Stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms show predominantly negative associations with academic performance in medical students¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Across included studies, stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms showed predominantly negative associations with academic performance, reported in 67–80% of articles addressing these constructs. → Ríos Andrade Raúl 2026

Evidence¶

Ríos Andrade Raúl 2026¶

Ríos Andrade Raúl, Peralta Ramírez Aziel Alejandro, Trujillo López Sergio. (2026). Psychosocial factors associated with academic performance in medical students: a systematic review. BMC Medical Education. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-026-08742-6

q2 · i? · review · r3

Systematic review of 45 observational studies, most cross-sectional, synthesized under PRISMA 2020 with Newcastle–Ottawa quality assessment. The review reports that "stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms showed predominantly negative associations with academic performance" in 67–80% of relevant articles; no pooled effect size is printed.

"Across studies, stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms showed predominantly negative associations with academic performance (reported in 67–80% of articles addressing these constructs)"

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Academic Anxiety — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Related Claims¶

• Psychological distress, particularly depression, consistently predicted poorer academic outcomes among university students across the reviewed literature — a broader claim this one bears on
• Distress tolerance and intolerance of uncertainty are consistently associated with mental health problems — related
• Internet addiction shows strong comorbidity with depression, anxiety, and stress among health sciences students — related
• Psychosocial factors (social networks, anxiety, depression) do not predict GPA in older learners — reports the opposite