Educational Psychology

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Sources and Levels of Stress in Relation to Locus of

Control and Self Esteem in University Students

Reda Abouserie

To cite this article: Reda Abouserie (1994) Sources and Levels of Stress in Relation to Locus
of Control and Self Esteem in University Students, Educational Psychology, 14:3, 323-330, DOI:
10.1080/0144341940140306

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Educational Psychology, Vol. 14, No. 3, 1994 323

Sources and Levels of Stress in Relation to

Locus of Control and Self Esteem in University
Students

R E D A A B O U S E R I E Lecturer in Educational Psychology, School of Education,

University Of Wales College of Cardiff, UK.

ABSTRACT This study reports an investigation into the sources and levels of stress in relation
to locus of control and self esteem in university students. Two stress questionnaires (ASQ and
LSQ) were used to assess students' stress. The first deals with academic sources of stress, and
the second assesses the student's life stress levels. The achievement scale of the Multidimensional
Multi-attributional Scale Causality (MMCS) was used to measure locus of control, and the
Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale to assess students' self esteem. The study sample consisted of 675
(202 males and 473 females) second-year undergraduate students. The results indicated that
examination and examination results were the highest causes of stress in students, followed by
studying for exams, too much to do and the amount to learn, respectively. Results showed that
77.6% and 10.4% of the students fall into the moderate and serious stress categories,
respectively, and that there were significant differences between females and males students in
both academic and life stress, with female students more stressed than males. Results also
indicated a significant positive correlation between locus of control and academic stress,
suggesting that students with external beliefs are more stressed than those with internal. A
significant negative correlation between self esteem and both academic and life stress emerged,
indicating that students with high self esteem are less stressed than are those with low.

Currently the incidence and causes of stress are attracting growing attention among
researchers and professional organisations. Research findings show that the adverse
effects of stress cost society dearly, both in terms of individual suffering and of the
economic burden of medical expenses, absenteeism and occupational injuries. Stress
has been shown to predispose individuals to cardiovascular disease, to gastrointestinal
problems, to muscle-related disorders, to allergic reactions and to decreased productiv-
ity (Kohn & Frazer, 1986).
324 R. Abouserie

However, a review of the literature reveals that university students as a population

have not, so far, featured prominently in stress-related studies. Such investigations as
have been carried out in the USA with university students have concentrated solely on
those studying medicine (e.g. l i n n & Zippa 1984; Heins, Fahey & Leiden, 1984; Folse,
da Rosa & Folse, 1985; Clark & Reicker, 1986; Wolf et al., 1988; Kohn & Frazer, 1986;
Kellner, Wiggins & Pathak, 1986; Vitaliano et al,. 1988; Mallinckrodt, Leong & Kraij,
1989; Vitaliano et al., 1989) and the same is true of the three investigations conducted
to date in the UK (Firth, 1986; Tooth, Tongue & McManus, 1989; Evans & Fitzgib-
bon, 1992).
Heins et al. (1984) point out that intense anxiety in students arises from two areas of
stress, namely, that associated with academic expectations and performance, and that
related to social factors such as developing and maintaining interpersonal relationships.
Those studies carried out with medical students show that in the academic area, heavy
work load, examinations and meeting deadlines for assignments were the most common
causes of stress (Mallinckrodt et al., 1989; Evans & Fitzgibbon, 1992; Kohn & Frazer,
1986), while the most prominent social stressors were lack of time for family and
friends and financial difficulties (linn & Zippa, 1984; Vitaliano et al, 1989). Other
reported stressors in these studies were relevant only to medical students (e.g. dissect-
ing room anxieties and relations with consultants (Evans & Fitzgibbon, 1992; Firth,
1986).
The present study was designed to investigate the academic sources of stress and life
stress levels in a general sample of university students. In the study, stressors are
defined as events, problems or pressures that potentially produce stress. Stress is taken
to be a physical, mental or emotional reaction resulting from the subject's response to
environmental tensions, conflicts, pressures and similar stimuli, and is the result of an
imbalance between demands and the adaptive capacities of the mind and body
(Fontana, 1989).
Stress, although sometimes a factor in effective motivation, can have devastating
consequences in individual cases and there is some suggestion that personality variables
may play a part in stress-susceptibility (linn & Zippa, 1984). The present study was
therefore also designed to investigate the interaction of two potentially relevant person-
ality variables, namely locus of control and self esteem, with students' stress levels (see
e.g. Harari & Sek, 1988; and Padilla, Alveraz & Lindholm, 1986). The literature further
suggests that situational variables may have some bearing upon student stress, and the
present study attempted, in addition, to assess the nature of such variables and to
determine whether sex is a further variable that should be taken into consideration. The
aims of the study were as follows.
1. To identify the academic sources of stress, and consequent stress levels in
university students.
2. To investigate gender differences if any in sources and levels of stress in these
students.
3. To examine the relationship between sources, levels of stress and the students'
personality variables of locus of control and self esteem, respectively.

