Stress of the Students of University of Dhaka:

Myth and Reality

A Research Report submitted

By

Mostafa Ferdous Hassan

Department of Public Administration

University of Dhaka

28th December, 2017

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 Researcher’s Declaration

I declare that the research entitled ―Stress of the students of University of Dhaka: Myth and
Reality.‖ is a record of independent research work that has been carried out by me under the
supervision and guidance of Professor Dr. Salahuddin M. Aminuzzaman. This research has not
been previously conducted and submitted by any diploma, degree, associates or other students.

University of Dhaka Mostafa Ferdous Hassan

28th December, 2017

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 The Certificate of the Research Supervisor

I certify that the research entitled ―Stress of the students of University of Dhaka: Myth and
Reality.‖ submitted to Department of Public Administration, University of Dhaka is a record of
independent research work that has been carried out by Mostafa Ferdous Hassan of this
department, under my supervision and guidance. This research has not been previously
conducted and submitted by any diploma, degree, associates or other students.

University of Dhaka Professor Dr. Salahuddin M.

Aminuzzaman

28th December, 2017 Research Supervisor

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 Acknowledgement

At first, I am grateful to the God for the good health and wellbeing that were necessary to
complete this book.

I wish to express my sincere thanks to Professor Dr. Salahuddin M. Aminuzzaman, for guiding
me with his wisdom and knowledge throughout the whole process of the research as my research
supervisor.

I am also grateful to Professor Dr. Naznin Islam from the department. I am extremely thankful
and indebted to her for sharing expertise, and sincere and valuable guidance and encouragement
extended to me.

I would also like to thank Mr. Khalid Hasan for sharing his knowledge with me as a guardian
and teacher.

I take this opportunity to express gratitude to all of the Department faculty members for their
help and support. I also thank my father Fayyaz Hassan, my brother Mostafa Mahmudul Hassan
for the unceasing encouragement, support and attention.

I also place on record, my sense of gratitude to one and all, who directly or indirectly, have lent
their hand in this venture.

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 Table of Content

Name Page

 List of Tables…………………………………………………………………… 08-09

 List of Graphs and Charts…………………………………………………….. 10-11
 Abstract ………………………………………………………………………… 12

Chapter-01: Introduction ……………………………………………………………… 13-25

 Theoretical background of the topic………………………………………….. 14

 Heins’& Lin Zhang, Wenbo Che & Bing Li’s Model of Stress………14
 Hans Selye's Theory of Systemic Stress……………………………….15
 The Lazarus Theory of Psychological Stress………………………….15
 Social Stress Theory of Aneshensel, Rutter and Lachenbruch………15
 Statement of the problem ……………………………………………………... 16
 Literature Review ……………………………………………………………… 17-21
 Scope of the study ……………………………………………………………… 21
 Framing of the Research Questions……………………………………………23
 Objectives of the study ………………………………………………………… 23-24
 Hypotheses ……………………………………………………………………… 24
 Definition of the Concepts ……………………………………………………... 25-26
 Stress…………..………………………………………………………… 25
 Stressor……...…………………………………………………………... 25
 Eustress or Positive Stress.…………………………………………….. 25
 Distress or Negative Stress...…………………………………………… 25
 Adaptation………………………………………………………………. 26
 Social Stress………………………………………………………………26
 Health Disparity………………………………………………………….26

Chapter-02: Design of the study ………………………………………………………… 27-32

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  Research Methodology …………………………………………………………… 27-29
 Design ……………………………………………………………………... 28
 Sources of data …………………………………………………………… 28
Primary sources ………………………………………………….. 28
Secondary sources ………………………………………………… 28
 Sampling plan ……………………………………………………………... 28
Sampling …………………………………………………………… 28
Sampling Method……………………………………………………28
Study area ………………………………………………………….. 29
Sampling Criteria……………………………………………………29
Sample Size…………………………………………………………..29
Unit of analysis and variables …………………………………….. 29
 Data collection instrument …………………………………………………29-30
Questionnaire ………………………………………………………. 29
Interview ……………………………………………………………. 30
 Ethical Consideration………………………………………………………..30
 Fieldwork……………………………………………………………………..30
 Data processing and analysis plan ………………………………………………... 31
 An overview of the report ………………………………………………………… 31-32
 Limitations of the study ……………………………………………………………. 32

Chapter- 03: Results, findings and discussions ………………………………………….. 33-64

 Research findings ………………………………………………………………….. 34-47

 Discussions ………………………………………………………………………… 47-64

Chapter- 04: Summary, conclusion and recommendation …………………………….. 65-71

 Summary …………………………………………………………………………… 66-

67
 Recommendations …………………………………………………………………. 67-69
 For Students………………………………………………………………….67
 For Family……………………………………………………………………68

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  Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………. 68-70

Chapter- 05: Bibliography ……………………………………………………………….. 71-73

Chapter- 06: Appendix …………………………………………………………………… 74-79

 Sample of data collection instruments …………………………………………… 75-78

 Questionnaire for Survey…………………………………………………..75
 Questionnaire for Interview………………………………………………..77
 Technical details on sampling frame …………………………………………….. 79

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 List of Tables

Name of Tables Page

Table 1: Range of Cumulative GPA among the respondents------------------ 34

Table 2: Current enrollment year of the students---------------------------------35

Table 3: Engagement of students in arrays of activities outside

curriculum------------------------------------------------------------------ 36

Table 4: Number of hours students engage themselves in activities outside

curriculum--------------------------------------------------------------------36

Table 5: Opinion of Enjoyment of the Activities---------------------------------37

Table 6: If the Students have to engage in activities they do not enjoy-------37

Table 7: Reasons for engaging in activities they do not enjoy-----------------38

Table 8: If they ever get stressed from the activities they do

(both enjoyed and hated ones)--------------------------------------------38

Table 9: If this stress hamper their physical health and studies---------------39

Table 10: Kind of coping strategies they follow to relief stress--------------39

Table 11: If they sought counseling for their stress----------------------------40

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Table 12: If they feel Excited/Pumped or Sad/Depressed because

of their stress---------------------------------------------------------41

Table 13: If they think students of their age are stressed as well---------41

Table 14: Reasons to think that students of their age

are stressed as well-------------------------------------------------42

Table 15: Suggestions to reduce stress-------------------------------------43

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 List of Graphs and Charts

Charts: Page

Chart 1: Range of Cumulative GPA among the respondents------------------ 47

Chart 2: Current enrollment year of the students---------------------------------49

Chart 3: Engagement of students in arrays of activities outside

curriculum------------------------------------------------------------------ 49

Chart 4: Number of hours students engage themselves in activities outside

curriculum--------------------------------------------------------------------50

Chart 5: Opinion of Enjoyment of the Activities---------------------------------51

Chart 6: If the Students have to engage in activities they do not enjoy-------52

Chart 7: Reasons for engaging in activities they do not enjoy-----------------53

Chart 8: If they ever get stressed from the activities they do

(both enjoyed and hated ones)--------------------------------------------54

Chart 9: If this stress hamper their physical health and studies---------------55

Chart 10: Kind of coping strategies they follow to relief stress--------------56

Chart 11: If they sought counseling for their stress----------------------------58

