Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents an extensive review of literature related to the present investigation.

Concepts and theories of the perceived stress and coping strategies among accountancy students

are presented, all having relevance to the study undertaken.

Literature

As COVID-19 unfolds, many researchers have been trying to think about the economic

impact from a historical perspective. Several studies have pointed out that stress and anxiety are

major factors that affect university students' lives and mental health (Auerbach & Gramling,

1997; Brennan, 2008; Kummer, Cardoso, & Teixeira, 2010). Moreover, studies by educational

psychologists have consistently increased the interest in identifying factors pertaining to stress

and anxiety among students (Auerbach & Gramling, 1997; Robotham & Julian, 2006).

According to Reddy, Menon, and Thattil’s (2018) stress and anxiety are considered a part of

student life, owing to many personal, family and contextual expectations placed upon students.

Other authors suggest that, while stress is present among all students because of their workloads,

adolescent students are more vulnerable to academic stress owing to changes that take place in

their lives both personally and socially (Reddy, Menon, & Thattil, 2018). Various other factors

that affect student stress levels include the fear of academic failure, relationships with teachers,

large class sizes, the education system, mode of performance assessment, long school hours, and

heavy syllabuses (Agolla & Ongori, 2009; Mahajan, 2010; Sreeramareddy, Shankar, Binu,

Mukhopadhyay, Ray, & Menezes, 2007; Deb et al., 2015, in Reddy et al., 2018). Other factors

that have been identified as having an impact on students’ stress levels also include financial

problems, environmental changes, and difficulties in managing academic and personal life
(Byron, Brun, & Ivers, 2008; Chernomas & Shapiro, 2013; Goff, 2011; Jimenez, Navia-Osorio,

& Diaz, 2010; Moscaritolo, 2009, in Reddy et al., 2018).

Anxiety and stress have also been observed to interact with specific learning skills, such

as time management, concentration, learning methods, and motivation to study (Congos, 2010;

Asikainen, Hailikari, & Mattsoon, 2018; Agolla & Ongori, 2008). These factors can affect

students' academic performance (Britton & Tesser, 1991) and can also increase the level of

anxiety and stress in students (Ayesha & Khurshid, 2013; Numan & Hasan, 2017). Further, it has

been confirmed that the mental health of young people, levels of anxiety and stress, and their

academic performance are affected by the lack of emotional support and communication, factors

related to their families such as domestic violence, or other difficulties they encounter in their

family relationships (Pinto et al., 2014, in Hyseni Duraku, Kelmendi, & Jemini, 2018).

Eight publications, including commentaries (n = 4) and correspondence (n = 5) addressed

the potential mental health impact of COVID-19 on the general population, based on literature

from previous disease outbreaks or specified theoretical models. There was greater geographical

diversity in this group of publications, with papers originating from China, Canada, Iran, Japan,

Singapore and Brazil. Two of these papers examined the likely impact of the COVID-19

pandemic in specific countries. One of these, from Iran (Zandifar and Badrfam, 2020)

highlighted the role of unpredictability, uncertainty, seriousness of the disease, misinformation

and social isolation in contributing to stress and mental morbidity. The authors highlighted the

need for both mental health services, particularly for vulnerable populations, and the

strengthening of social capital to reduce the adverse psychological impact of the outbreak.

Another, from Japan (Shigemura et al., 2020), emphasised the economic impact of COVID-19

and its effects on well-being, as well as the likely high levels of fear and panic behaviour, such as
hoarding and stockpiling of resources, in the general population. This paper also identified

populations at higher risk of adverse mental health outcomes, including patients with COVID-19

and their families, individuals with existing physical or psychiatric morbidity, and healthcare

workers.

Of the remaining papers, one pointed out that the wide scope and spread of COVID-19

could lead to a true mental health crisis, especially in countries with high case loads (Dong and

Bouey, 2020) which would require both large-scale psychosocial crisis interventions and the

incorporation of mental health care in disaster management plans in the future. In a related report

