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R. Antonios/ How is Academic Overload linked to Stress Levels Among University students?

How is Academic Overload linked to Stress Levels Among

University Students?
Rebecca Melhem Antonios* ²
². Lebanese American University, School of Arts and Sciences

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Background: This study sought to examine the effect that academic overload has on
stress levels among university students. The specific objectives include (i)
understanding the sources of relationship factors to stress, (ii) to examine the sources
Academic overload of academic based factors to stress, (iii) to explore the environmental factors to stress,
and (iv) to recommend the best approaches that the school could assist the stressed
Stress levels students.
Methods: The study adopted the use of quantitative approach to collect data through
Perceived stress scale questionnaires. The study distributed a total of 206 questionnaires and received 142
correctly filled questionnaires. The study adopted the use of SPSS to analyze
quantitative statistics. All the data was analyzed and presented using frequency tables
and graphs. More importantly, the study used descriptive statistics to find measures
of central tendencies.
Results: The findings reveal that relationship factors that makes a majority of students
experience stress included working with new people, conflict with boyfriends or
girlfriends. Second, the findings showed that a majority of students developed strategy
from academic factor such as getting lower grades, spending more hours studying,
class workload through assignments, and several groups works. While the
environmental factors were said to be quitting jobs or worrying about lack of
employment in the future, unrealistic Expectations, and being placed in unfamiliar
situations.
Conclusion: The study recommends that the dean of students designs programs that
assist all students through counselling sessions to avoid the problem from escalating
and affecting most students.

© 2018, Antonios. LAU. All rights reserved.


R. Antonios/ How is Academic Overload linked to Stress Levels Among University students?
INTRODUCTION
This research studies “Stress from the academic overload
perspective.” Academic stress results from academic overload
has an impact on the majority of students’ academic
performance, social life and health (Murff, 2017). The objective
of this study is to identify to what extent academic overload
affects students' life. The research conducted can be helpful for
both students and professors to understand how academic
overload is linked to stress. It disrupts academic performance
and the student’s social life and creates numerous mental health
problems such as depression as well as sleeping disorders.
Furthermore, the study explores various coping methods for
stress from academic overload. Psychological distress among
university students has become a subject of great concern, due
to the various psychological problems which accompany
academic overload. Medical students have numerous stressors
such as balancing their hospital and teaching internships which
they partake in during their studies at university whereas
education students have less stressors (Yumba, 2008). Such
stress can make them more prone to psychological problems
since they end up being stressed by their university material as
well as their internship responsibilities (Murff, 2017). Students
tend to cope with the academic overload by compromising their
health as well as their performance in university.
* Corresponding author, Lebanese American University,
Lebanon. Tel.:76087414.
Email: Rebeccaantonios98@gmail.com (R. Melhem
Antonios)
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Mental health is a growing concern which must be
addressed. With a growing demand for fresh medical and
education graduates, as well as the various scientific expansions
and discoveries, students are being overloaded with information
in various courses and various fields (Bateman, 1981).
Overloading students with coursework and responsibilities can
be compared with the case of overworking employees (Totawar
& Prasad, 2016). Aside from the fact that numerous studies have
found that overworking employees usually ended up making
employees less productive, it created numerous mental health
problems which affected the social life of the employees
(Bateman, 1981). Students can also be less productive when
overworked and tend to develop numerous maladaptive
psychological symptoms which take a toll on the students' life
(Bedewy & Gabriel, 2015). The way which academic overload
can affect students depends on numerous factors such as gender,
age, and education. Students have mounting pressure which can
come from many sources which can compile to the problem of
being academically overloaded, which differs from case to case.
In addition, some students must cope with financial problems
while studying and take a part time or full-time job to cover the
university tuition and living costs (Murff, 2017). Other students
experience pressure from their parents to do well in university
which can also compile to the problem. When students work
hard to maintain their GPA, students tend to exhaust themselves
as most students are studying full time (Totawar & Prasad,
2016). This also tends to increase student’s anxiety levels and
makes them vulnerable to depression and prolonged stress.
The major aim of this study is to understand how
academic overload is linked to stress levels among university
students? The study sought to answer the following questions;
(1) What are the sources of relationship factors to stress? (2)
What are the sources of academic based factors to stress? (3)

