MARCH 2022

MALIMPIN NATIONAL HIGHSCHOOL

SENIOR HIGHSCHOOL
Malimpin, Dasol, Pangasinan

EFFECTS OF STRESS TO THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF THE SENIOR

HIGHSCHOOL LEARNERS OF MALIMPIN NHS IN S.Y 2021-2022

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Academic performance is one of the most vital considerations

among students in higher educational level. The academic performance
can be illustrated by grade point average (G.P.A n.d). Despite living in
the millennium era where education is accessible to all, there are still
some differences in performance among students (Meyer, 1959).
Several studies identified internal and external factors associated with
academic performances. Academic stress is one of the factors that have
effects on the mastery of academic curriculum.

Stress is the body’s nonspecific response mechanism towards

demands or strains made on it (Meyer, 1959). It is a process by which
we perceive and cope with environmental threats and challenges.
Academic stress is a common phenomenon faced by highschool
students. Academic stress is often seen in the daily activities of
students. A student can be stressed due to different reason or stressors
such as; lecture overload, heavy workload, difficulty understanding
contents, financial problem, relationship with lectures and fellow
students, among other social, environmental, and cultural factors
(Wikipedia, 2009). Academic stress can inhibit and surpress learning
which is called “un-favorable stress” and it is associated with inhibition
of students’ academic performance (Linn and Zeppa, 1984). It is a
common problem facing students and their perception and the way
they handle it may reflect on their academic performance (Salami,
2001). A total of 78% of Nigerian students’ experience various degrees
of academic stress, these stressors can be categorized under social,
cultural, and environmental factors.

Students report experiencing academic stress at predictable times

each semester with the greatest sources of academic stress resulting
from taking and studying for exams, grade competition, and the large
amount of content to master in a small amount of time Abouserie
(1994). The school environment on its part also piles up pressure on the
students. The pressure to perform well in the examination or test and
time allocated makes the academic environment very stressful (Erkutlu
& Chafra, 2006). In addition to that, the volume of people within the
academic environment also contributes to stress among students.
Research holds that; a certain percentage of students find it difficult to
thrive in an over-crowded environment (Baker, 2001). The hustling and
buzzing in college can be challenging to some students. The
environment possesses challenges such as course-overload, academic
pressure, limited opportunities, high competitiveness all of which are
sources of stress that create fear, tension and anxiety in some students
(Sinha, Sharma, Nepal, 2001).

The challenging learning situation has led to a number of negative

consequences. Significant dropout rates have been recorded among
university students (Njoroge, Wangari, & Gichure, 2016). It has been
also observed that suicidal tendencies have increased (Wanyoike,
2015). There is no actual data because most cases of suicide may go
unreported. Stress has become part of students’ academic life due to
the various internal and external expectations placed upon their
shoulders. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the problems
associated with academic stress as transitions occur at an individual
and social level. It therefore, becomes imperative to understand the
sources and impact of academic stress in order to derive adequate and
efficient intervention strategies. The study employed a quantitative
research design where participants were screened using Academic
Stress Scale (Rajendran & Kaliappan, 1991 from four streams namely,
commerce, management, humanities, and basic sciences. The five
dimensions of sources such as personal inadequacy, fear of failure,
interpersonal difficulties with teachers, teacher pupil relationship and
inadequate study facilities were further analysed and gender
differences were also obtained. Understanding the sources of stress
would facilitate the development of effective counselling modules and
intervention strategies by school psychologists and counsellors in order
to help students alleviate stress.

In a local scale, as per Cuerpo J. (2017) stretch is a main

consideration on how a kid performs scholastically. An examination
done in 2000 on learning hypothesis expresses that pressure can
upgrade learning capacity, yet a lot of it could prompt physical and
emotional well-being issues and the scholastic accomplishment of a
youngster is imperiled. An individual can without much of a stretch
adjust; youngsters are known to adjust superior to grown-ups. In any
case, the versatile capacities are enormously influenced when the
requests turn out to be excessively overpowering. This at that point
influences the understudies’ scholarly execution. Senior high
understudies looked with a gigantic measure of pressure that originates
from an excessive amount of homework, long tests, and execution
errands. The outstanding task at hand is not really the issue; rather it is
the constrained measure of time for these necessities. Another:
examination was directed for the impacts of weight on well being
propensities, well being status, and confidence expresses that working
hours and remaining burdens are prevailing wellsprings of stress. The
scholastic pressure that understudies are encountering is presumably
part of the birth agonies of the senior high program. It ought to be
noted, in any case, that on the off chance that an understudy is
experiencing issues in adapting to scholastic worry, there may be not
kidding repercussions, for example, pyscho-social and enthusiastic well
being results. In the context of Ateneo de Davao University, 7.81% of
the students undergo Academic Probation, and in that program, one of
reasons of the students why they do undergo probation is because of
stress. Stress in a way caused by lack of study skills, test anxiety, lack of
time management and peer or parental pressure. According to some
students in ADDU, the cause of their stress is the difficulty of the
subject matter, financial instability, difficulty studying environment,
teacher factor and personal issues. With that, the school done some
actions to help those students. Such as encouraging them to join
learning enhancement assistance programs in which they’ll have extra
classes after school hours to tackle the lesson that they might have a
hard time with because they are distracted and stressed. With that, this
study aims to know the effects of stress on students' academic
performance in malimpin national high school.

