Category: Stress

Introduction

Have you ever stressed over that one exam that kept you up all night studying for? Have you ever stressed over your choice of what major you should study in college? Have you ever stressed over where would you be in 10 years from now? I’m pretty sure that we have all experienced stress at some point or another .stress is a regular reaction and its effects can be good or bad or a mix of both. For example, stress can push you into doing better or it can scare and shut you down.

Reasons of stress

The most common yet simple question about stress is what are its reasons? Stress may be caused by the death of a loved one, divorce, not being able to find a job or a loss of one, getting married and moving to a new house and live a new life surrounded by new people, physical injuries, time limited events, such as the pressures examinations or submissions deadlines or by continuous situations, such as family problems or finical limits. As well as . Social phobias, there are several people who are incapable of developing their communication and social skills. This increases the fear of communicating with others at different levels of life and this becomes a cause of stress among the young.

Effects of stress

all of these factors can lead you to the feeling of fear like when you hear news about World War Three and feel stressed because you don’t have control over those events or even worse lead you to overthinking about change, any big life change can be a little stressful sometimes, even happy changes such as a job promotion or a wedding for instance, but also more defatting events a death of a loved one, divorce or financial problems. You’re sitting in traffic, past due for a crucial meeting, watching the minutes tick away. Your hypothalamus, a tiny manage tower to your brain, makes a decision to ship out the order: Send inside the stress hormones! These stress hormones are the same ones that cause your body’s “fight or flight” response. Your coronary heart races, your breath quickens, and your muscles are geared up for action.

Central nervous and endocrine systems

Your central system nervous (CNS) is responsible for your “fight or flight” response. In your brain, the neural structure gets the ball rolling, telling your adrenal glands to unharness the strain hormones Adrenalin and hydrocortisone. These hormones rev up your heartbeat Associate in Nursing send blood dashing to the areas that require it most in an emergency, like your muscles, heart, and different vital organs

Respiratory and cardiovascular systems

Stress hormones have an effect on your respiratory and cardiovascular systems. During the strain response, you breathe faster if you want to quickly distribute oxygen-rich blood to your body. If you have already got a breathing hassle like asthma or emphysema, pressure can make it even tougher to breathe.

Under pressure, your coronary heart also pumps faster. Stress hormones reason your blood vessels to constrict and divert more oxygen on your muscles so you’ll have more electricity to take action. But this additionally raises your blood pressure.

Digestive system

Under strain, your liver produces greater blood sugar (glucose) to offer you a boost of energy. If you’re below chronic stress, your body won’t be able to keep up with this more glucose surge. Chronic pressure may increase your threat of growing type 2 diabetes.

The rush of hormones, rapid breathing, and expanded heart price can also disillusion your digestive system. You’re more likely to have heartburn or acid reflux thanks to a boom in stomach acid. Stress doesn’t purpose ulcers (a bacterium referred to as H. Pylori regularly does), but it can boom your danger for them and reason present ulcers to act up.

Stress can also affect the manner food moves through your body, leading to diarrhea or constipation. You might also enjoy nausea, vomiting, or a stomachache

Symptoms of stress

Stress can affect all components of your life, along with your emotions, behaviors, questioning ability, and bodily health. Not part of the body is immune. But, because people handle pressure differently, symptoms of stress can vary. Symptoms may be vague and might be the same as those caused by scientific conditions. So it is important to talk about them along with your doctor. You may revel in any of the following signs of pressure.

Emotional symptoms

Include, Becoming easily agitated, frustrated, and moody, Feeling overwhelmed, like you are losing manage or want to take manipulate, having problems enjoyable and quieting your mind, Feeling horrific approximately yourself (low self-esteem), lonely, worthless, and depressed, Avoiding others.

Physical symptoms

Include, Low energy, Headaches, Upset stomach, including diarrhea, constipation, and nausea, Chest pain and rapid heartbeat, Insomnia. Last but not least,

Cognitive symptoms

Include, Constant worrying, Forgetfulness, and disorganization, Inability to focus, Being pessimistic, or seeing only the negative side.

Precautions of stress

People can learn to manage stress and lead happier healthier lives.

1. Avoid Caffeine, Alcohol, and Nicotine.

Avoid, or at least reduce, your intake of nicotine and any beverages containing caffeine and alcohol. Caffeine and nicotine are stimulants and so will growth your degree of stress as a substitute than lessen it.

Alcohol is a depressant when taken in massive quantities, but acts as a stimulant in smaller quantities. Therefore using alcohol as a manner to alleviate stress isn’t always ultimately helpful.

Swap caffeinated and alcoholic drinks for water, herbal teas, or diluted herbal fruit juices and aim to hold you’re self-hydrated as this can allow your body to cope higher with stress

2. Get More Sleep

A loss of sleep is a vast motive of pressure. Unfortunately, though, the strain also interrupts our sleep as thoughts preserve whirling thru our heads, preventing us from relaxing enough to fall asleep.

Rather than relying on medication, your aim has to be to maximize your rest earlier than going to sleep. Make sure that your bedroom is a tranquil oasis and not using reminders of the things that cause you stress. Avoid caffeine during the evening, as nicely as immoderate alcohol in case you know that this results in disturbed sleep. Stop doing any mentally traumatic work numerous hours earlier than going to bed so you supply your mind time to calm down. Try taking a warm bath or analyzing a calming, undemanding eBook for a couple of minutes to loosen up your body, tire your eyes and help you forget approximately the matters that fear you.

3. Manage Your Time

At times, we all experience overburdened by means of our ‘To Do’ listing and this is a not unusual purpose of stress. Accept that you cannot do the whole lot at once and begin to prioritize and diaries your tasks.

Make a list of all of the matters that you need to do and list them so as of true priority. Note what tasks you need to do in my opinion and what can be delegated to others to do. Record which obligations want to be completed immediately, in the next week, within the next month, or whilst time allows.

4. Take Control

Stress can be brought on with the aid of trouble that could on the surface appear impossible to solve. Learning how to find solutions to your problems will help you experience more on top of things thereby decreasing your degree of stress.

One trouble-solving approach involves writing down the trouble and arising with as many viable solutions as you can. Decide on the coolest and horrific points of everyone and select the quality solution. Write down every step that you need to take as part of the solution: what will be done, how will or not it’s done, whilst will or not it’s done, who’s involved and where will it take place.

Conclusion

Stress plays a primary position in our everyday lives; it both makes us perform higher and makes us fail. . However, from this examination, it is able be concluded that pressure creates a negative effect on the health of individuals. Thus, the observation enlightens on the causes of strain and its influences on the lives of people. Moreover, the observation also makes a specialty of the measure that can be undertaken with a purpose to decrease or conquer the pressure level.

Aim/Rationale

We as students go through many phases in our lives, some being times of joy, times of sadness and a lot more. But today’s generation Z, is mostly filled with times of depression with one of the main reasons being the competition levels in studies, these experiments being done on students leads us, into stress as the rule “Life is a race” and the quote “The early bird catches the worm” implies into the mindsets of students.

These factors and a lot more raises stress levels in students; however stress can also vary between time periods in a student’s life. For this IA I will personally check the stress levels of my classmates during 6 specific different periods.

The level of stress also varies differently between males and females this idea will also be studied within the assessment. The fact that my favorite mathematics topic will be implied makes this assessment quite interesting and curious, as I will find out the period that we were highly stressed in and the gender that was highly stressed as well. I will use my understanding of the topics that we studied and employ the use of statistics to give an answer. This research can be further modified, in order to find ways that could decrease the stress levels.

