THE ACADEMIC STRESS AND ITS IMPACTS ON THE MENTAL HEALTH OF STEM STUDENTS
IN SLU LHS-SH
BARNACHEA, Rean; CASTRO, Joss; TANGALIN, Jericho; BAUTISTA, Yvonne; CALIMLIM, Clary;
LOCLOC, Mariedale; MANLIGAS, Rochie; OBAR, Ruth; SACRIZ, Julianne; SIM, Rioja
11 STEM K - ST. ATHANASIUS
RESEARCH
11 STEM DESIGN
K – ST. ATHANASIUS
This study is designed as a combination
of quantitative and qualitative, known as mixed-
method. In the study, sequential exploratory
design will be used specifically. Senior High
School Students are experiencing difficulties
because of several stressors affecting their
mental health, therefore, the researchers will use
phenomenology to determine certain situations
about the mental health issues of students and to
further understand it. In addition, descriptive
analysis and content analysis will be used to
analyze quantitative and qualitative data,
respectively.
CONTEXT AND PARTICIPANTS
The study will be conducted at Saint
Louis University Laboratory High School Senior
High. Since this study covers Grade 11 STEM
students, the researchers decided to focus on
Senior High School students of SLU-LHS-SH.
The researchers decided to select the participants
from the STEM strand not just because they have
the highest number of subjects, but because
based on observations, they have the greatest
number of requirements that hugely contributes
to academic stress. The STEM strand in Grade
11 includes 16 sections and the participants in
each section will be purposively picked with a
maximum number of 10, with 5 girls and 5 boys.
RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS
The researchers will consider valid
references and review of related literatures in the
study to improve their knowledge and their
current practice. The researchers will gather data
based on their experiences and observations of
the things that is happening in their environment.
Interviews and questionnaires will be used to
gather data. Interviews help you explain, better
understand, and explore research subjects'
opinions, behavior, experiences, phenomenon,
etc. Since interviews usually include open-ended
questions, it will provide the researchers with an
in-depth information about the phenomenon. In
this study, the researchers will make use of semi-
structured interviews, wherein the interview
guide is followed but the researchers are allowed
to stray away from it when necessary. On the
other hand, questionnaires can be an effective
means of measuring the behavior, attitudes,
preferences, opinions and, intentions of
relatively large numbers of subjects more
cheaply and quickly than other methods.
DATA COLLECTION
The researchers will construct a formal
letter explaining the purpose of the study and
where the study will be conducted and will
obtain the approval of the research instructor.
After obtaining the approval of the research
instructor, the researchers will also ask for the
consent of the participants/interviewees. If the
approval of the interviewees were obtained, the
study will proceed and will be conducted at Saint
Louis University Laboratory High School Senior
High. The respondents will be asked to
participate and are allowed to refuse if the need
arises. Prior to the interview, the researchers will
assure the participants that the data, specifically
the identity of the participants, will be kept
confidential. The researchers will interview each
respondent regarding their experiences the
previous month that caused them stress,
specifically in the academic aspect. After the
data from the interviews are compiled,
transcribed and coded, the researchers will come
up with a questionnaire that will help strengthen
the credibility of the qualitative data. After two
weeks, the researchers will distribute the
questionnaires to the previous participants. The
questionnaires will be collected and the data will
be interpreted with the use of the Percentage
Frequency Distribution. The said method is
useful for expressing the relative frequency of
survey responses.

DATA ANALYSIS

The transcribed data collected from the

interviews will be analyzed with the use of
content analysis. Content analysis is a research
tool used to determine the presence of certain
words, themes, or concepts within some given
qualitative data. It is useful in making inferences
about the messages within the texts. For the data
collected from the questionnaires, it will be
analyzed with the use of descriptive analysis.
Descriptive statistics is used to simply describe
what is or what the data shows and help simplify
large amounts of data.