Method
Sample
The sample consisted of 675 (202 males and 473 females) second-year undergraduate
 Stress, Control and Self Esteem in University Students 325

students from nine departments at the University of Wales College of Cardiff, namely
Education (69), Optometry (55), Home Economics (86), Medical (106), Pharmacy
(112), City Planning (75), History (59), Sociology (63) and Law (50).

Instruments
The questionnaires employed were as follows.

1. Academic Stress Questionnaire: (ASQ). From a review of the relevant literature the
researcher selected a number of questions relating to apparent causes of stress (Linn &
Zeppa 1984; Kohn & Frazer, 1986 and Wolf et al., 1988), and a class of 30 second-year
university students was asked to examine these and suggest any further causes con-
sidered important. On the strength of this exercise, the researcher then compiled a
questionnaire including 34 potential causes of stress covering students' learning,
examinations and results, conflict with lecturers and such situational variables as
accommodation, financial problems, family crisis and conflict with peers. The question-
naire invited respondents to indicate the degree of stress experienced in response to
each item on a scale of 0-7, with 0 indicating 'no stress' and 7 indicating 'extreme
stress'.
The reliability for the questionnaire proved to be 0.915 and 0.746 using alpha
coefficient and split half methods, respectively, which indicates high reliability. Item
analysis of the questionnaire using correlation item with total of score showed
significant correlations at the 0.01 level.

2. Life Stress Questionnaire (LSQ). This questionnaire was developed from the Pro-
fessional Life Stress Scale (Fontana & Abouserie, 1993) rendering it suitable for
university students. The questionnaire covers different aspects and symptoms of psy-
chological stress and consists of 54 alternative choice items yielding a total stress score
subdivided into four equal interval advisory stress levels namely low, moderate, serious
and very serious stress, respectively (see Fontana & Abouserie, 1993, for a full descrip-
tion). In practice few individuals fall into the very serious stress category, and data are
usually distributed between the first three categories. The reliability of the modified
version of the questionnaire was 0.724 and 0.579 using alpha and split half methods,
respectively, which is acceptable and indicative of internal consistency. The correlation
between the total scores of the ASQ and the LSQ was calculated to give an indication
of criterion validity, and the Pearson correlation coefficient emerged as 0.47 (significant
at 0.01), which means that bodi scales have an acceptable level of validity.

3. Locus of Control Questionnaire. Locus of control was measured by the achievement

scale of the Multidimensional Multi-attributional Causality Scale (MMCS) (Lefcourt et
al., 1979). This scale assesses those aspects of locus of control most closely related to
specific expectancies associated with academic learning at university level, and its
selection for use in the present study was based on the assumption that a goal-specific
measure of locus of control is more relevant to issues of university students' stress than
a general locus of control measure such as the Rotter I-E scale (Rotter, 1966).
The scale consists of 12 items that relate to success, and 12 items that relate to
failure. These 24 items are also divided equally between four attributions, such that
there are six stable internal items focusing upon abilities and skills, six unstable internal
items involving effort and motivation, six stable external items focusing upon contex-
326 R. Abouserie

tual characteristics and six unstable external items focusing largely upon luck. External-
ity scores are yielded by agreements with external attributions and the denial of internal
attributions, and all responses are on a five-point Likert scale from strongly agree
(scored 4) to strongly disagree (scored 0). In the present study, the reliability of the
questionnaire was 0.68 using alpha coefficient, which demonstrates adequate internal
consistency reliability.

