Career choice and career success are linked to personal satisfaction, which depends on how well one adjusts to oneself and one's environment. University teachers often comment on the lack of motivation and commitment of their students. Many students fail not so much because they do not study, but because they do not study in the right way. In view of this perspective, the concern arises to initiate a study in this field, so the aim of this cross-sectional, descriptive, quantitative, correlational study is to determine the correlational association that may occur between stress, self-esteem, motivation, study habits and academic performance of university students in the first and third year of the degree course in Dentistry at faculties recognised by the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) in 2010.