Evan Britton

Ms. Bryan

HSP3U1-6

May 15, 2023

Stress In High School Students Survey

Hypothesis Question.

What are the causes of stress for students, and what methods do they use to cope with it?

Hypothesis.

Students are extremely stressed, with most of the stress coming from school and grades.

Methodology.

The method I chose to gather information was to create a sample survey. I did this because

sample surveys are useful for collecting a larger sample size than any other method. In my

survey, I included questions not only on stress, but also on sleep, to see if the amount of sleep

affects your stress levels and how you deal with it. After completing my survey, I sent it out

through discord to other students in the choir. I then asked all of them to send it to anyone else

they know. I also got responses from university students, which gives me a wider range of ages

to look at. Having the majority of the responses being from students in the choir, the results

could be biased, and might not accurately reflect all students.

Results.

With 60 responses, I have a decent sample size, and the results are interesting. The most common

response to questions about stress levels is that they experience a lot of it in their lives. Only a

small 4% of students reported that they don't experience much stress. There wasn't much

correlation between gender and amount of stress, but females were more likely to report being

stressed by grades, and their social life, than males were. Grade 12 students were more likely to

have grades cause them a lot of stress than any other group. Strangely however, all of the grades

had reported similar levels of stress to each other. I had imagined that the students in higher

grades would feel more stress, but that's not the case. This could be because a majority of the

students surveyed were in grade 11. It can also be noted that the high school graduates were

more likely to be stressed because of money. Likely because they have to pay for post secondary

education, and have to worry about a job and making money. The most popular method of

dealing with stress was to listen to music, with 78% reported to do so. Interestingly the second

most popular stress reliever, is tied between being alone, and talking with a friend. This

demonstrates that all people, whether introverts or extraverts, all find different ways to destress.

Conclusions.

In conclusion, students were found to be very stressed, for a variety of different reasons. My

initial hypothesis was that the majority of students' primary stressor was school. This hypothesis

was mostly correct, with grades being the most dominant factor in students' stress levels. This

data did however also show that a lot of stress comes from expectations from family and friends.

Many students also reported that their social life caused them the most stress. The survey also

showed the different ways that students cope with the stress in their lives,whether it's through

music, hobbies, or by connecting with friends and loved ones.