Stressing Factors that Primarily Affects Grade

Performances of Male and Females

Students of NLAC during the 1st
Semester S.Y 2019-2020

A Thesis
Presented to the faculty of
NORTHERN LUZON ADVENTIST COLLEGE
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
ARTACHO, SISON PANGASINAN

In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for
Research in Science Technology and Society

Adrian S. Caingat
Venes Ruth T. De Gracia
Chaiselle Joie G. Dotimas
Heidi Liza D. Velasquez
Judilyn M. Pequiro
Ailyn C. Sagucio
Justine Carl C. Jose

February 2020
 CHAPTER 1

BACKGROUND AND ITS STUDY

INTRODUCTION

School homework, extra-curricular activities, sleep, repeat .That’s what it can be

for some of those students. Stress is a prevalent issue on High School or even

college, and it is a persistent feature of High School student’s experience. There

are so many causes of stress and there are also a ways on how the students

cope it, stress is known as a disturbing force that upsets a person’s equilibrium

(Judith and Ruan Hoe 2003) and results in physical reactions such as body

aches and loss of concentration (C. Shannon, Dattle and Jeandris,2006).

Similarly, stress not only influences the memory but also the flexible thinking of

human being. Females have their time and ways to cope their stress behaviors,

yet they suffer greater anxiety (McKean et al, 2000) and more vulnerable to self-

imposed stresses among students in their grades and it is seen that as the

deadline approaches, they say that females show greater stress (Shukla et al,

2003) than males. Major life transitions, such as leaving home and then entering

in entirely new environment creates stress on students. Leaving old friends and

making new one is quite stressful for female students. The stress system

coordinates the generalized response, which takes place when a stressor of any

kind exceeds a main component’s. Activation of the stress leads to behavioral

and peripheral changes that improve the ability of human to increase its chance

for survival. There have exponential increase in knowledge regarding the

 interactions brain elements involved in the regulation of emotion, and behavior,

as well as with the growth, and immunity.

Small amount of stress maybe desired, beneficial, and even healthy. Positive

stress helps improve performance it also plays a factor in motivation, excessive

stress amount. However, may lead to bodily harm stress can increase the risk of

heart attacks, or perceive things as threatening , when they do not believe that

their resources for coping with obstacles a very overlooked side of stress is its

positive adoptions. Psychology says that Psychological stress can lead to

motivation and challenge instead of anxiety. Everybody knows what stress is and

nobody knows what it is. The word stress, like success, failure or happiness

means different things to different people and, except for a few specialized

scientists no one has really tried to define it although it has become part of our

daily life vocabulary (Ford et al, 2009). It is effort, fatigue, pannier, the need of

concentration, humiliation of censure, loss of blood, or even an unexpected

success that requires complete reformulation of one’s life? The answer is yes

and no. That is what makes the definition of stress so difficult. Every one of these

conditions can produce stress, and yet none of us can be singled out as being it

since the word applies equally to all others well. Stress is non- specific response

of the body to any demand made upon it. In order to understand, we must

comprehend what is meant by non- specified of our body is in a sense unique.

Stress describes a person’s physical or emotional response to demands or

pressures that they may experience from time to time..This time stresses are
 more likely to be psychological in origin and prolonged in nature. Students deal

with stress in different ways and the capacity to deal with. “There are certain

activities which we called corneal, e.g. magnitude, figure, motion, and all those

that cannot be thought of apart from extension into space; and the substance in

which they exist is called “body”. Further, there are other activities, which we call

thinking activities, e.g. understanding, willing, imagining, feeling, et cetera, which

agree in following under the description of thought, perception, or consciousness.

The substance in which they reside we call the thinking part or “mind”. Today the

amount of empirical evidence to support the mind-body unification is

overwhelming what goes on in the mind of an individual certainly does affect this

body. And what goes on his body does affect his mind. Stress is a length in

many and the non –specific response of the body to any demand and the

stressor is that produces stress.

The physical stress is any physical demand made on the mind-body to adapt.

Student stress is closely linked to strain and irritated, strain is any unpleasant

behavioral, psychological or physiological outcome in a student. In general,

strain is the result of an interactional between a person and their environment.

