MECHANISMS OF PROFESSIONAL TRAINING IN GENERATING (EVEN) BETTER VETS. APPROACHES TO LEARNING AS MEDIATORS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEPRESSIVE TENDENCIES AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN FEMALE VETERINARY STUDENTS

ABSTRACT. The timely identification of learning approaches is an essential aspect in those forms of education where the capacity of understanding, permanent integration of new knowledge as opposed to rote learning is key to a successful career. Moreover, literature underscores the importance of affect in the learning processes. The major aim of our study was to test (i) the relationship between depressive tendencies and academic performance, and (ii) the mediating effect of approaches to learning (deep, strategic, and surface approach) between depressive tendencies and academic performance in veterinary students. Our study included 260 voluntary female students (mean age 20.88 years), assessed on the following levels: academic performance, depressive tendencies (Beck Depression Inventory), and approaches to studying (ASSIST). Our results indicate that depressive tendencies present a significantly negative relationship with academic performance, suggesting that female veterinary students with depressive symptoms tend to have lower academic performance. Furthermore, all three types of approaches to learning are significant predictors of academic performance: the deep and the strategic approach have a positive predictive value, while the surface approach has a negative effect. Our results also indicate that strategic and surface approaches are significantly related to depressive tendencies. Finally, both strategic and surface approaches proved to function as mediators between academic performance and depressive tendencies. In other words, female students with more intense depressive tendencies favor less strategic approaches and use more surface approaches which further decreases academic performance, implicitly decreasing the level of professional development and the probability of matching with the specific needs of the labor market.