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Coping stress among the students at 12th grade in higher secondary schools in
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 HEALTH OUTLOOK
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Health Outlook Coping stress among the students at 12th grade in
http://hojrnl.com
ISSN Number: 2581 - 9801
higher secondary schools in Kolkata
Open Access Journal Pampa Basua*, Arupkumar Chakrabarttyb

a
Post Graduate Trainee, ABSTRACT
MD (Community Medicine),
Medical College, Kolkata
BACKGROUND

b
Hony. Secretary,
Health Vision and Research,
333A/1 Jessore Road,
Kolkata – 700 089
Correspondence to :
*Pampa Basu
Basu_pampa@yahoo.com
Article history:
Received : 4th October 2018
Accepted : 28th November
2018
Available online: 7th
February, 2019
The current education system is an important source of stress for school going children and it leads to high
incidence suicide. In India, adolescents frequently report school related distress like symptoms of
depression and anxiety, phobia, physical complaints and other adverse presentations. A very limited
knowledge is available about the causes of stress among the adolescents of higher secondary schools in
Kolkata.
OBJECTIVE
The study was conducted to identify important stress factors and coping strategies adopted by 12th grade
students in the schools of Kolkata.
METHODS
The study was a cross-sectional qualitative study. The study setting was from Science, Humanities and
Commerce sections of class XII in two Government Co-education schools (one CBSE and one West Bengal
Board) and two Private Co-education Schools (one CBSE and one West Bengal Board). From four schools, 24
students were selected using quota sampling method from three sections (Science, Humanities and
Commerce) under our survey. From each school, 6 students (one boy and one girl from each of three
sections) were selected. Information was collected using in-depth interview guidelines. Data analysis was
done manually as par the standard qualitative research techniques.
RESULTS
Most important intra-personal stressors were high-grade expectations of the students and their poor
communication skills. At the inter-personal level, factors were peer inuence, family conict and lack of
resources at the family. At the institution level, factors were high volumes of the syllabus, absence of life
skill education in the school and lack of counseling or mentoring facility. Community factors were access to
entertainment devices and pornographies. At the policy level, high volume syllabus was the main stressor.
Strategies those could help overcome the stress were constructive parenting style, good friend's company,
restructuring of academic curriculum and provision of counseling of students at need.
CONCLUSION
Our study would contribute to a greater understanding of the causes of stress and coping strategies at
different levels. There should be provision for the screening of potential students having stress and proper
counseling of students in need. Life skill education may help students a lot. Policy makers may like to
review the curriculum and make it student friendly.
Key words: Stress, adolescents, coping strategy

1. INTRODUCTION and have failures (Shah, 1991).

Available information
suggests that high The current education system is an important Teachers and parents have very high expectation
academic load, over source of stress for school going children and it from the students. When these expectations are
expectation of parents, leads to high incidence suicide (Verma and Singh,
monotony of teaching
imbibed on them, students lose interest in studies
methods and peer 1998). In India, adolescents frequently report and have failures (Shah, 1991). Psychiatrists have
pressure cause more stress school related distress like symptoms of termed this phenomenon as 'high school senior
among the students. Our
depression and anxiety, phobia, physical symptoms 'or' entrance examination symptoms' to
study has revealed out
that domestic violence, complaints and other adverse presentations. They indicate mental health problems among students
abusive behviours of have frequent school refusal, irritability and (Lee and Larson, 2000). In Indian culture, we call a
parents are also causing
stress. Support from
weeping spells. To get relief from them, they student 'good' when the academic performance is
parents and teachers help frequently visit psychiatric units for mental good. We rarely value a student's vocational or
them to cope up. Whereas, healthcare support (Rangaswamy, 1982; D'Mello, individual qualities. 1 Indian parents mostly want
from our study, we have
seen that aggressive
1997). In a study in Kolkata in 2015, 63.5% of the to ensure their ward's homework and to ensure
behaviours and substance higher secondary students experienced academic that, quite often they cut down their social lives.
