Teenagers who feel better about their lives perform better in NAPLAN, a new study by Australian National University researchers has found.
The study collected data from 3400 year 8 students in the ACT between 2016 and 2018. Students were asked about how often they experienced symptoms of depression and anxiety and about their general sense of wellbeing.
The researchers matched the levels of subjective wellbeing with their NAPLAN scores months later and found that those who self-reported levels of depression performed worse on the test.
ANU Research School of Psychology fellow Dr Diana Cardenas said the study, published in Scientific Reports, was the first to collect data on depression and anxiety without a medical diagnosis.
"What's really unique with this study is that we were able to control for a wide variety of things, including the climate of the school, the socioeconomic status, parents' education, and a lot of demographic characteristics... that may commonly cause both unhappiness and poor academic achievement," Dr Cardenas said.
"It was thanks to machine learning that was conducted in association with a Gradient Institute that we were able to control for a wide variety of factors.
"And despite controlling for a lot of things, including NAPLAN year 7 [results], we found that subjective wellbeing was important for students' academic outcomes."
The study was part of a long partnership with the ACT Education Directorate which aims to gather information on how to improve students' wellbeing and academic achievement.
Dr Cardenas said the results showed that parents and teachers should take a holistic view of a child's education.
"It's not enough for schools to only be focused on the the normal academic outcomes, whether it's NAPLAN or their GPA. For them to fully succeed academically they also need to be in a good head space."
NAPLAN was cancelled in 2020 because of the pandemic but the 2021 scores did not show a significant impact on student achievement in the COVID-19 era.
Dr Cardenas said her team was excited to analyse newer data to quantify how lockdowns and disruptions to everyday life impacted on youth wellbeing.
"The trends that we are seeing around the world is our that COVID has decreased the subjective wellbeing of youth and that is of great concern.
"The question now that we need to ask is: how can schools partner with families [and] partner with the community in order to create the kinds of spaces throughout schools and outside of schools where youth can thrive?"