Knowledge is stressor adaptability. Today’s dangerous volitional stressors can be

only being neutralized with knowledge. Knowledge comes from thinking, and the

emotion which maximizes man’s thinking is an emotion rarely felt by modern

humankind “calm. For humans to reason at their best, the think most intelligently

they must be calm, not angry or afraid. For individual humans, the most

destructive stressors we face are the maladaptive negative emotional stressors.

It is possible for most humans to learn to control their emotions to the extent that

an individual can decide when they will have emotional response, how much of

an emotional response they will have, and how long they will maintain that

emotional response. This level of emotional stability can free humankind from the

diseases of modern living.” Stress arises from uncertainly in an unknown

situation when a lack of information creates the risk of negative consequences of

your actions. It increases efficiency in the actively changing environment.

The stress generated from a situation is based on a large part on the way the

affected subject perceives ;perception depend upon multiplicity of factors

including basic individuals needs and longings, earlier conditioning, influences

and a host of life experiences and cultural pressures. The particular adaptive

pattern evoked by a noxious agent or threat is the resultant of the past life

experience. Which conditions individuals to react in specific ways? It is difficult to

conceive of an adequate theory of stress which does not involve in some way.

Psychological elements of perception and cognition ;and those elements in turn

would seem to require than attention be given to the environment context or the

event structure within when life changes occur as well as attributes of the

individuals roles ,personality and cultural ,past experience, aspiration and his

role.

Aspiration and his physical and mental states of health as they relate such life

changes, their interpretation and emotional, physiological and behavioral

responses which may be evoked. Stressors are extremely important to all living

system without stressors, living system has no purpose. This is especially true for
humans; stated another way, without goals humans have no purpose, the power

of individual stressor adaptability for individual man. Individuals have longer

goals have continually demonstrated their ability to resist stressors in more

effective way. Many of the most important humans of the species in terms of the

importance of their achievements to civilization has been longest lived. Academic

stress rendered less harmful and instead transformed into opportunities for

growth development. The hardy student may thus even proper and thrive the

pressure faced within this his demanding environment. Student’s affair

professional to identify students having difficulties with academic, social,

emotional and attachment adjustment. Challenge and control on the relationship

between stress and depression. Stress was found to be a significant predictor of

depression. In the stress –distress relationship, hardiness did not interact with

stress had independent main effects on students. Although high stress students,

compared low stress students, did not appraise positive events as having greater

impact, they perceived the negative events had significant less impact. In

addition, low hardy students reported using passive and avoidant coping

strategies significantly more frequently than high stress students. . Subjects

completed questionnaires concerning goals, performance on cognitive task at

school, beliefs about responsiveness of the environments in accomplishing

goals, beliefs concerning personal control over accomplishment, extracurricular

activities, and social relationships. Resilient subjects had several goals, higher

cognitive –ability, social ability, and environment support beliefs than did non –

resilient subjects. Composite of interrelated attitudes of commitment, control, and

 challenge that facilitates the management of stress circumstances by turning

them to growth –inducing rather than debilitating experiences. Stress is a

characteristic of personality, conceived as a relevant factor of successful

accommodation in demanding stressful situations. Strategies of stress where

observed as certain concrete routines of behavior in stressful situations. These

routines represented three main categories avoidance, emotion–oriented and

problem –oriented. Secondary School students revealed that the hardy people

have the tendency to prefer active solutions of events and at the same time they

reject routines representing avoidance. The hardiness at the students begin

second academic year and subsequently monitored their performance. Upon the

degree completion showed students high on hardiness achieved a higher mean

dissertation mark that students low on stress , and the students adolescent

experienced moderate stress followed by high level of stress in the categories of

family stress, ego threat, bereavement, personal set back coping styles and

moderate to high levels of positive coping styles. There is any significant

difference in the level of perceived stress among the students at the beginning,

middle and end of the semester. The students did experience stress but at a

moderate level. Motivation can be defined as the driving force behind all the

actions of an individual. The influence of an individual’s needs and desires both