use among students have stress. Around 66.0% of the students perceived Because of academic stress and failure in
come up as newer
challenges. Findings may
parental pressure to improve their academic examinations, every day 6.23 Indian students
guide parents and teachers performance. Majority of the parents criticized commit suicide (NCRB, 2008). This raises questions
including the policy their children compared with a better performing on the quality of the education system and
makers to make student
friendly curriculum,
student. As a result, instead of friendship, there overallsymptomatic of psychiatric cases and 81.6%
teaching methods and develops a sense of rivalry among classmates reported examination-related anxiety (Sibnath et
enabling environment to (Sibnath et al., 2015). Around 32.6% students were al., 2015). Teachers and parents have very high
cope up stresses.
from the students. When these expectations are expectation wellbeing of young people (Ganesh
imbibed on them, students lose interest in studies and Magdalin, 2007).

Published by Blue Mind Consulting Services Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. Vol. 1 (1) : 17-24

Health Outlook Coping stress among the students at 12th grade in
http://hojrnl.com
Open Access Journal
higher secondary schools in Kolkata
Pampa Basua*, Arupkumar Chakrabarttyb
It is always not the school that is the source of
stress. Ganesh and Magdalin found that Indian
children from non-disrupted families have higher
academic stress than children from disrupted
families. Children from disrupted families get less
attention and vigilance from their parents on their
academic performances than their counterparts in
non-disrupted families. This, paradoxically,
reduces the academic stress among children from
the disrupted families (Ganesh and Magdalin,
2007). Adolescents often develop stress due to non-
academic reasons like lack of parental support,
peer pressure, and some other reasons (Garnkel et
al., 1986). Stress can be of two forms: positive stress
(Eustress) and negative stress (Distress). Eustress is
the feeling of relief. Distress is an emotion that
leads towards disease (Holahan et al., 2001).
Coping stress may be dened as efforts to manage
external or internal demands that are appraised as
taxing or exceeding the resources of the person
(Folkman and Lazarus, 1980). Some researchers
dene coping as maintaining, augmenting or
altering control over the environment and the self
(Weisz et al., 1984; Band and Weisz, 1984). Other
researchers conceptualize coping within the
framework of regulation (Skinner and Wellborn,
1984; Compas, 1987). Coping refers to regulating
the stressful situation and the individual's
problem, emotion and behavior.
No clear consensus has been attained in the
denition of coping (Compas, 1987). Unhealthy
behavioral coping refers to substance use including
cigarette, alcohol, and illegal drug use, social
withdrawal, blaming others, use of religion, and
other specic strategies (Compas, 1987). Problem
solving coping refers to information searching,
solution generation, and consequences analysis
when faced with a problem (Compas, 1987).
Emotion-focused coping refers to avoidance and
emotional release (Folkman and Lazarus, 1980).
Coping strategies must emphasize student's own
responsibility to nd out positive and constructive
ways to nd relief. Second, communication skills
are important. Third, students need help to learn
problem-solving skills. High-performing schools
are mindful to manage stress among students
through strategies like changing school schedules,
staggering exams and assignments among
different classes, and providing stress reduction
opportunities such as yoga and meditation (Zhang,
2011).
A very limited knowledge is available about the
causes of stress among the adolescents of higher
secondary schools in Kolkata. The study was
conducted to identify important stress factors at
the different level and coping strategies adopted by
the students.
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HEALTH OUTLOOK
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
2. METHODS
2.1. STUDY TYPE AND SETTING
The study was cross-sectional qualitative study.
The study setting was from Science, Humanities
and Commerce sections of class XII in two
Government Sponsored Co-education schools (one
CBSE and one West Bengal Board) and two Private
Co-educational Schools (one CBSE and one West
Bengal Board).
2.2. SAMPLING
List of the schools under West Bengal Board of
Higher Secondary Education (WBCHSE) was
collected from the District Inspector of School,
Kolkata for both Government Sponsored and
Private. The list of Government CBSE schools was
prepared from the web-portal of CBSE. A list of
private CBSE School was prepared through the
internet search. We required one Government
School from CBSE (National board), one private
school from CBSE, one Government School from
WBCHSE (State board) and one private school
from WBCHSE. They were selected by simple
random sampling method from the available list.