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Chart 12: If they feel Excited/Pumped or Sad/Depressed because

of their stress----------------------------------------------------------58

Chart 13: If they think students of their age are stressed as well----------59

Chart 14: Reasons to think that students of their age

are stressed as well--------------------------------------------------60

Chart 15: Suggestions to reduce stress--------------------------------------61

Graphs: Page

Graph 1: A graph between the array of activities

and hours engaged in them-----------------------------------------63

Graph 2: A graph between the factors and coping

mechanisms of stress-----------------------------------------------63

Graph 3: A graph between the factors and coping

mechanisms of stress suggested by the respondents-----------64

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 Abstract

The youth are a very important part of the future of a country. In fact they are the most important
part of the future of the whole wide world. The dynamic youth of today will be the wise leaders
of the world tomorrow. They will work hand to hand on taking the world one step ahead for
humanity. They are the most energetic force of the world. But today‘s young generation are
greatly associated with a psychological phenomenon called ‗Stress‘. Around the world lots and
lots of research seminars etc. have been done on stress in younger generations and how to cope
with it. Yet the problems leading to stress has not been reduced that significantly without some
exceptions. As my working area is Bangadesh, I have narrowed down my research area to
University of Dhaka, the most prestigious and leading state university in Bangladesh. I have tried
to see the stress in the students of this particular university. The rationale behind this research
was to find out that why and how they are being stressed, what the triggering factors behind their
stress are and how they are coping with it. Since it is the biggest university in terms of students,
so whatever result it has achieved despite the flaws and limitations, maybe implicated and
replicated on different universities around Bangladesh. So, the main variables that I have worked
here with are: The causes and reasons behind stress which is the independent variable, and
results, impacts of stress and the coping mechanisms, which is the dependent variable. This
paper have explored the relationship between these two variables to find out the strength of their
relationship. The findings of this paper will put emphasis on pointing out the main causes of
stress in the students of University of Dhaka and give suggestions on how to reduce them, thus
making an effort to reduce stress of the above mentioned population. Both qualitative and
quantitative method have been used in this research while focusing on correlating relationship
between the two variables. The students of University of Dhaka were be my unit of analysis. The
data have been collected using survey method such as questionnaires or interviews. Along with
the survey methods the secondary methods of data collection have been followed in this
research. Secondary methods mean collecting data from the book, journals, internet etc. so the
primary and secondary methods of data collecting have been followed in this research project.
Then the collected data have been analyzed to reach a valid and proper conclusion. Since the
data collected and analyzed have been done in terms of the biggest university of Bangladesh, so
it can be replicated in other universities of the country once contextualized.

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 Chapter- 1

Introduction

A famous quote by Alvin Toffler depicts, ―The secret message communicated to most young
people today by the society around them is that they are not needed, that the society will run
itself quite nicely until they — at some distant point in the future — will take over the reign.‖
Youth are the corer stones and future of a country as well as humanity. They are supposed to
have an energetic and dynamicity in them. They are the future leaders of the country, of the
world. They will be creative and have out of the box thinking inside them. But in the recent eras,
young generations around the world has seemed to be under a lot of stress. As a result they
cannot give the best output as desired. They suffer physically as well as mental problems due to
the overburden of stress on their shoulder. Lots of reasons from family and societal expectations
to higher level of lifestyle has led them to engage in activities that tend to destroy their peace of
mind leading the country to deal with a generation that is highly stressed. As a result this has
become a global issue in youngsters. Therefore, it has always been a matter of great importance
to researchers and experts associated with stress.

University of Dhaka is the biggest and largest of all kinds of university in Bangladesh.
Thousands of students compete every year to get into a discipline of this university. So, this
university has a huge number of students studying and getting admitted here every year.
Considering the available data it shows that it is the best university in Bangladesh and only the
bests, most creative minds and outward performing students get admitted here. The admission
examinations taken here are one of the most competitive ones around the country. Thus, if the
students are found to have been stressed here, then it can be easily concluded that it is a national
as well as an international phenomenon. The same way, the results that have come out of this
research will have great importance in case of other Bangladeshi universities and will show a
data for Bangladesh globally if taken contextually.

This university offers a wide range of activities. From IT clubs to soccer teams, from dance
society to teacher student center, this university has got it all covered. Due to the wide range of
activities this university offers, almost every student in Bangladesh has a dream to study here.

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On the other hand, theoretically, if a student studying here is involved with so many kinds of
activities beside his academic curriculum, it may become difficult for him to manage the time,
physical and mental strength to cover all of them. This is what the paper have explored. To see if
there is a positive or a negative relationship between stress and extracurricular or study related
activities.

Youth are the heart and soul of a nation and University of Dhaka is the biggest institution in the
country to shape up those young and potential individuals. But if the students are in stress then
they will not be able to perform well nationally as well as internationally even if they read in the
best possible institution. As a result they country will lose its potential and so will the world. So,
just like the rest of the world, a lot of thinking have been put into the fact that stress is hampering
the creativity of the younger generation. This paper have tried to live up to that standard.

With this background, this paper attempts to make an overview of the causes of stress in the
students of University of Dhaka. It also works with the physical and mental consequences of the
stress on the students of the university. Later it finds out or suggests some coping mechanisms
against stress. The recommendations have been based on the data collected from the experts who
have been kid enough to share their experience and knowledge with me. Firstly, the paper
presents a conceptual overview. Secondly, it provides a description of the current situation
related to stress in the students of the university. Thirdly, it makes a critical analysis of the
collected data. Finally, it suggests recommendations and presents the conclusion of the study.

Theoretical Background

The theories I have contemplated here for the framework of my research are given in brief-

Heins’& Lin Zhang, Wenbo Che & Bing Li, (2003) model of stress:
Heins‘ studies show that there are two types of stress sources among the students. One type is
about academic expectation and achievements, and the other is about social factors, such as
maintaining and developing social connections, etc. Lin Zhang and Wenbo Che (Lin Zhang,
Wenbo Che & Bing Li, Studies show that the mental stresses of students come from two
aspects: one is the personal stress, including stress from family, stress from adaptability, stress
from health, stress from relationship stress from low self- esteem, and stress from frustration.

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The other is the social environmental stress, including stress from interpersonal communication,
stress from occupation choice, emotional stress, stress from institutional environment, and stress
from academic study.
Furong Wang and Huixiang Gong make a comparative study of mental stresses of different
types of college students and conclude that the mental stresses of boys are bigger, longer, and
stronger than that of girls. The mental stresses grow along with grades, reach the maximum at the
junior year, and slightly decrease at the senior year (Furong Wang & Huixiang Gong, 2001).

Hans Selye's Theory (1976) of Systemic Stress:

Hans Selys explained his stress theory based on physiological stress known as General
Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). According to Selye, these nonspecifically caused changes
constitute specific, response pattern of systemic stress. Selye defines this stress as `a state
manifested by a syndrome which consists of all the nonspecifically induced changes in a biologic
system.'

The Lazarus Theory (1991) of Psychological Stress:

Two concepts are central to any psychological stress theory: appraisal, i.e., individuals'
evaluation of the significance of what is happening for their well-being, and coping, i.e.
individuals' efforts in thought and action to manage specific demands. The Lazarus Stress theory
has undergone several essential revisions. Psychological stress refers to a relationship with the
environment that the person appraises as significant for his or her well-being and in which the
demands tax or exceed available coping resources'.
Lazarus (1991) distinguishes 15 basic emotions. Nine of these are negative (anger, fright,
anxiety, guilt, shame, sadness, envy, jealousy, and disgust), whereas four are positive (happiness,
pride, relief, and love). Finally, ego- involvement concentrates on the protection of personal
meaning or ego- identity against existential threats.

