An analysis of causal relationships among the factors affecting the academic performance of students at the Alborz University of Medical Sciences

BACKGROUND: University graduates are leaders, great human resources, and responsible for the economic and social development of every country. The present study aimed at evaluating the mediating role of self-efficacy in the relationship between stress and effort-reward imbalance (E.R.I) and the students' academic performance (AP) at the Alborz University of Medical Sciences. MATERIALS AND METHOD: This descriptive-analytical study of the structural equation type was conducted on the 530 students studying at Alborz University of Medical Sciences during 2021-2022. The multistage sampling method was employed, as the faculties were determined in the first stage and random sampling was done in the second stage. The data were collected using the electronic questionnaires of self-efficacy, effort-reward imbalance, and academic stress, entered into SPSS software, and analyzed after checking for normality. Lisrel 8.8 software was used for structural equation modeling (SEM) and assessing the study hypotheses. P value < 0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: The results indicated that the conceptual model had a good model fit index. Academic self-efficacy had a positive and significant causal relationship with academic performance in only one path (beta = 0.25). Academic stress had a significant and negative causal relationship with academic performance from both direct (beta = 0.16) and indirect (through self-efficacy) paths. Further, the agreement of the default model with reality was determined to be 0.76. CONCLUSION: Academic stress reduces academic performance and academic self-efficacy increases academic performance. There is no relationship between effort-reward imbalance and academic performance.