The Effect of Studying a Double Degree in the Psychophysiological Stress Response in the Bachelor’s Thesis Defense

Ana Ramírez-Adrados, Valentín E. Fernández-Elías, Silvia Fernández-Martínez, Beatriz Martínez-Pascual, Cristina Gonzalez- de-Ramos and Vicente Javier Clemente-Suárez
Additional contact information
Ana Ramírez-Adrados: Faculty of Sport Sciences, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Villaviciosa de Odón, 28670 Madrid, Spain
Valentín E. Fernández-Elías: Faculty of Sport Sciences, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Villaviciosa de Odón, 28670 Madrid, Spain
Silvia Fernández-Martínez: Faculty of Sport Sciences, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Villaviciosa de Odón, 28670 Madrid, Spain
Beatriz Martínez-Pascual: Faculty of Sport Sciences, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Villaviciosa de Odón, 28670 Madrid, Spain
Cristina Gonzalez- de-Ramos: Faculty of Sport Sciences, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Villaviciosa de Odón, 28670 Madrid, Spain
Vicente Javier Clemente-Suárez: Faculty of Sport Sciences, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Villaviciosa de Odón, 28670 Madrid, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 3, 1-11

Abstract: The aim of this research was to analyze the effect of studying a single or double degree in the psychophysiological stress response and academic performance of university students in their bachelor’s thesis defense. We analyzed the autonomic stress response, cortical arousal, subjective distress perception, and the sense of objective and subjective academic fulfilment of 84 single-degree physiotherapy students and 26 double-degree sport sciences and physiotherapy students during their bachelor’s thesis defense. The results showed that the bachelor’s thesis defense was a stressful event for double-degree students, showing an activation of the sympathetic nervous system and presenting a higher autonomic habituation response for the double degree students compared to the single degree students. We found higher mean grades during the whole degree and higher grades in the written and oral bachelor’s thesis academic achievements for single-degree students compared to double-degree students. No significant differences were found between single-degree and double-degree students in subjective distress perception and cortical arousal. No correlation was found between academic performance variables and subjective distress perception, cortical arousal, and autonomic modulation variables. We conclude that the bachelor’s thesis defense produces a large anticipatory anxiety response in single-degree physiotherapy students and in double-degree sport sciences and physiotherapy students. Double-degree students showed higher levels of habituation and adaptability to the stressful event, with a better autonomic response. Academic achievements were significantly higher among single-degree students compared to the double-degree group.

Keywords: double degree; autonomic modulation; heart rate variability; stress; university; physiotherapy academic achievement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/3/1207/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/3/1207/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:3:p:1207-:d:730641

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().