4. Self Esteem Scale. Self esteem was measured by the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale, a
10-item measure with a four-point response scale ranging from strongly agree (scored
4) to strongly disagree (scored 1) for positive items, and the scores reversed when the
items are negative. The scale has satisfactory reproducibility and scalabilty (Rosenberg,
1989) and in the present study the alpha coefficient for the scale was 0.85, which
suggests high internal consistency reliability.

Results
To achieve the aims of the study the data were analysed in different ways, first to
examine the severity of the causes of stress by item and gender differences and secondly
to explore the relationship between sources, levels of stress and the personality vari-
ables.

1. Sources of stress. Table I shows the means for students' ratings for each item in terms
of the degree of stress associated with it. The means are in descending order showing
that examinations and results (M = 5.56) followed by studying for exams (M = 5.33), too
much to do (M = 4.65, amount to learn (M = 4.48), need to do well (self imposed)
(M = 4.45) and essays or projects (M = 4.36) are the most significant academic stressors
affecting students. The bottom of the table contains items which received low rating
such as problems with housing, conflict with college system and sexual problems. It can thus
be concluded from the order of the stressors that academic-related activities are the
most potent causes of stress in students.

2. Students' life stress levels on the LSQ. As explained earlier, the LSQ defines student
stress level in terms of total score and yields four stress level categories. Table II shows
the number of students in each stress level category and indicates that the majority of
students (77.6%) were in the moderate range of stress, with 10.4% in the category of
serious stress. In other words, the majority of students sampled are experiencing stress
in their lives, with 10.4% experiencing serious stress. Only 12% have no stress
problems.

3. Gender differences in academic stress and in life stress. Table III shows the results of the
comparison between males and females in total scores on the academic stress (ASQ)
and life stress (LSQ) measures; also that academic stress levels in females
(M = 102.99) are significantly higher than in males (M = 93.25). Table III also shows
significant differences between male and female students in life stress scores with
females (M = 25.85) more stressed in their life than male students (M = 24.1). Thus,
female students appear to be more prone to stress overall than are their male counter-
parts.

4. Stress in Relation to Locus of Control and Self Esteem. A correlation analysis was
conducted to investigate the relationship between stress as measured by total scores on
 Stress, Control and Self Esteem in University Students 327

TABLE I. Means of 675 students responses to each item of ASQ

Stressors Mean

1. Examinations and their results 5.56

2. Studying for exams 5.33
3. Too much to do 4.65
4. Amount to learn 4.48
5. Need to do well (self imposed) 4.45
6. Essays, projects 4.36
7. Financial problems 3.81
8. Lack of time for study 3.72
9. Timing, spacing of assignments 3.60
10. Need to do well (imposed by others) 3.60
11. Unclear assignments 3.49
12. Worry over future 3.41
13. Forgotten assignments 3.34
14. Unclear course objectives 3.33
15. Knowing what is important to study 3.21
16. Lack of time for family and friends 3.18
17. Lack of time for own interests 3.15
18. Making choices about career 2.78
19. Learning new skills 2.74
20. Interpersonal difficulties 2.60
21. Uninteresting curriculum 2.55
22. Family crisis 2.53
23. Boring classes 2.46
24. Conflict with people you live with 2.33
25. Personal health problems 2.04
26. Problems with houses 1.90
27. Conflict with spouse, partner 1.84
28. Loneliness 1.65
29. Peer pressures 1.59
30. Conflict with college system 1.48
31. Conflict with peer(s) 1.39
32. Home sickness 1.35
33. Conflict with lecturers 1.24
34. Sexual problems 1.07

the ASQ and LSQ, respectively, and on the locus of control and self esteem measures.
Table IV shows the results, indicating a significant positive correlation between locus of
control and academic stress, which suggests that students with external control beliefs
are more stressed than those with internal. However, Table IV shows no significant
relationship between locus of control and life stress, indicating perhaps that the locus
of control scale is biased towards academic issues. Table IV also shows moreover a
significant negative correlation between self esteem and both academic and life stress,

TABLE II. Categories of stress levels in LSQ

Categories of stress levels /

No problem 51 12
Moderate stress 330 77.6
Serious stress 44 10.4
328 R. Abouserie