Total 24 students were selected using quota
sampling method from three sections (Science,
Humanities and Commerce) of 4 schools under our
survey. From each school 6 students (one boy and
one girl from each section and from 3 sections, 6
students) were selected.
2.3. DATA COLLECTION
The class teacher and the Head Teacher were
explained the purpose of the in-depth interview.
One girl and one boy from each section of class XII
from each school were randomly selected. Those
who did not consent were excluded. The interview
was conducted in a separate room for the sake of
maintaining full condentiality. Around 45
minutes were taken for each interview.
2.4. THEMES OF DATA COLLECTION
The coping mechanism has been described theme
wise. Important themes for coping discussed in the
study are physical exercise, yoga, play, music, chat
with friends, WhatsApp, and Facebook, substance
use and spending time with a girl or boyfriend.
2.5. QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS
The raw data was collected as notes. The notes
were then transformed into written text format for
the purpose of analysis. A 'priori' codes were
developed before examining the current data and
'inductive' codes were also developed by the
researchers through direct examining the data. A
master list of codes was developed and applied to
new segments of data each time an appropriate
segment was encountered.
1 (1) : 18-24

Health Outlook Coping stress among the students at 12th grade in
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Open Access Journal
higher secondary schools in Kolkata
Pampa Basua*, Arupkumar Chakrabarttyb
After coding all text data, coding consistency was
checked. Inter-coder agreement was done in
content analysis before we really analyzed the data
with reference to the objectively veriable issues.
The process involved the repeated reading of text
data. The steps involved exploring properties and
dimensions of categories and identifying
relationships between categories.
Commonly occurring codes were identied and
were clubbed together. Contents from similar
clubbed and coded groups were then presented
and analyzed to derive different themes. We rst
gathered all stress factors in the form of codes.
Second, we gathered all coping strategies in the
form of codes. From the list of codes put parallel,
researchers engaged in constructive discussions to
link between the two – cause of stress and coping of
stress.
Based on a Conceptual Framework (Figure 1),
different causes of stress and their coping strategies
were analyzed at different levels - intra-personal,
inter-personal, institution, community and policy.
For every stress, students adopted different
strategy and outcome was to the different extent. In
the analysis, we conceptualized the outcome in two
board groups – students having no stress to low
stress and students having high stress. High level
of persistent stress might have caused
psychological imbalance for some students.
During analysis, for respective descriptive sections
of the write-up, we have mentioned the stress
factor rst and then coping strategy. This made the
write up reader friendly.
3. RESULTS
3.1. PARTICIPANTS
In this study, we interviewed 24 students from 4
schools. Out of these 24 students, 12 respondents
were boys and 12 respondents were girls. Age,
section and as per other characters, details are
provided in Table 1. From the characteristics, it
was evident that the respondent population was of
varied characters to capture wide variations of
opinion with respect to the study ndings.
We got a range of stress factors, and their coping
strategies from the adolescent students to
overcome their stress. We have presented the stress
factors and the strategies under the framework that
we conceived in our methodology. We have put
ndings at different levels like intra-personal,
interpersonal, institutional, greater community,
and policy level.
3.2. STRESS AND COPING - INTRA-
PERSONAL LEVEL (SELF)
Causes of Stress
The majority of respondents (79.2%) out of 24
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HEALTH OUTLOOK
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
perceived that the syllabus was very vast. Within in
a short time period, such a huge syllabus could not
be covered. The academic pressure was very high.
Students also had targeted to achieve high grades.
Therefore, the problem turned more complex.
Around 45.8% respondents reported that they
could not recall details of the contents of subjects
because the number of chapters in each subject and
contents of each chapter were huge. They were
always tied in studying subjects from the huge
syllabus. They did not have space for self or time to
relax. They were behaving like machines. They
became frustrated because they did not know how
to overcome the problems.
Majority of the respondents (75.0%) had very high
ambition. They were anxious during examination
and this anxiety adversely inuenced their results.
One student from commerce stream threatened the
teacher after he got poor marks. One student gave a
suicidal note to his teacher; “I will commit suicide if
I don't pass and you…sir, you will be held
responsible for that.” All students who were
desirous to appear in medical or engineering
entrance examination, could not even dream to
appear because the regular syllabus was too vast.
