Influences Of Different Dimensions Of Academic Self-Concept On Students’ Cardiac Recovery After Giving A Stressful Presentation

PURPOSE: Giving a presentation in a seminar is a strenuous academic situation. To meet such a challenge adequately, individuals not only have to activate their mental and physical resources, but they also have to disengage from the task and recover once the challenge has been met. How students experience these situations depends in part on how they recover from the stress, and this has putative impact on their longer-term academic well-being. METHODS: In a sample of 68 university students, the present study investigated the impact of four dimensions of students’ academic self-concept on how efficiently students recovered after a challenging presentation in a university seminar. Recovery was assessed using psychophysiological measures; heart rate and heart rate variability were investigated. Higher levels of students’ social self-concept (self-concept depending on social comparison) were linked to poorer recovery from the challenge, whereas higher levels of absolute self-concept (independent of external criteria) were associated with more efficient recovery. RESULTS: The findings suggest that a focus on one’s own abilities (ie, internal performance standard) is linked to more adaptive patterns of responses to challenging situations, while the focus on social comparisons seems to hamper adaptive coping with academic stress. CONCLUSION: These findings have consequences not only for learning and instruction but also for students’ health and well-being.