Relaciones entre estrés académico, apoyo social, salud mental y rendimiento académico en estudiantes universitarios venezolanos / Relationships between Academic Stress, Social Support, Mental Health and Academic Performance in Venezuelan University Students

El objetivo de la presente investigación fue evaluar el estrés académico, el apoyo social y su relación con la salud mental y el rendimiento académico en estudiantes universitarios. Trescientos veintiún estudiantes de carreras técnicas en Caracas, Venezuela, diligenciaron, durante el periodo académico de mayor tensión, instrumentos sobre estrés académico, apoyo social y salud mental. Los resultados indican que las condiciones favorables de salud mental están asociadas con un mayor apoyo social y un menor estrés académico. En las mujeres, la mayor intensidad del estrés se asoció al menor apoyo social de los amigos, mientras que en los hombres se relacionó con un menor apoyo social por parte de personas cercanas, y un menor apoyo en general. Ambos presentaron mejor rendimiento cuando el estrés académico percibido fue mayor y el apoyo social de las personas cercanas fue moderado. Los resultados se discuten en función de las implicaciones en la salud mental y el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes universitarios.

The objective of the present study was to evaluate academic stress, social support and their relationships with mental health and academic performance in university students. Three hundred and twenty one students from a technological university in Caracas, Venezuela, responded instruments on academic stress, social support and mental health during the most academically stressful period. The results indicate that favorable conditions of mental health were associated to more social support and less academic stress. In women, higher stress levels were associated to a lesser amount of social support from friends whereas in men stress was related to less social support coming from close people and general social support. Both displayed better performance when perceived higher levels of academic stress and the social support of the near people was moderate. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for academic life and mental health in university students.

Oxygen consumption and other psychophysiological variables during an active coping task / Consumo de oxígeno y otras variables psicofisiológicas durante una taréa de desempeño activa

In an attempt to observe the energy demands during the performance of a mental task, whole body oxygen consumption was measured ehile cubjects solved a series of abstract reasoning problems of different levels of difficulty. Simultaneously, cardiovascular activity and peripheral temperature were recorded. The measurement of oxygen consumption failed to indicated any changes in energy requirement related to information processing; but when subjects were classified according to their oxygen consumption during the initial period, a positive correlation between changes in oxygen consumption and performance with the most difficult tasks was observed. Thus, correlations between body oxygen consumption and cognitive work can be appreciated only with very high levels of task difficulty, and when variations due to "stress" are normalized. Almost all cardiovascular measurements were sensitive to the esperimental task, although none responded diferently when the level of dificulty varied. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) showed the most regular and significant pattern of change. Some specific patterns of physiological reactivity emerged in relation to personality and emotional characteristics of the subjects and to the level of cognitive demand. Of special interes is the opposite correlation found oxygen consumption, and extroversion with tasks of medium difficulty