STRESSORS AND ITS STRESS LEVEL AS PERECEIVED BY THE SENIOR

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

 CHAPTER 1

PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Presented in this chapter are the introduction, purpose of the study,

research question, theoretical lens, conceptual framework, importance of the

study, delimitation and limitation of the study, definition of terms, and review of

related literature and study.

Introduction

Stress basically is the opposite of those things that make us calm and

relaxed. Stress is the body’s reaction to various stimuli, including physical,

chemical, emotional or environmental factors. It is a normal part of life and

something that everyone experiences. It is also a major issue to all students

particularly among senior high school and college students.

There have been many studies (Schafer, 1996; Fisher, 1994; & Altmaier,

1983) which have reported strong relationship between stress and secondary

school students. Stress has been associated with the major life events, daily life

hassles and changes in life. It is created by excessive environmental and internal

demands that need constant effort and adjustment.

According to Kai-wen (2010) students may sometimes experience

incompatibility of their mental development with their physical changes or with

social environment and thus suffer from problems arising from inadequate

adaptation. These problems may further cause psychological troubles and even

induce deviant behaviors.

 According to Harris among 1,950 adults and 1,018 teens in the U.S.

suggested that unhealthy behaviors associated with stress may begin

manifesting early in people’s lives. Teens report that their stress level during the

school year far exceeds what they believe to be healthy and tops adults’ average

reported stress levels. Even during the summer, teens reported their stress

during the past month at levels higher than what they believe is healthy. Many

teens also report feeling overwhelmed and depressed or sad as a result of

stress. Moreover, than one-third of teens report fatigue or feeling tired and nearly

one-quarter of teens report skipping a meal due to stress. Moreover, despite the

impact that stress appears to have on their lives, teens are more likely than

adults to report that their stress level has a slight or no impact on their body or

physical health or their mental health.

A study conducted by Dy, et al. (2015), revealed that the top 5 overall cause

of stress of the 258 Filipino respondents were academic difficulty of subject

matter, workload due to subjects, time management because of subjects,

responsibilities due to being on one’s own and time management because of

both subjects and organizations. Generally, all students pointed out that

academics, workload due to subjects, and time management are their main

source of stress.

There were different studies that have been conducted and have given

statistics as to how stress affects students and the causes why this occurred.

However, there has been no study conducted about the causes and level of
stress among senior high school students of DMMA College of Southern

Philippines

Research Questions

This research aims to answer the following questions:

1. What are the causes of stress among senior high school students?

a. Academics

 Increased class workload

 Low grades

 Missing activities due to absences

b. Family

 Challenges

c. Personal Issues

 Emotional Issues

2. What is level of stress among Senior High School experience:

Theoretical Lens

This study is anchored on cognitive Appraisal Theory by Lazarus and

Folkman (1984) which explained the mental process which influence the

stressors. Stress is defined as a two-way process which involves the production

of stressors by the environment, and the response of an individual subjected to

these stressors. Cognitive appraisal occurs when a person considers two major

factors which are the threatening tendency of the stress to the individual; and the

assessment of resources required to minimize, tolerate or eradicate the

stressors and the stress it produces which majorly contribute in his response to

stress.

Cognitive appraisal is divided into two types or stages: primary and

secondary appraisal. Primary appraisal starts when a situation appears and you

start evaluating or weighing its effects. Once you start asking questions about it

and classifying whether the stressor or the situation is a threat, a challenge or a

harm-loss, you are already processing primary cognitive appraisal. When you

see the stressor as a threat, you view it as something that will cause future harm.

Meanwhile, when you look at it as a challenge, you develop a positive stress

response because you expect the stressor to lead you to something higher for

example a promotion maybe. On the other hand, seeing the stressor as a “harm-

loss” means that the damage has already been experienced. Secondary

cognitive appraisal happens simultaneously with the primary appraisal. There

are times that secondary appraisal becomes the cause of a primary appraisal. It

involves those feelings related to dealing with the stressor or the stress it

produces.

Conceptual Framework

INDEPENDENT DEPENDENT
VARIABLE VARIABLE

-Senior High School -Cause of Stress

Students
Importance of the study

This study will provide awareness for the Senior High School students about

the levels of stress they are experiencing based on their grade level. The

importance of this study is to identify which grade (11 and 12) is more prone to

stress regarding Academics, Family and Peers. The purpose of this study is to

know which of these three factors causes more stress among senior high school

students of DMMA College of Southern Philippines. Eventually, this study can

be used as a reference in creating an intervention program to promote kinds of

stress debriefing programs.

Delimitation and Limitation of the Study

The study will be conduct only to 120 Senior High School students from

DMMA College of Southern Philippines specifically, 60 students from Grade 11

and 60 students from Grade 12.

Definition of terms

The following terms are defined as based on how they were used operationally

in this study.

1. Differences - The state or condition of being dissimilar.

2. Stress levels - A state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting

from adverse or demanding circumstances.

Review of Related Literature

According to Abouserie (2006) a significant positive correlation between

locus of control and academic stress, suggested that students with external

beliefs are more stressed than those with internal. A significant negative
correlation between self-esteem and both academic and life stress emerged,

indicating that students with high self-esteem are less stressed than are those

with low.

The study of Abouserie (2006) is comparable to our study, both of our

study aimed in identifying the sources of stress also our respondents in the study

are also students that makes our study really similar to each other. The result of

Abouserie ’s study is really a big help in our research because it has identified

one of the sources of stress in students.

