NIRMA UNIVERSITY

INSTITUTE OF LAW

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

LEGAL METHODS – 2BL113

TOPIC-ACADEMIC STRESS ON COLLEGE

STUDENTS

SUBMITTED TO SUBMITTED BY

ASST. PROF. BISHWA K DASH AKSHITA MODI

18BBL004

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INTRODUCTION

People earlier use to assume that only student population is there who is away from stress.
Education was the only task a student is assumed to perform and people thought how
education could be stressful. But expectations from the outside world made education
stressful.

Nowadays stress is the most common disused topic in general. Whatever the cause of stress
may be it has a significant impact on human life.

This research is to know the causes of academic stress on students. This research is done by
analysing six different variables that are work load, exam fear, fear of low grades, different
teaching methodology, and parental pressure.

Nowadays education plays a vital role in human growth and development. And
modernisation of education has invited stress in the human life as modern life is full of
demands, frustrations, hassles and deadlines. According to many case studies stress is one of
the major impediment in academic performance of students. Many cases are there where
children get sick, disturbed, get mental illness and even commit suicides. There are many
factors which contribute to stress in student life. Studying such factors can help to find
solutions for students to manage stress and improve their performance.

Stress is basically the way in which our body respond or react to the demand. Factors causing
stress can be personal, social, and environmental. As each individual has different
personality, different social groups the personal and social factors causing stress varies from
person to person. The factors like work load; fear of exams, fear of low grades (competition),
teaching methodology and parental pressure are some of the environmental factors causing
stress among the students. Majorly the academic stress prone students are the fresher’s as
they are not used to the changing environment around them. Students who move for higher
education also face major stress problems as they feel they are alone. Negative impact of
stress causes physical and psychological impairment in students.

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RESEARCH PROBLEM

As undoubtedly stress has become the one of the major reported impediment in the academic
performance of students. Many studies show that the major stress to students is due to
academic pressure. And factors for academic stress are various. Many surveys which are
conducted show that academic stress has lead to high suicide rates among the college
students. The basic reason for the research is to find out the various causes of academic stress
on the basis of several factors which are work load, exam fear, fear of low grades, different
teaching methodology, and parental pressure.

OBJECTIVE OF RESEARCH

General objective of this research is to identify the factors causing stress to the students. And
to meet the general objective the study will focus on the following;

 To identify the cause of stress among the students

 To identify specific areas of stress
 To identify various possible solutions

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LITERATURE REVIEW

As far as stress is concerned it is discussed in a wide range of topics in relation with students
and various researches have been done in this regard. Stress related to students can be
categorised as academic, financial, time and health related. Academic stressors include
perception of inadequate time for the development of extensive knowledge base. The
literature states that students report experiencing academic stress at predictable times
resulting from taking and studying for fear of exams, lower grades and time management.
Reports state that females in college experienced greater stress than the male students.
Literature tells about the significant predictors of stress which include frequency of
experiencing chronic illness, depression, anxiety disorder and sleep difficulties.

According to the literature academic stress was considered a possible predictor of educational
self-adequacy among female undergraduates. Researchers have researched for a long about
academic stress among the students and identified many factors for the stress including too
many assignments, competition with peers, fear of failure, financial problem, poor
relationship with peers or lecturers and problems at home. Also the pressure to perform well
in the examination along with managing the time makes the academic environment stressful.
And these things affect the social relationships as there are conflicts with the social aspect of
ones life. And also it has impact on the achievement of goals. Researchers identified the
causes of stress in work environment as long sitting hours, poor performance, poor
interpersonal relationships, lack of resources and insufficient time to perform assignments.
The literatures say the college administrators must develop appropriate strategies that will
enable them to detect in advance the stress causing factors among the students. Many
researchers have identified lack of energy, high blood pressure, trouble in concentrating, and
restlessness as some of the factors of academic stress.

Research say that students can manage their stress level by starting large tasks well before
due dates, breaking down large tasks in small one and making proper schedule for small
tasks. As students ignore these techniques they find themselves in stress during exams.
Academic stress can result both positive and negative consequences if not managed well.

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METHODOLOGY

As the purpose of the research is to study the causes of quantitative method which involve
data collection, interpreting and pitting the results of the study down. research. Collecting
data would be the primary method and then questionnaire would be used. And close ended
question will help in data analysis. Predetermined data could be collected with the help of the
questionnaire. And the questionnaire will have questions based on the variables present in the
research. The questionnaire would be pre tested. The target people for this research are the
college students as they are easily approachable. Secondary data for the research will be
collected from the already existing records i.e. published articles and electronic sources.
Questionnaire will be designed with both open and close ended questions formed in simple
language. The published reports helped in analysing the pre existing data.

Limitations

The limitations for my research could be

 not much expertise in research

 lack of time
 data from limited students
 analysis may be wrong

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