A CORRELATIONAL STUDY OF LEARNING MOTIVATION, HEALTH BEHAVIOUR, AND ACADEMIC STRESS AMONG PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS IN KEDAH, MALAYSIA

Abstract

Research on academic stress in Malaysia has tended to focus on adolescents and university students, leaving upper primary pupils less well represented. This cross-sectional study investigated whether learning motivation and health behaviour were related to academic stress among pupils aged 10 to 12 years in one Kedah primary school. The school population was 290; proportional stratified random sampling yielded 168 respondents. The questionnaire covered learning motivation, academic stress, and a 15-item health behaviour instrument with knowledge, attitude, and practice subdimensions. Knowledge was retained as a distinct subscale in the analysis, whereas attitude and practice were combined. Frequencies, percentages, and Spearman's rho were calculated. Females accounted for 58.9% of the sample, and 12-year-old pupils formed the largest age group (38.7%). Academic stress was negatively related to learning motivation (r = -0.330, p < 0.001) and Health Behaviour (Attitude and Practice) (r = -0.504, p < 0.001). The former association was weak-to-moderate and the latter was moderate. Health Knowledge was unrelated to academic stress (r = -0.059, p = 0.446). This pattern suggests that reported health attitudes and routines, rather than knowledge alone, warrant attention alongside learning motivation when schools consider academic-stress support. The coefficients represent associations only because the study was cross-sectional and involved a single school.