Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region VIII (Western Visayas)
Municipality of Paranas
Wright National Senior High School

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The Academic Stress and its Effect on General Academic Students

A Research Proposal Presented to the School Committee in Partial Fulfillment

to the Requirements in Practical Research 2

Researchers

Rj Quilapio

Nina Cabañezas

Michaela Macantan

Nina Grace Ocenada

Presented to:

Ms. Josine Calijan

Academic stress may be the single most dominant stress factor that affects the

mental well-being of students. Academic stress is often associated with senior high Schools

students as they prepare for college, but the reality is that younger students experience it as

well. Students of all ages must struggle the pressure to perform well academically with

extracurricular, homework, and standardized testing. And this is true for students in all

socioeconomic situations, as well. In fact, the recent study on advancing health equity

among American children performed by the National Academies of science, engineering and

medicine found that students in “High-Achieving Schools” who commonly come from affluent

families, are equally at risk of developing behavioral and mental problems as those living in

foster care or poverty, those with incarcerated parents, and recent immigrants. This is

essential knowledge for school psychologists, counselors, and administrators for them to

provide proper mental health support for all these at-risk individuals.

Knowing the most common causes of school related stress can help you provide

distinct mental health support for different Students unique needs. Researchers have

identified the following as the most common contributors to school-related stress.

 Demanding academic content and excessive homework

 Pressure from parents and to gain acceptance to prestigious universities

 Developmentally inappropriate classrooms

 Lack of preparation

 Overbooked schedules

 Pressure to maintain high grades and fair failure

 Conflicts with teachers

 Poor diet and lack of sleep

that every individual responds to stressors in different ways.

Research has found that excessive levels of academic stress can result in an

“increased prevalent of psychological and physical problems like depression, anxiety,

nervousness and stress-related disorders”.

Statement of the Problem

This research will determine The Academic Stress and its Effect on General

Academic Students. Furthermore, it seeks to answer the following questions.

1. What is the profile of students-respondents in terms of the following?

1.1 Age

2.2 Sex

3.3 Birth order

4.4 Parents’ Educational Attainment

2. What is the main cause of mental illness?

3. Why students mostly suffer from mental illness?

4. What are the effective ways to cope up with mental illness?

This study aims to determine the mental illness of the students. We all know that the

mental illness is a leading cause of disability. Untreated mental illness can cause severe

emotional behavior and physical health problems. Students’ participation through this mental

illness is important for its part of its scope and correlation to the respondent’s profile and

scholastic performance of students in Wright National Senior High School Department,

School Year 2022-2023.

Significance of the study

The researchers conduct this study to broaden the information and knowledge about

the ethical approaches to mental illness. Furthermore, the study’s findings will be beneficial

to the following:

For the students: Give the students a place to raise questions about the topic and use the

result of this research as a reference to have further knowledge and explore ethical concerns

related to mental illness.

For the teachers: This study will help in their discussions regarding related lessons. It will

be easier for them to address related research issues. They can explain why some

individuals are opposed to mental illness and, exploit the study to justify why it is done.

This research could serve as a piece of additional information and as a foundation for

future hypotheses and theories. Furthermore, the researchers expect that this study will

make a significant contribution to the field of ethics. This research will provide more in-depth

knowledge of the subject.

Academic stress has a significant effect on General Academic strand

Review Related Literature

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 life. Stress is experienced by managers, 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. This study deals with the conceptual

framework of the stress, causes of stress among students and the way 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 leads to negative emotions like anger, frustration and nervousness that

further develops 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, 1988). Malach, Pines and Keinan (2007) 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.

Causes of Stress Among Students

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 if 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. 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 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 an 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 mind and reflexes, thus helping in

boosting memory. Mild stress is always essential for effective and efficient working. It can

motivate students to reach their goals.

Managing Stress

Stress can be overwhelming and can lead to a state of sadness in many teens. Once

the student finally lands in the 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 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 that students receive enough sleep, it would help the students to be

more patient and have better learning graph. Music is therapeutic weather 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 it big difference in the attitude, hence positive

self-talk is important which will further lead to harmonious surroundings.

Literature Review

Reddy et al. (2018) in their study concludes 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) in his study claimed that stress can be addressed by

ensuring that the students give utmost importance to their welfare. Food, exercise, work,

recreation is 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.

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 student’s way too much for the higher grades that dishearten 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.

They 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 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) in their study 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 conductive 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 rural

students. 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 the stress. There was no significant difference found amongst the students from

the 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 fulfill their goals.
Conclusion

The main source of stress for 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. 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 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 are of their ability. It is important to do what you

love or love what you do. Managing the time effectively ad 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.

METHODOLOGY

This part of the research contents the research methodology of the study which

includes the research design, instrument, sampling procedure and data gathering procedure.

It also mentions the technique and strategy for collecting data and selecting respondents.
 Research Design

Researchers will use descriptive research design to collect data that are needed for

the study. Researchers will choose respondents to answer the survey questionnaires which

serve as the suitable technique for the chosen topic.

According to Voxco (2019) Descriptive research design is a type of research design

that aims to systematically obtain information to describe a phenomenon, situation, or

population. More specifically, it helps answer the what, when, where, and how questions

regarding the research problem rather than the why.

The researchers aim to answer the aforementioned problem and strongly believe that

descriptive research design and survey methods will help them get the right answer.

Furthermore, they also believe that "The Academic Stress and its Effects on General

Academic Students" study will go well with the chosen design and technique. Expectedly,

researchers will be able to show the effects of academic stress in general academic students

and other results that are related to the topic.

Instrumentation

The primary instrument for this study that researchers will use is the survey scale where

chosen respondents have an option of what to answer with an orderly arrangement. This

kind of instrument will help researchers to easily gather the data from respondents.
 Sampling Procedure

Researchers will limit their respondents by sampling procedure. Researchers will use simple

sampling procedures to give all GAS students a chance to be involved in the study.

Researchers will pick from a box containing names who are included to the population and

the selected respondents will answer the survey questionnaires. It helps researchers save

time to conduct study.

Data Gathering Procedure

The chosen design and technique will give the accurate results of the study. And the

instrument and sampling procedure will ensure the accuracy of the data that complete the

research study. Information that will be found in this study will surely help students,

especially those students who are stressed with their academics.