaction at school | Punished | Yes | 31.50 | 6.35 | -2.03 | 0.045 |
No | 42.12 | 10.36 |
ANOVA test was used to examine the difference between (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year) students in their self-efficacy related to interaction at school, the analysis showed that there were significant differences between students in different study years in their self-efficacy related to interaction at school (F 3, 114 = 6.01,
University students, in general, are overwhelmed with social and psychological demands that makes them vulnerable to high risk behaviors [
Moreover, it has been found that stress among nursing students is mainly due to a lack of professional knowledge and skills, while others found that nursing interns experienced moderate to severe level of stress during clinical training [
Understanding academic self-efficacy will help and guide in developing and implementing effective instructional strategies to achieve the intended learning outcomes. Using proximal goals is eventually helping students to set goals that are not too difficult to reach. Therefore, students must be aware of their own abilities and assessing self-efficacy is one core component to achieve these goals. Normally, students tend to underestimate their capabilities that might hinders them for making appropriate academic achievement [
Regarding gender differences, the findings of this study and the literature agree that female students had higher self-efficacy and have more effective time management than male students [
This study has also found that academic stress was a not as significant predictor of academic satisfaction, while academic self-efficacy was a positive predictor. This could be explained though the correlation found and the aforementioned that students did select studying nursing and had high average high school scores. The connection between self-efficacy and satisfaction is controversial in the literature. While, some found that self-efficacy is not a significant predictor of academic satisfaction [
One limitation of this study is using convenience sampling in which students with good level of stress management might be more interested to participate than those are who really stressed and lack management skills.
This study found that academic self-efficacy predated academic satisfaction, while academic stress was not. University students suffer moderate levels of academic stress; however, this have not affected their perception of academic self-efficacy. These findings provide nursing educators and counselors at universities with evidence regarding factors that contribute to students’ satisfaction. Faculties and counselors are demanded to enhance their students' self-efficacy and academic performance though appropriate interaction and finding out factors that causing academic distress.. In general, the study showed that university students may need to sharpen their skills to adapt to academic stressors; therefore, faculties and administrators have to give more attention to the personal and social dismissions of education and not merely the academic ones. Further studies need to examine sources of academic stress and testing insertional approaches that enhance academic self-efficacy.
Ethical Approval obtained from The IRB of The University of Jordan. 20/8/2018.
Not applicable.
Informed consent has been obtained from all the participants.
The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.
None.
The authors declare no conflict of interest, financial or otherwise.
Declared none.