Social Stress Theory of Aneshensel, Rutter and Lachenbruch (1991):

Social stress theory provides a useful framework to explain health disparities. Aneshensel,
Rutter, and Lachenbruch (1991) described this framework as a sociological paradigm that views

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social conditions as a cause of stress for members of disadvantaged social groups. This stress, in
turn, can cause disease. In statistical language, social stress theory describes the relationship of
social structure and illness, it explains ―how structured risks become actualized in the lives of
individuals as stressful experiences‖,
Aneshensel and Phelan (1999) explained: ―The question is not whether there will be
unemployment-related disorder, but rather who is at greatest risk for unemployment and, hence,
disorder.‖ That is, the stress model aims to show that ―high levels of disorder among certain
groups can be attributed to their extreme exposure to social stressors or limited access to
ameliorative psychosocial resources.‖

Youth are an important part of a country, our future leaders. But the current generations of youth
are under a lot of stress which hamper their productivity as well as the productivity of the whole
country. So, the policies related to students will not succeed if they cannot take the students out
of their stress. Public Administration is built up on the brains and ideas of hundreds of
individuals. If the youth, our manpower can manage and cope with stress successfully, it will
help lead them a healthy life which will create dynamic workforce in our economy and every
other sectors of the country.

Statement of the Problem

This research paper have mainly discussed why and how the students of University of Dhaka are
being stressed, what the triggering factors behind their stress are and how they are coping with it.
Students nowadays are continuously challenged by this psychological phenomenon in different
sectors of life. Researchers around the world as well as in Bangladesh have been working on this
stress issue in different age groups of people for a long time now. But youth are an important
part of a country, its future leaders. So they must have a well thought coping mechanisms against
stress. This research paper have thus discussed all the above mentioned things but only in case of
students of University of Dhaka.

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By discussing objectively I have tried to comprehend the first and second hand data collected
and seen what the students say about their reasons of being stressed, what kind of stressor has the
most impact on them, if family or society expectations add to that stress. Then I have compared
and contrasted that data with researches conducted previously around the world and found out, in
the context of Bangladesh the most stressful thing for a student to do. I have also found out from
my questionnaire survey and interview of expert personnel that later on, if a student still peruses
that stressful work, how they choose to get over that stress. Thus I have been able to find out the
coping mechanisms against different major reasons of stress.

The relationship between human and stress is nothing new but it takes new forms in different
time periods, countries and societies depending on the nature of people living there and activities
done by them. By taking the students of University of Dhaka as my subject of study I was able to
find out a valid conclusion which has the capacity to be replicated in terms of methods and
coping mechanisms in different universities around Bangladesh. This is why I chose to work on
this topic. Due to its ever evolving character it has successfully been able to stay as a very
important topic to research on and create new knowledge

Review of Literature

Short reviews of some related literatures are given below-

Hong Ji (2011) found out in his research titled, ―Research on College Students‘ Stresses and
Coping Strategies‖ that there are four sources of stresses, namely employment situations, study
conditions, personal factors, and economic conditions. It shows a significant positive
interrelation between employment situations and mental stresses of a college student. He also
said that it has a positive correlation between study conditions and mental stresses. Although
there is a positive correlation between economic conditions, personal factors and mental stresses
respectively, the differences may vary significantly for individuals.

Dr Ilan H. Meyer, Sharon Schwartz, and David M. Frost (2008), shows in ―Social patterning of
stress and coping: Does disadvantaged social status confer more stress and fewer coping
resources?‖ that multiple studies and data showed clear support for the social stress hypothesis

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with regard to race/ethnic minority status, somewhat mixed support with regard to sexual
orientation, and no support with regard to gender. He discussed this lack of parsimony in social
stress explanations for health disparities. He interviewed a variety of people from different
ethnicity, class, race and sex to come to the conclusion that responses to stress varies according
to social status.

Carol S. Aneshensel (1992) clarified in ―Social Stress: Theory and Research‖ how social
organization matters to the origins and consequences of stressful life experiences of an
individual. He forwarded a bit and said with evidence that stress is an inevitable consequences of
social organization. He depicted that stress is not an inherent attribute of external conditions,
emanates from discrepancies between those conditions and characteristics of the individual- he
or she needs, values, perceptions, resources and skills.

Niall Bolger and Anita DeLongis (1989) talked in ―Effects of Daily Stress on Negative Mood‖
about how interpersonal conflicts were by far the most distressing events for the variance in
moods of an individual. Furthermore, he expressed that when stressors occurred on a series of
days, emotional habituation occurred by the second day for almost all events except interpersonal
conflicts. Contrary to certain theoretical accounts, multiple stressors on the same day did not
exacerbate one another's effects; rather, an emotional plateau occurred. Finally, on days
following a stressful event, mood was better than it would have been if the stressor had not
happened. According to him these results reveal the complex emotional effects of daily stressors,
and in particular, they suggest that future investigations should focus primarily on interpersonal
conflicts.

Muhamad Saiful Bahri Yusoff (2010), expressed in ―Stress, Stressors and Coping Strategies
among Secondary School Students in a Malaysian Government Secondary School: Initial
Findings‖ that it was found that the main stressors in secondary school kids were related to
academic. The top five coping strategies were religion, positive reinterpretation, active coping,
planning, and use of instrumental support. He also concluded that the prevalence of stress among
secondary school students in a Malaysian government school was high. Academic related
problems were the major stressor among the students. The most frequent coping strategies being
used by the students were positive coping strategies.

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Loren Toussaint, Grant S Shields, Gabriel Dorn and George M Slavich (2016) assessed in
―Effects of lifetime stress exposure on mental and physical health in young adulthood: How
stress degrades and forgiveness protects health‖ that Greater lifetime stress severity and lower
levels of forgiveness each uniquely predicted worse mental and physical health. His analyses
also revealed that associations between stress and mental health were weaker for persons
exhibiting more forgiveness. His data was the first to elucidate the interactive effects of
cumulative stress severity and forgiveness on health, and suggest that developing a more
forgiving coping style may help minimize stress-related disorders.

Sue A. Kaplan, Vivienne Patricia Madden, Todor Mijanovich, Ellenrita Purcaro (2012) described
in ―The Perception of Stress and its Impact on Health in Poor Communities‖ a direct causal
pathway between stress and poor health as well as an indirect pathway through health behaviors,
including uncontrolled eating, sleep deprivation, substance abuse, smoking, violence and
aggression, and withdrawal and inactivity. He articulated a number of theories about why stress
leads to these unhealthy behaviors, including self-medication, adaptive behavior, discounting the
future, depletion of willpower, and competing priorities. Link between stress and health
elucidates the mechanisms and pathways by which stress may result in disparities in health
outcomes and create challenges in changing health behaviors.

Neil Schneiderman, Gail Ironson, and Scott D. Siegel (2008) described in ―Stress and Health:
Psychological, Behavioral, and Biological Determinants‖ that Stressors have a major influence
upon mood, our sense of well-being, behavior, and health. Acute stress responses in young,
healthy individuals may be adaptive and typically do not impose a health burden. However, if the
threat is unremitting, particularly in older or unhealthy individuals, the long-term effects of
stressors can damage health. The relationship between psychosocial stressors and disease is
affected by the nature, number, and persistence of the stressors as well as by the individual‘s
biological vulnerability, psychosocial resources, and learned patterns of coping.

Gretchen Fogle (2012) described in his Honor‘s thesis entitled ―Stress and Health in College
Students‖ that college students experience stress from sources such as poor self-care habits,
educational demands, daily hassles, and perceived control over stressful situations. Students with
low perceived stress also experience significantly fewer hassles and more uplifts per month.

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There were not any significant effects of perceived stress on grade point average, minor medical
issues, or gender during his research.

