Comparing the Effectiveness of Motivational Self-Regulation Strategies and Self-Compassion Training on Academic Stress in High School Male Students with Low Academic Performance: Quasi-Experimental Study

Evidence suggests that academic stress is a significant contributor to student failure. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of teaching self-regulation strategies, motivation, and self-compassion on academic stress among male high school students with low academic achievement.

The research method was a semi-experimental pre-test and post-test design with a control group. Ninety 11th-grade boys from low-performing high schools in Tabriz, Iran, were selected by cluster random sampling and randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The first group received a training course on self-regulating motivational strategies in 10 sessions, the second group underwent 10 sessions of self-compassion training, and the third group (control) continued with their regular classroom programs. The instrument used was Kohn and Frazer's Academic Stress Scale. Data were analyzed using the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) test at a significance level of 0.05.

Data analysis using univariate ANCOVA showed that self-regulation strategies of motivation and self-compassion had different effects on academic stress (P < 0.05 and F = 31.50) and self-compassion training was more effective in reducing stress.

The effectiveness of self-compassion in reducing stress compared to the method of self-regulation strategies of motivation in controlling the sources of academic stress is obvious; therefore, by practicing self-compassion, one can practically reduce the negative effects of stressful factors.