(Duan and Zhu, 2020) it was pointed out that while Western countries have incorporated

psychological interventions into their protocols for disease outbreaks, this has not yet happened

in countries such as China, leading to the emergence and persistence of stress-related disorders in

affected persons. The paper also offered suggestions for the development of intervention

strategies, which will be summarized in section 3.5 below. In contrast, Bao et al. (2020)

highlighted the services that were already being provided in China, and also provided a list of

strategies for the general public to minimize outbreak-related stress: (1) assessment of the

accuracy of information, (2) enhancing social support, (3) reducing the stigma associated with

the disease, (4) maintaining as normal a life as feasible while adhering to safety measures, (5)

use of available psychosocial services, particularly online services, when needed. Such methods,

in their opinion, would empower society to handle the COVID-19 outbreak in an adaptive

manner. Similar strategies were reiterated in a paper from Singapore (Ho et al., 2020) which also

discussed the role of improved screening for mental disorders, improving links between

community and hospital services, and providing accurate information to the general public in

order to minimize maladaptive responses such as “panic” and paranoia regarding the disease and
its transmission. Finally, a brief review paper (Lima et al., 2020) highlighted the role of anxiety

as the dominant emotional response to an outbreak, and the need for adequate training of

healthcare personnel and the optimal use of technological advances to deliver mental health care.

In contrast to the above literature on practical considerations, two papers from Canada

(Asmundson and Taylor, 2020a, b) have discussed the mental health impact of COVID-19 from

the point of view of health anxiety. Health anxiety, which arises from the misinterpretation of

perceived bodily sensations and changes, can be protective in everyday life. However, during an

outbreak of infectious disease, particularly in the presence of inaccurate or exaggerated

information from the media, health anxiety can become excessive. At an individual level, this

can manifest as maladaptive behaviours (repeated medical consultations, avoiding health care

even if genuinely ill, hoarding particular items); at a broader societal level, it can lead to mistrust

of public authorities and scapegoating of particular populations or groups. The authors underline

the need for evidence-based research into health anxiety and its determinants, so that valid

individual- and population-level strategies can be developed to minimize it in the face of the

COVID-19 pandemic and future outbreaks of a similar nature.

The causes of student stress are numerous and varied. High potential students can be

exposed to stress due to so many stressors, such as academic reasons, financial problems, health

problems, or the loss of close family members or friends. In the study of psychology, academic

stress can be interpreted as an emotional or mental state that is commonly felt by someone in

their study period. This is in line with Carveth's study, which defines academic stress as stress

experienced by students in their learning. Academic stress usually arises due to students'

perceptions of the amount of knowledge that must be mastered in a certain period, also related to

their learning activities. Tension on the student can affect physical, emotional, and behavioural.
Academic stress can also be caused by academic stressors in the teaching and learning process or

matters related to learning activities. For example, the pressure to move up to class, length of

study, anxiety in facing exams, the number of tasks to be completed, getting poor test scores,

bureaucracy complicated, decisions determine majors and careers, and time management.

Each student can feel and respond to academic stress differently. It causes students to feel

tension, pressure, or negative emotions, including anxiety and anger. The lack of environmental

carrying capacity of schools, teachers, and parents often makes students lose their ability to

overcome their learning problems. From the literature review conducted, the Covid-19 pandemic

has implications for students' readiness to do Home Learning online. It is not only related to the

readiness of facilities and infrastructure. However, it is also related to the functions of schools,

teachers, and parents, which are sometimes not optimal in modelling and adapting students'

interests. Academic stress felt by students can be influenced by external and internal factors of

the student. Internal factors include lack of ability to manage time, mental readiness for changes

in the environment, and lack of ability to regulate themselves and academics. While external

factors related to the education system, values, expectations of education, the failure of parents

and teachers in arousing student confidence, and teacher-student relationships.

Empirical evidence of the impact of stress on the individual has shown that depending on

the stress coping strategies of the individual, stress could be very harmful to a person’s physical

and mental health (Akhlaq et al., 2010; Al-Sowygh, 2013; Hung & Care, 2011; Smith et al.,

2014). The effects of stress in the literature stem from physical, psychological to behavioural

problems. Some of the physical problems of prolonged stress are hypertension, high cholesterol

level, ulcer, arthritis and heart diseases (Akhlaq et al., 2010; Johnson, Wasserman, Yildirim, &

Yonai, 2013; Ramos, 2011). Psychological effects of stress could be anger, anxiety, nervous
tension, depression, boredom. Direct behavior that may accompany high level of stress include

under-eating or over-eating, increased smoking and alcohol use, and drug abuse (Esia-donkoh,

Yelkpieri, & Esia-donkoh, 2011; Hung & Care, 2011; Ramos, 2011). The literature furthermore

documents that high levels of stress if not controlled could result into poor academic

performance, examination malpractices and incidence of improper behaviour among tertiary

students (Rourke et al., 2010; Soliman, 2014). Hence, stress is an important variable to include in

designing students support services for distance education programs. A detailed examination of

Al-Sowygh’s (2013) study on “perceived causes of stress among Saudi dental students” revealed

some significance differences in stressors using some background characteristics of the students.