R. Antonios/ How is Academic Overload linked to Stress Levels Among University students?
What are the environmental factors to stress? (4) How should the
students be assisted to respond to stress?
METHODS
Subjects
This study targeted students studying at the American
University of Beirut in the education and medical departments.
Students comprised the primary sample to participate in this
study. The study targeted students studying in different
disciplines/departments. The study used a systematic sampling
approach to pick out participants from lectures in a cross-section
study. After picking the first student, the second and consecutive
student will be picked at an interval of three students. The
process continued until all the students were recruited to get a
sample of 206 students. A total of 142 students completed the
study fully.
Procedure
The study sought to adopt descriptive research to show
an accurate reaction of students on how academic overload
affects their health, social life, and academic performance.
Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill (2009) explain that descriptive
research seeks to produce an accurate representation of persons,
events, and situations. The advantage for using descriptive
research is because of the need to use questionnaires to collect
quantitative data. Furthermore, descriptive research will allow
identification of dependent and independent variables in order to
show a show a relationship between different measures.
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Ethical Consideration
The study was guided by the AUB code of research ethics. The
study considered the privacy of the participants as well as their
freedom to withdraw from the study. Furthermore, the study
obtained consent from all participants before allowing them to
respond to all questions. In addition, all participants received an
informed consent paper approved by the IRB at the Lebanese
American University.
Workload Assessment
The study categorized the units of analysis into
dependent and independent measures or variables. The
dependent measures will consist of student life.(____) The study
measured student life in terms of academic performance, social
life, and mental health(stress). In specific, the study will use 0
for no and 1 for yes as well as administering the Perceived Stress
Scale among all participants to assess their current stress levels.
The independent variables were measured across different
academic overload and environmental factors. Academic
overloads will be measured around procrastination, student
Capacity, language difficulties, examinations, missing Lectures,
lower grades, and frustration due to misunderstanding.
Environmental factors were measured around future
expectations to find jobs, divorce between their parents, living
conditions at the university, and lack of breaks and vacations.
All independent measures were measured on a five-point Likert
scales.
Data and Statistical Analysis Procedure
Data analysis was conducted through SPSS. The analysis
covered frequencies and measures of central tendencies on
independent variables. Descriptive statistics show the number,
the mean, and standard deviation of Likert scales. Furthermore,
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R. Antonios/ How is Academic Overload linked to Stress Levels Among University students?

the study used multinomial regression to show the relationship

between academic overload and stress.

RESULTS Relationship Factors

Experienced Stress
Approximately 42.25 percent indicated that they their
More than half of the participants indicated that they had
stress was caused by working with new people. The
already experienced some stressful moment in their life while at
lowest number of participants were 13.38 percent and
school. More than 64.79 percent of the sample said yes while
7.75 percent who indicated that their stress was caused
only 22.54 percent indicated that they had not experienced any
by the parents and being in conflict with their
form of stress in the past one month. Only 12.68 percent of the
roommates respectively.
participants they did not know whether they had experienced any
form of stress.

Figure 2: Relationship Factors as Sources of Stress

Figure 1: Ever felt stressful over the last one month
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R. Antonios/ How is Academic Overload linked to Stress Levels Among University students?

