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Perceived Academic Stress among Students

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 Volume-03 ISSN: 2455-3085 (Online)
Issue-08 RESEARCH REVIEW International Journal of Multidisciplinary
August-2018 www.rrjournals.com [UGC Listed Journal]

Perceived Academic Stress among Students

*
Shikha Sharma

Research Scholar, Aligarh Muslim University & Assistant Professor, Maharja Agrasen Institute of Management Studies, Affiliated to
GGSIPU, Dwarka, Delhi (India)

ARTICLE DETAILS ABSTRACT

Article History
Published Online: 07 August 2018
Keywords
Stress, Perceived Academic Stress
* and the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was used for data analysis. There
Corresponding Author
Email: sharma.shikha3684[at]gmail.com
This study examined the perceptions of major sources of academic stress among male and
female undergraduates. Academic stress has major implications for student retention and
dropout intention (Elias, Ping, & Abdullah, 2011; Tinto, 1975). Results that indicate the
impact of academic stress can provide students, teachers and administrators information on
how to deal with stress in the learning environment. Data were collected via a survey in
which 131 students participated, with mean of age 18.14 and standard deviation of 0.893;
was a non-significant difference between male and female undergraduate students on
scores on the Perceived Academic Stress Scale (PAS). The findings from this study may be
useful for further research on how these potential sources of stress influence the
performance and the health of the students.

1. Introduction
This paper examines the perception of academic stress
among male and female undergraduate students. This study is
focused on the exploration of how undergraduate students
perceive stress and experience specific stress effects in their
studies, in order to foster the development of different kinds of
strategies with regard to the management of stressful
situations. Stress among undergraduate and graduate students
is multidimensional, arising from both academic and non-
academic factors, including socio-cultural, environmental, and
psychological attributes (Brand and Schoonheim-Klein, 2009).
Stress levels may escalate to significant proportions in some
students, to present with symptoms of anxiety especially during
tests and examination periods. Current study explored the
gender difference in terms of perception of academic stress
among undergraduate students.
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 (Richlin-Klonsky & Hoe, 2003). Researchers
(Vermunt & Steensman, 2005; Topper, 2007; Malach-Pines &
Keinan, 2007) have defined stress as the insight of incongruity
between environmental burden (stressors) and person’s ability
to fulfill these demands. Researchers usually define stress as
the undesirable response people have to extreme strain or
other sort of burden placed on them. Stress occurs when a
person deal with a situation that they recognize as irresistible
and cannot manage.
2. Literature Review
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 (Agolla &
Ongori, 2009). 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 (Rawson, Bloomer, &
Kendall, 1999).
Academic stress is a student’s perception of the pressure
they face, time constraints to complete assignments, academic
workload, and their academic self-perception (Bedewy &
Gabriel, 2015). Symptoms of academic stress include anxiety,
depression, decrease exercise, changes in eating habits, and
sleep disturbance (Backović, Živojinović, Maksimović, &
Maksimović, 2012; Schraml, Perski, Grossi, & Simonsson-
Sarnecki, 2011). Among college students, a strong relationship
is found between stressful life events and reduced academic
performance as well as there is a link between health related
quality of life and stress (Dusselier, Dunn, Wang, Shelley &
Whalen, 2005; Misra & McKean, 2000).
There are several factors that influence academic stress.
Students who participate in more rigorous academic studies,
such as the international baccalaureate at the high school level
have higher amounts of academic stress compared to students
in general education (Suldo & Shaunessy-Dedrick, 2013).
However, in a comparison of on-campus and distance
education, no difference was found in the academic stress of
the students (Furlonger & Gencic, 2014). Therefore, the rigor of
academics appears to have a stronger influence than the
setting in terms of contributing to academic stress.
Undergraduate students stated that stress was the most
common factor among all health factors which impact their
academic performance, as stress harmfully affects physical
and psychological health (Dwyer & Cummings, 2001). Winter
and Yaffe (2000) concluded that high level of stress during the
first year of college forecast lower level of overall adjustment
and can make the students more susceptible to many social
and psychological problems, thus leading to a lower grade
point average (GPA) in the final year. Many studies have
addressed this issue and it was found that many psychological

