ACADEMIC STRESS AMONGST STUDENTS:A REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Geeta Jain*

Manisha Singhai**

ABSTRACT

Stress is definitely a big word with even bigger impact, however this can be dealt with small changes that
we bring in our day to day life. Stress is experienced by managers, financers, government officials,
administrators, politicians, house wives and is most prevalent amongst students nowadays. It is essential
to identify the cause of the stress so that it can be addressed meticulously and efficient interventions can
be outlined. Stress is always seen as subjective process and encompasses individual’s personal analysis
and counter to a threatening event.

Stress can result in depression, anxiety and many other hazardous conditions. The rise in the number of
workshops being conducted for Stress Management, various articles being published, research reports etc.
is an implication of the escalation of stress related cases in the past few decades. This study deals with the
conceptual framework of the stress, causes of stress amongst students and the ways to manage stress. It
also presents review of literature on the topic.

INTRODUCTION

Stress is a perception of emotional or physical tension. There are number of incidents in a person’s life
that lead to negative emotions like anger, frustration and nervousness that further develop stress in an
individual. Stress is the body’s reaction to challenge or demand. It can be positive at times; however
prolonged stress can lead to severe health conditions.

Stress levels can differ on the basis of how one reciprocates to a certain situation. Some people just do not
care and do not get anxious; they perceive stress as trivial knock and move on in life on daily basis.
Others actually worry themselves more than required and affect their health.

Stress is considered as negative, behavioral, physiological process that takes place when the person tries
to adapt or compromise with stressors (Bernstein et.al. 2008). Stressors are the circumstances that disrupt,
or threaten to disrupt, individuals, ‟daily functioning and cause people to make adjustments” (Auerbach
and Grambling,1998).

Malach, Pines and Keinan, 2007 have defined stress as the insight of incongruity between environmental
burden (stressors) and person’s ability to fulfill these demands.

Auerbach & Grambling (1998) regarded any situation that can stimulate any kind of threat or danger to
the well being can be contemplated as stress.

* Assistant Professor, Prestige Institute of Management and Research, Indore

Academic pressure has increased over the past few years , there are examinations, assignments and many
other activities that a student has to shuffle through. Not only the design but teachers and parents also
burden the students with a lot of pressure of getting good grades. These expectations make the students
work relentlessly and end up in creating more stress. With academics, the parents and the institutions
want the students to participate in extracurricular activities too, the current expectations from the students
is to be an all rounder. Lack of proper channels for counseling leads to more confusion and the students
are unable to choose a career for themselves even after rigorous studying patterns. This demanding
attitude from parents and teachers leave the students bewildered and builds up stress.

Teenage and high school plays fundamental role in shaping a child’s personality and outlook towards life.
Peer pressure is yet another common term that one hears from the teenagers. This could be pressurizing
another to drink, smoke, cheat on test, lying etc., the list is exhaustive. Peer pressure can be harmful and
compelling. It can help shape the personalities in a positive way for introvert students or can pose as an
obstacle and lead to stress. It is extremely important for the students to have wisdom and surround
themselves with positive people to make most of the peer pressures to be positive.

Heavy academic workloads and the feeling that you are constantly racing to meet another deadline can be
daunting. Parental pressure on children to shine in their study and perform well in extracurricular
activities is at remarkable high. Compelling need to excel in studies, often prone to abuse, does injure the
morale and is one of the greatest causes of stress, failure and breakdown. The race amongst parents to
prove that their child is an all rounder makes them end up as victim rather than successful.

Lack of support is major reasons for stress amongst students, lack of interaction with parents and teachers
keep on building on doubts and confusions that a child might have eventually leading to stress. There is a
lot that a child is expected to achieve, but due to lack of proper support, they feel lost at sea and are left
directionless.

Prolonged stress can lead to physical and emotional disorders, further resulting in anxiety and depression.
It is important to have a channel to relieve the anxiety.

