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The importance of academic success
Cause and effects of stress on college students
Causes and effects of student stress
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Are We Dealt More Than We Can Handle?
College can be stressful. You can easily get anxious trying to juggle school, work, friends, and family while trying to figure out the rest of your life, a majority of us bounce back. But intense, uncontrollable and frequent feelings of anxiety that effects your daily routines may be a sign of an anxiety disorder. Causes? The stress of schoolwork, relationships, finances. The more you think about what you have to do, the more you feel like you’re paralyzed. Anxiety has now surpassed depression as the most common mental health diagnosis among college students, though depression, too, is on the rise. Students need help, now more than ever to help them with this strong overpowering urge to breakdown and give
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Stressors affecting students can be categorized as academic, financial, time or health related, and self-imposed (Goodman, 1993; LeRoy, 1988). Academic stressors include the student 's perception of the amount of work they are being dealt from each of their professors. Students report experiencing academic stress at predictable times each semester with the highest sources of stress coming from taking and studying for exams, grade competition, and the large amount of school work to complete in such a little amount of …show more content…
Effective time management strategies increase academic performance and are frequently suggested by academic assistance personnel as aids to enhance achievement for college students. Productive study methods are characterized by "time management" and "strategic studying" (Entwistle & Ramsden, 1983; Kirschenbaum & Perri, 1982). Although suggestions of starting large projects and assignments long before due dates, breaking down large tasks into smaller sections, and doing small tasks on a regular schedule, could all help a student with the amount of anxiety and stress that they are dealing with but yet students ignore these techniques and find themselves having a tough time and struggling before
According to an article by Josephine Marcotty in Minneapolis’ Star Tribune from April 10, college students lead “hyper-enriched lives,” said Greg Kneser, dean of students at St. Olaf College. That’s what makes this generation of students distinct from its predecessors, he said. That is why more students who cannot cope with these feelings end up at college counseling centers with “increasingly serious mental-health problems.” 15 to 20 percent of college students nationally were diagnosed with depression. The second most common diagnosis was severe anxiety. According to the article, it is not unusual for mental-health issues to become apparent during a student’s college years.
4 Giancola, J.K., Grawitch, M.J., and Borchert, D. (2009). Dealing with the stress of college: A
Many first year college students face problems as they enter a new educational environment that is very different than that of high school. However, the common problem is that many first year students become stressed. For many students, college is supposed to be the most fun time of their life; however, their fun can be restricted if it is limited by stress and other mental illnesses. According to the National Health Ministries (2006), stress is caused by “greater academic demands,” the feeling of being independent from family, “financial responsibility,” homesickness, being exposed to meeting new people, peer pressure, “awareness of one’s own sexual identity,” and the abuse of drugs and alcohol (p. 2). However, the causes to first year students’ stress mainly include academic demand, parents, finance, and peer pressure.
As an adult student, it is not easy to manage the demands of work; spouse and children; and the need to set aside time to read, research, write, and complete specified assignments. The biggest complaint conveyed by adult students is that they simply don’t have enough time. The fact is time management is crucial so you don’t lose sight of your goals. Students’ time is a limited resource. Like other limited resources, time can be more or less effectively managed (Britton, 1991, p.405). It is hard to address my perspective of my own procrastination and my ability to learn. Now that I’m older and looking at the facts of where I am now in life, I should be a lot further in my college goals. Many young adults wish someone sat them down early in life and guided them in a wiser direction. A college degree is essential in the career world.
Studies have shown that many college students are not able to handle the stress while in school, which hinders the ability for the brain to act in a normal way (Shahrokh and Hales, 2003). If a person is unable to deal with the stress that one is being faced with, it will have negative consequences in terms of causing several psychological disorders (Canby et al., 2014). Entering post-secondary education is a completely new environment for students, as it can be tough for many to adjust to the new surroundings. There are many factors that cause stress when students enter college, as it can include having the ability to deal with lower marks (Struthers et al., 2000) and having to create a new social life. Once and if a social life is established, it can cause more stress among students because it can lead into peer pressure that results in risky behavior. In particular, peer pressure can cause alcoholism or drug abuse (Seiffge-Krenke, 1990) or it can also cause unprotected sex. Not only does stress revolve around peer-pressure, but it can also be caused by headaches and lack of energy. If a student is constantly staying up late to finish assignments or to study, it can cause headaches from the lack of sleep; thus causing stress. With all the given factors, it can be hard to overcome these external factors which can ultimately lead to stress among
Driscoll, Emily. “Stress in College: What Causes it and How to Combat it.” Online posting. 31
Leaving home for the first time and going away for school can be very difficult for some people. In many cases for college freshmen this is their first time being away from their home and parents. Many times they get home sick and want to isolate themselves. They have to get into a new routine of going to school, and change can be very difficult. It is definitely hard to get into the swing of college. They have to navigate through classes in a new format while living away from all the comforts of parents. A college student’s life usually consists of attending classes, long hours of studying, working at a job (sometimes), and having a social life. Some students work at a job or study harder than others, but they are all trying to get degrees so maybe one day they will have meaningful and significant lives. It is a constant struggle for everyone who is trying desperately to make him or herself into a success. And every college student wants to be involved with something in order to further their education, or just have fun. There are lots of new opportunities out there. The struggle consists of demands on time, financial pressures, parental pressure and conflicts, interpersonal conflicts, managing freedom, peer and academic pressure and the transitional period to a new academic environment (Stanford University 4). All of these factors combined can cause emotional disturbances and one of the most common is stress.