Introduction

As being an IB student there are many times when we go through dramatic ups and downs of stress, as we have a lot of work and assessments to be completed and submitted on time. Which always made me curious that, what were our stress levels during different periods and that whether stress influences gender?

This therefore led me into the IA, “A comparative analysis on the stress levels experienced by IB students during six different periods, of their high school year.”

This IA was built, by the means of a survey that I conducted in which I asked the students their level of stress from 1-10(with 10 being the highest level of stress), during different times of the year…

• Summer Break – We are highly informed about IB and the works that are supposed to be completed during this period. Teachers have assigned us with work that needs to be completed.
• 1st Term Exams- Occurs in December, when we have our exams.
• Winter Break- Everything that is remaining is supposed to be submitted, by February.
• 2nd Term Exams- Occurs after winter break, when we have exams as well as upcoming deadlines for our IAs and EE.
• Anticipation for Boards- What do the students think their stress levels are going to be during this period.
• Browsing on the Internet-This period is used as a control, because this is when we are chilling, and the idea about our deadlines comes to our mind, and we leave everything we are doing and get back to some typing; this phase is experienced by the students on daily basis.

The data was collected with a sample size of 30. (NOTE: I had to ask the survey from 11IB, as well. Since there are only a few 12 IB students)

• Males being 15
• Females being 15

The data after being collected was analyzed and made into tables, graphs and statistics.

Collected Data

Table 1: Data showing the stress levels of students at different periods

Frequency Table

It is an easy way to view your data and quickly look for patterns

We will now organize the data a bit more, in order to understand the number of students that experienced the different stress levels at different times of the year. This will be done by constructing a frequency table.

Table: 2: Data showing the number students at a particular stress level.

Read it as: 4 students stress level was 1 during summer break.

The above data can be visually understood, with the help of a bar graph.

Figure 1

Cumulative Frequency

To calculate the cumulative frequency add up the frequencies of the data values as you go along, this diagram will further help us to calculate the measures of dispersion of a group or continuous data.

For the analysis of the data, I will make an ogive in order to understand how well the data is spread. This will be done by calculating the cumulative frequency for each time of the year:

Table: 3: Shows the spread of the data (cumulative frequency)

Figure 3: Shows the cumulative frequency

Box and whisker plot

It is used to represent a 5 statistical summary graphically.

In order to understand what the above ogive in indicating to us. We will make box and whisker plots for each time of the year.

I will change the tables from high stress to low stress, in order to get a clear idea the periods the students were highly stressed in and the periods the students had low levels of stress.

Table:4 Box and whisker plot From high stress to low stress

From observing the above box plots, we can see that it is arranged in order with the highest period of stress being first, and that is the “anticipation for the boards”, with the Q1~10 and Q3~10. Being followed with the “2nd term exams”, with the Q1~7 and Q3~10, and then we have the “1st term exams”, with the Q1~5 and Q3~9. The third lowest stress level is during the “summer break” with the Q1~5 and Q3~8, with that being said, we can view that “browsing on the internet”, is the second lowest stress period as its Q1~3 and Q3~9. This then concludes that “winter break” was the lowest level of stress with Q1~ 3 and Q3~9.

We can see that the 1st quartile is the same for the “1st term exams” and “summer break”, and that being 5. As well as Q~1, is also the same for “browsing on the internet” and “winter break”, with that being 3. The 3rd quartile is also the same for “2nd term exams” and “anticipation for the boards”, and that being 10. As well as the Q3~ is also the same for the “1st term exams”, “browsing on the internet” and “winter break”, and that is 9.

And not to mention that the “2nd term exams” and the “1st term exams” have the same 2nd quartile (median), and that being 8. This repetition can also be seen in the periods, “summer break” and “winter break”, as it is 7.

A common aspect that is repeated in all the periods is that they all have the same maximum 10. And also “anticipation of the board exams” and “2nd term exam” have the same minimum 2 while on the other hand, the periods “1st term exams”, “summer break”, “browsing on the internet” and “winter break”, have the same minimum 1.

Figure 4: Shows the calculation of the position for each quartile of each period.

• 1st Quartile =
• 2nd Quartile(median)= =
• 3rd Quartile=

Figure 5: Is a graph of the box and whisker plot.

We will now see whether gender influences the stress levels, in students for various periods,

I’ll be investigating it on 3 periods…

• Anticipation for the boards (highest stress period)
• Winter break (lowest stress period)
• Browsing on the internet (control)

This investigation will be done with the help of pie charts.

Figure 6: Pie chart: 1. for anticipation on the boards.

Stress levels experienced by females.

Stress levels experienced by males

From these pie charts, we can see,

Firstly females have a higher number of 10s as their stress level and that is 6.7% more than the males stress level. However, males have a higher number of 9s as their stress level and that is 6.7% while the female are at 0%.

The point that is common is; that only 1 male and 1 female voted for 8 as their stressed level, which is shown as 6.7% in both the charts. The remaining data shows that only 1 female voted 5 as their stress level which is 6.7% while the remaining male data shows that only 1 male voted 2 as their stress level which also is 6.7%.

This concludes that both the genders are somewhat likely stressed, for this period.

Figure 7: Pie chart: 2, for the period in winter break

With these pie charts,

Firstly we can see that females have a higher number of 10s as their stress level and that is 6.7% more than the males. As well as 1 female voted for 9 as their stress level which makes them reach up to 6.7% while the males have a 0% of 9s.As well as we can see that females have a higher number of 2s has their stress level, which is 6.7% more than the males.

However, we can see that males have a higher number of 7s as their stress level and that is 6.7 % more than the females. As well as males have a higher number of 5s has their stress level which is at 13.3% while females are at 0%.

The point that is common is that only 3 females and 3 males voted for 8 as their stress levels which make it 20% in both the pie charts. As well as 1 male and 1 female voted for 3 as their stress level which makes it 6.7% in both the pie charts. And 1 male and 1 female voted for 1 as their stress level which makes it 6.7% in both the pie charts.

This, therefore, concludes that females have higher stress levels in this period; it can be viewed that their stress levels are mostly 9 and 10.

Figure 8: Pie chart: 3 for browsing on the net.

We will now see the data when both the genders are on internet browsing.

With these pie charts, we can see that…

Males have a higher number of 9s as their stress level which is 13.3%, while the females are at 0%. As well as males have a higher number of 3s, as their stress level which is 13.3%, while females are at 0%.

However females have a higher number of 6s, as their stress level which is 20% while the males are at 0%. As well as females have a higher number of 4s as their stress level this is 6.7% more than the males.

The point that is common is that, 3 males and 3 females stress levels are 10 when they are browsing on the internet and that is 20% in both the pie charts.

As well as, 2 females and 2 males stress level is 8, which is 13.3% in both the pie charts. As well as 1 female and 1 male stress level is 5, which is 6.7%, in both the pie charts.

The part that proves that females are highly stressed in this period is that 3 males voted for 1 being their stress level ( 1 being the lowest stress level), which makes it 20%, However, only 2 female voted for 1,(1 being the lowest stress level) for her stress levels, with that being which makes it 13.3% .

Conclusion

With the help form this IA; I can draw out some very interesting conclusions about the stress levels amongst the IB students.