TABLE III. r-Test results for the comparison between males and females on
ASQ and LSQ

Scale Group n Mean SD r-Value Seg Level

ASQ Males 195 93.25 34.27 3.46 0.001

Females 473 102.99 32 27
LSQ Males 143 24.1 7.04 2.51 0.01
Females 274 25.85 6.63

which suggests that students with high self esteem are less stressed in both academic
matters and in life than are those with low self esteem. Results overall thus indicate a
significant relationship between stress and students' locus of control and self esteem,
suggesting that students' personality variables are important factors in their response to
stress.

Discussion
A number of significant findings are revealed by the present study. Results show that
students are most affected by stressors related directly to their studies. As one would
expect, examinations and their results were the most important stressors, followed by too
much to do, amount to learn and need to do well, respectively. This supports the findings
of those research investigations focusing on samples of medical students only (Wolf et
ah, 1988; Kohn & Frazer, 1986). However, present results also indicate that social-re-
lated stressors such as financial problems, and lack of time for family and friends are also
important sources of stress, albeit less so than the main academic variables.
The study also shows that the majority of the students (77.6% and 10.4%, respect-
ively), fall into the moderate or serious stress categories as measured by the LSQ. The
latter category, serious stress, presents a particularly important problem and the longer
the student works at this level, the harder it may well be for him or her to carry out
academic duties satisfactorily, and the harder it may be for effective remedial action to
be taken. Therefore results suggest that approximately one in 10 students may need
professional support to reduce their levels of stress, specifically by enhancing their
abilities to cope with academic pressure or by easing these pressures themselves.
With regard to gender differences results reveal, interestingly, that female students
score significantly higher than their male counterparts on both academic and life stress.
These results are consistent with the findings of Clark and Reiker (1986) and of
Mallinckrodt et al. (1989), and suggest that further investigations are required to
identify the precise reasons why females students are less resistant to stress than males.
Results also indicate the existence of a significant relationship between stress and
students' locus of control and self esteem, respectively. A significant positive correlation

TABLE IV. Correlation coefficient between stress and

locus of control and self esteem
Academic stress life stress

Locus of control 0.19** 0.008

Self esteem - 0.206** - 0.46**

** Significant at 0.01.
 Stress, Control and Self Esteem in University Students 329

emerges between locus of control and academic stress , which suggests that students
with external control beliefs are more stressed than those with internal. In other words,
students who believe in their abilities and in their control of their situations are less
stressed than those who believe that things happen by luck or outside agents. These
findings agree with those of Harari and Sek (1988), Padilla et al. (1986) and Mooney,
Sherman and Lopresto (1991), and raise the question of whether, through effective
academic counselling, students can be helped to change their locus of control towards
increased internality.
Results show a significant negative correlation between self esteem and both aca-
demic and life stress, which indicates that students with high self esteem are less
stressed than those with low. Self esteem would therefore appear to have an important
influence on students' stress levels, and Zuckerman (1989) suggests that this may be
because greater self esteem reduces stress by fostering social resources and effective
coping. It may be possible to enhance students' ability to cope with stress by enhancing
self esteem through appropriate measures, although it is not easy to suggest what these
measures might be in the context of normal student life. One possibility would be to
offer more opportunities for success, but this raises issues outside the scope of the
present study. It is clear that locus of control and self esteem serve as variables
moderating the impact of academic and life stress, and it can be argued in consequence
that students' personality variables should be taken into account in predicting reaction
to potentially stressful situations.
Finally, it can be concluded that since it is known that an individuals' ability to deal
with stress can be improved, it is important that university students should be exposed
to personal stress recognition and management techniques which will enhance their
coping abilities (see e.g. Fontana, 1989). Further investigation is needed to determine
which of the techniques now available are likely to prove most appropriate for students
pursuing different courses.

Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Dr David Fontana for constructive comments on this paper. This
research was supported by the Faculty of Education Research fund at the University of
Wales College of Cardiff, Grant No. RCED036.

Correspondence: Dr Reda Abouserie, University of Wales College of Cardiff, School of

Education, 42 Park Place, Cardiff CF1 3BB, UK.

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