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 Volume-03, Issue-08, August-2018
problems, such as depression, anxiety, and stress have an
impact on the student academic achievement. Williamson,
Birmaher, Ryan, and Dahl (2005) reported that in anxious and
depressed youth, stressful life events are considerably
elevated which in turn lead to low performance in academics.
In a number of studies, authors found that the most
frequently reported factors contributing to stress and anxiety
around the examination periods were extensive course loads,
lack of physical exercise, and long duration of exams, reported
by the students (Harikiran et al., 2012; Hashmat et al., 2008;
Sansgiry and Sail, 2006; Shah et al., 2010). The perception of
extensive course load and long duration of examinations were
found to be the most important sources of test anxiety in a
number of research studies. For example, in a crosssectional
study, Hashmat et al. (2008) examined factors contributing to
exam anxiety among the final medical students (n = 120), using
structured self-administered questionnaire including questions
about lifestyle, study style, psychological problems, and
examination system. Authors found that the most frequently
reported factors by the students, contributing to exam anxiety,
were extensive course loads (90.8%), lack of physical exercise
(90%), and long duration of exams (77.5%). Authors also
reported that most students had poor knowledge of exam-
taking and anxiety-reduction (Hashmat et al., 2008). Medical
students’ performance in periodic examinations was the most
frequently and severely occurring sources of stress (Shah et
al., 2010).
Academic stress has been found to be related to academic
performance (Pozos-Radillo, Preciado-Serrano, Acosta-
Fernandez, Aguilera-Velasco, & Delgado-Garcia, 2014;
Schraml, Perski, Grossi, & Makower, 2012). In general, as
stress increases performance decreases. However, caution
must be made in eliminating stress. It has been found that
moderate amounts of stress improve performance (Sanders,
2013). Therefore, understanding stress and controlling it would
benefit the academic performance of many students. Previous
research suggested a modest prevalence rate of 10 to 35
percent of college students experience functionally impairing
levels of test anxiety (Chapell et al., 2005; Naveh-Benjamin et
al., 1997). However, not all students experience anxiety with
the same severity. In the Social Survey of the German Student
Union, it was estimated that approximately 15–20 percent of
student’s functioning become impaired by exam nerves in a
“modest” to “high”degree (Neuderth et al., 2009). Also, it was
demonstrated that the delay and the drop-out in university
students occur significantly more often in students with test
anxiety and is associated with psychiatric morbidity including
suicidal behavior and high economic costs (Schaefer et al.,
2007).
3. Research Questions
Tests of Normality
Kolmogorov-Smirnova
Statistic df
TOTAL SCORE .075 131
Lilliefors Significance Correction
Table 1: Kolmegorov- Simrnov test of normality
© RRIJM 2015, All Rights Reserved
RESEARCH REVIEW International Journal of Multidisciplinary
Based on the review of literature, the following questions
have been developed:
1. What are the university students’ perceptions of
academic stress?
2. Is there a difference in Percieved academic stress
based on the gender of the participants of this study?
4. Hypothesis for the study
H0 : There is no significant different between mean scores
of male and female undergraduate students.
5. Methodology
The purpose of this study was to analyse the perceived
academic stress among undergraduate students and to explore
the differences among male and female students. This study
approached this phenomenon from a quantitative perspective
involving the use of a survey.
Participants, Sample, Setting
The study was conducted in management colleges that
offer undergraduate courses located in Delhi. The sample was
derived using stratified sampling based on gender. In all, 131
undergraduate students participated in this study. In the
sample, 65 of the participants were male students and 66 were
female students.
Research Instruments
The academic stress scale was adapted from Bedewy and
Gabriel (2015). This scale measures a student’s perception of
stress they experience due to academics. Sample items from
this scale include “I can make academic decisions easily” and
“I fear failing courses this year.”The Cronbach Alpha for the 18-
item scale was 0.70.
6. Data Analysis
Descriptive data was collected in this study. Items such as
the mean of the variables as well as individual items were
derived from the observed data. In addition, t-test was
conducted to see if there were any differences across sub-
groups in order to provide information of the perception of the
students when divided on the basis gender.
For the t-test, the normality of data was tested with the
Kolmegorov- Simrnov test (Table 1), normality of data was
found significant at 0.065. ). In addition, Q-Q plots were
assessed to determine if the sample was normally distributed
according to the variables of this study. A visual inspection of
the Q-Q plots confirmed normality of the data.(Chart1)
Shapiro-Wilk
Sig. Statistic df Sig.
.065 .991 131 .568
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 Volume-03, Issue-08, August-2018 RESEARCH REVIEW International Journal of Multidisciplinary