Uma Devi (2011) believes that Even though stress kills brain cells, not all stresses are destructive
in nature. Appropriate amount of stress can actually trigger passion for work, tap latent abilities
and even ignite inspirations. She describes that IT professionals are very stressed because they
are highly target driven and highly pressured on results. Athletes experience the strength that
comes from eu-stress right before they play a big game or enter a big competition. Because of
eu-stress, they suddenly receive the strength that is required to perform to the best of the ability.
Stress can make a person productive and constructive, when it is identified and well managed.
Later, she described some coping strategies as well.

Sanjeev Kumar and J. P. Bhukar (2013) investigated the stress levels and coping strategies of
professional students belonging to Physical Education and Engineering professions in their paper
―Stress level and coping strategies of college students‖. Two way analysis of variance showed
that stress due to all the stimuli was significantly higher among girls in comparison to boys of
their profession. Coping strategy was higher in boys than girls of their respective profession, but
Physical Education girls had higher coping strategy than boys and girls of Engineering. They
concluded that Physical Education students had better coping strategy than engineering students
based on their comparative research on students of Physical Education and students of
Engineering faculties.

Lakyntiew Pariat, Angelyne Rynjah, Joplin and M G Kharjana (2014) concluded in ―Stress
Levels of College Students: Interrelationship between Stressors and Coping Strategies‖ that
College students are exposed to a considerable amount of stress, which necessitate successful
and constantly changing coping strategy. These stressors include internal and external pressures
exerted by the environment to thrive and succeed, overcome economic hardships, worries about
vague futures, societal problems and opportunities. They also require preparation and focus to
perform well in home works and tests in various subjects and disciplines, consequently they very
often face inconsistent outcomes. Therefore ineffective coping can lead to anxiety, drinking
problems, depression and a multitude of other mental health problems amongst college students.

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Glenn M. Calaguas (2012) had students who served as participants served as bases in
determining the descriptive statistics of items, evaluation of validity, and evaluation of reliability
of the survey instrument in his paper ―Survey of college academic stressors: Development of a
new measure‖.

R. Sathya Devi and Shaj Mohan (2015) in ―A Study on Stress and Its Effects on College
Students‖ examined the sources and effects of stress on the college students. They looked to
assess the level of stress among college students, to find out the sources and effects of stress and
to give suggestive measures to overcome stress. They believed that due to fast physical changes
and mental development at this stage, students may experience incompatibility of their mental
development with their physical changes or with the social environment and then suffer from
problems arising from inadequate adaptations. These problems may further cause psychological
troubles and even induce deviant behaviors according to them.

Juvilyn G. Buloz and Marita G. Sanchez (2014) in ―Sources of Stress among College Students‖
focused on the pressures affecting the college student in dealing with his family, friends and
significant persons. He believed that college students are prone to stress because of their
transitional nature of adjustment to the rudiments of higher education program. This means that a
sudden change of a secondary school environment that lacks the use of modern technology to the
highly cognition level of learning resulted to stressful situations. As a result, they hardly
comprehend with new lessons in classroom and experience cultural differences. Earning high
grades is a source of stress that affects them to succeed in making good impressions to their
parents, classmates and significant other persons. He hoped to create a stress management
program.

The Scope of the Present Study

Stress has always been a phenomenon that has stirred great problems around the world. Due to
being engaged in different kinds and arrays or strings of activities the younger generations of this
world has to give more mental and physical effort. A student pursuing his or her bachelor‘s
degree these days does not just confine him or herself to the particular academic studies of his
subject. He or she does many other things at the same time. They pursue their hobby, try to earn

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their livelihood and/or tuition fee, they can take job preparations so on and so forth. As a result,
these days, students are more pressurized with the amount of work and study related
responsibilities they have to take on their shoulder. And very obviously that huge amount of
pressure leads to stress. This is why stress is and has always been an international problem rather
than being country confined. It is a universal phenomenon.

If we observe, we can see the phenomenon of stress has started long ago. Although the patterns
of the causes, reasons and results or impacts may have changed, the phenomenon known as
stress has strengthen its grasp on people in the recent years. It has created problems around the
world in different countries. According to a statistic of The American Institute of Stress 77 out of
a 100 people regularly experience physical symptoms caused by stress. And a staggering 73 out
of a 100 people regularly experience psychological symptoms caused by stress. Over the world
different counties are working on stress especially on students to find out and solute the reasons
and causes behind stress and figuring out a way to get rid of them. Because ultimately stress in
younger generations will lead to stressed adults who will be the decision makers of the country in
the future. So it‘s very important that they work without the hampering of stress.

Now we will look into the scenario of Bangladeshi students in terms of stress related matters. As
a third world developing country, the economic condition of Bangladeshi population is not that
satisfactory. Here, there is existence of high income gap between the well-offs and the day
earners. Students in the state universities of Bangladesh come from a variety of economic
backgrounds. The parents of the students studying here can range from being a rickshaw puller
or day laborer to highly established businessman. Due to the unsatisfactory economic conditions
of their parents or for the notion of freedom, both students from well off families as well as poor
economic condition tend to engage in different arrays of activities. Joining photography club
with a fancy camera to tutoring four students a week to support family and studies, all can be
seen here in students. Due to westernization of our thinking style more and more are youth are
joining different activities every day. As a result it adds extra pressure on them beside their own
study related pressure. It leads to different kinds of stress.

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This study has been conducted in University of Dhaka, the people that have been studied are all
students. Their range is from the 2nd year to Master‘s. This study can be generalized contextually
in the other universities of Bangladesh.

It can be easily depicted that no matter how much research or study has been conducted on
stress, it has always found its way to the youth of the world. Since it is a burning topic around the
world, I found it a great topic to work on because stress has a lot of negative impacts in third
world countries like ours. I would very much love to explore the causes of stress and coping
mechanisms of the students of University of Dhaka. My plan includes collecting data from
existing researches around the world and in Bangladesh on stress in students and combine and
compare those with the first hand data collected from the students of University of Dhaka itself.
And for the above mentioned reasons I have chosen to work on this topic.

Framing of Research Questions

This paper have tried to logically answer questions that are important and related to the topic.
Each of these questions have helped to gather more specific data to guide data collection and
analysis. These research questions have been used to find out the interrelation between causes
and results of stress based on the opinion of the students of University of Dhaka. The following
questions are asked throughout the research and will be tried to answer as best as possible:

1. What kinds of activities are the students engaged in?

2. What are the main causes and triggering factors behind stress in students?
3. What percentage of the students enrolled are stressed?
4. What overall impact does stress has on the students?
5. What support do they get from their environment to reduce stress?
6. How do the students cope with stress?

Research Objectives

In this part of the paper I have discussed the objectives as well as the crucial questions associated
with the objectives. Questions like, ‗What are the main causes and triggering factors behind

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stress in students?‘ or ‗What overall impact does stress has on the students?‘ or ‗How do the
students cope with stress?‘ will be asked here to be discussed and answered later. The objectives
of the research are given below-

1. To find out the kinds of activities are the students engaged in.
i) See which kinds of activities are mostly preferred by the students.
2. The main causes and triggering factors behind stress in students.
i) See which activities causes the most stress among students.
3. The percentage of the students enrolled are stressed.
4. The overall impact stress has on the students.
i) See which stressor plays the most vital role.
5. The kind support do they get from their environment to reduce stress.
6. The coping mechanisms of students to get rid of stress.
i) See what kind of things the students do to reduce stress.

Hypotheses

After getting well acquainted with the problem and studying of the literature I have come to
some hypotheses that are to be tested throughout the whole process of the research. At the end or
during the findings part I will discuss to see or find out if the hypotheses were proved to be
wrong or were they strong enough to be right. The 2 (two) hypotheses that I have made about
this problem are-

1. Students of this generation of University of Dhaka are more stressed than those of former
generations.

2. Family and Societal expectations are two of the major factors of stress in students, same
applies for University of Dhaka.

