Attaining Optimal Academic and Emotional Well-Being in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate: The Role of Students' Stress, Coping, and Engagement

• In Event: 16.058 - The Impact of Academic Workload on Students' Stress and Well-Being in Rigorous College Prep Programs

Abstract

More high school students are enrolling in AP and IB classes and programs than in previous decades, and there is a simultaneous increase in the socio-economic, linguistic, and academic diversity among AP/IB students (Handwerk, Tognatta, Coley & Gitomer, 2008; McKillip & Mackey, 2013). Completion of accelerated courses was once considered the primary indicator of student success (Adelman, 2006), but end-of-course AP or IB exam performance has become a more accurate indicator of student success (Ackerman, Kanfer & Calderwood, 2013). Alternatively, assessment of success through solely academic indicators may be too narrow; students’ quality of life and mental health are additional and important indicators that need to be part of a holistic definition of student success. This expansion of the definition of success is due, in part, to the recognition that AP and IB students report significantly higher levels of academic stress than students in general education (Suldo & Shaunessy-Dedrick, 2013b; Suldo, Shaunessy, Thalji, Michalowski & Shaffer, 2009).

Based on a broader conceptualization of the definition of student success in AP and IB, we sought to empirically identify malleable factors within students and within their environments associated with academic performance and mental health among AP and IB programs. In addition to identifying bivariate correlates, we examined the significant intrapersonal and environmental predictors of student success after controlling for students’ baseline academic skills and rigor, demographic features, and levels of stress stemming from academic demands, parent-child conflict, economic concerns, etc.

The dataset collected and analyzed for this study featured a large sample of 2,379 AP and IB students in grades 9 – 12, purposely sampled from 20 academic programs in five diverse districts. Further, a multimethod, multisource approach to data collection yielded psychometrically sound variables of a wide range of constructs relevant to high school students’ success (see Table 11). Several predictors that emerged as promotive factors are arguably malleable and proximal to students’ personal control, including their approaches to coping with academic demands, perceptions of eustress, motivation to achieve, as well as affective, cognitive, and behavioral forms of school engagement.

In this presentation, we will explore factors that predicted student mental health outcomes and those that predicted academic outcomes, as well as those serving dual roles or those found to be unrelated to these outcomes (see Tables 12 – 14). Taken together, these findings with AP/IB students add to the literature that demonstrates that academic success in high school (Casillas et al., 2012; Wang & Sheikh-Khalil, 2014) and college (Krumrei-Mancuso, Newton, Kim & Wilcox, 2013; Richardson, Abraham & Bond 2012; Robbins, Allen, Casillas, Peterson & Le, 2006) is predicted by a combination of prior academic achievement, demographic, psychosocial (e.g., motivation, behaviors that reflect student engagement, support and connectedness to school, parenting practices), and school context factors.

Authors

• Elizabeth Shaunessy-Dedrick, University of South Florida

• Shannon M. Suldo, University of South Florida

• John M. Ferron, University of South Florida

• Robert F. Dedrick, University of South Florida