One of the respondent reported, “I got very good
marks in 10th grade. Now I cannot complete the
12th grade syllabus for regular examination. I
cannot think of medical entrance test. Where is the
time? Then what is the gain of getting high marks in
10th standard, if I cannot crack medical?”
Some respondents (29.1%) reported that some of
them were very introvert. Introvert students were
aloof from anything and they had the poor attitude
towards participation. This attitude heightened
their level of stress. Some respondents (12.5%) had
poor self-esteem and self-respect. Because they had
poor self-esteem, they could not ventilate adding
stress on their mind. A few respondents (20.8%)
were very obedient to anyone's command and had
low condence. They obeyed everyone, not only
teachers or their parents, their peers also. For these
students, level of stress was more because they did
not have their own say. One respondent described
it like, “If teachers say to do bark, a few students will
bark even without thinking… the headless creature”.
Coping stress
Important coping strategies identied for coping
stress attheintra - personal level were
extracurricular activities, avoidance of peers and
absenteeism. Most of the respondents (83.3%)
considered extracurricular activities like reading
story books; watching movies and relaxation
through Yoga, Meditation and listening to music
were very effective to overcome stress. They
perceived that by doing extracurricular activities
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Health Outlook Coping stress among the students at 12th grade in
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Open Access Journal
higher secondary schools in Kolkata
Pampa Basua*, Arupkumar Chakrabarttyb
our body, mind and soul would have harmony.
This would reduce stress and thus agony in life
could be controlled. Stress arising out of education
in the school, from friends or the family thus could
be diverted for a better outcome.
Three respondents (12.5%) reported that
absenteeism from school was another strategy
adopted by students to reduce academic stress. A
girl respondent said, “ I frequently bunk
school…no friends…no study…no stress.” But this
would be the one-time solution. Today's absence
would create more workload for tomorrow and
thus stress would be increasing day to day.
Respondents talked about a few more strategies of
less effectiveness. They were emotional control,
analysis of the situation and problem solving
attitudes. A few respondents reported that these
strategies were too difcult to practice. Avoiding
bad companies were reported to be a good
strategy. A girl told, “I try to avoid bad companies.
Some friends will always try to take to their parties
which are not good for our career. Better to avoid
them.” This girl who got training of life skill
education reported that bad company is the
understandings from the analysis, who was her
bad friend. She decided to solve the problem by
avoiding a friend who used to tease her.
3.3. STRESS AND COPING STRATEGY-
INTERPERSONAL LEVEL
Peer inuence
One important causes of stress among school going
adolescents identied in our study was peer
pressure. Respondents reported that peer hassles
were a major cause of depression for some
adolescents and sometimes, anxiety also. Physical
ghts caused anxiety as opposed to depression
among some students. Bullying most likely led to
depression rather than anxiety. Around 50.0%
respondents considered in our study that bullying
was very frequent by the peers. A girl said, ”Two
boys in this class constantly tease all the girls in this
class. We have complained to our head teacher, but no
gain!” This situation was not uncommon as
reported by our respondents.
With their ups and downs and break-ups, a
romantic relationship was a frequent source of
stress. Around 12.5% respondents reported that
they were aware of such situations. They reported
girls had more tendencies to be stressed and
depressed compared to the boys, in case there was
a break-up of a relationship. Furthermore, three
respondents (12.5%) reported that adolescents
suffering from emotional distress tended to be
more involved in romantic relationships than those
who were emotionally stable. as a way of
increasing their status with peers. Students gave
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HEALTH OUTLOOK
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
the opinion that poor communication skills could
be a reason for higher stress. Poor communication
meant poor interpersonal communication and less
ventilation of stresses to others. This might lead to
the enhanced stress level.
Two respondents reported that bad behaviours
like substance use might be adopted by students
through peer inuence. Common substances used
were smokeless tobacco (guthka), bidi, cigar and
alcohol. Sometimes, students took substances to
get relief from stress and ultimately, they became
dependent on the use. Students could get involved
with conict on different issues. Because of their
poor negotiation skills, they might be affected by
anxiety and depression.
