Factors that increase or decrease first-year university students’ levels of academic self-efficacy and negative emotional states in Chile

First-year university students experience a transition from school to college, involving new academic demands (Cole, 2017). Some researchers have focused on the relevance of cognitive ability (Wai & Rindermann, 2017). Others have argued that it does not guarantee academic achievement (Nabizadeh et al., 2019). Students also require other resources, such as their beliefs in their capacity to perform a task (Bandura, 1977). Emotions and negative emotional states influence students’ cognitive development and performance (Pekrun et al., 2002) and their judgments of academic self-efficacy (ASE) (Bandura, 2010). This study explores factors that positively or negatively influence first-year university students’ levels of ASE and negative emotional states (i.e., stress, anxiety, and depression) over 6 months while attending a Higher Education Institution (HEI) in Chile. I collected longitudinal data from a convenient sample of 311 first-year students in the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences enrolled in 2019 at a large university in Chile. HEIs have to become alert of the factors that influence negative emotional states and threats or opportunities that undermine or facilitate students’ ASE to understand how to help them, especially when they experience academic challenges to advance in college successfully