Psychosocial factors predicting academic performance of first-year college nursing students in the Western Cape, South Africa

Abstract

Academic performance of students is influenced by a combination of several psychosocial factors which include seeking academic help, use of various sources for academic learning, extent of the student seeking academic help, seeing academic help-seeking as a threat to self-esteem, interest in a subject, self-motivation and stress related to academic workload. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate psychosocial factors predicting the academic performance of first-year college nursing students, using a quantitative research method with a descriptive survey design. The population for this study was all first-year nursing students registered at a college of nursing in 2019. An inclusive sampling technique was used to include all 171 members of the student population in the study.