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The Role of Resilience, Delayed Gratification and Stress in Predicting Academic Performance Vivienne Cheng & Jonathan Catling

The Role of Resilience, Delayed Gratification and Stress in Predicting Academic Performance Vivienne Cheng & Jonathan Catling

The role of resilience, delayed and stress in predicting academic performance Vivienne Cheng & Jonathan Catling

Transition to university is an important and potentially stressful life event for students. Previous studies have shown that resilience, delay of gratification and stress can the academic performance of students. However, none have shown the effect of these factors in predicting academic performance, hence the current study aimed to look at the predictive power of the combined effect of these factors on first-year undergraduate student’s academic performance. One-hundred-and-seventy-six first-year undergraduates from the University of Birmingham were recruited. All participants completed five scales (Demographic questionnaire, CD-RISC-25, Perceived Stress scale, College Students’ Stressful Event Checklist, and Academic Delay of Gratification scale). Linear Multiple Regression was conducted using the Stepwise method to assess for predictors of students’ academic performance. Results indicated that UCAS scores (previous academic performance) were the only significant predictor for first-years’ academic performance. Keywords: Academic performance.

TTENDING UNIVERSITY is becoming Penny and Armstrong-Hallam (2010) a more and more common event: the conducted a survey assessing the relation - A UK tertiary education enrolment ship between students’ stress- strategy ratio rose from 19 per cent in 1980 to 60 per and academic performance. They found that cent in 2011 (The World Bank, 2013). students with poor academic performance, Obtaining a place at university is increasingly (thus experiencing high academic pres - more competitive; 583,501 applicants sure), were more likely to binge drink. competed for about 400,000 degree courses Students with poor academic performance places in 2011 (UCAS, 2012). Moreover, reported that they perceived drinking as an getting into university may be considered an effective stress-coping strategy, as it allowed important but potentially stressful life event them to be pressure-free. Moreover, they for students (Fisher & Hood, 1987), and may found that students who used drinking as even potentially lead to an increase in the their stress-coping strategy were less capable vulnerability of students in developing in delaying gratification. Students drank mental illness – Topham and Moller (2011) whenever they felt stressed and enjoyed the found that about 25 per cent of the univer - of being pressure-free, rather than sity students in UK reported they had quasi- dealing with the cause of high academic clinical levels of psychological distress. There stress; over 20 per cent of them skipped class is also an observed increasing suicide rate the day after drinking, hence they continued among full-time higher education students; to have poor academic performance. suicides grew by 47 per cent for female These studies demonstrated the impor - students and 36 per cent for males between tance of resilience, delay of gratification and 2007 and 2011 (Office for National Statistics, stress in affecting students’ well-being and 2013). This not only indicates potential high academic performance. A number of other stress level in students, but also implies that studies suggest that these factors also influ - students may have low resilience in coping ence future success (e.g. Harackiewicz et al., with academic stress and large changes. 2002; McLafferty, Mallet & McCauley, 2012;

Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 21 No. 1, Spring 2015 13 © The British Psychological Society Vivienne Cheng & Jonathan Catling