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 Operational Definition of the Concepts

Some operational definitions related to the concept of the research are given below-

1. Stress: Stress is a condition in which the human system responds to changes in its normal
balanced state. Stress is one‘s body‘s way of responding to any kind of demand or threat.
When somebody senses danger—whether it‘s real or imagined—the body's defenses kick
into high gear in a rapid, automatic process known as the ―fight-or-flight‖ reaction or the
"stress response". When working properly, it helps you stay focused, energetic, and alert.

2. Stressor: Stressor an activity, event, or other stimulus that causes stress. It is anything that
is perceived as challenging, threatening or demanding to the mind and body. It puts real or
perceived demands on the body, emotions, mind, or spirit of an individual.

3. Eustress or Positive Stress: Manageable stress which can lead to growth and enhanced
competence. Eustress, or positive stress motivates a person, focuses energy. It is short-term.
Eustress is perceived as within our coping abilities. When positively stressed a person feels
exciting. It improves performance of an individual.

4. Distress or Negative Stress: Uncontrollable, prolonged, or overwhelming stress is

destructive and known as distress. Distress, or negative stress causes anxiety or concern. It
can be both short and long-term. It is perceived as outside of our coping abilities. An
individual feels unpleasant. It decreases the performance of an individual. It may lead to
mental and physical problems.

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5. Adaptation: Adaption is the change that takes place as a result of the response to a
stressor. It can be described as the modification of an organism or its parts that makes it more
fit for existence under the conditions of its environment. It is a heritable physical or
behavioral trait that serves a specific function and improves an individual‘s fitness or
survival.

6. Social Stress: Social stress can be broadly defined as a situation which threatens one‘s
relationships, esteem, or sense of belonging within a dyad, group, or larger social context.
Social stress can emerge in a number of situations. Social stress can stem from difficult social
interactions, for example, a conflictual or tumultuous marital or family relationship (Kiecolt-
Glaser, Gouin, & Hantsoo, 2010). Social stress can also emerge in the context of evaluated
performance situations, where others could be judgmental or critical, or in contexts in which
one feels rejected, ostracized, or ignored (Dickerson & Kemeny, 2004).

7. Health Disparity: Health disparity is differences in the incidence, prevalence, mortality,

and burden of diseases and other adverse health conditions that exist among specific
population. Health disparities refer to differences in the health status of different groups of
people. Some groups of people have higher rates of certain diseases, and more deaths and
suffering from them, compared to others.

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 Chapter- 2

Design of the Study

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 Research Methodology

A research methodology can be called as the systematic way of conducting a research that is
including experiments, survey research, participant observation, Appropriate and successful
result of the research is based on a successful methodology and secondary data. After selecting
the issue or topic the next important thing is to determine the method by which the research will
be conducted. Quantitative methods aim to classify features, count them, and create statistical
models to test hypotheses and explain observations. Qualitative methods aim for a complete,
detailed description of observations, including the context of events and circumstances. The main
focus of this research is to find out the causes and consequences of stress on students based on
the opinion of the students of University of Dhaka, so the research will follow the method it suit
the best.
Design: So, for this paper I have chosen both qualitative and quantitative method to get better
insights of the collected data and analyze them. The primary goal of this study is to find out the
cause and impacts of stress on the students of University of Dhaka. The means to achieve this
goal is the collected data through questionnaire and interview as well as previous researches and
analyze them. Both qualitative and quantitative method will help enhance the capacity of the
research.

Sources of data: Data was collected from both primary and secondary sources.
Primary sources: For the primary sources, I have used the students and some experts. So the
data collected from them is y primary source of data through questionnaire and interviews.
Secondary Sources: For secondary sources I have read and used necessary data from Articles,
Journals, Books (both electronic and hardcopies), Websites etc. were the secondary sources of
data.
Sampling

Sampling Method

Due to lack of time and resource, it is not possible to collect first hand data from all the students
of University of Dhaka from 2nd year to Master‘s. Therefore, here I have used Simple Random
Sampling Method for selecting the respondents for the collection of data.

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Study Area: The area of the study is University of Dhaka.

Sampling Criteria: The criteria for selecting the samples are stated below:
a) A student studying at University of Dhaka.
b) Must be engaged in different kinds of extracurricular activities.
c) Must have experienced stress while pursuing those activities.
d) Must not be a student of 1st year.

Sample Size

A total number of 100 respondents have been surveyed for this study. The 100 respondents have
been taken randomly and in an unbiased way. Beside the students, I have interviewed 2 experts
on stress, psychology to validate the statements that are generated by the data collected from the
students through questionnaire.

Unit of Analysis and Variables: Each student of University of Dhaka was the unit of analysis in
the research. The independent variable is the causes and reasons of stress and the dependent
variable is the impact and consequences of stress.

Instrument/ Tools for data collection

Data for this research have been collected in two ways.

Questionnaire: The data was collected using survey questionnaires from the students of
University of Dhaka. The survey questionnaire contained around 15 questions; there were open
ended, closed ended and mixed ended questions to have the maximum efficiency in data
analysis. The questionnaire began with warm up questions such as the respondent‘s Name, Age,
Department, Year, and Sex which were followed by the detailed and specific questions
concerning the relationship between causes and impacts of stress. The questionnaire ended with
questions with feedback purposes which would help me in the future while conducting survey
questionnaire

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Interview: Personal interviews have also been conducted of experts and teachers to get an
insight of what they think about stress in students.

These have been followed by in-depth analysis of the data collected from the respondents. And
the secondary data was collected from existing literatures and researches conducted previously
around the world and in Bangladesh. In the survey questionnaire and interview, the respondents
have had to answer some questions. Later in-depth analysis, of those collected data have been
done for gaining an in-depth understanding of underlying reasons and motivations. In this way I
was able to create a better insight of the topic I am working on.

Ethical Considerations
1. Before any survey is conducted, the researchers will seek permission from each of the
respondents.
2. The respondents will be assured that interviewers would protect their identity and maintain
their confidentiality of the information and keep their usage limited solely for the purpose of
this study.

Fieldwork

The fieldwork was conducted by myself. I went and stood in different places of the University
and collected data through questionnaire from the students. The places I visited includes, central
library, campus shadow, Faculty of Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts etc.

For interview, I went to two teachers one from our department, another is from the department of
music. Professor Dr. Naznin Islam helped me with her knowledge on the topic. Mr. Khalid
Hasan too helped me the same way through interview.

My field experiences were mutually good and bad. I had a lot of trouble in getting data from
students because for some reasons they were unwilling to comply. I tried to take interview of a
psychiatrist in different place including Teacher Student Centre, Bijoy Ekattor Hall, and
Department of Education Counseling and Psychology ut faced too many administrative problems
and were not given access.

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So, not getting proper accesses to places I needed was a great drawback for the research.

Data Processing and Analysis Plan

The method or manual adopted for data processing and analysis is the variance analysis. Here
after collecting all the data through questionnaire and interview I have coded them according to
the opinion of the respondents. After collecting the data through mixed ended questionnaire and
interview I have divided them according to questions and then option wise. Then I have brought
out the percentage of respondents for each questions. This is the way I have collected my data
and analyzed them to reach a finding. I have used this finding later on to see if my previously
given hypotheses is proven or not. This is my data processing and analysis plan.

Overview of the Report

In the introductory chapter I have discussed little about the problem of the study, justification of
the study. Then I have given definition of the concept.

