Students’ emotional reactivity to school-related stressors and academic achievement: evidence from cardiac vagal activity

The purpose of this study was to investigate the link between psychophysiological reactivity and school achievement. Specifically, we examined whether basal cardiac vagal tone and changes during an unpleasant emotional event predict academic achievement when controlling for gender and anxiety symptoms. In fifty-seven 7th graders (Mage 12.73, SD=.55) cardiac vagal tone was registered at rest, while watching a video-clip showing a student who is highly distressed because unable to complete a test, and during the recovery phase. Academic achievement was measured using students’ mean grade in the main subjects. Emotional problems were assessed by the “Strengths and Difficulty Questionnaire”. Positive and negative affective scale (PANAS) was used to assess the effectiveness of the video-clip in inducing an unpleasant emotional state. Results showed that students’ baseline cardiac vagal tone as well as their emotional reactivity to the school-related stressor predicted achievement when controlling for gender and emotional problems.