Academic Stress and Students’ Self-Efficacy: An Analytical Study of Correlation and Predictors in Secondary Schools of Quetta

Abstract

This study examines the relationships between different sources of academic stress and self-efficacy and its dimensions (academic, social, emotional) among students in government and private secondary schools in Quetta, Balochistan. This quantitative study was based on a positivist philosophy and a cross-sectional correlational-predictive survey design, adopting the Transactional Model and Social-Cognitive Theory. A representative sample of students was obtained in equal numbers from government and private secondary schools through stratified and systematic random sampling. The results revealed that psychological, social, and teacher-related stress were consistently negatively interconnected with all three dimensions of self-efficacy. In contrast, infrastructure and exam-related stress surprisingly showed positive correlations. However, regression analysis revealed that overall academic stress did not considerably predict self-efficacy. This research finds a multifaceted association between variables: academic stress and self-efficacy. Thus, because psychological, social, and teacher-related stress most negatively affect self-efficacy, the study recommends that schools deploy trained counselling staff and train teachers to adopt positive, supportive attitudes toward students. Furthermore, future research and intervention strategies should focus on specific sources of stress rather than overall stress to improve psychological well-being and students' self-efficacy.