Parents and the family
A few respondents reported (25.0%) that family or
parental conict were sources of stress leading to
depression among many adolescents, but mostly
girls. Parent versus adolescent disagreements or
arguments led to stress and then depressive
symptoms. Adolescents who experienced
parental stress were more likely to become
involved in romantic or sexual relationships with
friends. One boy said, “Both of them are using
slangs and ghting all the day…to get rid of, feel to
hit my own head.”
Over-controlling father gures sometimes greatly
contributed to adolescents suffering from anxiety.
Parenting styles could range between two
extremes, one being a lack of support and the other
being highly critical. Parental intrusiveness was a
cause of constant anxiety, depression and
aggression among the adolescents. One girl
reported, “My father always decides what to do
and even about my career, he has taken the
decision that I have to become an engineer!”
Pocket money was an issue related to stress for
either getting or not getting the required or
demanded amount. Most of them (63%) expressed
grievances that they were either not getting the
demanded amount or parents were querying about
the usage of pocket money. One respondent told,
“My father takes alcohol, how can he give me
pocket money, my mother runs the family. I have to
beg for Rs. 10 even, giving 10 and asking 100
questions, he thinks that I am smoking bidi”.
A few students (29.2%) perceived that they were
not treated as human beings and nor they are
respected, neither in the school nor in the family.
She said, “Who gives us respect? Neither my family
nor my teachers, as if we are donkeys, do whatever
everyone says, we have no respect.”
Taboo sometimes played important roles. An
adolescent attached to taboo might dislike
disclosing any familial problems and would feel
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Health Outlook Coping stress among the students at 12th grade in
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Open Access Journal
higher secondary schools in Kolkata
Pampa Basua*, Arupkumar Chakrabarttyb
always pushed back and lead to the higher stress
level. One respondent told, “I should not disclose,
but, I feel really unhappy and then depressed, that my
parents are quarrelling and ghting. Feel to kill my
father, I am tired of it.”
Coping stress
Four important strategies were identied at the
interpersonal level. They were the use of the media
at large, ventilation to parents, peer counselling
and adventures. Media use can be social media or
electronic media. Most of the students (79.2%)
believed that use of Facebook, Whats.App and
online chat with friends were really helpful. These
mechanisms helped in expressing concerns,
sharing ideas with others and looking at photos of
social functions. The mechanism helped them to
breathe, “I return from school…chat in WhatsApp and
tension gone.”
Talking to parents was described by some
respondents (20.8%) as a simple and effective way
of coping stress. If students could express their
problems clearly to their parents, this helped as a
good solvent to their problems. If parents were also
caring and articulated, children got good results. A
girl reported, “I chat with parents in dinner
table…father says its refreshment…really.”
Inuence of good friends was always the good
solution. On the other hand, bad companies could
induce bad habits like bullying, substance use and
exposure to hazardous practices. Good peers
would counsel and correct errors. Peer counseling
was a good strategy as reported by a respondent
“Friend staying next door, you must tell her
everything…no tension.”
A few respondents (12.5%) had high interest for
adventures in the forest (jungle safari), river
(boating) and hills (trekking). The practices acted
as relaxant very much. One boy reported, “I have
gone to Sandakfu to trek 3 times…mind-blowing. When
I come back and rejoin in studies, I am fresh“
3.4. STRESS AND COPING -
INSTITUTIONAL LEVEL
Respondents reported that teaching methods were
not of very good standards. As a result, students
were not satised at a great extent. If a student was
not performing well, there was the provision of
guardian's call. Teachers would call the guardians
to complain. Students felt that guardian's call was a
very bad procedure to handle. One student
reported, “I could not do well in mathematics in my last
examination. Head sir called my father. Father abused
me. I had no prestige.” A student tried to commit
suicide after he was rebuked by his class teacher.
He was in love affair with a classmate. He faced
bullying from his friends. His friend reported, “My
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HEALTH OUTLOOK
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
friend shared with me that he feels to commit
suicide out of bullying through peers. There is no
one in the school to discuss and disclose.” There
was no provision of counseling in any of the four
schools where interviews were conducted.