In the second chapter I have discussed the methodology of the study, methods of data collection,
sources of data (using primary and secondary data),little about my sampling plan, data collection
instruments, data processing and analysis plan. Furthermore I have mentioned my limitations
which I have faced during conducting study.

In third chapter I have discussed the results and findings which I have gotten from the collected
to see whether my hypothesis is proven or not.

In the fourth chapter I have given summary of the report and findings. Then I have given some
recommendations about how the problem can be addressed in a better way. Also I have talked
about how the state of the stakeholders can be better. Then finally I have concluded the report
with some observations and personal opinion.

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Finally I have given out the sources of my secondary data and the questionnaire through which I
have collected my data. I have also shown tables or graphs and sampling plan.

This is how I have conducted the research and written the report in brief.

Limitations of the Study

Since the nature of this research is both qualitative and quantitative, this investigation have left
us with relations and subjective knowledge as well as factual and objective knowledge. This
have allowed me to find out how and why the relation between the variables are affecting each
other. It has given us access to a huge amount of data to be analyzed. On the other hand, it has
also given me unbiased or subjective knowledge about the topic which is available in
quantitative research methods. But analyzing a mixture of qualitative and quantitative data,
especially quantifying the qualitative data, qualifying the quantitative data is a very difficult
process and varies according to the capabilities of the researcher.

The research has been conducted by taking sample from students who have seen the wrath of
stress, so these data have its own weaknesses by itself. For example, after identifying the
population, in this case the students of different faculties of University of Dhaka, I may not get
unbiased data from all of them. Also it takes a lot of work, physical and mental for the chosen
sample to actually be able to go through and finish the process properly for me to get well sorted
raw data from them.

Due to the shortage in funding, knowledge, time etc. the research may lack in-depth insights on
the topic. Otherwise it could have been more thoroughly conducted.

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 Chapter- 3

Results, Findings and Discussion

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 Research Findings
The study was intended to find out whether the students of University of Dhaka are stressed or
not. I have come to a result on the basis of questionnaire survey and interviews. As I am
following grounded theory approach, participant‘s or respondents‘ opinion was my highest
priority. According to my survey, 100% of the participants are students of University of Dhaka.
Among 53% were male and the rest of the 47% were female. Also, I have also taken
questionnaires of the students who are at least in second year so they have the minimum
possibility to be stresses. 1st year students are not that well acquainted with life since they just
started their university life. Besides, I have taken interviews of Faculty members of 2 different
departments of Dhaka University to see is my hypotheses were right, or to see if the results of the
questionnaires align with the results of the interviews. In the questionnaire have tried to find out
the result through some questions like do the students get stressed from the activities they do
(both the ones they enjoy or do not enjoy). The opinions of participants are given below through
some tables according to the questions asked.

Questionnaire: At first the findings of the questionnaire are given here.

In order to find if my hypotheses were right or wrong the students were asked questions to which
they answered in the following way. The age of the students could be grouped from 20-25 years.
At first I tried to find out if academic performance is related to stress or vice versa. That is why I
took the information on what their Cumulative GPA each of them have currently. The data is
given below in the table.

Table 1: Range of Cumulative GPA among the respondents.

Range of CGPA Percentage

Below 2.74 04

2.75-2.99 03

3.00-3.24 17

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3.25-3.49 19

3.50-3.74 35

3.75-4.00 22

Here we can see that the most people who were respondent regardless of being a male or female
had an average CGPA. 35% has a CGPA of 3.50-3.74 whereas a good number, 22% has a CGPA
of 3.75-4.00.

After finding their CGPA. I have surveyed them to know which current year they are enrolled at
this moment to see if stress increases with years. Their enrolment data according to year is
shown below in the table:

Table 2: Current enrollment year of the students.

Enrolled Year Percentage

2nd Year 15

3rd Year 32

4th Year 46

Master‘s 07

We can see from the table that most of the students surveyed were from 3rd or 4th year, they take
up most of the population in the sampling frame. Where 3rd year is 32% and 4h year is 46%
students out of 100 respondents.

In order to find out if the students are stressed, I needed to find out what kind of activities they
do that might stress them out. So I asked them about the activities they are engaged in. The result
is given below.

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Table 3: Engagement of students in arrays of activities outside curriculum.

Name of Activities Percentage

Social Services 15

Part time/Full time Job 18

Clubs or Cultural Activities 27

GRE/BCS Preparation 16

Others 24

From the table we can see that almost all the options were equally answered. But 27% of the
respondents were engaged with clubs and cultural activities where as 24% gave the answer
others (where most people answered with tutoring students and a few answered with book
reading, painting etc.).

After knowing the activities the students were engaged in, I tried to find out if the number of
hours matter in getting stressed. So I asked the students the number of hours they invest on the
given activity of question 1 daily. The answer came out like the table below.

Table 4: Number of hours students engage themselves in activities outside curriculum.

Number of Hours Percentage

Less than 2 Hours 48

2-5 Hours 44

5-8 Hours 08

8-10 Hours 00

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I found out from the survey that 48% of the people invest less than two hours and another 44%
invests 2-5 hours on the activity they engage in on a daily basis.

Then I asked the respondents to give their opinion on the fact that if they enjoy the activities they
engage in because it can be related to getting stressed as well. They provided the following
answers.

Table 5: Opinion of Enjoyment of the Activities.

Opinion Percentage

Yes 88

No 12

From the survey we can see that a staggering 88% of the respondents replied with Yes, when
asked if they enjoy the activities they engage in. on the other hand only 12% said negatively.

The next question for the respondents was if they have to engage in activities they do not like
because forcefully getting engaged in an activity one does not like may bring distress to him. The
answered in the following way.

Table 6: If the Students have to engage in activities they do not enjoy.

Opinion Percentage

Yes 38

No 62

We can see when asked if forcefully a student has to engage in activities they do not like, the
answer was somewhat different from the previous question. Here only 62% said they do not have
to engage in activities they do not like, on the other hand the Yes went up to a 38%.

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The following questions asked to the respondents was why they engage themselves in activities
they do not like. They answered in the following criteria.

Table 7: Reasons for engaging in activities they do not enjoy.

Reason Percentage

Future Planning 23

Family Pressure 22

Societal Pressure 15

Peer Pressure 08

Others 32

This table shows some stunning figures where a maximum of 23% of the students have said they
engage in activities they do not like as a part of future planning, and a close 22% said they do
that due to the pressure of family, also a good number of people, 15% said they have to engage
in unlikeable activities due to societal pressure.

The next question was one of the most important question to the respondents from my part. They
were asked if they ever get stressed from the activities they engage in, both the ones they do
enjoy or do not enjoy. The respondents‘ answers are given below in the table.

Table 8: If they ever get stressed from the activities they do (both enjoyed and hated ones).

Opinion Percentage

Yes 80

No 20

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This table shows the amount of stress. A huge number of people, 80% said they get stressed from
doing the activities both they like or dislike whereas only 20% said they do not get stressed. This
defines one of the hypotheses of the research.

After finding out such staggering data, I asked them if this stress they get hampers them
physically or hampers their study or curriculum related work. The table shows the data.

Table 9: If this stress hamper their physical health and studies.

Opinion Percentage

Yes 65

No 35

More than half the people, 65% said they stress they get from doing different activities hampers
them physically and disrupts their study while only 35% said it does not affect them.

Since a lot of people said they get stressed and it hampers them physically and academically, I
then asked them to tell me the kind of coping strategies when they are under pressure or stressed.
They gave the following answer.

Table 10: Kind of coping strategies they follow to relief stress.