Wiggins & Blackburn, 1969). However, none groups (which are examples of risk factors have demonstrated the combined effect of for low resilience), also had a higher risk of these factors, thus the present study aimed to academic failure. However, this varies address this issue and assess the role of these between individuals, as minority children factors on academic performance. with higher self-efficacy, self-esteem and strong interpersonal skills (which act as Resilience protective factors for resilience), may still Resilience describes a process whereby have outstanding achievements (Wang, people bounce back from adversity and go Haertel & Walberg, 1994). Borman and on with their lives. It is a dynamic process Overman (2004) also found that minority highly influenced by protective factors, students, who were equipped with protective (Dyer, 1996). Protective factors have been factors, (such as school support, a greater defined as the specific competencies that are engagement in academic activities and a necessary for the process of resilience to strong locus of control), achieved good occur. The defining feature of a protective mathematic scores. Gonzalez and Padilla factor is a modification or adaptation of the (1997) demonstrated that not only did a person's response to a risk situation. supportive school environment protect A number of factors have been identified as students’ performance from the influence of having important roles in facilitating positive the risk factors of resilience, but family and adaptation. Werner (1989) clustered protec - peer support also had the same protective tive factors into three major categories: effect for resilience; they were positively (a) personal attributes of the individual, for correlated with resilience and were signifi - example, gender and locus of control; cant predictors of resilience. This suggested (b) affectional ties within the family; and a strong correlation between resilience and (c) existence of external support systems academic performance in students, and it is which arise at school or within the commu - possible that resilience is a significant predic - nity (Smokowskia, Reynoldsa & Bezruczko, tor of students’ academic performance. 1999). Alternatively, resilience has been defined Psychosocial and demographic factors as the ability to cope with and adapt to adver - Previous research has shown that psycho- sity and changes (Reich, Zautra & Hall, social and demographic factors are 2010); this may buffer people from the effect correlated significantly with academic of stress (McLafferty et al., 2012), thus performance. For example, social supports suggesting a possible relationship between have a direct impact on academic perform - resilience and stress. Petrie (2010) found a ance, specifically peer and parental support significant negative correlation between (Dennis, Phinney & Chuateco, 1996). More - perceived stress score and resilience score in over, Catling, Mason and Jones (2013) adolescents with cystic fibrosis: the higher conducted a study with Psychology under - the resilience level, the lower the perceived graduate students to find the predictors for stress level. Frigborg et al. (2006) also found academic performance using multiple similar result, with individuals with high regression. They found that peer support was resilience score reporting less stress, imply - a significant predictor for academic success. ing a protective effect of resilience against There is also an observed gender differ - stress. Resilience is a multi-dimensional ence in the relationship between resilience concept; previous studies have found multi - and academic performance. Sun and Stewart ple protective and risk factors for resilience (2007) reported that female participants and that resilience affects academic success – showed higher resilience than males, as well Natriello, McDill and Pallas (1990) found as performing better academically. Further - that children from poverty and minority more, parents’ education levels affect

14 Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 21 No. 1, Spring 2015 The role of resilience, and stress in predicting academic performance students’ (Buch - final grades, test , and learning strate - mann & DiPrete, 2006); they found that a gies. Moreover ADOG was associated with mother’s education level had a significant self-efficacy, high task value and intrinsic and impact on their daughter’s academic extrinsic motivation. All these factors were achievement. Further studies found that also significantly correlated with academic students’ previous academic attainment, that success (Bembenutty & Karabenick, 2004). is, high school grades, was another signifi - cant predictor of current and future Stress academic performance (Harackiewicz et al., Stress is defined as a psychological 2002). Hackett et al. (1992) demonstrated state that results from excess demand over that not only was past academic perform - our adapting ability (Sanders & Lustington, ance a predictor for academic performance, 2002). Stress can be measured by perceived but also that performance expectations, stress and life event stress. Both measures are clear career prospective and encouragement significant indicators for stress and have from school predicted academic success influential effects on performance. Lloyd et significantly. Additionally, it should be noted al. (1980) found that life event stress – that age is significantly correlated with including first semester of university life, was resilience and academic performance negatively correlated with the academic (Abubakar & Adegboyega, 2012): resilience performance of first and second year levels increase as students age, and thus they students. They also suggested life events as develop better skills in performing well the predictor of academic performance; this (Fergus & Zimmerman, 2005). was especially effective for predicting academic performance if the detrimental Delay of gratification life events happened within 12 months Delay of gratification is defined as the ability before the academic assessments. Moreover, to omit an immediately available reward to stress is negatively correlated with academic satisfy current impulses in favour of pursuing performance before and after students the remote yet important goal (Bembenutty attend university (Stewart et al., 1999). The & Karabenick, 1998). It is an essential concept of stress in relation to performance element for social-cognitive development, is best captured by the Yerkes-Dodson law which affects individual’s future achieve - (Yerkes & Dodson, 1908). It suggests that ment. Mischel, Ebbesen and Zeiss (1972) moderate stress can facilitate one’s perform - found that the longer a child can delay their ance. However, not only gratification, the higher chance of future undermines our ability to perform well success. This process is strongly correlated (high academic stress is correlated strongly with academic performance; Mischel, Shoda with lower grades; Gillock & Reyes, 1999; and Rodriguez (1989) found that children Struthers, Perry & Menec, 2000), but also who delayed their gratification for longer causes us to be ill, both physically, weakening obtained higher SAT scores when they were our immune system, (Kiecolt-Glaser & in their teens. Additionally, Mischel, Shoda Glaser, 2002) and psychologically, general and Peake (1988) found that 4- and 5-year- adaption syndrome (Selye, 1956). olds who were able to wait longer became More importantly, the study conducted by more socially and academically competent Mischel et al. (1988) suggested that there was adolescents, as rated by their parents. a correlation between stress, resilience and Mischel et al. also found that delay in gratifi - delay of gratification: stress is negatively corre - cation in university students in academic lated with resilience and delay of gratification. settings, specifically Academic delay of grati - They found that children who delayed their fication (ADOG) was found to be correlated gratification for longer would later develop with study time, help seeking, expected and higher resilience in coping with stress and

Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 21 No. 1, Spring 2015 15 Vivienne Cheng & Jonathan Catling in life. This highlighted the possi - occurs’. The score ranges between 0=not bility of stress, resilience and delay of gratifi - true at all, 1=rarely true, 2=sometimes true, cation being predictors of students’ academic 3=often true and 4=true nearly all the time. performance, and the potential to offer guid - The final score of the scale ranged from 0 to ance to universities in identifying those who 100: the higher the score, the greater the are in need, and maximise students’ ability to resilience. CD-RISC-25 has high internal strive for future success. Therefore, based on consistency reliability of Cronbach’s alpha the existing evidence, within the present ranging from 0.78 to 0.91. It also has a strong study we would expect to observe that stress, test-retest reliability ( r=.78 to .88; Khoshouei, resilience and delayed gratification would 2009). predict academic performance, and that the combined effect of stress, delay of gratifica - Perceived stress scale (PSS) tion, resilience and demographics variables This PSS consists of 14 items regarding feel - would provide a stronger prediction than ings and thoughts of last month, rating on a when they are predicting academic perform - five-point Likert scale (ranging from ance individually. 0=never, 1=almost never, 2=sometimes, 3=fairly often and 4=very often). An example Method of the items is ‘In the last month, how often Participants have you felt nervous and stressed?’ Items 4, One-hundred-and-seventy-six first year 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 and 13 are reversed: the scores Psychology undergraduates (161 females are rated in the opposite direction, for exam - and 15 males, age range=17 to 37, Mage =18.5, ple, ‘In the last month, how often have you SD =1.59) (ethnicity – White: 152, 86 per dealt with irritating life hassles?’ The inter - cent; Asian: 11, 6 per cent; Chinese: 8, 5 per nal consistency of this scale is high (Cron - cent; Mixed: 4, 2 per cent and other: 1, 1 per bach’s alpha=.84; Cohen, Kamarck & cent) were recruited from the Research Mermelstein, 1983) and it showed conver - Participation System (RPS) in the University gent validity: highly correlated with the of Birmingham. subscale of DASS-21 for stress (Andreou et al., 2011). Measures Demographics questionnaire Academic delay of gratification scale (ADOGS) Participants were assessed for their age, This scale is a 10-item scale which is designed gender, ethnicity, first language, number of to measure the delay of gratification in siblings, parents’ education level and profes - University students (Bembenutty & sion: inferred economic status, their profes - Karabenick, 1998). Each item consists of one sion and UCAS scores (previous academic immediately available option and one performance). Moreover a four-point-scale delayed alternative. For example, (A) miss for measuring expectation of first semester several classes to accept an invitation for a performance, support from peers, family very interesting trip, or (B) delay going on and school was included, in order to remove the trip until the course is over. Participants the effect of these confounding variables on respond by choosing on a four-point Likert stress, delay of gratification and resilience. scale, namely, Definitely choose A, Probably choose A, Probably choose B and Definitely Connor-Davidson resilience scale 25 choose B. The response of each item is (CD-RISC-25) coded by the score range from 1 to 4, with This is a 25 items self-rating scale. Partici - the scoring for item 2, 7 and 10 reversed. pants rate according to how much the state - A high score indicates the student can delay ment applied to them over the last month, gratification for longer. . This scale has an such as, ‘I am able to adapt when changes acceptable Cronbach’s alpha of 0.77, indicat -