Mckean et.al. (2000) believed that the stressors are not the sole reason for anxiety, tension or depression,
rather synergy between stressors and the person’s approach and attitude to these stressors create stress.

Though stress is often considered bad, but there is always the other side of the coin. The right kind of
stress helps in sharpening the mind and reflexes, thus helping in boosting memory. Mild stress is always
essential for effective and efficient working. It can help one to meet daily challenges and can motivate
students to reach their goals.

MANAGING STRESS

Stress can be overwhelming and can lead to a state of sadness in many teens. An NYU study claims that
much of high school students stress emerge during the school years and the baggage of stress is carried to
college years which leads to academic disentanglement and can result to mental health problems. Once
the student finally lands in college, they have to deal with the stress of new and enhanced workload,
pressure of making friends and being in the socially acceptable circle, handling a network which is much
more challenging, all this without the support of the parents on many occasions. Hence it is of utmost
importance to learn to deal with stress, so that the students can learn to navigate in the waters and are able
to sail through.

There are various ways and means that the students can adopt to relieve stress, like imbibing any one
form of exercise to be done on daily basis, this small change will go a long way and guarantees an
environment of sustainable happiness. Meditation and breathing exercises can also be incorporated to
relieve stress during exams and students avoid panicking.

It is also important to ensure that students receive enough sleep, it would help the students to be more
patient and have better learning graph.

Music is therapeutic whether played in stress or otherwise. Listening to music can reap many benefits and
can subside stress certainly. The way one talks with oneself really makes big difference in the attitude,
hence positive self talk is important which will further lead to harmonious surroundings.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Reddy et.al. (2018) concluded that stream wise difference in stress does exist in students. It is important
to deal with stress at personal, social and institutional level. Remedies such as feedback, yoga, life skills
training, mindfulness, meditation and psychotherapy have been found useful to deal with stress. To
identify the main reason of stress is the key to deal with it. Professionals can develop tailor made
strategies to deal with stress. The integrated well being of the students is important not only for the
individual but for the institute as well.

Dimitrov (2017) claimed that the stress can be addressed by ensuring that the students give utmost
importance to their welfare. Food, exercise, work, recreation are some of the areas to focus on. He also
concluded that the education system is more to do with the academic qualifications and does not
contribute enough to the holistic development of students. Students are usually conditioned in a
way that makes them fearful to take up upcoming challenges as the focus is only the academics and not
the development of a go getter mentally. There are not many choices for the medium of education.
English being the only option available, can pose as a hindrance for the students from rural background.
There are not many courses available that are employment centric. Fresh graduates need more
communication skills development for better placements.

He further asserted that skills required to perform a job at workplace is not imparted in the educational
institutes despite charging humongous fee. The courses being taught do not help the graduates to get a
suitable job, which is a major reason for the stress. The parents should share healthy relationships with
their children and let them be the drivers of their career rather commanding what the child should and
should not do, students will thus feel more confident in discussing their concerns.

Subramani and Kadhiravan (2017) revealed the link between academic stress and mental health among
students. He endorsed that academic stress and mental health are correlated and that students are cramped
with the academic structure. Parents and schools pressurize the students way too much for the higher
grades that disheartens the students, further to add on there is not enough support from the parents and
school in terms of guidance. The students are mentally healthy when they perform constructively in the
academic forums. He also propounded that students from private schools are more pressurized as
compared to students from government schools due to the excess of homework and other academic
related assignments. Significant difference in mental health of students from private and government
schools was found. He asserted that students from private schools have a different nurturing and vast
exposure as compared to government school students who belong to poor socio economic background and
lack of exposure. This is one of the reasons for the escalation of stress.

Sharma et.al. (2016) stated the use of various methods to curb stress. Doing one physical exercise on daily
basis can address the concern of stress. One can also adopt to various time management tools and get
involved with leisure activities which can benefit students. Also, it was suggested that colleges should
have a conducive ambience to curtail the stress. Change in the style of delivery from teachers end and
providing mentors can bring fresh air to the teaching style.

