Identifying Types of Changes in Elementary School Students’ Perceived Academic Achievement Pressure and its Relation to Psycho-Emotional and Cognitive Characteristics

Abstract

Objectives: This study identified the latent types of changes in academic pressure perceptions among elementary school students in fourth to sixth grade. Additionally, the study investigated the relation between these changes and psycho-emotional and cognitive characteristics.Methods: Data from the 11th-13th waves of the Panel Study of Korean Children (PSKC) were used for preliminary correlation and descriptive analyses in SPSS Windows software version 23. A three-step growth mixture model in Mplus was then employed to uncover differences in psycho-social characteristics associated with perceived academic pressure change types and variations in their cognitive characteristics.Results: Four types of perceived academic achievement pressure changes were identified among elementary school students: low-level steady increase, high-level steady decrease, low-level rapid increase, and high-level rapid decrease. These change types were associated with significant differences in psycho-emotional characteristics, such as academic stress, time use satisfaction, and self-esteem. Additionally, distinctive executive function difficulties were observed between the rapid increase and decrease of academic achievement pressure change types in elementary school students.Conclusion: The study confirmed distinct academic achievement pressure perceptions among elementary school students, emphasizing the roles of psycho-emotional factors (academic stress, time use satisfaction, and self-esteem) and cognitive factors (executive function difficulties) in understanding these variations. The study also discussed implications and proposed directions for future research.