There were statistical differences in stressors among male and female students; first year and

final year students. In Ghana, traditional gender-role identification and living arrangement have

established clear delineation of households’ responsibilities which continue to passed down to

children in the family (Adu-Yeboah, 2011). The background characteristics of these students in

the studies in developed context are different from that of Ghanaian distance education students

in terms of socio economic background which gives space to explore the hypothesis in a

developing context.

Coping strategies to reduce stress is a necessary condition for preventing the harmful

effects of prolonged stress (William et al., 2010). Coping strategies refer to the specific efforts

that people use to master, reduce or minimize stressful event. Coping is multi-dimensional and

involves various strategies of which some are functional than others (Gnilka, Chang, & Dew,

2012). Chao (2012) identifies two important ways of managing stress; namely social support and

dysfunctional coping strategies. Social support such as seeking support from families and friends

naturally help people to manage stress. Dysfunctional coping strategies include: focusing on and
venting of emotions; behavioural disengagement and mental disengagement. Supporting this

view of coping is what Lazarus and Folkman cited in (Chao, 2012) identified as problem-focused

ways of managing stress referring to attempts to engage, act on, or change the perceived stress.

The issue of social support and coping has received considerable attention in the

literature, indeed, social support has been found to be related to problem focused coping

(Soliman, 2014). This assertion is corroborated by Saklofske, Austin, Mastoras, Beaton and

Osborne (2012) who suggest that relaxation, exercises, maintaining good health and time

managements are some ways of managing stress. A study by Sideridis (2008) reveals five most

frequently used coping strategies by students; browsing the internet, sleeping and resting,

watching TV shows or movies, and instant messaging.

In the specific academic context, prior stress studies have attempted to identify myriads

of sources (Hodgson & Simoni, 1995) as well as reactions to stress (Misra & Castillo, 2004). The

extant of literature relating to the former noticeably covers two broad elements of academic

related and others. Majority of past studies provide that academic challenges are major factors

that lead to students feeling stressed, anxiety and depressed, which subsequently affecting

student’s life. These include various elements affecting students’ learning activities such as

pressures of meeting grade requirements, assessment structure, learning loads and time

management (Beiter et al., 2015; Crocker & Luhtanen, 2003; Kumaraswamy, 2013; Misra &

McKean, 2000).

Besides the above factors, academic subject difficulties further influence student’s stress

level and severity. It refers to the difficulty level of the academic subject, practically arising from

the subject’s complexity level which commonly relates to the subject’s technical parts. It has
been argued in the literature to provide a direct impact on student’s stress level as high subject’s

difficulty level effectively requires a high level of student’s comprehension ability in

understanding the subject matter (Bruhn et al., 2002). This systematically generates pressure and

psychological stress within students. The propensity is argued to be even higher when it is

coupled with other factors such as academic load, academic assessment complexity as well as

other external pressures from peers and family.

Academic load has also been identified in the literature to have created stress among

students as the required knowledge base and the time available to develop it might be unmatched

(Carveth, Gesse, & Moss, 1996). High academic load systematically causes time constraint on

the part of the students especially in completing certain academic tasks or activities (Guo, 2011;

Koh, Scully, & Woodliff, 2011). This is further confounded by the presence of complex

academic assessment, conceptually refers to a specific assessment structure as an objective

medium to measure student’s performance. Student’s performance is commonly assessed

through various evaluation techniques such as continuous quizzes, tests, assignments,

presentation and report. These were reported by Clift and Thomas (1983) as major sources of

students’ stress.

Stress management and its research are therefore important particularly in an education

setting as stress among accounting students is practically critical in view that it forms an

important component of an individual’s success or failure factor academically. The severity and

timing of students’ stress would systematically affect their well-being including that of

academic, mental and general health, as well as social aspects.

 The review of related literature presented foreign researches in areas which are relevant

to the present investigation. However, the differences lie on the time and locale the investigations

were conducted. This review also provides valuable knowledge on the variables used in the

present inquiry and proved useful in the formulation of the problems, methodology, instrument,

interpretation, conclusion and recommendation.