Firstly with the help of the box plots, we could find out the period from the most stressed to the least stressed periods in the life of an IB student. This makes “anticipation for the board exams”, as the highest stressed period. And then it is followed by “2nd term exams” and then “1st term exams”, we then have the “summer break” and then “browsing on the internet” and finally “winter break”.

Figure 9: shows a summary of the stress levels experienced by the IB students.

Secondly, with the help of the pie charts, we found the type of gender that was highly stressed in the three periods. “Anticipation for the boards”, is said to be highly stressed by both the genders. And during “winter break” and while “browsing on the internet” females are likely to be more stressed than males.

Evaluation

Overall I feel overwhelmed that I conducted this project in which I not only got to interact with the different sexes but to also find out the period they are highly stressed for. As for my data I think that I have provided enough in order to prove my analysis, however, on the contrary, I would also like to explore my survey more, such as adding a few more questionnaires, like adding more periods, that whether age factor can influence the stress levels and a lot more. The only problem that I that the data collected was done by a small group of people, as there are only a few students in 12 IB, which is why I had to ask for help from 11 IB. Although I feel that I have provided sufficient data, but with the addition of more analysis and other factors it would have been better.

Bibliography

1. Buchanan, Laurie, et al. Mathematics: Standard Level. Oxford University Press, 2012.

I want to talk about theories, causes, and effects of stress. Stress is an inevitable consequence of life and is a state of mental or emotional tension that results in various or demanding circumstances. Stress is not always harmful, but it can trigger multiple biological responses. All people are stressed however, everyone interprets stress differently, and our coping strategies vary from individual to individual. According to Lazarus (1999), stress is a two-way process; that involves the production of stressors by the environment and an individual’s response to these stressors. Lazarus stated that cognitive assessment occurs when a person considers two major factors that significantly contribute to their response to stress. These two factors include the tendency to threaten the stress for the individual and assessing the resources needed to minimize, tolerate or eradicate the stressor and the stress they do.

While fighting or running is the primary stress response, there are other physiological, psychological, and behavioral responses or effects. From a physical point of view, one may begin to have headaches, stomach aches, increased fatigue, or feel or feel unhealthy. Emotionally and psychologically, one can have mood swings, angry thoughts, and develop a lack of concentration. ‘Stress is the body’s way of responding to any request.’It refers to two simultaneous events: an external stimulus called stress physical and emotional responses to that stimulus (anxiety, fear, muscle tension, increased heart rate, and so on). Work, money, health, family relationships, lack of sleep, and inadequate nutrition are stressors that lead to psychiatric disorders. Stress can lead to depression and anxiety, and can cause nervousness, panic attacks, and even delirium in the worst cases. Due to stress, the ability to concentrate decreases, and there is increased fatigue and disinterest in the world around. All of this can lead to drug or alcohol addiction. Stress acts on the metabolism causing fat to be removed from the stores to carry it to the muscles and provide energy. Basically, the body is trying to get rid of this stress. When we are stressed we eat more and smoke more, and this can cause high cholesterol. Stress, upset or overwork triggers more and more often gastric diseases, a duodenal ulcer is one of them. Gallstones, constipation, or diarrhea are also effects of high stress. The difference between the two depends on the duration. Stress causes the release of chemicals, also called ‘flight or fight’, that can give you the strength and energy to cope with a task, such as a test or a presentation. If you do not have the power to solve a problem immediately, your body will eventually use you, which happens with long-term stress. Stressors are circumstances that cause anxiety or anything that someone might interpret as unfavorable. Physiological stressors can be beaten by things that strain the body, such as extreme temperatures, injuries, chronic illness, and pain. Psychological stressors include events, situations, or people that someone has negatively affected and cause anxiety. People react differently to things like traffic, a big presentation, or getting a new job; those things are subjective and relative stress. Absolute stressors are situations that every person can interpret as stressful. This is a simple answer: fight or flight syndrome. We get a surge of adrenaline and a stress hormone, and we do have not to face the problem and run away from it. Another stress hormone released when stressed is cortisol, and adrenaline comes from the adrenal gland, but when cortisol builds up too much, it becomes toxic and cannot affect the mind and body. The normal stress response is we face struggle or flight during stress or short-term stress. Elevated cortisol and adrenaline levels do not provide the energy needed to complete the tasks. The same hormone levels increase during long-term suffering or stress but instead have an outlet for everything. While stress activates the ‘fight or flight’ part of our nervous system, mindfulness meditation activates the ‘rest and digest part of our nervous system, helping with stress management.

The effects of stress have troubled humanity for a long time, yet the research behind this common phenomenon on its impact and how to deal with it is still being explored. Hans Seyle, notable for his work in this field, has described stress as a demand of the body requiring a non-specific response. He has also developed a model known as G.A.S.(General Adaptation Syndrome), describing the body’s response initiated by stress (Greenberg, 2009).

When considering that no two people manage or perceive stress in the same manner and that each has its limitations, researchers can be concerned when collecting information supporting their hypothesis. G.A.S. theory is based on a three-stage reaction to stress:

1. Reaction: when the rate of all bodily functions of the autonomous nervous system increases the high level to give us the physical strength to protect ourselves against an attack or mobilize internal forces. In normal circumstances, the alarm reaction phase will not last for very long. In some instances, it may only be for a few seconds. In other cases, longer.
2. adaptation: Through this process of transformation, we learn how to cope better. Problems occur at the resistance adaptation phase if the combined biological, psychological, and social responses employed do not deal with the threat effectively or if the danger is chronic, whereby it eventually wears down the organism’s capacity to resist the danger or deal with it properly.
3. The problems lead us to the exhaustion phase. If the stressor environment is chronic and excessive without any real opportunity to recover or adapt successfully, the organism will begin to show signs of adaptation failure. Systems start to break down, and we become more susceptible to a range of biopsychosocial symptoms. If we persist in functioning at this level, death can occur.

In conclusion, stress is very different for every individual. However, the key to successfully co-existing with stress is to learn essential strategies that can help you manage and adjust your stress reaction. Stress can ruin relationships, interfere with once-simple tasks, and ultimately turn someone’s life upside down. It can cause emotional imbalance, physical ailments, and unlikely behavior. Once stress has built up, it isn’t easy to get rid of quickly, so it is best to manage it daily. Applying the three crucial activities, exercise, sleep, and meditation, are crucial in keeping a healthy mind and body. It is important to remember that not all stress is bad stress, and one will never completely escape life’s stressors. However, even though stress affects people very differently, it is highly detrimental if not treated once it begins.

“A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of happiness combined with constant restlessness.” – Albert Einstein. Around 42 percent of teens report that stress can be very overwhelming and hard to manage. About 13 percent of teens report that they never set time to manage their stress. (Apa.org, 2014). Some people can debate that teens deal with stress more than adults do. Some possible reasons why that could be: not feeling good enough as a person, worrying about their appearance, or being perfect in an imperfect society. Other problems like issues in the household such as a divorce, family crisis, financial issues, etc. Stress has become a major crippler in the everyday lives of teens.

What is the definition of stress? Stress is when one feels pressured and overwhelmed because of the number of things they have to do. Whether it’s work-related, school or even things to do at home can be stressful. A common phrase for this is “having a lot on your plate.” This means you are filled with things to do and some of it could involve a deadline, or just has a lot of components that need to get done in a short amount of time.

