Exploring the Influence of Stress on Adult Students’ Academic Performance in Hong Kong: The Mediating Role of Depression

The study explores the influence of stress on adult students' academic performance in Hong Kong. It focuses on the mediating role of depression in relation to stress (academic stress, family stress and job stress) and academic performance. The research involved 221 surveys, and the primary data used mixed methods with a quantitative and qualitative research methodology to collect 211 large-scale online surveys and face-to-face focus groups from these 10 adult students. The results showed that besides job stress having no relationship with academic performance, academic stress, family stress, and depression significantly positively impact academic performance among Hong Kong adult students. Additionally, all stress factors have a significantly positive impact on depression. Conversely, depression has no mediating role between any stress factors and academic performance. This research was conducted in Hong Kong, and the target respondents were all Hong Kong adult students, which addresses flaws in prior research. The research suggests two crucial points. Firstly, colleges need to devote more resources to emotional therapy and counselling-related programs for students to decrease emotional illness crises. Secondly, the management of the education sector should aim to enhance the validity of knowledge in adult courses to replace traditional examinations with other more efficient practical assessments, which reduce the pressure on adult students to improve academic performance, which is especially important to contribute to education sector development in Hong Kong.