Chart 1: Q-Q plot to visually check the normality of data

7. Result and discussion
Table 2 describes the descriptive statistics. Table 3
represents the demographics in the study.. The results of
students’ responses are summarized in Table 3. The internal
consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) was 0.7 for the 18
items of the PAS.

Descriptive Statistics
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
TOTAL SCORE 131 33.00 74.00 53.2824 7.42063
Valid N (listwise) 131
Table 3: Descriptive Statistics

Group Statistics
GENDER N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean
MALE 65 52.0154 7.54257 .93554
TOTAL SCORE
FEMALE 66 54.5303 7.13651 .87844
Table 2: Demographics

Descriptive Statistics
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Am confident that I will be a successful student 131 1 5 1.98 .805
Am confident that I will be a successful in my future career 131 1 4 1.78 .775
I can make academic decisions easily 131 1 5 2.58 .891
The time allocated to classes and academic work is enough 131 1 5 2.45 1.135
I have enough time to relax after work 131 1 5 2.82 1.216
My teachers are critical of my academic performance 132 1 5 3.08 .996
I fear failing courses this year 131 1 5 3.73 1.330
I think that my worry about examinations is weakness of character 131 1 5 3.61 1.258
Teachers have unrealistic expectations of me 131 1 5 3.64 1.124
The size of the curriculum (workload) is excessive 131 1 5 3.13 1.155
I believe that the amount of work assignment is too much 131 1 5 3.16 1.241
Am unable to catch up if getting behind the work 131 1 5 3.23 1.197
The unrealistic expectations of my parents stresses me out 131 1 5 3.40 1.392
competition with my peers for grades is quite intense 131 1 5 2.93 1.093
The examination questions are usually difficult 131 1 5 2.97 .988
Examination time is short to complete the answers 131 1 5 3.07 1.285
Examination times are very stressful to me out 131 1 5 2.92 1.172

© RRIJM 2015, All Rights Reserved 423 | Page

 Volume-03, Issue-08, August-2018 RESEARCH REVIEW International Journal of Multidisciplinary

Even if I pass my exams, am worried about getting a job 131 1 5 2.65 1.260
TOTAL SCORE 131 33.00 74.00 53.2824 7.42063
AVG 131 1.83 4.11 2.9601 .41226
Valid N (listwise) 131
Table 3: Summary of student responses

For checking homogeneity of variance Levene statistic was used and the results indicated that the variance was same for
gender for total score (F = 0.879, p = 0.052).(Table 4)

Independent Samples Test

Levene's Test for
t-test for Equality of Means
Equality of Variances
95% Confidence Interval of
Sig. (2- Mean Std. Error
F Sig. t df the Difference
tailed) Difference Difference
Lower Upper
Equal variances -
.023 .879 129 .052 -2.51492 1.28277 -5.05291 .02307
TOTAL assumed 1.961
SCORE Equal variances not -
128.359 .052 -2.51492 1.28332 -5.05411 .02427
assumed 1.960
Table 4: Independent T test results

The result of Independent sample t test indicates that null
hypothesis of no significant difference among mean scores of
males and females is not rejected (p = 0.52).The result signify
that mean score of male and female undergraduate students
are same for the said population.
8. Conclusion
In this study Students’ experience of academic sources of
stress was found to be moderate, and most students reported
confidence about their academic skills and confidence in their
ability to succeed. There were no differences between male
and female students in their perceptions of academic stress.
Results from this study support the fact that there were
positively reported scores reflecting that students were
significantly confident about the success in their academic
performance and their future career and were confident in
making academic decisions.

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