In society today, teens are displaying their life achievements, events, and other things on social media. Now, when scrolling through social media apps such as Instagram, Snapchat, and Tiktok, one sees daily pictures and videos of vacations, birthdays, selfies, things that have gone viral over time, etc. Some are life-changing events such as political movements or celebrating and remembering artists and people in the community who have passed on.

The generation of teens now is being pressured to be perfect, as if it mattered appearing as perfect or not. Perfectionism has become a problem in the daily lives of teens. They worry about how they dress and try too hard on impressing their friends, instead of impressing themselves. Assistant professor of clinical Psychiatry at the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety, Jeremy Tyler, Psyd, says, ??“It’s important to remember that the people behind the lens are just as stressed and nervous as everyone else. Everybody suffers at some point or feels less than perfect. Social media expression is inherently biased because very few people aim to post about their flaws.” Teens, even people in general have what is called a “mask.” This mask is what they put over themselves to cover what is really going on in their life and try to put up a front when in public. Teens shouldn’t have to go through that just to appear as perfect individuals. They should act themselves, not change just to satisfy other people and what they want.

Perfectionism starts to trigger anxiety and depression in teens. Teenagers go through hormonal changes in their bodies, which causes changes in mood, growth spurts, voice changes, etc. Researchers in a study from the National Institutes of Health said that the prevalence of major depressive episodes in adolescent children in America increased from 8.7 percent in 2005 to 11.3 percent in 2014. (Washington Post, 2017). Researchers also noted that “cyberbullying has increased more dramatically among girls than boys. Also, girls tend to use texting applications more intensively, which has been linked to an increased likelihood of depressed moods.” (Washington Post, 2017). Now that we have social media, cyberbullying has become a major issue for teens today too. Teens post videos of other people being bullied or share their own stories of how they were bullied and how their lives have been affected by that. The statistics of cyberbullying have increased because of social media and how much it has affected this generation of teens in many ways.

There are many things that make a person feel stressed out and overwhelmed. In today’s world teens go through many different types of stress. One major one is traumatic events such as school shootings, the passing of a friend or a family member, sickness, and emotional and physical abuse. When teens perceive these unfortunate and heart-wrenching situations, changes start to happen in their minds to prepare them to respond to danger using the “fight, flight or freeze” response. (AACAP.org, 2019). Teens follow the same mechanism to de-stress called the “relaxation response.” This helps to decrease the heart rate and slow down your breathing.

Using my own experience, I struggle with stress when it comes to doing schoolwork; especially if it has to do with writing. I procrastinate a lot, which produces stress. The writing wasn’t much of a strong suit for me. When the deadline was around the corner, that would be when I would worry about my work and I would try to finish the work hours before the deadline. Now, I have improved some of my time management by asking for help in class and getting stuff done in class. There are still times when I will be stressed when I have to write for summative assessments, knowing that it’s a major part of my grade. Other things that I would stress about are personal issues either at home or in the family. Some of the time the stress would be from the few close friends that I have. They tell me about their issues as well sometimes and since they’re very close to me, knowing that they’re sad I would be sad for them too. People have told me that I should find a job and my response to that is if I’m already stressed with school, why would I stress myself more by getting a job that I would have to attend after school? I won’t have time to get my schoolwork done and that would cause more stress. I would rather wait until I at least graduate and then look for a job while I attend college.

There are some ways that teens can cope with stress. Some examples are learning relaxation exercises such as yoga, listening to instrumental music, or taking some mental health days. Listening to instrumental music and participating in yoga relaxes the body and mind in order to have a calm and clear mindset. It allows you to take deep breaths and let your mind and body develop a connection. Mental health days are implied to take a break from the everyday stress of schoolwork, deadlines, and social interaction. Mental health days are also implied to recharge and reflect. In schools and workspaces, people should design a room-safe space to let teens go and take some time for themselves in a stress-free space. There, some things that can be added to the space can be yoga mats, a few magazines to read and distract the mind, a water dispenser to stay hydrated, etc. Having this space available in a school or workplace allows teens to feel less pressured and able to refocus.

In my opinion, I believe that stress is a component that everyone has in their lives. Teens have to learn to not worry about being perfectionists but to be happy with who they are, not who people want them to be. Teens should also find coping skills to use when dealing with stress. Whether it’s yoga, listening to soothing music, or taking a mental health day, find something that will work for you.

References

1. American Psychological Association. (n.d.). American Psychological Association survey shows teen stress rivals that of adults. American Psychological Association. Retrieved November 17, 2021, from https:www.apa.orgnewspressreleases201402teen-stress.
2. AACAP. (n.d.). Stress management and teens. Retrieved December 3, 2021, from https:www.aacap.orgAACAPFamilies_and_YouthFacts_for_FamiliesFFF-GuideHelping-Teenagers-With-Stress-066.aspx.
3. Dislike: How Social Media Feeds into Perfectionism – Penn Medicine. (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2021, from https:www.pennmedicine.orgnewsnews-blog2019novemberdis-like-how-social-media-feeds-into-perfectionism.
4. 6 ways yoga can help you reduce stress. DoYou. (2014, August 7). Retrieved December 3, 2021, from https:www.doyou.com6-ways-yoga-can-help-you-reduce-stress#:~:text=6 Ways Yoga Can Help You Reduce Stress, The Mind, And Body. … More items…
5. MediLexicon International. (n.d.). The effects of perfectionism on mental and Physical Health. Medical News Today. Retrieved November 27, 2021, from https:www.medicalnewstoday.comarticles323323#How-perfectionism-affects-our-overall-health.
6. Nicholls, J. (2021, October 24). Perspective | 6 reasons your teen’s life is more stressful than your own. The Washington Post. Retrieved November 22, 2021, from https:www.washingtonpost.comnewsparentingwp201705156-reasons-your-teens-life-is-more-stressful-than-your-own.
7. 6 common triggers of teen stress – psycom.net. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2021, from https:www.psycom.netcommon-triggers-teen-stress.

“Stress can be regarded as any internal or external factor, which makes adaption to environment difficult” (Pourrajab, Rabbani & Kasmaienezhadfard, 2014). Among the most affected by high levels of stress are university students. University is one of the most important parts in a student’s life and also one of the most memorable ones. It is the final preparatory step of students before reaching adulthood therefore it is accompanied with difficult tasks and duties, important to make them more capable in facing life difficulties. However, this period is accompanied with a great amount of stress. The way students cope with the stressors they face, can make stress a positive or negative influence to their academic performance. This study was made with the purpose of getting a deeper understanding of stressors in a group of university students, how it affects their school performance and how they cope with the stress they face. In doing so it can help in finding how their coping strategies are connected with their school performance and what can be done to reduce stress levels among them.

Literature Review

Previous studies have found connections between stress expressed and gender of the students. A survey was made in various co-education colleges in India with the purpose of identifying levels of stress and coping strategies between both gender students. The initial hypothesis was that it was experienced the same between them but the results showed that female students are more stressed and emotional when dealing with stressful situations (Anbumalar, Jaswanti, Priya & Reniangelin, 2017). However, the study made by Yumba (2008) on a survey among 100 undergraduate students showed there was no significant difference between the levels of stress experienced between genders. According to the study of Abouserie (1994) which studied the main stressors and stress levels among students related to their belief in being able to control their lives, academic stress was the most problematic and female students appeared to have a higher level of stress.