16 Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 21 No. 1, Spring 2015 The role of resilience, delayed gratification and stress in predicting academic performance ing good internal consistency reliability. It Unsurprisingly, the results also showed a also has high construct validity that it is significant positive correlation between a strongly correlated with self-regulation father’s education level and his profession (Bembenutty & Karabenick, 1998). (r(176)=.40, p<.001), and a significant corre - lation between a mother’s education level College student’s stressful event checklist and her profession ( r=(176)=.33, p<.001). College student’s stressful event checklist Moreover, perceived stress scores was nega - (Holmes & Rahe, 1967) consists of 32 stress - tively correlated with CD-RISC-25 scores ful life events but only 31 were used, as one (r=(176)= –.57, p<.001), hence the higher of the items, ‘having to repeat a course’, is students’ perceived stress, the lower their not applicable to participants in this study. resilience (see Appendix 1 for all correla - Participants complete by indicating an X if tions). that event has occurred in their life or they Linear multiple regression analysis was are expecting it to happen soon within this conducted, using the Stepwise method. Age, year. The higher the score, the more stressed parents’ education and profession level, the person is and higher chance of illness in UCAS scores, resilience scores, ADOG the coming year. Above 300 indicates severe scores, perceived stress and life event stress stress, 150 to 300 indicates moderate stress scores were entered into the regression and less than 150 indicates mild stress. It analysis as the predictor variables for predict - showed predictive validity for stress-related ing students’ academic performance. The illnesses (Bieliauskas & Webb, 1974), and results showed a significant model of predic - high test-retest reliability ( r=.71; Horowitz et tion ( F(1,160)=6.51, p=.012), however, UCAS al., 1977). score was the only significant predictor of academic performance of first-year under - Procedure and design graduate students ( t=2.2, p=.012). Participants signed up voluntarily through the Research Participation Scheme (RPS) Discussion system within weeks three to eight of the first Although it is surprising that the findings term. Their responses were kept anonymous from the present study did not support any as they were only identified by their RPS of our expectations: resilience, delay of grat - numbers. RPS credits were given upon ification and stress (perceived stress and life completion of the five questionnaires. At the event stress) as a significant predictor for end of the academic year individual average students’ academic performance, there are academic performance scores were taken for other studies which support this finding – each participating student. Elizondo-Omana et al. (2010) conducted a study on resilience and academic perform - Results ance of first-year college students who were Due to the missing data, out of the 176 data either taking the course for the first time or points, only 162 were analysed. A Pearson who had failed the course and were retaking. Correlation coefficient test was conducted They found that there were no significant with Bonferroni correction ( p<0.001; due to associations between students’ grades and the large number of independent variables). resilience levels, and resilience did not There were five positive correlations: predict students’ academic performance. between the mother’s and father’s educa - Li (2005) assessed the self-regulated learn - tional levels ( r(176)=.46, p<.001), indicating ing of middle school students and found that that parents have similar education levels, academic delay of gratification predicted and between age and life events ( r(176)=.29, metacognitive strategies but not the p<.001), indicating that as one gets older academic achievement of students. Further - they encounter more stressful life events). more, Zajacova, Lynch and Espenshade