Academic Factors
A majority feared getting lower grades (𝑀 = 1.57, 𝑆𝐷 =
1.0). Taking many hours to study was also found to cause stress
among the participants (𝑀 = 1.65, 𝑆𝐷 = .86). Increased level
of class workload through assignments made them become
stressful (𝑀 = 1.76, 𝑆𝐷 = .996). This also related to a majority
of participants who indicated to fear sitting for their
examinations (𝑀 = 1.76, 𝑆𝐷 = .96). when asked about
participation in their group work, few of the students also
indicated that participating in group works was more demanding
hence, increased the level of stress (𝑀 = 1.99, 𝑆𝐷 = .65). Some
also agreed that they got stressed when they missed lessons
(𝑀 = 2.26, 𝑆𝐷 = 1.10) and failed to understand lectures
(𝑀 = 2.36, 𝑆𝐷 = 1.22). However, participants could not
indicate whether language difficulties made them become
stressful or not (𝑀 = 3.22, 𝑆𝐷 = .84).

Table 1: Descriptive Statistics about Academic Factors

Academic Factors N Min Max Mean SD

Lower Grades 142 1 5 1.57 1.006
Many hours of Studies 142 1 5 1.65 .860
Increased class workload (Assignment) 142 1 5 1.76 .996
Examinations 142 1 5 1.76 .960
Lots of Group work 142 1 5 1.97 1.197
Procrastination 142 1 5 1.99 .658
Missing Lectures 142 1 5 2.26 1.102
Frustrations due to misunderstanding lectures 142 1 5 2.36 1.217
Language Difficulties 142 2 4 3.22 .835
Valid N (listwise) 142

Table 1 shows the measure that were tested among students

during a regular university semester.
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R. Antonios/ How is Academic Overload linked to Stress Levels Among University students?

Environmental Factors
Unrealistic expectation received the highest number of
agreements (𝑀 = 2.06, 𝑆𝐷 = 1.52). This was followed by
being worried to quit job or finding no job in future (𝑀 =
2.4, 𝑆𝐷 = 1.19). In addition, other environmental factors that
increased stress levels among the participants included findings
themselves in unfamiliar conditions (𝑀 = 2.78, 𝑆𝐷 = 1.70).

Table 2: Descriptive Statistics about Environmental Factors

Environmental Factors N Min Max Mean SD

Quit job or no job 142 1 4 2.49 1.195
Lack of computer and knowledge on computer 142 1 4 2.93 1.121
Bad living Conditions 142 1 5 3.09 1.336
Divorce between parents 142 1 5 3.97 1.249
fear of Not finding jobs 142 1 5 2.61 1.304
Unrealistic Expectations 142 1 5 2.06 1.526
Placed in unfamiliar Situations 142 1 5 2.78 1.706
Valid N (listwise) 142

Table 2 shows how environmental factors that affect stress levels

and academic performance.

Multinomial Regression

The study conducted a multinomial logistic regression to predict three independent variables (Academic factors, Environmental
the nominal dependent variable (ever experienced stress) against Factors, and Relationship Factors). The final row shows the
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R. Antonios/ How is Academic Overload linked to Stress Levels Among University students?

overall coefficients of the model as statistically significant at p

< 0.05. The fact that p = 0.031, it implies that the full model is
statistically significantly predicts the dependent variable.

Table 3: Multinomial Regression

Model Fitting Information

Model Model Fitting Criteria Likelihood Ratio Tests
-2 Log Likelihood Chi-Square df Sig.
Intercept Only 243.229
Final 229.380 13.850 6 .031

Table 4: Likelihood Ratio Test

Likelihood Ratio Tests

Effect Model Fitting Criteria Likelihood Ratio Tests
-2 Log Likelihood of Chi-Square df Sig.
Reduced Model
Intercept 230.317 .937 2 .626
Environmental Factors 230.925 1.546 2 .462
Academic Factors 236.936 7.556 2 .023
Relationship Factors 236.358 6.978 2 .031

A further analysis of Likelihood Ratio Test shown in table 2 above shows that Environmental factors were not statistically determinant
of workload stress among participants (p = 0.46). Only two factors including academic and relationship were statistically significantly
determinant of workload stress (p = 0.023) and (p = 0.031) respectively.

