Stress and Students....

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Stress is seen as a physiological manifestation of reactions to negative stimulus in everyday experiences (Choi, 2008). Fontana (1989), further goes on to theorize that stress is a physical, mental or emotional reaction resulting from an individual’s response to environmental  tensions, conflicts, pressures and similar stimuli and is the result of an imbalance between demands and the adaptive capacities of the mind and body. Fontana (1989) conceptualizes these collective stimuli as stressors and postulates that they are events, problems or pressures that have a potentiality to produce stress. This definition is particularly relevant to the academic arena where students are being increasingly expected to cope with ever increasing workloads, which concomitantly leads to self doubt with regard to their aptitude (Jones, 1992). If these descriptions of stress and stressors are taken to be correct, then a plethora of sources could be considered as having the potentiality to cause stress (Choi, 2008). However, substantive amount of stressors seem to emanate from the academic arena which is a consequence of the considerable proportion of students’ lives that is spent within the school environment or under the influence of academic concerns (Jones, 1992).

Stress is not altogether a negative concept because it can sometimes be a factor in effective motivation, however, when it is perceived negatively or becomes excessive, students experience physical or psychological impairment (Murphy & Archer, 1996). In the same breath, while overexposure to stressors can have devastating consequences, it must be noted that personality variables are suspected to play a part in stress susceptibility (Linn et al., 1984).

Students on a whole are quite vulnerable to experiencing stress and stress associated with academic activities has been linked to various negative outcomes, such as poor health (Greenberg, 1981; Lesko & Summerfield, 1989), depression (Aldwin & Greenberger, 1987), and poor academic performance (Clark et al., 1986; Linn et al., 1984). For example, Lesko et al. (1989) found a significant positive correlation between the incidence of illness and the number of exams and assignments in a sample of college students. Relatedly, Aldwin et al. (1987) found that perceived academic stress was related to anxiety and depression in a similar sample. A number of studies have found a relationship between stress and poor academic performance (Clark et al., 1986; Linn et al., 1984; Struthers, Perry & Menec, 2000). Felsten & Wilcox (1992) found a significant negative correlation between the stress levels of college students and their academic performance. In a similar study, Blumberg & Flaherty (1985) found an inverse relationship between self-reported stress level and academic performance. Struthers et al. (2000) also reported that a high level of academic stress was associated with lower course grades. Stress levels in students vary and depend on a number of interacting variables (Abouserie, 1994). Stressors affecting students can be categorized as academic, financial, time or health related, and self-imposed (Goodman, 1993; LeRoy, 1988). Hence, academic stressors include the student's perception of the extensive knowledge base required and the perception of an inadequate time to develop it (Carveth, Gesse, & Moss, 1996).  In support of this thesis, Abouserie (1994), in a study among second year undergraduate students at university found that students reported stress at predictable times during the semester. The highest causes of academic stress involved exams and examination results, followed by studying for exams, work overload, the amount of material to learn and the need to do well (Abouserie, 1994; Archer & Lamnin, 1985; Britton & Tesser, 1991; Kohn & Frazer, 1986).. Additionally, correlation was established between academic stress and social related events such as financial problems and lack of time for family and friends although the correlation was weaker than the main academic variables (Abouserie, 1994).