Stressors such as: oversleeping, financial issues and difficulty in handling many school courses seem to have most of impact on students but they influenced negatively in performance only at the end of the semester at the time of final exams (Rafidah, Azizah, Norzaidi, Chong, Salwani & Noraini, 2009). Other studies find academic factors as the most stressful among university students (Struthers, Perry & Menec, 2000; Somnath, 2014) which will continue to be a problem even in the future (Reddy, Karishmarajanmenon & Anjanathattil, 2018).

When dealing with high levels of stress, students report to use more coping techniques. Avoidance coping techniques which are most used, reported to have a high influence in increasing stress levels (Dwyer & Cummings, 2001). Aldwin, Revenson (1987) reported that there is no consensus among students about the coping strategies which reduce levels of emotional distress so no immediate coping strategy can be found.

Methodology

This study is based on an online survey made in SurveyMonkey.com. It was focused on university students from which there were 75 participants. 52 of which, were female students and 23 were male students. The survey was conducted on the following questions:

1. How much stress do you go through in your daily life? This question was made with the purpose of understanding stress levels among female and male students.
2. What are the main stressors in your daily life?
3. Does the stress you experience influence negatively in your school performance?
4. What techniques do you use to manage stress?

The first questions were multiple-choice, and the last question was open-ended. Since these were open-ended questions, there were many opinions, which I divided into two main categories: positive and negative coping. Coping strategies are used as techniques to reduce distress and tension of people (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2000).

Results

The study found that the level of stress is higher in female students where most experience a lot of stress (38.48%) while most of male students experience just a small amount of stress (56.52%). The main stressor among students is academic stress (48.28%) and the least one was financial stress (4%). 66.6% of the students reported that there was a negative interrelation between stress and their performance and 33.4% responded that it didn’t affect negatively in their performance.

59 students answered the last question about coping strategies. For positive coping the most answers were: talking with friends and family, practicing hobbies and time management through careful planning. Related to the negative coping, most of the answers were: denying the existence of the stressful situation and spending a lot of time in social media. 57.33% of the students who responded were in the positive coping category and 42.67% in the negative one.

Discussion and Conclusions

This was a limited study with the participation of 75 university students so further studies are needed to reach to an accurate and valid conclusion. Many university students are facing stress in their daily lives and the institution plays the major part of it (Saipanish, 2003). Female students are seen to experience stress in a higher level than male students. Having support from the school, family and friends would have a great impact on the performance of students. In that way, students will feel less stressed and aim for higher academic results (Trocket, Barnes, Egge, 2000). Engaging in positive coping techniques might help students to better manage their academic stress (Pariat, Rynjah, Joplin & Kharjana, 2014). By seeing everyday stressors in a more optimistic view rather than as overwhelming struggles, can help in transforming that stress into positive working energy. Since in this study, negative coping strategies were higher among students and stress experienced by them had mostly a negative influence in performance, future studies can focus on finding the best ways to use coping strategies to provide less stress and more performance from students.

References

1. Abouserie, R. (1994). Sources and Levels of Stress in Relation to Locus of Control and Self-Esteem in University Students. Educational Psychology, 14(3), 323-330. Retrieved January 2019, from: http://www.thrivetraining.info/wp-content/uploads/Sources-and-Levels-of-Stress-in-Relation-to-Locus-of-Control-and-Self-Esteem-in-University-Students.pdf
2. Aldwin, C. M., & Revenson, T. A. (1987). Does Coping Help? A Reexamination of the Relation Between Coping and Mental Health. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53(2), 337-348. Retrieved January 2019: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carolyn_Aldwin/publication/19535402_Does_Coping_Help_A_Reexamination_of_the_Relation_Between_Coping_and_Mental_Health/links/00b7d52f27fcb2c209000000.pdf
3. Anbumalar, C., Agines, D., A P, Jaswanti, V. P., Priya, D., & Reniangelin, D. (2017). Gender Differences in Perceived Stress Levels and Coping Strategies Among College Students. International Journal of Indian Psychology, 4(4). Retrieved January 2019 from: https://www.ijip.in/Archive/v4i4/18.01.103.20170404.pdf
4. Dwyer, A. L., & Cummings, A. L. (2001). Stress, Self-Efficacy, Social Support, and Coping Strategies in University Students. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 35(3), 208-220. Retrieved January 2019 from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/286f/8c2c41aa7b039ba1594a482ca029dde8ca05.pdf
5. Folkman, S., & Moskowitz, J. T. (2000). Stress, Positive Emotion and Coping. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9(4), 115-118. Retrieved January 2019 from: http://www.gruberpeplab.com/teaching/psych3131_spring2015/documents/14.2_FolkmanMoskowitz_2000_Stresspositiveemotioncoping.pdf
6. Pariat, L., Rynjah. A., Joplin., Kharjana. M. G. (2014). Stress Levels of College Students: Interrelationship Between Stressors and Coping Strategies. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 19(8), 40-46. Retrieved January 2019 from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c649/84311291b5bffaa605fa08d76b85b20c60a4.pdf
7. Porrajab, M., Rabbani, M., & Kasmaienezhadfard, S. (2014). Different Effects of Stress on Male and Female Students. The Online Journal of Counseling and Education, 3(3), 31-39. Retrieved January 2019 from: https://umexpert.um.edu.my/file/publication/00013401_112948.pdf
8. Rafidah, K., Azizah, A., Norzaidi, M. D., Chong, S. Ch., Salwani. M. I., & Noraini. I. (2009). Stress and Academic Performance: Empirical Evidence from University Students. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 13 (1), 37. Retrieved January 2019 from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299615555_STRESS_AND_ACADEMIC_PERFORMANCE_EMPIRICAL_EVIDENCE_FROM_UNIVERSITY_STUDENTS
9. Reddy, K. J., Menon, K. R., & Thattil, A. (2018). Academic Stress and Its Sources Among University Students. Biomedical and Pharmacology Journal, 11(1), 531-537.
10. Saipanish, R. (2003). Stress Among Medical Students in a Thai Medical School. Medical teacher, 25(5), 502-506. Retrieved January 2019 from: file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/stressinmedstudents4%20(3).pdf
11. Salgar, S. T. (2014). Stress in First Year Medical Students. International Journal of Biomedical and Advance Research, 5(01), 79-80. Retrieved January 2019 from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Somnath_Salgar/publication/273499332_Stress_in_first_year_medical_students/links/57e3a5cd08ae8474016731ae/Stress-in-first-year-medical-students.pdf
12. Struthers, C. W., Perry, R. P., & Menec, V. H. (2000). An Examination of the Relationship Among Academic Stress, Coping, Motivation, and Performance in College. Research in Higher Education, 41(5), 581-592. Retrieved January 2019 from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8c8d/9017b400cea87a583241f7591a7d22e57ffc.pdf
13. Trockel, M. T., Barnes, M. D., & Egget, D. L. (2000). Health-Related Variables and Academic Performance Among First-Year College Students: Implications for Sleep and Other Behaviors. Journal of American College Health, 49(3), 125-131. Retrieved January 2019 from: https://wrt102f12.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/trockelbarnesegget.pdf
14. Yumba. W. (2008). Academic Stress: A Case of the Undergraduate Students. Retrieved January 2019 from: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:556335/FULLTEXT01.pdf

University is a drastic change for many students to handle. It is similar to being thrown into a new world and having to learn a new culture, which can be overwhelming. University students are often subjected to mass amounts of stress, impacting their mental and physical health. Stress can come from a student’s inability to: develop adequate coping skills, maintain a healthy sleeping schedule, and find a balance between social, vocational, and educational commitments.

