Daily stressors in school-age children: A multilevel approach

Abstract

This study uses hierarchical or multilevel modeling to identify variables that contribute to daily stressors in a population of schoolchildren. Four hierarchical levels with several predictive variables were considered: student (age, sex, social adaptation of the student, number of life events and chronic stressors experienced, and educational level of the father and mother), class (number of students per class), school (type of school), and province (number of inhabitants per province). Participants were 6,078 students from primary years 3–6 in the region of Andalusia (Spain). After conducting a multilevel regression analysis, the final fitted model was a random intercept and random slope model (at the school level) for the variable age, with the fixed factors being the variables social adaptation, life events and chronic stressors, and the educational level of the father and mother. This model yielded a specific profile of daily stressors in childhood: children with the highest levels of daily stressors are younger, present aggressive or inhibited behavior, have experienced more life events and chronic stressors, and have parents who did not complete their primary education. The results provide relevant information for the design of psychoeducational interventions in relation to children’s daily stressors.