Estrés académico, salud mental y funcionamiento familiar de estudiantes de enfermería en condiciones de educación virtual

Introduction: The study of academic stress in university students and its relationship with mental health and family functioning has drawn greater interest, due to the conditions of virtual education and its implication in the appearance of stressors. Objective: To determine the relationship between general academic stress, mental health and family functioning of Nursing students from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Santo Domingo campus, who received virtual classes during the COVID-19 confinement. Methods: A quantitative approach was applied, with a cross-sectional, correlational and descriptive design. The proportional stratified probabilistic sample consisted of 229 participants. The following questionnaires were used: SISCO Inventory SV-21 (academic stress), General Health Questionnaire (GGQ; mental health), and the FF-SIL family functioning test. Results: There was a high proportion of female gender and a concentration of students under 21 years of age. Of those evaluated, 75.11 % had moderate academic stress, 39.30 % had normal deterioration in their mental health, and 48.03 % perceived their family as moderately functional. There was a low positive correlation (0.349) between academic stress and mental health. Conclusions: Women are shown to have a higher propensity to present higher levels of academic stress and a lower possibility of mental health affectation, unlike men. No correlation is proved to exist between academic stress and family functionality, since the values are not significant in the case of this study.