To reduce stress, students inevitably develop coping strategies, the success of which depends on how beneficial they are in accomplishing the students’ duties. I have found study groups to be extremely beneficial. University can be increasingly hard on students because of a perceived lack of support systems (Reeve, Shumaker, Yearwood, Crowell, & Riley, 2013). Study groups allow me to connect with other students while keeping me focused on my schoolwork. However, not all coping mechanisms are beneficial; when stress peaks I occasionally turn to drinking for relief. The increasing prevalence of drinking being used as a coping strategy among first year students can be worrying because of its negative impacts (Reeve et al., 2013). Drinking may provide momentary relief but it does not enable me to accomplish the task causing me stress.

Stress often leads to fatigue but developing a proper sleep schedule can help students eliminate fatigue and subsequently reduce stress levels. I find that when stress levels increase, my ability to get an adequate amount of sleep drastically decreases. It can be hard to find time or a place to decompress while stressed. Despite the difficulty, finding a place to escape from the stress imposed from the school environment is of paramount importance (Klainberg, Ewing, & Ryan, 2010). When you find a place that encourages relaxation it enables you to calm your mind, increasing your ability to fall asleep and return to a normal sleeping pattern.

As a university student, a key to overcoming stress is balancing commitments. Creating to-do lists helps me see what I have going on the next day. It is overwhelming at times because I work twice a week, go to the gym, and have social commitments to my friends and clubs. By changing the way students view their commitments from negative to positive, they are able to become proactive about their health and own well-being (Klainberg, Ewing, & Ryan, 2010). Utilizing various coping mechanisms and social support, students can develop a healthy balanced lifestyle (Reeve, Shumaker, Yearwood, Crowell, & Riley, 2013). It is essential that students train themselves to have a positive mindset not just to find balance, but also tools for success. Positive mindsets allow us to see our responsibilities not as being burdensome, but rather as opportunities to improve ourselves.

University is a completely new environment to be subjected to and many students find themselves struggling to adapt to the changes they encounter. Insufficiently adapting can cause stress that has an ability to negatively affect overall health. Stress can be attributed to students’ inadequacy to: develop proper habits to handle assignments, find a healthy yet productive sleep pattern, and establish unity between personal, school and work undertakings. To be successful throughout university and life it is imperative that people develop methods for managing stress and balancing the many commitments they may have.

Mostly everybody on the planet has or will experience stress at some time in their life. Driving to the grocery store, going to work, or transitioning from high school to university, stress is now finding new ways to surprise people every day. With this mounting stress that comes with a fast, technologically-advanced society, skills are needed to mitigate these effects, restore balance, and minimize future encounters with it. Starting university, which is undeniably a potent source of stress, can be a daunting and frightful experience. Before school even begins, the expectations of becoming a professional student, thoughts of meeting new people, and the changes associated with the beginning of adulthood can be quite intimidating for some people – probably most. When school does start, it all can be overwhelming. The managing of five or six difficult classes, completing assignments on time, and learning of the more challenging university-level content can make starting university one of the most stressful times of a person’s life. The American College Health Association found in a 2018 study that 44.9% of students reported more than average stress, with 11.9% of students experiencing ‘tremendous stress’ (ACHA, 2018). Additionally, Turner, Leno and Keller (2013) found that one in every ten deaths of college and university students is caused by suicide. As we see in these extremes, it becomes imperative for students to understand the impacts of stress, identify stress factors, and learn how to manage stress effectively. Through a thorough understanding of stress and effective self-management techniques for reducing stress, it is possible for those beginning university to enjoy their experience, reach their full potential, and succeed.

Findings

First, it is important to understand the meaning of stress, and how it impacts the body. Selye (1974 p. 27) says: “Stress is a nonspecific response of the body to any demands made to it”. In other words, the body tries to maintain a sense of normalcy and balance by adjusting to situations and events that try to change this balance. When a person becomes cold, their bodies start shivering to generate heat (Tortora & Derrickson, 2017, p. 10). In this context, stress is considered to be the cold environment the person finds them self in. It is also important to remember that not all stress is bad though. For instance, when you are running from a bear, you need to be able to adapt quickly to the life-threatening situation, and reroute all energy in the body to organs that will help you survive. In this example, a person’s parasympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system will activate, which will deliver huge amounts of glucose and oxygen to the brain, skeletal muscles, and heart. At the same time, non-useful organ functions associated with the urinary, digestive, and reproductive systems are inhibited (Tortora & Derrickson, 2017, p. 656). On the contrary, chronic stress serves no purpose, is detrimental to health, and can lead to a variety of complications such as changes in brain structure, weakened immune system, decreased cardiovascular health, and decreased mental health (Mariotti, 2015). In this study, the severity of stress and its effects are clearly expressed which underline the concern that almost half of students are experiencing higher than average stress as previously mentioned in the study done by ACHA (2018).

Understanding what causes stress (stressor) is also very crucial so that we are able to focus on specific coping skills for a specific stressor, reduce our encounters with them, or even eliminate the stressor all together. Canadian adults report that families, relationships, work, and major life changes mark the biggest sources of stress (CMHA, 2014), but stress experienced by post-secondary students highlights other areas of one’s life. Stressors experienced by post-secondary students can be related to stage of life, personal factors, or academics (Versavel, 2014). Adapting to independent living, transitioning into adulthood, building new social support networks, changing relationships with parents, and obtaining personal security are all stresses related to stage of life (Al-qaisy, 2010). Financial concerns, school/personal life balance, and lack of free time are all commonly identified personal sources of stress for post-secondary students (Chernomas & Shapiro, 2013). Additionally, working part-time can make everything else seem even harder. If a student has poor time management skills and is working through a heavy course load, this will further exacerbate stress. With this in mind, the primary source of stress amongst college and university students relates to academics. Worrying about exams, workload, and marks in general have been cited as top sources of stress for some students (Altiok & Ustun, 2013).

As students are not always able to eliminate the source of their stress, they can still find ways of managing it. There are many different resources that a student can use, but these resources are not fully realized by the students themselves. Also, pressures of school life seem to compound on each other like cars entering a traffic jam on a freeway. Not before long, it seems impossible to get out of the mess students often find themselves in, and they may bouts of depression, anxiety, or even break-downs. Students may then turn to alcohol and drugs to relieve the stress that they are experiencing, which normally make the situation even worse (Lanier, Nicholson, Duncan, 2001). Mindfulness-based therapy (MBT) is becoming an increasingly popular and effective stress management technique that scientists are now studying now more than ever. Mindfulness-based therapy is a way of training an individual’s brain to quiet itself so that the individual is less likely to become distracted, overwhelmed by worry and rumination, and ultimately towards acceptance of oneself (Abott, Whear, Rodgers, et al., 2014). Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has also been found to reduce stress in University Students. CBT helps individuals focus on the here and now, with skills and strategies to examine how to make sense of what is happening, and how these perceptions affect the way they feel (Huisman & Kangas, 2018). Yoga is also a very effective intervention to stress as studied by Milligan (2006). Some universities even offer yoga programs to their students, which is becoming increasingly popular among students. Diet also plays another important role in the mental health of students. As all of our body’s need energy to perform, it is crucial that students eat well so that their body systems are able to support the student’s needs. This is especially the case when it comes to the nervous system, which is your brain. The brain is constantly receiving, interpreting, and sending out data. When you don’t fuel your brain with anything other than quality nutrients, it can become slow, fatigued, and damaged (Selhub, 2018). Paying attention to what you put into your body can make a huge impact on the way your brain performs, ultimately reducing stress levels.

