Stress and Mental Health in Education

Upon completion of the course, the candidate can:

Knowledge

• Critically reflect on the different identification strategies used to assess the effects of stress and mental health issues on educational outcomes.
• Identify the mechanisms behind how stress affects educational outcomes based on the psychology literature.

Skills

• Formulate their own idea on a research project related to stress and mental health in education.
• Write a referee report on a current working paper related to the course topics.
• Apply econometric techniques/advanced methodologies to analyse stress and mental health in education.

General competence

• Explain current findings of the state-of-the-art research in economics on the causes and effects of stress and mental health issues.

Acampora, M., Capozza, F., & Moghani, V. (2022). Mental Health Literacy, Beliefs and Demand for Mental Health Support among University Students (No. 22-079/I). Tinbergen Institute.

Allcott, H., Braghieri, L., Eichmeyer, S., & Gentzkow, M. (2020). The welfare effects of social media. American Economic Review, 110(3), 629-676.Beilock, S. (2011). Choke. Hachette UK.

Braghieri, L., Levy, R. E., & Makarin, A. (2022). Social media and mental health. American Economic Review, 112(11), 3660-3693.

Cahlíková, J., Cingl, L., & Levely, I. (2020). How stress affects performance and competitiveness across gender. Management Science, 66(8), 3295-3310.

Cai, X., Lu, Y., Pan, J., & Zhong, S. (2019). Gender gap under pressure: evidence from China's National College entrance examination. Review of Economics and Statistics, 101(2), 249-263.

Cassar, L., Fischer, M., & Valero, V. (2022). Keep calm and carry on: The short-vs. long-run effects of mindfulness meditation on (academic) performance (No. 15723). IZA Discussion Papers.

Cavatorta, E., Grassi, S., & Lambiris, M. (2021). Digital antianxiety treatment and cognitive performance: An experimental study. European Economic Review, 132, 103636.

Franco, C. and I. Skarpeid (2023). Gender differences in performance at the top of the distribution. Technical report.

Franco, C. and M. Gomez-Ruiz (2023). Bridging the Gender Gap in Access to STEM through In-Exam Stress Management. Technical report.

Hangen, E. J., Elliot, A. J., & Jamieson, J. P. (2019). Stress reappraisal during a mathematics competition: Testing effects on cardiovascular approach-oriented states and exploring the moderating role of gender. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 32(1), 95-108.

Harris, R. B., Grunspan, D. Z., Pelch, M. A., Fernandes, G., Ramirez, G., & Freeman, S. (2019). Can test anxiety interventions alleviate a gender gap in an undergraduate STEM course?. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 18(3), ar35.

Jamieson, J. P., Crum, A. J., Goyer, J. P., Marotta, M. E., & Akinola, M. (2018). Optimizing stress responses with reappraisal and mindset interventions: An integrated model. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 31(3), 245-261.

Jamieson, J. P., Mendes, W. B., Blackstock, E., & Schmader, T. (2010). Turning the knots in your stomach into bows: Reappraising arousal improves performance on the GRE. Journal of experimental social psychology, 46(1), 208-212.

Ramirez, G., & Beilock, S. L. (2011). Writing about testing worries boosts exam performance in the classroom. science, 331(6014), 211-213.

Shreekumar, A., & Vautrey, P. L. (2022). Managing emotions: The effects of online mindfulness meditation on mental health and economic behavior. Tech. Rep., MIT.

Participation at the BSRS is credited under the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). Participants submitting an essay, in a form of a publishable manuscript of 10-20 pages, after the end of the summer school will receive 10 ECTS. Deadline for submission will be decided by your course leader.

It is also possible to participate without producing an essay. This will give you 5 ECTS. In order to receive credits, we expect full participation in the course-specific modules, plenary events and roundtables.

Catalina Franco is a researcher at Center for Applied Research (SNF) at NHH – Norwegian School of Economics. She is affiliated with the Center for Experimental Research on Fairness, Inequality and Rationality (FAIR) and the Development Learning Lab (DLL). Her research focuses on education challenges in industrialized and developing countries, often using behavioral economics as an approach.

Franco uses both administrative data and traditional evaluation methods and design my own randomized studies. Particularly, Catalina is interested in gender differences in performance and academic decisions in high stakes environments, such as college entrance exams.