Strategy Percentage

Sports 09

Hangout 20

Listening to Music 30

Sharing with Family 24

Others 17

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According to the given table we can see that a maximum of 30% people said they listen to music
when they are stressed, interesting but 25% said they share with family and 20% hangout with
their friends when they are stressed. Other have taken up 17% which includes reading books,
praying, watching movies, travelling, jogging, going for a walk etc.

Since the previous table shows how much stress the young generation is in nowadays, I had to
ask them if they ever sought counseling for their stress because counseling works well in
reducing stress in modern countries. They answers are given below.

Table 11: If they sought counseling for their stress.

Opinion Percentage

Yes 20

No 80

From the table we see that 80% of the people said they never went to a psychiatrist for
counseling while the other 20% sought counseling for their stress.

Since there are two kinds of stress, Eustress and Distress and eustress is good for people whereas
distress isn‘t, I asked the people if they felt good or bad if they were stressed. If they felt good or
excited it is supposed to be Eustress and if the felt bad it was supposed to be Distress. The table
show it according to the given answers by the respondents.

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Table 12: If they feel Excited/Pumped or Sad/Depressed because of their stress.

Feeling Percentage

Excited/Pumped 33

Sad/Depressed 66

Neutral 01

From the table we see that 33% of the people said they feel good when they are stressed whereas
66% said they feel sad or depressed, meaning they are in distress.

Then I asked the students another important question and that is if they think students who are in
same age groups as them are stressed as well. The table shows the data.

Table 13: If they think students of their age are stressed as well.

Opinion Percentage

Yes 83

No 16

Maybe 01

83% of the students think students of their age or same age group are stressed as well while only
16% think otherwise. 1% was not sure of the students of their age are stressed or not.

After knowing their opinion on the students of their same age and looking at the answers I had to
ask them why they think so, even if they replied with no or maybe in the answer to the previous
question. They mentioned several reasons in their answers since it was an open ended question.
So I coded the answers and then gave the answers from most to least mentioned. The answers are
given below in the table.

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Table 14: Reasons to think that students of their age are stressed as well.

Reasons Number of Times Mentioned

Family Pressure 22

Social Pressure 17

I am affected too 13

Career Planning 10

Lack of Future Plan 07

Not enjoyable 07

Multitasking 06

Job Insecurity 05

Lack of Skill 04

Shared by Victims 02

Positive Comments 07

No Comments 15

Some of the most mentioned answers in the table says a lot. The most mentioned answer in the
table was ‗Family Pressure‘ and it was mentioned 22 times by different people in their answers.
So most people think students of their age are stressed and the main reason they think is family
pressure. ‗Social Pressure‘ is mentioned 17 times making it the second most mentioned reasons
for thinking students of the same age of the respondents are stressed as well, another important
answer was ‗I am affected too‘ where the students explained that if they are a student and at this
age they are stressed, so living in the same society, students of their age are stressed as well. 07

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times were mentioned that students are not stressed and to think positively and 15 people did not
comment on this answer.

My next and final question, an open ended one, to the respondents were to give some suggestion
to the people who are stressed to help them reduce stress, or what can be done to reduce stress.
The answers came out in the following way.

Table 15: Suggestions to reduce stress.

Suggestions Number of Times Mentioned

Sharing with Family and Friends 29

Trying to enjoy the work 16

Seek counseling/Do Meditation 15

Hangout 13

Exercises and Sports 11

Discipline and Planning 11

Self-confidence 10

Freedom to choose work 10

No Comment 09

Listening to Songs/Watching Movies 07

Praying 06

Shopping 04

Among the suggestions, the most mentioned suggestions the students gave was to share with
family and friends about their stress, it was mentioned 29 times, 16 times were mentioned that

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people or students should try to enjoy the work they do, 15 times it was suggested to seek
counseling or doing meditation, and hanging out with friends was mentioned 15 times as a
coping strategy to release stress. Interesting thing is by females, it was mentioned 4 times that
‗Shopping‘ could reduce stress.

Here in the above given tables I have discussed the facts and figures and only mentioned
important answers. In the next section of discussion I will try to look for logic as to why a
respondent answer what he or she answered, I will see if their sex matters here and talk about
every single answers that were provided by the respondents through different column charts.

So after giving the above tables and percentages we can see that one of the hypotheses stated
‗Family and Societal expectations are two of the major factors of stress in students, same applies
for University of Dhaka.‘ have been proven because in the tables it clearly says that the students
get stressed a lot and one of the major factors behind their stress is ‗Family Pressure‘ and
‗Societal Pressure‘. Even when asked the reason why students think other students of their age
are stressed or not, or if yes, why, they gave the same answer as to because of ‗Family Pressure‘
and ‗Social Pressure‘. So my Second hypotheses have been proven.

Interviews: Now we will see the opinion given by two Faculty member of University of
Dhaka, Professor Dr. Naznin Islam from Department of Public Administration and Mr. Khalid
Hasan from Department of Music to find out whether the other one of my hypotheses is true or
not.

The answers by the teachers are listed according to the questions.

The 1st question I asked them was ‗Do you think the students of the recent generations are
more stressed than the generations before?‘

Both the faculty members answered with Yes and Definitely where they mentioned various
reasons to which we will come at the next questions. But one of the most important reasons they
both mentioned was that the older generations, even their generations did not even have this
many activities to get engaged in in the first place.

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 My 2nd question to both of them was ‗Why do you think so?‘ as to why they think that recent
generations are more stressed.

In reply to my question they stated that now life is more diversified, study and academic
curriculums have become far more difficult than the previous years, nowadays parents are over-
concerned about their children, and parents are over conscious on what their children should do
rather than what they love to do. Parents pressurize them to do what parents like. Nowadays
parents want children to be all squared, so children get no time for himself or herself.

My 3rd question to the honorable faculty members was, ‗What are the reasons do you think
act in a major way behind their stress?‘

An interesting facts here is that they said a lot of things about this question, but their first reply to
the questions was ‗Family Pressure‘ and ‗Environmental or Societal Pressure‘. Then they
emphasized on other points like peer pressure works a lot here and having no career planning
system in our country is also a huge drawback. They both mentioned one common thing is that
nowadays there is barely any family bonding and our society is becoming more and more
individualistic day by day.

My 4th question was ‗How do you think it affects them?‘

Both their answers were quite interesting in reply to this question. They mentioned that the
students become confused due to all this pressure. They get too many directions but no
instructions as to which direction to follow. They get confused on which one to concentrate on or
prioritize. They do not have any social life. The social life they have is limited to social media
which requires them to get attached to their phone. Nowadays for students even extracurricular
activities are a burden. They do not have any personal recreation or personal space and les social
interaction. In today‘s society we can see decrease in the social capital, this is why. As a result a
student\s mental capabilities are hampered by this stress. Nowadays there is barely any family
bonding left in the society. And all this result in psychological problems in the students.

My 5th question that I asked them was ‗Who do you think can help most when a student is
stressed?‘

The answers I got from them summarize that students should prioritize study in their daily life
first. They mentioned that parents must concentrate on what their children like rather than posing

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something on them. Parents should not pressurize them to do something that they did not achieve
or could not do. They said a child must be convinced as to what they like or do not like. Parents
must not pressurize them on how to do something and leave it on them to do something in their
own way. According to them ‗Guidance is good, overburden is not‘.

My 6th question was ‗Why do you think so?‘ as to why they think what they think can help a
student when they are stressed.

They answered that, if their parents guide them rather than pressurizing them then the students
will find joy to do something. They will learn to love the thing they are doing. Overburdening
them with work or parents‘ own advice is not a good idea because in that way the loose the joy
of working. And the freedom to choose what they like or dislike makes the family bonding
better.