Conclusion

With the information presented above addressing what stress is, how it can physiologically affect the body, some sources of stress (stressors), and effective techniques for reducing stress, it becomes important that this information makes its way to the minds of students. All of the literature on stress does no good if it doesn’t get shared with importance to university students. This may an area of focus for future studies; how can professionals, faculty of universities, and anyone teaching about stress, to effectively share this information with practical solutions for students. It’s one thing to see posters in the hallways of schools about stress and its effects, but it’s another thing to fully understand on a deeper level that humans are not designed to be stressed all of the time, and what we can do about it. This sharing and understanding may prove of even greater difficulty as half of students are already stressed (ACHA, 2018). With half of the student population already stressed, students may prioritize completing their fast-approaching deadlines, studying for tests, and anything academic related, instead of learning effective ways of coping outside of just being a stressed student. There may already be a misguided belief among some university students which is that chronic stress is just an integral part of university. This is just inherently wrong, and should be understood by all students. There are countless students that have learned how to prioritize their health, take care of themselves, and manage their stress. With the use of MBT, CBT, yoga, diet, and many other health promotion strategies, students can begin taking back their lives and have a fulfilling university experience. Maybe it’s from all of the distraction of technology that we have forgotten how it feels to feel balanced and healthy. We all seem so caught up in the stories we read, videos we watch, and posts we share, that we really have lost touch with an innate part of ourselves, which may be contributing to a declining health of society. Whatever the case may be, if we don’t fix our society’s stress epidemic, we are in for trouble.

Mental health is defined as when a person understands and knows their own abilities regarding being productive, handling stress, and knowing how to control their emotions.

Good mental health is when a person can do tasks like learning, healthily expressing their emotions, and having a good balance between negative and positive emotions without crumbling under pressure. Bad mental health is when a person cannot cope when doing necessary tasks in life and cannot control their feelings, they often struggle to think clearly and struggle with high-stress situations.

Mental health days are important because they help keep a healthy balance between the stress and pressure of school and life. They help prevent complete burnout and could prevent a mental breakdown or worse. Mental health is very important because it includes our social well-being and our psychological and emotional well-being. It has a huge effect on our emotions, actions, and the way we think. Mental health has not always been a topic many people spoke about, it was seen as being a very private subject you kept to yourself but in recent years more people have addressed and spoken about mental health more openly and the importance of every single person’s mental health. Social media has played a big role in changing this, hopefully for the better.

In my personal opinion I believe it is extremely important to allow students to have mental health days off because every person has a different state of mental health, some students cannot cope in high-pressure situations for a long period which leads them to burn out and this could lead to something like quitting school. There are many reasons why students may need mental health days off including having mental illnesses. Depression and anxiety have a huge effect on someone and have been on the rise in youngsters. Sometimes when depression and anxiety are suppressed and not addressed it could lead to things like mental breakdowns, panic attacks, and worst-case scenario suicide. Another reason may be family trauma. Homelife affects school life and having breaks from school may help.

People are not robots; we all have emotions and each person has a breaking point or needs a break to recharge once in a while. Mental health days may not solve all these problems but they could help a struggling teenager gather some strength to push through and carry on instead of giving up. I think schools need to consider having mental health days.

“A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of happiness combined with constant restlessness.” – Albert Einstein. Around 42 percent of teens report that stress can be very overwhelming and hard to manage. About 13 percent of teens report that they never set time to manage their stress. (Apa.org, 2014). Some people can debate that teens deal with stress more than adults do. Some possible reasons why that could be: not feeling good enough as a person, worrying about their appearance, or being perfect in an imperfect society. Other problems like issues in the household such as a divorce, family crisis, financial issues, etc. Stress has become a major crippler in the everyday lives of teens.

What is the definition of stress? Stress is when one feels pressured and overwhelmed because of the number of things they have to do. Whether it’s work-related, school or even things to do at home can be stressful. A common phrase for this is “having a lot on your plate.” This means you are filled with things to do and some of it could involve a deadline, or just has a lot of components that need to get done in a short amount of time.

In society today, teens are displaying their life achievements, events, and other things on social media. Now, when scrolling through social media apps such as Instagram, Snapchat, and Tiktok, one sees daily pictures and videos of vacations, birthdays, selfies, things that have gone viral over time, etc. Some are life-changing events such as political movements or celebrating and remembering artists and people in the community who have passed on.

The generation of teens now is being pressured to be perfect, as if it mattered appearing as perfect or not. Perfectionism has become a problem in the daily lives of teens. They worry about how they dress and try too hard on impressing their friends, instead of impressing themselves. Assistant professor of clinical Psychiatry at the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety, Jeremy Tyler, Psyd, says, ??“It’s important to remember that the people behind the lens are just as stressed and nervous as everyone else. Everybody suffers at some point or feels less than perfect. Social media expression is inherently biased because very few people aim to post about their flaws.” Teens, even people in general have what is called a “mask.” This mask is what they put over themselves to cover what is really going on in their life and try to put up a front when in public. Teens shouldn’t have to go through that just to appear as perfect individuals. They should act themselves, not change just to satisfy other people and what they want.

Perfectionism starts to trigger anxiety and depression in teens. Teenagers go through hormonal changes in their bodies, which causes changes in mood, growth spurts, voice changes, etc. Researchers in a study from the National Institutes of Health said that the prevalence of major depressive episodes in adolescent children in America increased from 8.7 percent in 2005 to 11.3 percent in 2014. (Washington Post, 2017). Researchers also noted that “cyberbullying has increased more dramatically among girls than boys. Also, girls tend to use texting applications more intensively, which has been linked to an increased likelihood of depressed moods.” (Washington Post, 2017). Now that we have social media, cyberbullying has become a major issue for teens today too. Teens post videos of other people being bullied or share their own stories of how they were bullied and how their lives have been affected by that. The statistics of cyberbullying have increased because of social media and how much it has affected this generation of teens in many ways.

There are many things that make a person feel stressed out and overwhelmed. In today’s world teens go through many different types of stress. One major one is traumatic events such as school shootings, the passing of a friend or a family member, sickness, and emotional and physical abuse. When teens perceive these unfortunate and heart-wrenching situations, changes start to happen in their minds to prepare them to respond to danger using the “fight, flight or freeze” response. (AACAP.org, 2019). Teens follow the same mechanism to de-stress called the “relaxation response.” This helps to decrease the heart rate and slow down your breathing.

Using my own experience, I struggle with stress when it comes to doing schoolwork; especially if it has to do with writing. I procrastinate a lot, which produces stress. The writing wasn’t much of a strong suit for me. When the deadline was around the corner, that would be when I would worry about my work and I would try to finish the work hours before the deadline. Now, I have improved some of my time management by asking for help in class and getting stuff done in class. There are still times when I will be stressed when I have to write for summative assessments, knowing that it’s a major part of my grade. Other things that I would stress about are personal issues either at home or in the family. Some of the time the stress would be from the few close friends that I have. They tell me about their issues as well sometimes and since they’re very close to me, knowing that they’re sad I would be sad for them too. People have told me that I should find a job and my response to that is if I’m already stressed with school, why would I stress myself more by getting a job that I would have to attend after school? I won’t have time to get my schoolwork done and that would cause more stress. I would rather wait until I at least graduate and then look for a job while I attend college.

