FACTORS AFFECTING THE ACADEMIC STRESS

OF THE GRADE 10 STUDENTS OF

MAPANIQUI HIGH SCHOOL

 CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

A word education we come across everyday several time. It means acquiring knowledge
by learning. Now a very important question arises that how do we learn. We learn from our day
to day experiences. When we analyze any situation especially students their creative thinking
develops eventually, it leads to overall development of students. Now, most of you would say,
No, we learn from our books of physics, math, history, and many more but that is not learning
that is cramming. This is what most of the students are doing today. Education means gaining
and learning those moral values, positive thinking, attitude of helping, attitude of giving to
society and ethical values these kind of students are only able to bring changes in society.

Academic stress is caused by an existing stress-causing factor or “stressor” (Sharma et

al., 2011). One of that is the overuse of social media. In today’s society, social media have
become an almost indispensable part of daily life, particularly among university students.
However, little is known about how social media usage and social media multitasking influence
the academic performance of the students and psychological or psychiatric factor could also be
one of the reasons why the students are experiencing academic stress. As stated by Deb et. al.
(2015), academic stress was positively correlated with parental pressure and psychiatric
problems, while examination-related anxiety also was positively related to psychiatric problems.
Relationships with family and friends, eating and sleeping habits, and loneliness may also affect
the academic performance of the students (Wright, 1967).
 Stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension. It can come from any event or

thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry, or nervous. When stress is perceived negatively or

becomes excessive, students experience physical and psychological impairment (Murphy and

Archer, 1996). According to Macgeorge (2004), academic stress is associated with a variety of

negative health outcomes, including depression and physical illness.

Stress has been shown to negatively affect learning. Academic burnout is a significant
problem associated with poor academic performance (Lin and Huang, 2014). Insufficient sleep in
adolescents is recognised as a serious health risk by the American Medical Association and the
American Academy of Sleep Medicine, who report that many young people do not get enough
hours of sleep (Owens, 2014). Due to academic stress, students are deprived of sleep (Bernert et
al., 2007). Academic stress may also lead to the development of non-communicable diseases,
including metabolic syndrome, obesity and reduced insulin sensitivity, resulting from unhealthy
lifestyle habits (Stults-Kolehmainen and Sinha, 2014). Academic stress may not just a simple
problem because it could lead to the student dropping out his units. School dropout is associated
with a lifelong reduction in earning capacity and secure employment (Lamb and Huo, 2017).

The academic stress has shown negative impact on students’ learning capacity, academic
performance, education and employment attainment, sleep quality and quantity, and physical and
mental health (Pascoe et al., 2019).