“Perceived Stress and Anxiety Of Distance

Learning and It's Effect To Student's Academic

Performance”

COVID-19 is a newly discovered infectious Coronavirus that became pandemic. Since disease outbreaks can have
mental health consequences, this study explored the perceived stress level among students during the Coronavirus
Disease Outbreak and suspension of in-person teaching in the Philippines. During a quarantine, people face many
consequences of physical and emotional social distancing, including isolation and future uncertainty. Degrees of
isolation vary between individuals, ranging from physical. There was a moderate to high level of stress among students
in KSA at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak. This study found a significant correlation between a high level of stress
and female university students. The integration of online counselling and stress management programs would help
mitigate the stress of students during distance learning.

KEY WORDS : COVID-19; Distance learning; Pandemic; Stress; Students

INTRODUCTION

Previous studies showed that disease outbreaks impacted individual mental health and well-being. Multiple risk
factors were addressed. It was found that women and those aged between 16 and 24 years exhibited a great risk of
developing psychological distress.Stress is considered to be a part of students’ life and can impact the
students coping strategies in accordance with the demands of academic life. This is so because
academic work is always accomplished with stressful activities. Students reported their experience of
high academic stress at predictable times in each semester which results from preparing and taking
exams, class ranking competition, and mastering huge amount of syllabus ina comparatively very
small amount of time.

Stress arises when there are burden on the person which exceed his available assets. If
stress is harsh and extended, it can lessen academic performance, hinder with a student’s capability to
involve in and add to campus life, and raise the probability of substance abuse and other potentially
destructive behaviors. Many studies have addressed this issue and it was found that many
psychological problems, such as depression, anxiety, and stress have an impact on the studenst
academic achievement. Now a day’s stress has become an important subject matter in research studies
in academic circle as well as in our society. This research was conducted to study the effect of
academic stress on students’ performance. Academic stress among students has long been a topic of
research study and researchers have recognized different important stressors which include excessive
assignments, unhealthy competition among class students, fear of failure in educational achievement
and lack of pocket money.

● Academic stress will be higher in less qualified students (junior students) than highly
qualified students (senior students).

● Academic stress will be higher among students at the end of semester than at the beginning of
semester.

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Present research studied the effect of academic stress on student’s performance and the consequences
of some demographic variables like gender, age, educational level and at the beginning and end of the
semester. Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was used to measure stress among students. It consists of 10
items and reliability is 0.74 which shows that the scale is reliable.

Saddington (1992) highlighted that the expectation of disempowerment is one of the key issues in
feelings of anxiety and poor confidence. The fear of interaction with other people triggering self-
consciousness, feelings of being negatively judged and evaluated, inferiority, embarrassment,
humiliation, and depression which leads to avoidance from gathered activities where different types of
people are present. Anxiety becomes a major concern among distance learners when they realize that
they will have to give an oral presentation while using modern technologies such as multimedia
presentations etc.As far as distance education is concerned in Pjilippines, most of the students belong
to remote areas and have other major responsibilities in their lives than studies. For example, some
students have full time jobs and others have their own business to run. So, usually they have
difficulties in sparing enough time for studies. Books are not received in time due to negligence of
postal services or due to late dispatch. Mismatch of their tutorial and examination schedules with their
job’s schedule creates major anxiety in them. Social anxiety issues during tutorial activities influence
their performance significantly.

Anxiety is a basic human emotion that consists of fear and uncertainty and usually it occurs when an
individual believes that the event is a threat to self or self-esteem. Anxiety can also be state or trait
depending on its duration. Anxiety blocks the normal thought processes. It favors a passive approach
to material rather than interaction with it. Anxiety is the human emotion that everyone experiences.
Students experience problems during their studies, and feel anxious when taking exams or making
significant life decisions. Present research studied the effect of academic stress on student’s
performance and the consequences of some demographic variables like gender, age, educational level
and at the beginning and end of the semester. Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was used to measure stress
among students. It consists of 10 items and reliability is 0.74 which shows that the scale is reliable.

The literature on recent outbreaks, such as Ebola, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
(SARS), and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), showed unique consequences of
mental health burden during pandemics. Several factors were identified in the process of
understanding how the public would respond during disease outbreaks, including disease course,
media and misinformation, quarantine, neuropsychological sequelae of the infected individual,
and the mental health burden among health care workers. During a quarantine, people face many
consequences of physical and emotional social distancing, including isolation and future
uncertainty. Degrees of isolation vary between individuals, ranging from physical (i.e., contact) or
symbolic (i.e., separation from loved ones), and affect the human psyche.

The apparent difference between face-to-face and distance learning and the accompanying
environmental variables that affect distance learners make the impact of anxiety on distance
learning more likely. Gibbs, Habeshaw, and Habeshaw (1989) put it succinctly, ‘Anxiety causes
students to consistently underperform. Anxiety in distance learners stems mainly from their life
experiences, and expectations/ assumptions they make as a result. The distance learners tend to
fear failure, yet conversely can have high, even unrealistic expectations of themselves. They may
have had negative experiences of educations in the past, and assume that distance learning
education may provide the same disempowering learning environment as that experiences by
many school.

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