Coping stress
Two key strategies were identied at the
institutional level for coping stress. They were
absenteeism from school (29.2%) and ventilating
problems to favourite teachers (12.5%). One
respondent expressed high regard to the teacher of
mathematics, “Math's Sir is the one who can at least
understand my problems, even if he can't solve. I can
talk freely and that cools my tension”.
3.5. GREATER COMMUNITY FACTORS
(SOCIO-CULTURAL MILIEU)
Three students (12.5%) had low self-esteem
compared to others because they belonged to lower
socioeconomic condition. This difference led to
poor self-esteem and inferiority based on the
difference of the socio-economic strata. Some
students saw that their friends had costly mobile
phone, computer and scooter which they did not
have. They did not have. Two girls felt that their
high expectation was related to media exposure.
They used to enjoy movies. Beautiful actors
inuence them. They dreamt to become model in
the lm industry. However, this would never
become true because their parents wanted them to
see as a good academician. She then narrated, “I
want to do modelling… but parents will have heart
failure…stop pocket money”. One boy reported that
some of their friends had access to porn movies.
This matter, in fact, was a cause to excite them and
as a result, they could not concentrate on
education. Peer inuence in the main reason for use
of the substance. A student commented in this
context that the community he was living, many
people had a regular practice of taking alcohol and
other addictive items like brown sugar and
cannabis (ganja). In this kind of environment,
addiction was common. He said, “Forget about the
school. Where we stay, is a slum and most of the people
are drivers, rickshaw pullers. Use of alcohol, tobacco and
other things are frequent… Our friends are learning
from there. …Yes, sometime friend insists to start
substance, but I started using this seeing my father.”
Coping stress
Two important coping strategies were identied
under this domain - parenting style and substance
use. A few students (25.0%) felt that substance use
could reduce stress. They reported that use of the
substance like alcohol and tobacco reduced their
anxiety and provided a sense of high among them.
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higher secondary schools in Kolkata
Pampa Basua*, Arupkumar Chakrabarttyb
3.6. POLICY AND REGULATION
Most of the respondents (75.0%) felt that the
syllabus was vast for both the school boards.
Therefore, within two years of time, full coverage
was difcult. A few chapters were left out or not
taught thoroughly. Students had to nish on their
own. Some of the parents had to arrange home
private tutors for their wards that were not
affordable to a majority. Some teachers could not
nish the entire syllabus in time. This situation led
to added stress. One girl said, “Some afuent parents
can afford fees for private tutors, which most of the
students cannot. Just think, if you cannot complete your
syllabus, what will happen before examination? Your
tension will be at the peak.”
Students thought that the curriculum was not
suitable for modern days and their requirement. It
was theory based and not skill based. There was no
provision of Life Skill Education (LSE) in the
schools. As a result, learning through peers and
coping stress became more difcult. No counselors
were involved in these schools. Therefore, students
could not consult with anyone in distress. One
strategy was supporting students even if they were
not doing well.
Coping stress
Teachers were supposed to mentor students. They
should never blame or tease students for their poor
performances. However, mentoring by teachers
was reported by only two respondents (8.3%).
4. DISCUSSION
Causes of stress
Our qualitative study explored several causes of
stress those have been untouched in the Indian
context. There was a paucity of information for
Indian students. Our study was an attempt to
systematically nd out stressors at different levels
like intra-personal, interpersonal, institutional,
community, and policy and regulation. At the
intra-personal level, important stressors were high
grade expectation of the students and poor recall of
study contents. At their perception, stressors were
lack of space for self, introvert characters of the
students and poor self-esteem. The students had
very high ambition in life and eventually, it was
perceived by many of them, that their ambitions
were not going to be fullled at last. This created
stress out of frustrations. In the study by Leonard;
academic, athletic, and personal challenges were
considered as domains of “good stress” for high
school aged youth (Leonard et al., 2015). Many
adolescents in India were referred to psychiatric
units for school- related distress. They were
presenting symptoms of depression, anxiety,
school refusal, phobia, and lack of interest in school
work (Rangaswamy, 1982; D'Mello, 1997). Unlike
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
many other studies, our study in this context
identied some causes those were mostly
originated within and thus discussed as intra-
personal factors.