Heibutzki, Ralph. How Lack of Time Management Affects College Students. Demand Media, 2009. Web. 15 Nov. 2013
College students face strenuous workloads daily, causing them to feel more pressure about their schoolwork and academics and resulting in anxiousness. About 50% of college students today are suffering from depression, a larger number than most believe, but not all reveal that they have a depressive issue (Deroma, Leach, Leverett 325). Researchers suggest that academic stress plays a big role in a college student’s depression. Most people know that college is a lot harder than high school ...
Everyone deals with stress at some point in his or her life. Most people deal with it daily. As defined in the book called Principles and Labs for Fitness and Wellness, stress is, “The mental, emotional, and physiological response of the body to any situation that is new, threatening, frightening, or exciting” (Hoeger & Hoeger, 2012). This stress is caused by a stressor, which is also known as “a stress-causing event” (Hoeger & Hoeger, 2012). Stressors can take all different forms, from moving to a new town, having a baby, or even writing a paper (Boyd, Wood, & Wood, 2011). One major stressor in life can be going to college. If not coped with properly, these stressors can leave a person with too much stress that could end up harming them mentally and physically, such as developing an illness (Boyd, Wood, & Wood, 2011). There are several ways to cope with stress. Some healthy ways to cope with stress would be practicing emotion-focused coping, building time-management techniques, and practicing meditation.
When it comes to our personal and professional lives, Managing your time efficiently should be a mastered ability. As a student, this could have a huge effect on performance and grades. Seeing that Time Management is imperative when it comes to college and success, recognizing bad habits, should be one of the first obstructions immediately eliminated from your daily schedule. Create new habits if you tend to procrastinate and start planning ahead to manage your most important priorities. According to David Allen (2001),"Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity" (p.59) "changes in the way you clarify and organize all things that command your attention-could represent a significant shift in how you approach some key aspects of your day to day work." Setting up deadlines and completing your assignments a few days before the due date will eliminate the procrastination stage. Creating a list with the most important priorities first, will help sort out your assignments and eliminate stress and feeling overwhelmed.
Whenever a new quarter is about to start, college students are stressed out trying to get the classes they want. Last quarter, a friend of mine did not get any of the classes she chose. Thus, she was stressed out about finishing all of her major requirements on time. This shows that living in a place where competitions are everywhere can be really stressful. On top of that, passing all classes with a C or higher can be a challenge for students as well.
Misra and Castillo (2004) investigated academic stress in American and international students in the USA. The purpose of their study was to compare perceptions of academic stressors and reactions to these stressors between American and international students. They predicted that international students would perceive higher academic stress and exhibit greater reactions to stressors than American students. The procedure of their study included 392 American and international students from two Midwestern universities. The students had to answer two questionnaires:
Gregory.J.R, Frazer.H. (1986). An Academic Stress Scale: Identification and Rated Importance Of Academic Stressors, 59, 2-6.
Sometimes a student need to take six to seven classes per semester and the professors can assign new assignments for each classes. The students need to submit all the assignments before the deadline and as the deadline closes in pressure keeps building up. It can monumental task to complete two to three assignments a day or sometimes up to seven per week. Thus, the students will not have enough time to concentrate on the assignments as they also need to do other things such as attending classes, getting involved in co-curricular activities and part time job. Thus, the students will be stressed because of lack of time to finish the assignments. Some assignments are group assignments that need to be done with other students. If every group member cannot give their full commitment to do the assignments together, the students will be stressed too. So a lot of assignments can be one of the causes of stress among university students. And then there are exams and midterms which can be very stressful on it 's own as the results of those exams will reflect on a student 's future career