have a strong impact on the direction of their behavior. Motivation is based on

our emotions and achievement related goals. There are different forms of

motivation including extrinsic, intrinsic, and physiological and environment

motivation. There are also negative forms of motivation. Achievement motive

include the need for achievement and the fear of the failure. These are the more

predominant motives that direct our behavior toward positive and negative

outcomes. Student’s performance measured by exam, term projects, and class

participation, was notably improved, as compared with the performance of

students taught in traditional ways. Family, friends and teachers influenced

students, it will serve as their motivation, inspiration and they are the one who

gave them a support. Indicated also the academic support was positively related

to their stress if there is no communication at all. Students related to relevant

psychological construct; academic motivation and values. Ten meaning

emerged; career preparation, independence, finding directions for the future,

learning and self-development, taking the next step, making social connections,

changing the world, stress and escape stress in interesting word. Most of the

people have no difficulty saying when they are under stress and attributing all

problems to stress. But educationalist and psychologist have considerable

default in defining stress and have tended to avoid the concept, as it is too

global. Stress combines the external stimulus, the life events and the host of the

individual responses to the stimulus, such as anxiety or depression . Stress

regulation in students is important for understanding the development and

prevention of psychopathology. Research evidence suggests that cumulative life

stress increases risk for emotional and behavioral problems such as negative

views of the self, problematic interpersonal relationships and stressful life

experience. These development costs of emotional distress then put students at

risk for further symptoms and lifetime difficulties . Stress may be considered as
any physical,chemical, emotional factor that causes bodily or mental unrest and

that maybe a factor in disease causation. Physical and chemical factors that can

cause stress,include trauma,infections, toxins, ,illnesses and injuries of any sort.

Emotional causes of stress and tension are numerous and varied . If stress

disrupts body balance and function, then is all stress bad ? Not necessarily a

mild degree of stress and strain can sometimes be beneficial. For example

,feeling mildly stressed when carrying out a project or assignment often compels

us to a good job, focus better and work energetically. Likewise, exercising can

produce a temporary stress on some body functions, but its health benefits are

indisputable. It is only when stress is overwhelming or poorly managed, that its

negative effects appear. We can learn to manage stress so that we have control

over our stress and its effects on our physical mental health, creating enabling

outdoor environment support young children’s health, wellbeing, development

and learning. Stress may be induced from different sources like interpersonal

issue, deep emotions are involved. Inherent to the ancient Indian system of

education has been it’s healthy teacher-student bonding. Large class strength

and unrealistic workload on teachers in the school are the major causes of lack

of healthy personal communication teachers and the students. Personality

related stress, personality characteristics of an individual to a large extent are

responsible for appraising a situation as a stressful otherwise fear of failure ,

committing mistakes. An individual’s value system is closely related to feeling of

guilt and feeling of not being good enough. Environmental stress, living or

studying in an uncomfortable physical environment may be stress inducing.

 Excessive noise, heat, lack of ventilation, unhygienic surrounding, crowded or

environment with strong smell or lack of light may cause stress and lower work

efficiency either in students or in teachers. For instance, after a hectic drive in

heavy traffic, one may find it very difficult to immediately switch over an important

presentation or lecture in the classroom. Change induced stress is one major

potential of change to induced stress in the form of fear of change. The main

reason of change-induced stress is the fear of the unknown. Stress caused by

system issues, it is refers to any organization, family, school or other social

enterprises in which an individual functions the stress related to system has

become highly relevant in society in the context of changing demands in the

family and school. Stress can be explained as a process to overcome stressors

i.e demands made on an individual. Whether the stressful experiences have

negative physical and psychological effects, depends upon the individual

handling of the situation or the use of strategies. Stress is important for our

survival; it affects the individual and the organization too. Sometimes, it is

stimulating and also beneficial. “ Each individuals need a moderate amount of

stress to be alert and capable of functioning effectively in an organization”. It is

only when stress that can affect their performance and health and even threaten

their ability to cope with the environment. Strategies is considered as an

important resource that can help individuals to maintain psychological adaption

during a stressful episode.

