Literature Review:

The number of student athletes increases during high school, as they seek to improve

their quality of life and find out what their skills are to improve their future in sports or

academics. The number of student athletes has increased over the past few years in most parts of

the world. According to the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association), the number of

student-athletes competing in NCAA championship sports in 2021-22 jumped to over 520,000

students participating in the different sports, so it is a high percentage increase from previous

years. The participation of this number of student athletes increased to 30,000 in one year

(NCAA.org. 2022). Each year the number of student athletes from both public and private

schools who choose to play sports to represent their schools increases. At the same time, students

who choose to play a sport must be aware of the discipline that comes with being a student

athlete.

Each year approximately 120,000 students decide to practice a sport and get involved in

one of the different disciplines. According to INDES (Instituto Nacional de los Deportes de El

Salvador).

This number of students that increases every year, suffer from different challenges in

which their school life is involved, as they may have difficulties in balancing their sports and

academic commitment, which may cause them to risking their careers as athletes.

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) requires collegiate athletes to achieve

and maintain a certain grade point average (GPA). Furthermore, they are also often required to

also uphold a certain GPA to maintain an athletic scholarship. The pressure to maintain both high

levels of academic and athletic performance may increase certain problems during that time.
Positive relationship between physical activities and academic performance:

Performing physical activities in an academic context has certain good aspects that are

reflected in the academic performance of students, by practicing a sport the mind is kept more

active and this generates a very visible benefit within the studies according to (De Toda, 2022)

Among the various benefits that neurotransmitters bring to the body, we highlight the ability to

concentrate, memory, learning, quality of sleep and rest, stress regulation and reasoning. This

results in students capable of having a higher level of learning compared to ordinary students

who are not in a sports context. This is possible because physical activities generate production

and release of neurotransmitters that are responsible for these effects within the human body of

which stand out, dopamine which is associated with the feeling of relaxation and cognitive level

regulates functions such as learning and memory, serotonin well known for being the hormone of

happiness and also regulates sleep (a very relevant aspect within the academic performance),

somatomedin C this is a protein that at the moment of being generated occurs something called

Brain-derived neurotrofic factor (BDNF) which is essential for higher reasoning functions

including learning and memory, one way to understand it better is to see BDNF as a fertilizer for

our brain and physical activities increase the level of BDNF, acetylcholine which has as its main

function the improvement of cognitive activities (De Toda, 2022).

A clear benefit is seen in academic performance due to physical activities and it is also

possible to identify in how many subjects there is a greater growth of results within the students'

grades. (Andrades-Suárez et al., 2022) Recent studies indicate that the practice of physical

activities has a positive impact on academic activities. The research consulted mainly shows an

improvement in the subjects of mathematics, language, social studies and reading. Regarding

neurological benefits, there is an improvement in memory and attention in teenagers.

Teenagers who enter high school enter a stage in which they will begin to experience the

many changes of high school life, which will bring several stressors that they must deal with.

Academic performance, social demands, adjusting to life away from home are just some of the

burdens students must face (Humphrey et al., 2000; Paule and Gilson, 2010; Aquilina, 2013). In

addition to the burdens faced by students, there are also student athletes who must dedicate more

time to their athletic activities to improve their skills, high school athletes must spend a

considerable amount of time participating in activities related to their sport, such as attending

practices and training sessions, team meetings, travel, and competitions (Humphrey et al., 2000;

Lopez de Subijana et al., 2015; Davis et al., 2019; Hyatt and Kavazis, 2019).

The biggest challenge for student athletes during the school year is how they are going to

manage their time to be able to perform both activities at a good level. The researchers reported

that during periods of the academic year when perceived academic stress levels were at their

highest, students had problems managing sports practice and study. These stressors were also

associated with a decrease in energy levels and overall sleep quality (Santos et al., 2020b).

Fundamentally, student’s athletes have two major roles they must balance as part of their

commitment: being a college student and an athlete.

Academic stress:

Academic performance is a significant source of stress for most students (Aquilina, 2013; López

de Subijana et al., 2015; de Brandt et al., 2018; Davis et al., 2019). Students often face an

enormous amount of work, composed of numerous assignments, projects, and exams, especially

during evaluation periods. This situation creates stress as they try to complete academic
requirements under tight deadlines. In addition, the pressure to perform well academically plays

a significant influence. Either because of expectations from parents, teachers or self-imposed

expectations, the fear of academic failure intensifies stress. In highly competitive academic

environments, the constant feeling of standing out among peers adds another layer of pressure.

Finally, time management becomes a common challenge, as students must balance classes,

studies and sports activities that generate stress due to the constant lack of time. In addition, the

constant pursuit of perfection and fear of mistakes adds an additional dimension to the stress, as

some students set extremely high standards for themselves. This stress may be further

compounded among athletes based on their need to be successful in the classroom, while

simultaneously excelling in their respective sport (Aquilina, 2013; López de Subijana et al.,

2015; Huml et al., 2016; Hamlin et al., 2019).