Sanchez (2014) studied the cause of stress among the college students,

he used the Student-Life Stress Inventory Questionnaire of B.M. Gadzella (1991)

and found out that the college students were exposed to many problems in the

family environment that relates to finances and the expectations of students to

receive parents approval relates to grades and student accomplishments in

school. The reasons of fears in public speaking were due to their low self-esteem

and facing the opposite sex. The focus of this study is on the pressures affecting

the college student in dealing with his family, friends and significant persons.

According to Essel (2017) stress has a huge impact on a student’s life,

such as ineffective studies, poor academic performance and the general health

status, putting effective measures in place is pertinent to their academic success

and general life. This is done by identifying the main causes of stress which are

relationship, academic, environmental and personal factors. Each had sub

factors that caused stress and base on the results, working with new people was

the highest factor in the result of the study.

 According to Svenson (1992) women were more likely than men to report

an unacceptable stress level. To reduce stress, women were more likely to

indicate a need to limit commitments, exercise, and worry less. Reasons for not

reducing stress were lack of time and lack of self-discipline, both of which were

reported significantly more often by women. The present data suggest health

education interventions are needed to assist students in coping with the stress

they experience. The article explains that women gets more stress levels

compared to men, the article gave our study some ideas about time

management and self-discipline can affect stress levels.

According to Siperstein (1998) he explored the relationship between

stress, social support, and adjustment and the result showed that students with

learning problems experienced more stress, less peer support, greater adult

support, and poorer adjustment, than those without learning problems.

Adjustment was related to students' stress in middle school.

In their study, Britz and Pappas (2010) found that 50.8 percent of the 124

participants reported being often or always stressed, with academics, time

management, making future plans, and sleep being the top indicated sources of

stress. Britz and Pappas (2010) also found that students who reported high

levels of stress also reported unhealthy lifestyle habits such as sleeping and

eating patterns. Students getting less than seven hours of sleep a night reported

increased levels of stress compared to students who got more than seven hours

of sleep or more a night (Britz & Pappas, 201 0).

 Hurst, Baranik, and Daniel (2013) studied the sources of stress of college

students using qualitative measure and found eight major categorical themes

which included: academics, relationships, lack of resources, expectations of self

and from others, environment, transition, diversity, and "other" which included

stress related to career, extracurricular activities, and personal appearance.

Ross et al. (1999) conducted a study using the Student Stress Survey to

determine the major sources of stress in the lives of college students. From the

study Ross et al. (1 999) found that of their participants, 38% reported

intrapersonal stressors, 28% environmental, 19% interpersonal, and 15%

academics. Out of the highest category, interpersonal, change in sleeping habits,

vacations/breaks, a change in eating habits, new responsibilities, financial

difficulties, change in social activities, and increased class workload were the top

reported interpersonal factors of stress (Ross et al., 1999).

CHAPTER 2

METHODOLOGY
Research Design

This study is a descriptive survey research which involved a survey of

level and sources of stress among Senior High School students in the DCSP.

Research Locale

The study will be conducted at DMMA College of Southern Philippines,

located in Tigatto Road, Buhangin, Davao City. It specialized maritime courses

such as Bachelor of Science in Maritime Transportation and Bachelor of Science

in Maritime Engineering. The School was established in October 1993. DMMA

College of Southern Philippines is the only school in region XI found in the list of

Philippine maritime schools having fully complied with STCW ’95 requirements

for the submission to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) as listed in

Memorandum Order No. 34, dated November 12, 1999 of the Commission on

Higher Education (CHED). The institution is committed to produce excellent

graduates for the maritime industry and other sectors of the global economy and

aspires to influence the global maritime industry.

Sampling Design

For this study, the non-specific sampling design will be utilized as there were

no specific criteria or qualifications considered by the researchers except that

they belong to the two types of respondents in the study, which are the grade 11

and grade 12 senior high school students of DMMA College of Southern

Philippines.

Respondents
 The respondents of this study are the Senior High School students (Grade

11 and 12) of DMMA College of Southern Philippines, S.Y. 2017-2018. The

researchers would pick respondents from the grade 11 and the grade 12

department, to clearly identify the different stressors and its levels between the

two departments. The SHS students are chosen because stress is at a high

percentage during this stage next to college level. It is also chosen because no

quantitative research has been conducted in regards to the common stressors

and its levels of the DCSP SHS students.

Research Instrument

The questionnaire for this is in the form of checklist. The questionnaire will

determine which among the following stressors (Academics, Family, Personal

issues) causes stress to the Senior High students of DMMA College of Southern

Philippines.

To identify the different stress levels encountered by the grade 11 & 12

students, the scale and the description that will be utilized are as follows

Rating Scale Descriptive Equivalent

4 Extremely Stressed
3 Highly Stressed
2 Moderately Stressed
1 Slightly Stressed
0 Not Stressed

Statistical Treatment of Data:

 The data from the respondents will be tabulated and compared. The

details and findings from the data collected will be analyzed using a statistical

treatment. The conclusions will be drawn from the findings.

To determine the stressors encountered by the Senior High school

Students of DCSP, the weighed mean for each problem/factor will be obtained

using the formula given below.

x=
∑ fx
N

Where f stands for frequency of the responses and x for the rating scale

and N stands for the total number of respondents.

The grand mean or the average weighted mean will be obtained by

getting the average weighted mean of all items.

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