Prabu (2015) researched on the higher secondary students and implied that male students are more
stressed than the female students. Urban student’s academic stress is greater than the rural students.
Government school student’s stress is lower than the private school student’s stress. Students from
Science stream are more stressed than the students from Arts.

Deb et.al. (2014), studied 400 male students from five private secondary schools in Kolkata who were
studying in grades 10 and 12. 35 percent students were found to have high academic stress and 37 percent
were found to have high anxiety levels. Students with marginal grades were said to have higher level of
stress as compared to students with better grades. Also, students involved with extra-curricular activities
were noted to be more stressed as related to those students who were not involved with it.

Kaur (2014) acknowledged that mental health of teenagers get affected due to the academic stress. Girls
with academic stress were found to have poor mental health as compared to the boys. This was accounted
on the study that parents at times put pressure and strain on students that leads to deteriorated mental
health.

Bataineh (2013) in his study measured the academic stressors experienced by students at university. The
result of the analyses showed that there is an unreasonable academic overload, not enough time to study
due to the vast course content being covered, high family expectations and low motivation levels are
some of the reasons for the stress. Fear of failure is also the prime reason for stress. There was no
significant difference found amongst the students from different of specializations.

Khan and Kausar (2013) concluded that stress definitely impacts the academic performance in a negative
way though no significant difference was found as per the gender. The difference was evident between
junior and senior students. Stress, for sure, affects the ability to study efficiently and managing the time.
Studying regularly is important, this helps reduce the academic pressure and helps them fulfill their goals.

Busari (2012) found that stress was leading to depression among secondary school students and is linked
with affect on academic achievement. Introduction to preventive measures, teaching life skills and other
therapeutic techniques should be taken in to serious consideration .

Nandamuri and Gowthami(2011) studied the stress among students of professional studies and claimed
that curriculum and instructions parameters were most responsible for stress with 86 percent, followed by
63 percent for placement related issues, assessment and team work issues accounted for 41 percent and 24
percent respectively. The study further identified various micro issues responsible for stress, and listed
twelve sub issues related to curriculum and instruction. Once the sub issues of each parameter are
identified, it provided improved vision to the academic administrators for initiating efforts to reduce the
gravity of academic stress.

Acording to Agolla (2009) stress has become an important topic in academic circles. Many philosophers
have carried out considerable research on stress and concluded that this topic needs way more attention.

Radcliff and Lester (2003) studied the anticipated stress among final year undergraduate students and
acknowledged that class assignments, not enough guidance, pressure to mingle and to get associated were
the reasons for the stress to build up.

McKean et.al. (2000) argue that undergraduate students experience higher stress at expected times in each
semester. Academic engagements, financial pressures and lack of time management skills lead to building
up of stress. Excessive stress can affect well being, emotional attitude and academic performance. There
upon it becomes essential that undergraduate students establish methods to deal with stressful situations.

CONCLUSION

The main source of stress for the students is the inadequacy of right support. There is a standard
evaluation procedure which does not give enough scope to the students to experiment and push the
boundaries to excel. There are many personal and social factors that lead to stress among students. Lack
of clarity and unavailability of right career counselors lead to directionless goals, and even after
graduating, students are clueless with their careers and are insecure regarding a job. The pressure of the
studies in terms of academics, extra-curricular activities, assignments etc. has increased beyond
comparison. Parents expect their children to be a part of rat race and outshine their competitors, to
enhance their own social status in the society.

Running behind numbers is the new fad in this era of cut throat competition, sad reality but true. Every
child is different hence it is important for the parents to make their children realize the importance of
identification of their strengths and encourage them to pursue a career in the area of their ability. It is
important to do what you love or love what you do.

Managing the time effectively and ensuring that at least one physical exercise is done on daily basis can
become deterrent to stress and improve the span of attention and hence become productive with
academics.

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