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(2005) assessed disadvantaged college first- Challenge Model of Resilience (Fergus & years’ self-efficacy and stress level. They Zimmerman, 2005), which suggests that indi - found that although both were significant viduals will face more adversities as they age. predictors for academic performance, the With continued exposure to adversities and predictive power of stress for academic the successful overcoming of them, a better performance was not as strong or consistent stress-coping strategy can be developed, thus as that of self-efficacy. Hence the relation - potentially reducing the impact of stress on ship between these factors and academic performance. However, the findings showed performance may not be as robust as previ - the opposite: life event stress increases as ous studies have suggested. they age, which may suggest that participants Despite the non-significant finding of were lacking an adequate stress-coping resilience, stress and delay of gratification as strategy. predictors for academic performance, the The negative correlation between present study showed UCAS score was the resilience and perceived stress illustrated significant predictor for students’ academic what is captured in the definition of performance and found some significant resilience. Moreover, there was supportive correlations which were consistent with the evidence for this finding: Petrie (2010) and findings of previous studies. UCAS scores Frigborg et al. (2006) both conducted a can be seen as participants’ previous correlational study and found negative academic performance, which significantly correlation between perceived stress and predicted academic performance: the resilience; the higher the resilience level, the higher the previous academic grades, the lower the stress level. This suggested that better the current academic performance. resilience acts as a buffer against stress, and This finding was supported by various is important for individuals’ mental well- studies: Harackiewicz et al. (2002) and Hack - being. ett et al. (1992) both found prior academic There have been observed gender differ - achievement was correlated with academic ences in resilience and stress levels – Stroud, performance, thus was a significant predic - Salovey and Epel (2002) recruited 24 men tor of academic achievement. However, and 26 women, and found that men showed UCAS scores may not have the same level of higher cortisol level – a biological indication predictability as previous studies have of stress, to academic challenges than suggested, as it only accounted for a small females. This is also supported by Sun and variation of academic performance in this Stewart’s study (2007), who used 1164 study. Despite its small predictive power, female and 1109 male students, and found UCAS score only correlated with academic that girls reported more protective factors of performance, implying that students who resilience than boys, that is, higher level of performed well in the past will continue to communication, , help-seeking and perform well in the future, and remain unaf - future aspiration. Therefore, females were fected by demographic and psychosocial less likely to experience high levels of stress, factors. It is also possible that students who compared to boys. Moreover they found that performed well have developed better study girls were more resilient than boys, confirm - and examination skills from previous ing the lower stress level of females. There - successful experience, so continued to fore this may provide an explanation for the perform well. Abbott-Chapman, Hughes and current findings: more female than male Wyld (1992) showed supportive evidence for participants were recruited (due to a nine-to- the interpretation that learning skills was an one gender ratio within our cohort), ampli - influential factor for academic success. fying these differences, thus the result Life event stress was positively correlated showed a significant correlation between with age. This may be explained by the stress and resilience.

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However, Sarwar et al. (2010) found a academic performance (Plant et al., 2005). result opposing this explanation, in that they Moreover previous studies which found recruited 75 female and 52 male students in ADOG as a significant predictor for testing for the relationship between academic performance have also taken resilience and academic performance, and learning strategy into account (Bembenutty found that there was no relationship & Karabenick, 2004), which may explain why between resilience and academic perform - delay of gratification did not predict ance, and males were more resilient than academic performance. Hence future females. This opposing evidence could be studies might measure learning strategy as a explained by cultural differences: Sarwar et variable in order to capture its potential al. (2010) used participants from Pakistan, effect on delay of gratification. which is a male-dominant society, and thus Based on the current findings, it is possi - females might in some cases be viewed as the ble to suggest that universities can use UCAS weaker sex and, therefore, be well protected scores to anticipate students’ academic and hence have a lower resilience than men performance and identify the potential low (Siegmann, 2010). However, previous achievers, thus providing adequate academic studies did not show a consistent pattern of support for them. One possible intervention the effect of gender on resilience and stress, that could be suggested to universities is that and therefore their effects on academic they could hold workshops for stress performance. Hence future studies could management skills, in order to equip use gender as a categorical factor and run a students with adequate stress coping strate - logistic regression between resilience, stress gies in overcoming stress, hence enhance and academic performance in order to students’ resilience level and consequently justify this explanation. raising student’s academic performance. There were also gender differences in using past academic performance in predict - The Authors ing future academic achievement. Power, Vivienne Cheng Robertson and Baker (1987) found that School of Psychology, females outperformed male students when University of Birmingham. they were at university, even if both female and male secondary students had the same Dr Jonathan Catling university entry grades, hence the result of School of Psychology, UCAS scores as a significant predictor University of Birmingham. should be interpret with caution. There may be individual differences in Correspondence the use of learning strategies; the ability to Dr Jonathan Catling delay gratification and continue to study for University of Birmingham. long hours may not be suitable for everyone, Email: [email protected] hence it did not guarantee outstanding