State of the Problem

This study aims to determine the cause of academic stress of senior

highschool students and its effect to their academic performance.

This specifically answers the following:

1. What is the demographic profile of the respondents: a. age b. sex

c. family income.
2. Is there a significant relationship of stress to the academic
performance of the students?
3. What are the coping strategies of students to address their
stressors?
4. Based from the findings and conclusion, what can the teachers
and family members share to promote positive psychological well
being of students?

Paradigm of the Study

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
This study will utilize the input, process and output framework. for the input, the study will be
using the profile of the students-respondents such as age,sex and family income.
 Based on its quantitative data. In the process of survey questionnaire, frequency, weighted t-
test and conclusion and recommendation.

The output of the study is a program effectively managing stress and promoting positive

coping strategies.

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

Demographic > Quantitative Program

Profile of the Data. effectively
Respondents: > Survey
managing
Questionnaire
stress and
> Frequency,
Age Weighted T-test. promoting
Sex > Conclusion and positive coping
Recommendation strategies.
Family Income

Paradigm of the Study.

Hypothesis

There is no significant relationship between stress and academic

performance of Grade 12 learners.

Scope and Delimitation

The scope of this research study focused on the relationship of effects

of academic stress to the academic performance of Grade 12 learners.
This study will be conducted in Malimpin National High School for the
2nd semester, starting March 2022 to June 2022. Purposive or selective
sampling will be used in the study. The target respondents are limited
to 34 Grade 12 learners which are composed of 11 girls and 23 boys.
The researchers will be utilizing the 3rd grading general weighted mean
grade of the respondents in reference to their academic performance.

Significance of the Study

This study aims to distinguish the effects of academic stress on

students’ academic performance and whatever the results that will be
revealed in this study may benefit certain groups.

Students. The results may serve as an awareness in order to be

knowledgeable at which level of stress they are in and to know the
kinds of stress that they are facing. Students will be able to understand
different perspectives from different classes.

School Administrators. The findings of the study may serve as the

gaining insights in regard to the perceived stress that has been
happening inside the institution. This will also lead to the creation of
programs to promote pyschological well being of the students.

Teachers. It may serve as knowledge to understand the academic stress

of students to help them cope up with the perceived academic stress to
enhance their academic performance.
Future Researchers. The results or findings of this study will be serving
a good source of accurate and useful information for them. It can also
be a basis for them whenever there are more types of perceived stress
that can relate or connect to their future related studies in different
locale.

Definition of Terms

Academic Stress. It refers to the body’s response to academic-related

demands that exceed adaptive capabilities of students. (Shinha. UK,
n.d).

Coping Strategies. This refers to a behavioral and cognitive tactics used

to manage crisis, conditions, and demands that are appraised as
distressing. (Blum. S, et. al, 2012).

Academic Performance. It refers to the quality of performance in terms

of test and class exercises with academic content. (Weiner, el. at,
1971).

CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
FOREIGN
Student’s academic learning and performances can be affected by
many factors such as gender, age, teaching staff, father/family’s
economic condition, family’s social status, total study hours, and
accommodation of them as hostelries or day scholars (Pritchard, 1996).
Many researchers have been done by scholars on finding the factors
which contributes on student’s academic performance and
achievements at different educational levels. A study suggested that
student’s educational performance and achievement relies heavily on
social status of parents and guardians of them (Graetz; 1995). Research
done by Considine and Zappala also found the similar results that social
status and family’s income is positively correlated with the student’s
performance academia (Considine and Zappala; 2002). Some of the
researchers found that previous academic performance is also a factor
affecting current academics of students. As found by a research,
performance of students in higher education level depends on the
undergraduate level of studies (Minnesota; 2007). Also found in
another study, past educational performances of students is considered
to be an important indicator in finding the future achievements of
them, as said that better the previous academic performance; the
better will be in the upcoming endeavors (Durden and Ellis; Staffolani
and Bratti; 2002).