Athletic stress:

In addition to the stress generated in the academic setting, student athletes also have to deal with

other stressors in the athletic setting. The athletic environment can expose student athletes to

additional stressors that are specific to their cohort (e.g., sport specific, team sport vs. individual

sport) (Aquilina, 2013). Student athletes have a higher burden than an average student because

they seek to be better in the athletic area and have many obstacles along the way. Every athlete

has different commitments such as different schedules, more activities, and more responsibilities

that they have to deal with on a daily routine in addition to school activities. The accumulation of

all these activities affects the student's academic performance. Time spent on training (e.g.,

physical conditioning and sports practice), competition schedules (e.g., travel time, missing

class), dealing with injuries (e.g., physical therapy/rehabilitation, etc.), sport-specific social

support (e.g., teammates, coaches), and sport-specific social support (e.g., teammates, coaches),
teammates, coaches), and the playing situation (e.g., starting, not starting, being on the bench,

etc.) are just some of the additional challenges student athletes face in relation to their dual roles

as student-athletes (Maloney and McCormick, 1993; Scott et al., 2008; Etzel, 2009; Fogaca,

2019). Every athlete who seeks to be better must train and follow sport regulations which is not

easy and requires a good attention to the sport area and can cause the student athlete to neglect

his or her studies. According to Aquilina (2013), students athletes tend to be more committed to

sports development and may view their academic career as a contingency plan to their athletic

career, rather than a source of personal development. As a result, athletes often, but certainly not

always, prioritize athletic participation over their academic responsibilities (Miller and Kerr,

2002; Cosh and Tully, 2014, 2015).

Effects of stress on academic performance:

It is an undeniable fact that stress is one of the primary factors that significantly impact

students at an academic level, this is defined as academic stress, According to Saqib & Rehman,

(2018) academic stress is the anxiety and tension resulting from schooling and education.

Academic stress can affect negatively or in a positive way because according to Mahavongtrakul

(2019) Stress is correlated with both improved and diminished academic achievement.

Stress is divided in two types of distress and eustress; distress is the bad stress that

students experience, and eustress is the good stress that helps you to improve. According to

Mahavongtrakul (2019b) Eustress (good stress) can drive productivity, creativity, and hope.3 It is

linked to academic achievement and investment in coursework. According to Mahavongtrakul

(2019b) Distress causes anxiety, and lack of investment or interest, and can reduce students’

ability to concentrate. Focusing on bad stress affects students negatively according to Frazier et

al. (2018).
 Stress is the most reported impediment to academic performance among college students.

Some factors happen in the academic area that cause so much stress to students that their

academic performance is affected. According to Saqib (2018), Academic performance is the

educational aim that is achieved by a student, teacher, or institution achieves over a specific time.

So many things take place in the day-to-day activities of the academic processes that make

students stress up. Stress come from different factors, and it affects every single one of factors:

like the increase in academic workload according to Owusu y Essel (2017) An increase in class

workload stresses up students in the sense that when students must do more than they can handle,

they turn to get frustrated and are unable to focus and think straight. The fatigue due to

misunderstandings is another factor, the fatigue can cause the student to lose interest and end up

failing the class.

Difficulty in finding a balance between schoolwork and extracurricular activities, long

hours of studying, etc., is another factor. Some problems that students can face due to stress

during their academic performance according to Mahavongtrakul (2019) too much stress

negatively impacts learning and memory and increases underachievement, dropout rates, and

depression. All these issues can cause students to fail exams, decrease, their notes, get lower

grades, and even fail the grade.

Other massive issue that stress can cause is health problems because stress makes them

worse according to Owusu y Essel (2017) health problems cause a lot of stress, and this stress

turns out to even make the conditions worse. Stress can lead to physical symptoms including

headaches, upset stomach, elevated blood pressure, chest pain, and problems sleeping.

All these problems can make the student's situation more difficult by causing them to

have difficulty achieving an average grade and to experience severe fatigue. Stress causes
students to become lazy and to have problems with cognitive thinking when they don’t the

enough number of breaks or vacation according to Owusu y Essel (2017) In a situation where

students must be in the learning and teaching environ- ments for long period of times affects the

cognitive thinking of the students. They became tired and lazy to continue the studies. These

feelings, in the long run, makes the students stressed up since the body does not have enough

energy and zeal to continue with the teaching and learning process.

Another big issue students experience due to stress is the lack of concentration affecting

their performance during lectures, homework, tests, readings even exams as a result bad grades

according to Owusu y Essel (2017) there have been studies conducted that prove that stress

interferes with a student's ability to concentrate. Stress reduces the productivity in students

because according to Owusu y Essel (2017) When students are stressed up, they turn not to give

their maximum best when doing schoolwork and as a result, it manifests in the outputs they bring

which are seen in the grades. This can affect the student’s future over a long period of time

because of having constantly bad grades they can end up failing.