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Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 21 No. 1, Spring 2015 21 Vivienne Cheng & Jonathan Catling . e c n a m r o f r e p

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22 Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 21 No. 1, Spring 2015 The role of resilience, delayed gratification and stress in predicting academic performance

Appendix 2: Demographic Questionnaires. 1. Your age: ...... 2. Gender: Male n Female n 3. What is your ethnic group? (a) White n (b) Mixed n (c) Asian n (d) Black n (e) Chinese n (f) Other ethnic group (please state): ...... 4. Please select the following which best suit your identity. (a) Home student n (b) EU student n (c) International student n 5. Please state your first language: ...... 6. How many numbers of siblings do you have? ...... 7a. Please state your father’s education level (a) Primary school n (b) GCSE n (c) A-level n (d) Degree n (e) Above degree n 7b. Please state your mother’s education level (a) Primary school n (b) GCSE n (c) A-level n (d) Degree n (e) Above degree n 8a. Please state your father’s profession (if applicable): ...... 8b. Please state your mother’s profession (if applicable): ...... 8c. Please state your current or most recent profession (if applicable): ...... 9. What is your current residential status? (a) Halls (city campus) n (b) Other local student accommodation n (c) With parents (house/ apartment) n (d) With partner or spouse (house/ apartment) n (e) Alone (house/apartment) n (f) With friends (house/apartment) n (g) Other (please specify): n 10. What was the total from your UCAS points (if applicable)? ......

Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 21 No. 1, Spring 2015 23 Vivienne Cheng & Jonathan Catling

11. Please list the A-levels you have obtained with grades (if applicable): e.g. Accounting, Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Design, Biology, Business studies, Chemistry, Chinese, Computing, Critical Thinking, Dance, Drama, Design & Technology, Economics, English Language, English Literature, Environmental Studies, French, General Studies, Geography, Geology, German, Greek, Government and Politics, History, Italian, Law, Mathematics, Music, Philosophy, Physical Education, Physics, Psychology, Religious Studies, Sociology, Spanish ...... 12. Please list the A/S levels you have obtained with grades: e.g. Accounting, Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Design, Biology, Business studies, Chemistry, Chinese, Computing, Critical Thinking, Dance, Drama, Design & Technology, Economics, English Language, English Literature, Environmental Studies, French, General Studies, Geography, Geology, German, Greek, Government and Politics, History, Italian, Law, Mathematics, Music, Philosophy, Physical Education, Physics, Psychology, Religious Studies, Sociology, Spanish ...... 13. Please state any other academic qualifications: e.g. ESOL, BTEC courses, Foundation Learning, Cambridge Nationals, IELTS, SAT, LCCI ...... 14. Overall, did you obtain the grades you anticipated you would receive? Yes n No n 15. How well do you think you will perform in your first semester? (Please rate on a four-point scale 1=poor, 4=excellent) ...... 16a. How much peer support you have received when you face challenges? (Please rate on a four-point scale; 1=poor, 4=excellent) ...... 16b. How much family support you have received when you face challenges? (Please rate on a four-point scale; 1=poor, 4=excellent) ...... 16c. How much support you have received from the school when you face challenges? (Please rate on a four-point scale; 1=poor, 4=excellent) ...... 17. Do you to study psychology at a postgraduate level? Yes n No n Unsure n If yes please provide details: ...... 18a. Have you joined or intend to join any clubs or societies at the university? Yes n No n (If No, then move to 18b) Please specify: ...... 18b. If not do you intend to. Please specify: ......

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