There are some ways that teens can cope with stress. Some examples are learning relaxation exercises such as yoga, listening to instrumental music, or taking some mental health days. Listening to instrumental music and participating in yoga relaxes the body and mind in order to have a calm and clear mindset. It allows you to take deep breaths and let your mind and body develop a connection. Mental health days are implied to take a break from the everyday stress of schoolwork, deadlines, and social interaction. Mental health days are also implied to recharge and reflect. In schools and workspaces, people should design a room-safe space to let teens go and take some time for themselves in a stress-free space. There, some things that can be added to the space can be yoga mats, a few magazines to read and distract the mind, a water dispenser to stay hydrated, etc. Having this space available in a school or workplace allows teens to feel less pressured and able to refocus.

In my opinion, I believe that stress is a component that everyone has in their lives. Teens have to learn to not worry about being perfectionists but to be happy with who they are, not who people want them to be. Teens should also find coping skills to use when dealing with stress. Whether it’s yoga, listening to soothing music, or taking a mental health day, find something that will work for you.

References

1. American Psychological Association. (n.d.). American Psychological Association survey shows teen stress rivals that of adults. American Psychological Association. Retrieved November 17, 2021, from https:www.apa.orgnewspressreleases201402teen-stress.
2. AACAP. (n.d.). Stress management and teens. Retrieved December 3, 2021, from https:www.aacap.orgAACAPFamilies_and_YouthFacts_for_FamiliesFFF-GuideHelping-Teenagers-With-Stress-066.aspx.
3. Dislike: How Social Media Feeds into Perfectionism – Penn Medicine. (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2021, from https:www.pennmedicine.orgnewsnews-blog2019novemberdis-like-how-social-media-feeds-into-perfectionism.
4. 6 ways yoga can help you reduce stress. DoYou. (2014, August 7). Retrieved December 3, 2021, from https:www.doyou.com6-ways-yoga-can-help-you-reduce-stress#:~:text=6 Ways Yoga Can Help You Reduce Stress, The Mind, And Body. … More items…
5. MediLexicon International. (n.d.). The effects of perfectionism on mental and Physical Health. Medical News Today. Retrieved November 27, 2021, from https:www.medicalnewstoday.comarticles323323#How-perfectionism-affects-our-overall-health.
6. Nicholls, J. (2021, October 24). Perspective | 6 reasons your teen’s life is more stressful than your own. The Washington Post. Retrieved November 22, 2021, from https:www.washingtonpost.comnewsparentingwp201705156-reasons-your-teens-life-is-more-stressful-than-your-own.
7. 6 common triggers of teen stress – psycom.net. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2021, from https:www.psycom.netcommon-triggers-teen-stress.

“Stress can be regarded as any internal or external factor, which makes adaption to environment difficult” (Pourrajab, Rabbani & Kasmaienezhadfard, 2014). Among the most affected by high levels of stress are university students. University is one of the most important parts in a student’s life and also one of the most memorable ones. It is the final preparatory step of students before reaching adulthood therefore it is accompanied with difficult tasks and duties, important to make them more capable in facing life difficulties. However, this period is accompanied with a great amount of stress. The way students cope with the stressors they face, can make stress a positive or negative influence to their academic performance. This study was made with the purpose of getting a deeper understanding of stressors in a group of university students, how it affects their school performance and how they cope with the stress they face. In doing so it can help in finding how their coping strategies are connected with their school performance and what can be done to reduce stress levels among them.

Literature Review

Previous studies have found connections between stress expressed and gender of the students. A survey was made in various co-education colleges in India with the purpose of identifying levels of stress and coping strategies between both gender students. The initial hypothesis was that it was experienced the same between them but the results showed that female students are more stressed and emotional when dealing with stressful situations (Anbumalar, Jaswanti, Priya & Reniangelin, 2017). However, the study made by Yumba (2008) on a survey among 100 undergraduate students showed there was no significant difference between the levels of stress experienced between genders. According to the study of Abouserie (1994) which studied the main stressors and stress levels among students related to their belief in being able to control their lives, academic stress was the most problematic and female students appeared to have a higher level of stress.

Stressors such as: oversleeping, financial issues and difficulty in handling many school courses seem to have most of impact on students but they influenced negatively in performance only at the end of the semester at the time of final exams (Rafidah, Azizah, Norzaidi, Chong, Salwani & Noraini, 2009). Other studies find academic factors as the most stressful among university students (Struthers, Perry & Menec, 2000; Somnath, 2014) which will continue to be a problem even in the future (Reddy, Karishmarajanmenon & Anjanathattil, 2018).

When dealing with high levels of stress, students report to use more coping techniques. Avoidance coping techniques which are most used, reported to have a high influence in increasing stress levels (Dwyer & Cummings, 2001). Aldwin, Revenson (1987) reported that there is no consensus among students about the coping strategies which reduce levels of emotional distress so no immediate coping strategy can be found.

Methodology

This study is based on an online survey made in SurveyMonkey.com. It was focused on university students from which there were 75 participants. 52 of which, were female students and 23 were male students. The survey was conducted on the following questions:

1. How much stress do you go through in your daily life? This question was made with the purpose of understanding stress levels among female and male students.
2. What are the main stressors in your daily life?
3. Does the stress you experience influence negatively in your school performance?
4. What techniques do you use to manage stress?

The first questions were multiple-choice, and the last question was open-ended. Since these were open-ended questions, there were many opinions, which I divided into two main categories: positive and negative coping. Coping strategies are used as techniques to reduce distress and tension of people (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2000).

Results

The study found that the level of stress is higher in female students where most experience a lot of stress (38.48%) while most of male students experience just a small amount of stress (56.52%). The main stressor among students is academic stress (48.28%) and the least one was financial stress (4%). 66.6% of the students reported that there was a negative interrelation between stress and their performance and 33.4% responded that it didn’t affect negatively in their performance.

59 students answered the last question about coping strategies. For positive coping the most answers were: talking with friends and family, practicing hobbies and time management through careful planning. Related to the negative coping, most of the answers were: denying the existence of the stressful situation and spending a lot of time in social media. 57.33% of the students who responded were in the positive coping category and 42.67% in the negative one.

Discussion and Conclusions

This was a limited study with the participation of 75 university students so further studies are needed to reach to an accurate and valid conclusion. Many university students are facing stress in their daily lives and the institution plays the major part of it (Saipanish, 2003). Female students are seen to experience stress in a higher level than male students. Having support from the school, family and friends would have a great impact on the performance of students. In that way, students will feel less stressed and aim for higher academic results (Trocket, Barnes, Egge, 2000). Engaging in positive coping techniques might help students to better manage their academic stress (Pariat, Rynjah, Joplin & Kharjana, 2014). By seeing everyday stressors in a more optimistic view rather than as overwhelming struggles, can help in transforming that stress into positive working energy. Since in this study, negative coping strategies were higher among students and stress experienced by them had mostly a negative influence in performance, future studies can focus on finding the best ways to use coping strategies to provide less stress and more performance from students.

References

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