Important stressors were peer pressure mostly in
the form of bullying and break-up of affairs. In the
study conducted by Walker in 2005, causes of stress
among adolescents were break up with boy or
girlfriend and trouble with classmates (Walker,
2005). Our study could identify that stress was
related to poor communication skill and conict
with friends lost interest in studies (Shah, 1991).
The emergence of education as a source of stress
among school going children caused the high
incidence of deaths by suicide (Verma and Singh,
1998). In our study, we got similar ndings. Within
the institution level, important factors to add stress
among our respondents were high academic
standard and volume of the curriculum. Apart
from that, lack of counseling services in the school,
lack of mentoring from the teachers and repeated
guardian's call were identied. In our study, it was
emphasized by the students that repeated
guardian's call was a matter of scratch in their
respect and dignity. Students reported that the
guardian's call was considered as a break of
condentiality and not for bridging the academic
gaps. This aspect was identied as a new domain
from our research.
At the community level, from our study important
stressors identied were socioeconomic status of
the family and access to modern devices like
mobile, laptop and i-phone. Exposure to media and
access to pornographies were also identied as
videos. As par, our literature review, in none of the
studies inuence of pornographies had ever been
identied earlier. In another study, stressors were
arguments with parents, trouble with siblings,
increased arguments between parents, change in
parents' nancial status, and trouble with parents
(Walker, 2005). Social causes played a signicant
role to control the level of tress among the
adolescents (Leonard et al., 2015). In our study
parenting style was identied as a stressor.
Coping strategies
Adolescents used problem solving, emotion-
focused method, and unhealthy behavior as their
coping strategies during stress (Compas, 1987). In
problem solving coping, adolescents analyze the
problem through searching the information,
analyzing the information and then nding out a
solution. In emotion-focused method, adolescents
avoid, release their emotions and seek support to
cope us (Weisz et al., 1984). In our study avoidance
and peer support were found to be important
coping strategies. Sometimes, unhealthy
1 (1) : 22-24

Health Outlook Coping stress among the students at 12th grade in
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higher secondary schools in Kolkata
Pampa Basua*, Arupkumar Chakrabarttyb
behavioral coping like substance use including
cigarette, alcohol, and illegal drug use was
reported as a coping strategy (Compas, 1987). In
our study, substance uses were reported as a
coping strategy.
High-performing schools considered changing
school schedules, staggering exams and periodical
assignments in different classes. They provided
stress reduction opportunities such as yoga and
Meditation (Zhang et al., 2011). In none of our
sample schools, this kind of practice was in place
for the reduction of stress.
5. CONCLUSION
From the Indian context, through our study, the
causes of stress and its coping strategies at intra-
personal, inter-personal, institutional, community
and policy level were explored. There was a
paucity of information in this matter. So, our study
would contribute to a greater understanding of
these areas and enlighten the existing body of
knowledge. Most important intra-personal
stressors are high expectations of the students and
their poor communication skills. At the inter-
personal level, factors are peer inuence, family
conict and lack of resources at the family. At the
institution level, factors are high volumes of the
syllabus, the absence of life skill education and lack
of counseling and mentoring facility. Community
factors are access to technical devices and
misleading adult movies. At the policy level, high
volume syllabus is the main stressor. Strategies
those can help overcome the stress are constructive
parenting style, good friend's company,
restructuring of academic curriculum and
provision of counseling of students in need.
Teachers should have a mentoring role. Life skill
education may help students a lot. Policy makers
may like to review the curriculum and make it
student friendly. Allocation of nancial resources
would be required to depute professional
counselor for the schools.
Acknowledgments
We sincerely acknowledge the cooperation of the
stakeholders of the schools and all the students
who cooperated for conducting this interview.
Compliance with Ethical Standards
Research protocol of the study was sent to the
Institutional Ethics Committee and hard copy
along with soft copy was submitted to the West
Bengal University of Health Sciences for approval.
It was approved vide MC/KOL/IEC/MON-
SPON/119/11-2015, dated 23/12/2015. Students
were interviewed only after informed consent.
Condentiality and anonymity were maintained.
Permission from the Head Teacher of the School
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HEALTH OUTLOOK
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
and or the Principal was taken before conducting
the interviews.
Conict of Interest All authors declare no conict
of interest.
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