 Students in secondary school in Philippines, stress can be caused from variety

situations. Stress often comes when students have difficult negotiating various

aspects of interactions with teachers or from any circumstances that are

considered demanding, depriving of time, and interfering with instruction. Stress

can best be explained by categorizing factors into first and second order

stressors. Stressors that occur most frequently tend to be organizational issues

dealing with students. Second order stressors do not directly with the student and

can include issues such as low grades, boredom and loss of motivation and

enthusiasm. Interpersonal relationships can also be grouped into the stressors of

the students because it is refer to relationship with others and with fellow

students within their community and educational environment. The common

stressors of this group are conflict with family, financial and lack of moral support

from parents and relatives. Student stressors can also be broken down into the

environment and individual stressors. Most stressors can be found in the Grades,

test, paper works, classes, family financial, relationships between girl friend and

boy friend, lack of support and decision making. Individual characteristics include

the unique attributes of students such as personality, age, gender, background;

individual stress also can be associated with compatibility between personal and

educational values, ambition to succeed, sensitivity, competitiveness and

perfection. Students have varied responses to stress.

A response on by stress stimuli which are organizational characteristics that

initiate a stress reaction in a given setting. While others develop other strategies,

experience change in behavior, emotional responses, physical and physiological

response. Some also have an emotional response to unwanted stress. The most

common feeling of emotion that occurs is anger, and self blame. Students

experience anger more than any other feeling as a consequence of stress and is

often expressed with strong negative feeling directed towards others. Stress can

also lead to students being in a depressive state. This is when student have a

general feeling of being out of control, and belief that they have little probability of

improving their situation. In this state, students may also show signs of personal

accomplishment, and a decrease in self-efficacy. Feelings of anxiety are mostly

anticipatory and often occur when students become patient and may even

become unrealistically biased in their assessment as learner, which can result in

negative outcomes for others and themselves. Self-blame results in students

expressing anger towards self, feelings of guilt, and feelings of self-pity.

Overtime, self-blame can remove students emotionally and socially from others.

A loss of enthusiasm may also causing students to lessen elaboration of subject

matter and etc. Stress may also elicit a physical or physiological response. Some

physical symptoms of stress include tiredness, headaches, stomachaches, chest

pains, sleepiness, trembling hands, shortness of breath, dizziness, restlessness,

loss of appetite. Some physiological symptoms of stress include a heart rate,

irregular heartbeat, and nervousness.

Developing positive responses to stress will allow students to be more satisfied

with their role as students and be more effective teenagers in the society. A

decrease in study satisfaction results in students being less involved and

motivated, causing students to demonstrate feelings of boredom, irritability,

anger, helplessness, and depression. Finding positive ways to handle stress will

allow students to maintain their drive and commitment, thus making them

continue to put effort needed to being involved, satisfied and effective students. A

proper response to stress via stress management techniques and healthy coping

mechanisms keep students actively involved in what they are trying to

accomplish and allows them to fully invest themselves with the school and

society. Common positive strategies students useful alleviate stress include

exercise, social resources, reading hobbies, movement, and meditation. These

strategies used by students helped them and affect their outlook on the situation.

Thereby altering the perception of stress. Students may invoke inward and

outward strategies. Inward strategies, such as concentrating on something

narrow in the field of stimuli around oneself, include seeking stillness and focus.

Outward strategies such as exercise, reading and etc. Although there are many

common strategies available, most students rely on moral support active

planning and positive outlooks. Students seek support from family, friends, and in

order to receive advice, discuss feelings, get emotional support, get sympathy

and understanding, and to talk about their personal lives tend to experience less

stress in studying. Active planning, although a part of study, allows student to

take their mind of stress and focus on their study. Active planning involves

concentrating efforts, developing a plan, taking some action, coming up with

strategies, trying to take steps, and doing what has to be done in order to keep

attention on the study rather than the stressors. Restorative experiences refer to

students being able to release stress in places away from school environment.
Places chosen by students choose most often that make them feel better when

stressed include home, nature related outdoor places, city places, churches and

cafes. These environments are helpful in relieving stress because they provide

students with sensory conditions and nature related environmental features,

which can help students alleviate stress. Student’s awareness of possible

environmental conditions can be a very valuable resource. Their knack to change

these settings, in order to achieve personal goals is referred environmental

competence.

