The installation of apathy and sadness in our mood can have consequences in other areas of our lives, affecting several different areas, today we will talk about depression and academic performance and, more specifically, we will focus on understanding the relationship between these two. Variables.
The truth is that we all feel that our minds evaporated at some point, this common fact is often accompanied by a certain social apathy, with fewer and fewer boosters, it is in this context that we will analyze the relationship between depression and academic performance.
- Academic performance is a measure of performance that can be expressed in an absolute or relative way.
- On the other hand.
- The evaluation of this performance will not depend solely on the person who performs it.
One of the variables that would have to do intrinsically with the person would be intelligence, but when we talk about intelligence we do not refer only to intellectual intelligence, psychologists like Howard Gardner defend the existence of different intelligences, for example: the naturalist, the intellectual, the interpersonal, the emotional, among others.
On the other hand, academic performance is used to express a person’s performance in a specific field: academic. In some cases, the information is evaluated based on the outcome of a final evaluation; In others, it is evaluated from time to time; in others, behavior is included in the evaluation, etc. Each location will determine the criteria for determining a student’s performance. Despite this, it is also possible to evaluate work, coordination, orientation, etc.
Depression is precisely defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Major depression is when five or more of the following symptoms are present, for at least two weeks, which represents a person’s loss of accommodation. Also, at least one of the symptoms. It must be that the person is in a depressive state or with loss of interest or pleasure. Let’s look at the symptoms:
These aspects can be determined on the basis of subjective information or observation of others, in addition, symptoms cause clinically significant discomfort and interfere with important areas of functioning.
On the other hand, this episode cannot be attributed to the consumption of any substance, the condition of the person cannot be better explained by a schizoafective disorder, schizophrenia, schizophrenic disorder, delusional disorder or other specified schizophrenic disorder or not and other psychotic disorders. Besides, there should never have been a manic or hypomaniacal episode.
There are other depression-related disorders that share some of the symptoms mentioned above; However, in this article we will focus on major depressive disorder.
Major depression has a profound impact on the person, an impact that is also transmitted to academic performance, however, it will have a greater or lesser influence depending on the circumstances, let’s briefly see the link:
However, it is necessary to clarify that academic performance may be affected by changes in different variables, not just depression, so we could not attribute low academic performance exclusively to depression, of course, different factors may appear or others may be added.
So when we talk about the link between depression and academic performance, we’re talking about a two-way relationship: depression can affect academic performance and perception of academic performance can lead, along with other factors or not, to greater depression.
Although there is not always a relationship, there is the possibility, in fact, there is a lot of research showing the association between depression and poor academic performance, for example, that of Franco Mejoa, Gutierrez Agudelo and Perea, in his article for Psychogent Magazine. , in which a statistically significant relationship between depression and poor or regular academic outcomes was observed among business students at a public university in Santa Marta, Colombia.
In order to properly manage depression, the participation of different actors is important. See:
If you experience the symptoms described above and realize that this affects your academic performance and other areas of your life, seek help (from a psychologist or psychiatrist). On the other hand, we are often tempted to face more challenges than we can overcome. as well as taking on more responsibilities than we can assume. Moreover, depression is not typical of people of a weak or unbalanced nature, it says nothing about the person, but about what happens to him in a certain period of time and in certain circumstances.