School-related stress in mainstream classrooms: Longitudinal comparisons between low-achieving students, students with behavioural difficulties, comorbid difficulties and their peers

In mainstream classrooms, students are frequently confronted with achievement expectations. Some students might struggle in meeting these expectations for different reasons. A mismatch between expectations and expected outcomes might be appraised as school-related stress. The appraisal of stressors varies between individuals and groups. Students with low academic achievement and behaviour difficulties in schools are possibly at risk of experiencing increased levels of stress. Nevertheless, only a few and inconsistent study results are available on differences between the experiences of stress of these subgroups of students. As inclusive education aims to support students’ mental health, it is important to examine the school-related stress perception of students with (comorbid) learning and behavioural difficulties. Therefore, longitudinal self-reports of N = 619 students were analysed using linear mixed-effects models. The results highlight an increase in the stress levels over the course of 1 year as well as significant differences between subgroups with and students without these difficulties. Significant proportions of variance are explained by class affiliation. These findings indicate the need to support students’ perception that they can adequately cope with the demands of school. This is particularly the case for students with low academic achievement and behaviour difficulties.