The most common environmental resources that are easily available to students

include time and social ties. Some people, either intentionally or unintentionally,

employ negative strategies to deal with stress. Negative strategies are common

responses to stress and feelings of being overwhelmed. Although these

strategies can provide temporary stress relief, they can cause more stress in the

long run. Negative coping strategies can include unhealthy behaviors,

distractions, violence, and withdrawal. Unhealthy behaviors such as smoking,

drinking alcohol, excessively over/under eating, and drug abuse are sometimes

used to relieve stress. Distractions such as televisions, computer and filling up

schedules. To avoid facing problems are common ways to avoid stress. Violence

such as angry outbursts, lashing out, and physical violence often come about if a

situation becomes too stressful. Showing signs of withdrawal such as sleeping,

procrastinating, and withdrawing from family, friends, and activities

disengagement are ways in which people try to remove stress from their lives.

Disengagement refers to students giving up on goals in which stressor is

 interfering with. Students who are disengaged resort to negative coping skills

such as not trying, engaging other activities , day dreaming ,sleeping ,watching

television and reducing their efforts. Disengagement can be applied immediately

and without the help of others, but is only a short-term solution. Suppression of

competing behaviors refers to students putting aside all activities in their lives so

that they can concentrate solely on study. Students have tendency to prevent

distraction, focus on study and concentrate more on their thoughts on study in

order to suppress competing activities. Lessening the demand of other aspects of

life and only focusing on study leads to students having an increased perception

of stress level, which prevents them from taking time to relax.

 CHAPTER 2

Research Methodology

This chapter presents the research method that was did in this study. It also

discussed the Observation/ Result and Analysis, Conclusion, Recommendation

and Documentation.

I. Observation/ Result and Analysis

Male 8 3 3 14/3 4.67

Female 4 4 3 11/3 3.67

The researchers found out that the top three highest Factors of Stress from Male

respondents are the following: Test, money, and relationship. While in Female

respondents, the top three highest Factors of Stress are : High expectation,

money and time management.

II. Rate of their Personal Stress

Male 7 70%

Female 6 60%

There is no difference about the Rate of respondents Personal Stress. Both Male

and Female have the AVERAGE level.

 III. Do they work under Stress?

Male No 13%

Female Yes 0.09%

Presented in this table that male has thirteen percent from no, while

female has zero point zero nine percent from yes.

IV. How do they feel they are at pleasant level of stress?

Male Female

Tired 5% Tired 12%

Emotional 3% Irritable 11%

Headache 2% Worrying 9%

Presented in this table those feeling of the respondents when they are stress. In

male they feel tired, emotional and headache, while in female they also feel tired,

irritable and worrying when they are at the level of Stress.

V. How they cope with Stress?

Male Female

Playing 5% Talk Friends 13%

Eat 3% Hobby 10%

Read 2% Reading 6%
 In this table, the coping mechanism of the respondent is presented. The

powerful coping mechanisms of male are playing, eat, and read. While the

female are, talking friends, hobbies, and reading.

VI. How effective the respondents coping mechanism?

Male Female

Okay 7% good 6%

In this table, the affectivity of coping mechanism of male is okay and from female

is good.

Conclusion

1. There is a relationship of Stress Factors between Male and Female .

2. There is no difference about the Rate of respondents Personal Stress.

Both Male and Female have the AVERAGE level.

3. Female are more stressful than male.

4. In male they feel tired, emotional and headache, while in female it has a

high percentage of the following, they also feel tired, irritable and worrying

when they are at the level of Stress.

5. There is a difference of coping mechanism between male and female.

6. The affectivity of coping mechanism of male is okay and from female is

good.
RECOMMENDATIONS

Since female has a high level of stress, the researchers recommended the

following.

1. Give yourself a break

2. Listen to your favorite music

3. Inhale and Exhale

4. Sleep 8-9 hours

5. Warm up such as exercise/ eat favorite foods

6. Power nap

7. Watching favorite/ funny video

8. Sketching or drawing

9. Composing song or poems

10. Bonding with your family

11. Shake your hands

12. Look into the nature

13. Laugh out loud

14. Be optimistic
 Documentation

February 3, 2020

January 29,2020 January 29,2020

January 29,2020

February 5,2020

February 6,2020