The effects of stress on adolescents' school engagement

Abstract

Problem: Adolescents experience stress due to physical, cognitive, emotional and sexual development. This descriptive study was conducted to find out whether stress experienced by adolescents affected their school engagement. Methods: The sample was 440 students studying in a high schools in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey between October 2020 and January 2021. The data were collected using the Sociodemographic Information Form, the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ-S) and the School Engagement Scale. Findings: Statistically significant differences were found between adolescents' sociodemographic characteristics and mean scores on the ASQ-S subdimension and total scores (p < 0.05). A strong negative association was found between adolescents' ASQ mean subdimension and total scores and their School Engagement Scale mean subdimension and total scores (p < 0.05). Conclusions: It was found that adolescents' sociodemographic characteristic affected their stress levels and school engagement and that high stress levels experienced by adolescents negatively affected their school engagement.