R. Antonios/ How is Academic Overload linked to Stress Levels Among University students?
DISCUSSION
The present study illustrates how academic overload affects the
majority of university students and as a result increases stress
levels. This study indicates that the majority of the students have
high levels of stress during the semester due to many academic
stressors. A study conducted at the Massey University indicates
that majority of the students who require counseling for stress or
burn out normally does so when approaching exam time or when
many assignments that are due at the same time. Students
workload and burnout is linked to feelings of emotional
exhaustion and cynicism. A person that has burnout may feel
hopeless and helpless and may be irritable. Irritability may cause
a person to have conflict with people around them especially
when they do not understand their behavior fully (Centre, 2010).
Stress has been generally identified as the central area of concern
where the months of October and November recorded the
highest number of calls. (Collins, 2001). The findings of the
study indicated that examinations were the main reason that
caused students stress. In addition, there are students who
indicated that they were dissatisfied with the quality of
relationship they were having with their parents and guardians
around the examination time. Frustration over arising pessimism
and feelings of helplessness cause the individual give up at a
certain point. Students especially may feel that they have
accomplished very little in their academic work due to burnout.
Feelings of helplessness discourages them not to attempt tasks
or take up challenges. Due to the high levels of stress many
students reported that it is not worth it to study or engage in
academic activities. Stress among students at AUB might lead to
development of many psychological problems where one of the
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main symptoms is isolation which could lead to depression.
People with burnout tend to isolate themselves further fueling
negative emotions. Burned out individuals may not really have
an active social life due to academic overload. Therefore,
acknowledgement of the burnout symptoms by the student is the
first action when it comes to the process of reducing stress and
seeking appropriate help is the second action that will help
relieve tension. A first limitation of the study is that 206
participants were recruited however only 142 successfully
completed the study. A second limitation is that the study was
done at AUB and as a result it is not generalizable to other
institutions as each institution has different academic strategies
A third implication is diversity in the institution, the study was
conducted among two departments only, the education and the
medical department as a result it would require a bigger sample
to discover the burnout inclination in students within separate
departments. A fourth limitation is the high dropout rate, 206
participants were recruited however 64 participants dropped out.
Future research
A longitudinal research would enable the researcher to discover
which are the most stressing moments of the year as well as take
into account how the student is trying to live with the demand
that he/she faces. Moreover, a longitudinal study would allow
the discovery of students who have dropped out of college. If the
student’s identity is not revealed, then this process will be
impossible. The student’s name and contact information have to
be given upfront during the initial stages of the study. The
students will be contacted through departmental enrolments of
any given college. Students are different when it comes to social
skills, organizing their time, capabilities, and the ability to make
new friends. Through a bigger student population, further
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R. Antonios/ How is Academic Overload linked to Stress Levels Among University students?

studies will consider the preference of burnout/stress in several Bateman, T. S. 1981. Work overload. Business Horizons, 24(5), 23-27.
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Bedwey and Gabriel (2015. Health Psychol Open. 2015 Jul; 2(2):
Acknowledgment
2055102915596714. Published online 2015 Jul 30. doi:
10.1177/2055102915596714
Thank you to AUB for allowing me to conduct my study at their
university. Beery AK, Kaufer D. Stress, social behavior, and resilience: Insights from
rodents. Neurobiology of Stress. 2015;1:116-127.
Thank you to the Education and Medical department for their doi:10.1016/j.ynstr.2014.10.004.
assistance.
Bernstein, D.A, Penner, L.A, Stewart, A.C & Roy, E.J. 2008. Psychology.
Thank you to all students who participated in this study. 8thed.. Boston - New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Centre, K. C. 2010. Stress and Stress Management. London: Press books.

Davidson, J. 2001. Stress Management. Macmillan USA: A Person

Education Company.
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Murff. S. (2017). The impact of stress on academic success in college

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