Researchers also indicated that employment is also one of the

factors that effects academic achievement of students. They resulted
that it affects negatively on its performance as the more the number of
hours they work, the more they are distracted from academic. They
mentioned that more working hours will decrease the probability of
being ‘A’ Grade student (Pritchard, 1996). According to other
researchers, it is not about doing the job which creates the problem in
managing the work load of studies. It is about the amount of work done
as the students who work more spend less time on their studies and
also pay less attention during classes (Steinberg & Dornbusch, 1991,
p.307).

We can resolute the student’s academic achievements by their

performances in their institutions, their activities and assignments done
in classes, presentations they give and results of their exams (Ong,
Bessie, and Cheong, 2009). Research have been conduct in order to
review the relationship among stress and academic performance of
students and it has been found that stress affects the academic
performance of students in great manner (Elliot et al., 2005; Choi,
Abbott, Arthur & Hill, 2007). Students complained about the stress they
feel while giving their exams or any competition regarding grades or in
any case when they have so much to study and less time to do it. They
say that it really affects on their performance of work (Carveth, Gesse &
Moss, 1996). One study reported that stress among undergraduate
business students is a notably important factor which is interrelated
with poor performance (Bennett, 2003). A research found that
student’s attitude towards the learning or working ethics is related to
the academic performance and achievements (Conard, 2006; Jansen &
Bruinsma, 2005).

Local
 The study determined the stressors and stress responses of Filipino
college students in relation to sex, course and academic classification.
There were 258 respondents for the study. Of the respondents, 68%
were females and 32% were males. According to their degree, 42%
belonged to the soft sciences and 58% to the hard sciences. In terms of
academic classification, 10% were freshmen, 36% sophomores, 33%
juniors and 21% seniors. The top five overall stressors of the
respondents were academic difficulty of subject matter, workload due
to subjects, time management because of subjects, responsibilities due
to being on one's own, and time management because of both subjects
and organizations. The most frequently occurring stress responses were
affective stress responses followed by cognitive responses. For both
male and female respondents, the top stressors were academics,
workload due to subjects and time management concerns. Overall, the
males reacted to stress through affective responses and females
through cognitive responses. Students enrolled in the hard and soft
sciences both considered academics, workload due to subjects and time
management concerns as their top stressors. Those in the soft sciences
reacted with cognitive stress responses while those in the hard sciences
reacted with affective stress responses. Generally, all students,
regardless of their academic classification pointed out that academics,
workload due to subjects, and time management were their main
stressors.

Questionnaire Of The Study

Code Name:
Age:

Sex:
• Female • Male

Family Income:
• 500 php - 1,000 php
• 1,001 php - 5,000 php
• 5,001 php - 10,000 php
• 10,001 php - 15,000 php
• 15,001 php - 20,000 php

* How stressed do you feel on a daily basis during the academic year?

Stress Level

◾ 1 - Not Stressed at All

◾2
◾3
◾4
◾5
◾6
◾7
◾8
◾9
◾ 10 - Most Stressed

* What are your personal methods to relieve stress? (Select all that
apply)

◾Eating

◾ Sleeping

◾ Drinking

◾ Drugs

◾ Sports / Exercise
◾ Talking with someone

◾Shopping

◾Computer Games

◾ Social Media

◾None of the Above

◾Other

* How able do you feel to handle stress when you are experiencing it?

* Coping Skills Level

◾1 - Not Able at All

◾2
◾3
◾4
◾5
◾6
◾7
◾8
◾9
◾10 - Very Able

ACADEMIC STRESS SCALE

This scale consists of 20 items describing the stress in your senior

highschool life from the various sources. The level of stress you feel for
each item can be indicated by marking a ‘/’ mark in the bracket given
against each statement.

If you feel No Stress put a ‘/’ mark in the 1st bracket (NS), Slight Stress
in the 2nd (SS), Moderate Stress in the 3rd (MS), High Stress in the 4th
(HS) and you feel Extreme Stress put a ‘/’ mark in the 5th bracket (ES).

S. No Statement NS SS MS HS ES

1. Teachers make too many extra demands on

students.
2. Poor interest in some subjects.

3. Progress reports to parents.

4. The teacher is not homours towards us.

5. Lack of concentration during study hours.

6. Difficulty in remembering all that is

studied.
7. Worrying about the examinations.
8. Lack of self-confidence.
9. The teachers do not listen to our ideas.
10. Conflict with friends/authorities.
11. Teachers give more punishment in the
class.
12. Worry about results after examinations.
13. Hesitate to ask the teacher for detailed
explanation.
14. Biased attitude of the teacher.
15. Inadequate space or room for study at
home.
16. Not knowing how to prepare for the
examinations.
17. Unable to complete the assignment in
time.
18. Lack of opportunity to meet teachers.
19. Teachers shows socio-economic status on
students.

20. Slow in getting along with the curriculum.