Effects of Stress on Academic Performance of Students

Effects of Stress on Academic Performance of Students

ABSTRACT

Stress is a result of a combination of pressures internally and externally, overpowering a person’s ability to cope with situations. With most of the young adults, school life years are the best times of their life. But these times can also be overshadowed by stress, depression, and anxiety. Those who adopt poor stress management mechanisms have drastic consequences in their academic performances as well as their social-wellbeing. Our research involves an online survey of 70 students from different institutions. Our study shows that many students are unable to cope with stress, which translates into anxiety and, after that, lower grades in their academics.

KEYWORDS: psychology, academics, stressors, stress

INTRODUCTION

Stress is viewed as a primary physical response, and experts define it as a typical condition characterized by physical and mental symptoms of strain or tension, like hypertension, depression, which mainly results from reactions to situations where an individual feels pressured, threatened, or both at times. Depression is a condition of activity aversion and a very low mood that can significantly affect a person’s thinking, feelings, and overall well-being of an individual (Haider, 2017). Depression contributes considerably to the disease burden and affects all people in all social classes across the entire globe.

Stress is a central concept for being able to understand both evolution and life. Memory and the learning process are hugely affected by stress. Although it is only required optimal amounts of stress for enhancing ability, excessive stress can cause mental and physical health problems, reducing self-esteem, which in return affects academic performances in students. When stressed, the body reacts by thinking that it is being attacked, which makes it switch to “flight” mode. In this state, the body releases chemicals and hormones such as cortisol, norepinephrine, and adrenaline, which are used for preparing the body for physical defensive action (Brunson et al., 2001). This, in turn, causes several reactions, from a massive diversion of blood to the muscles to stimulating the shutdown of body functions, which are unnecessary at that time, like digestion. Stress kicks in when the combined factors of external and internal pressure exceed the body’s available resources to combat the incumbent situation.

Stress is one of the syndromes that have been mostly neglected in our society. It is ignored because it carries elements of mental state in association with it. Too much stress results in psychological complications like anxiety and depression. After the perception of stressing activity becomes negative, or in turn, gets excessive, students experience impairment physically or psychologically. Stress comes in various ways in a person’s daily life. Stress is, in other terms, seen as the neurological and physiological reactions of the body is trying to adapt to new conditions (Franken, 1994).

The primary sources of stress are; changes in the habits of sleeping, breaks, and vacation, changes in eating habits, an increase in workload, and the development of other new responsibilities. High levels of stress among students can lead to lower performances in the academic front, which affects the mental as well as students’ physical health. It is crucial to create studies on how to cope with stress among students, which will have a significant impact on trying to improve their performances academically (Ganesh et al., 2007). The different methods of stress reduction often include social support, team management, and the engagement of activities of leisure. The objective of the research is how to identify the effects of stress together with their influence on the student’s school performance in academics.

METHODS

Our research was done in schools with students from various institutions around the globe. Our study population used 70 students who studied different specialties. On the administrative questionnaire we used, 13 questions were given to students participating through the online link survey. Those questions which were administered included: major stressor component, the factors that resulted in creating the stress, and how it affected academic performances and the mechanisms students applied to deal with the stress. Questions of the survey were developed and conducted online.

RESULTS

There was statistical analysis for the survey data collected and tabulation for the interpretation. Science students had more stress levels in comparison to students taking other specialties. Stress affected the students physically, emotionally, and mentally. Students faced anxiety and got depressed, which translated into low academic performances.

DISCUSSION

Homeostasis is a very critical concept when studying topics related to stress. Most of the body’s biochemical functions strive for equilibrium maintenance, a steady condition which exists more ideally and less as an achieved condition. Stress has been widely identified as the fuel that is used by the body to accomplish the day-to-day challenges of today’s fast, modern life. Others see stress as a by-product of the metabolism we have talked about. Stress is associated with daily hassles, and life changes. The creation of stress is via too many environmental factors and demands which require constant adjustment and effort. High-stress levels can lead to significant disruptions in academic performances and the psychological well-being of students. Academic stress can be conceived as the student’s interaction between environmental stressors, cognitive appraisal, the students how they cope with stressors related academics, and the psychological or physiological responses to the relevant stressors.

The findings identified that about 55% of the students became stressed due to issues related to studies, whereas 38.4% had stress due to personal reasons; around 6.6% were had parental issues, which invoked the stress. Too much stress among the students reduced the students’ study effectiveness, which contributed to bad habits and resulted in consequences that had a negative long-term effect, like poor academic performances, absenteeism, and students dropping out of school.

60% of the students had academic stress due to their grades. Almost 31.1% of students were very concerned about failure, and around 6.6% of the students had stress due to parental issues and peer pressure. Academic stress is all about mental distress due to challenges in academics or failure or the possibility to fail.

Chart 2 discusses the factors of relieving the stress and who the students opted to seek help from. Many of the students sought advice from friends, which reflects in the results showing that 24.% of the students chose to listen to music as a way of relieving stress. Unexplained migraine, headaches, and hypertension are now a widespread problem in students today – which traces back to the stressful lives they lead. Today’s activities of a recreation like sports, painting, music, or swimming have become similarly competitive as compared to academics. The techniques of stress management include self-management, positive attitude, and methods of solving techniques, self-talk, meditation, exercise, and resting. Management of stress, which is effective, involves understanding to set the factors that enable the creation of stress. Nearly 57.% of the students felt that they did not need to see a mentor to help them manage their stress.

CONCLUSION

Stress is the reaction of the body when responding to a challenge. Although experts view stress as a bad thing, it has respectively essential factors. The right stress levels can be used to sharpen the reflex and the mind. Much stress could result in psychological complications like anxiety and depression. This research is essential as it helps us identify the main stressors for students and helps in finding solutions to their problems and helps them enjoy their study tension-free and without stress.

References.

Brunson KL, Avishai-Eliner S, Hatalski CG, Baram TZ. Neurobiology of the stress response early in life: Evolution of a concept and the role of corticotropin-releasing hormone. Mol Psychiatry 2001;6:647-56.

Ganesh MP, Magdalin S. Perceived problems and academic stress in children of disrupted and non-disrupted families. J Indian Acad Appl Psychol 2007;33:53-9.

Haider SI. Effect of stress on academic performance of undergraduate medical. J Community Med Health Educ 2017;7:566.