My 7th question to them was ‗What activities do you think can help students cope against
stress‘

They provided different answers like, doing what the students like to do that doesn‘t harm him or
others is a good way to cope against stress. He or she can go to movies with family or friends or
different cultural program as visitors where they can actually enjoy rather than taking part
forcefully. Another interesting thing they mentioned was going to the places of relatives with or
without family. According to them it would create a stronger bond between the two parties.
Nowadays even friendship is based on give and take system. So nowadays it‘s hard to find an
actual friend. They suggested pending time with close friends. Sharing with family and friends
can also be a great way to cope up against stress. They can also find a mentor who can help to
motivate them in times of distress.

My 8th question to them was ‗How much do you think professional counseling help?‘

Both of them emphasized on the same thing that professional counseling is just like showing the
path to someone who is suffering from distress, but the exercise must be done by the individual
him or herself. A psychiatrist can tell them what to do while in distress but actually doing the
thing and fighting against his own will to not do something and actually doing it is in the choice
of the person.

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 My 9th and final question that I asked them was ‗Please give some suggestions for students to
avoid getting stressed or relieve it as soon as possible.‘

They both suggested the same thing as the surveys and that is ‗Sharing with Family‘, ‗Sharing
with Friends‘, ‗Try to enjoy what you do‘.

So after looking at the above discussion of the interviews taken from the two faculty members I
can gladly say that my 1st hypothesis is proven which was ‗Students of this generation of
University of Dhaka are more stressed than those of former generations.‘ because both the
teachers clearly said yes when asked if they think that the recent generations are more stressed
then the previous ones.

So from the above given finding of both the questionnaires and the interviews we can see that
both my hypotheses were proven by the students as well as the experts. Here we just saw the
facts stated by them. In the below discussion section we will try to find out as to why they gave
the opinion that they gave.

Discussion
In this part of the paper we will discuss about the different answers that were given by the
respondents and try to find out the reasoning or logic behind them or what can make them
choose the answer they chose. In order to find out the stress in the students of University of
Dhaka or to find out if they are stressed at all I conducted this research and it gave me interesting
new information and new learnings. For example when asked if they like the activities they
engage in 88% percent said yes but when asked if they get stressed doing the activities they
engage in 80% said yes. These kinds of relationships shaped the research in a different way
providing answers to the questions I have been seeking from the beginning an throughout the
hole process of this research. All these have been discussed below along with relevant graphs
and charts.

Chart 1: Range of Cumulative GPA among the respondents.

So to find out the questions I have, that is to see if the students of University of Dhaka is stressed
or not, I have first acquired the CGPA of the students I took questionnaire survey of. According

47 | P a g e
to my findings 53% of my respondents were male and 47% were female. Their CGPA has been
shown in the chart below.

Percentage

35

30

25

20
35

15
22
10 19
17

5
4 3
0
Below 2.74 2.75-2.99 3.00-3.24 3.25-3.49 3.50-3.74 3.75-4.00

CGPA might be related to stress in the sense that earning a good CGPA means working harder
than the other students which can distress a person in these days. According to the data only 4%
had a CGPA below 2.74, 3% had a CGPA between 2.75-2.99, 17 students had a CGPA between
3.00-3.24, 19 had in between 3.25-3.49, a staggering 35% had a CGPA between 3.50-3.74 and
22% had a CGPA in between 3.75-4.00. When divided by gender or sex we can see that the
3.77% of the males had a CGPA below 2.74 on the other hand 4.26% of the females had CGPA
below 2.74, 1.89% of males had a CGPA between 2.75-2.99 and 4.46% of females belong in the
same category. Again, 16.98% of the males and 17.02 of the females had their CGPA in between
3.00-3.24. Around 22.64% of the males and 14.89% of the females had their CGPA in between
3.25-3.49, but a huge number of 32.07% of the males and 38.30% of the females had their CGPA
between 3.50-3.74. The 3.75-4.00 CGPA group consisted of 22.64% of males and 21.27%
females. So it can be easily said that both the males and females had close result to each other by
looking at their grades.

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Table 2: Current enrollment year of the students.

The amount of enrolled students in different year was 15, 32, 46 and 07 from 2nd year to Master‘s
accordingly.

Percentage

50
45
40
35
30
25 46
20
32
15
10 15
5 7
0
2nd Year 3rd Year 4th Year Master’s

From the four different years, there were 11.32%, 32.07%, 52.83% and 3.77% of males from 2nd
year to Master‘s accordingly and 19.14%, 31.91%, 38.29% and 10.63% of females accordingly.
So we can see that more males from 3rd and 4th year participated in the survey while more
females from 2nd year and Master‘s participated in the survey. Later we will in different graphs if
these variables have any relation with stress.

Table 3: Engagement of students in arrays of activities outside curriculum.

We can see from the list that 27% of the total respondents are engaged in clubs or cultural
activities and others were chosen 24% of the times which included answers like tutoring
students, book reading etc.

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 Percentage

30

25

20

15 27
24

10 18
15 16

0
Social Services Part time/Full Clubs or Cultural GRE/BCS Others
time Job Activities Preparation

From the survey I know that more males (24.52%) went for the answer part time/full time job
whereas more females went for the option of Clubs or Cultural Activities. It shows that males in
our society are more outgoing than females, females on the other hand are more engaged with
clubs or cultural activities which are easier and doesn‘t require hard physical labor. Social
services were selected by 15.09% males and 14.89% females, only 10.63% females selected part
time/full time job, 16.98% males selected clubs or cultural activities, GRE/BCS were chosen by
16.98% males and 14.89% of females. Lastly other option was chosen by 26.41% males and
21.27% of females.

Table 4: Number of hours students engage themselves in activities outside curriculum.

This chart shows the number of hours each students invest in the activities they previously have
said to be engaged in.

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 Percentage

50

45

40

35

30

25 48
44
20

15

10

5 8
0
0
Less than 2 Hours 2-5 Hours 5-8 Hours 8-10 Hours

A staggering 48% of the students including 39.62% male and 57.44% females invest less than 2
hours for their activities on a daily basis. It aligns with the opinion of the previous questions.
Because most students are related with tutoring students and club activities which usually does
not last more than 2 hours a day. In case of more than 2 tuitions or part time jobs a student needs
2-5 hours daily and that is why 44% students including 47.16% male and 40.42% females chose
this answer. On the other hand 13.20% males and only 2.12% female gave 5-8 hours as their
answer which shows that they either do full time jobs or prepare for exams like GRE, BCS etc.
none of the respondents chose 8-10 hours as an answer.

Table 5: Opinion of Enjoyment of the Activities.

This chart shows the opinion of students when asked if they enjoy the activities they get involved
in. as a university student they have both the freedom and a great range of activities to choose
from. As a result students like what activity they engage themselves into. But the question comes
later as if they get stressed from it which I will come to later.

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 Percentage

90

80

70

60

50 88

40

30

20
12
10

0
Yes No

From the chart we can see that 88% of the students likes the activities they engage in which
consists of 84.90% male and 91.49% female students. Whereas only 12% of the respondents said
that they do not like or enjoy the activities they engage in which consists of 15.09% of males and
.51% of females.

Table 6: If the Students have to engage in activities they do not enjoy.

In the previous chart we saw the number of students who likes and dislikes the activities they
engage in. In the chart we will see if any of the students have engage in activities they do not
like, or engage themselves in such activities forcefully.

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 Percentage

70

60

50

40
62
30
38
20

10

0
Yes No

Although from chart 5 we see that 88% of the student likes their activities, but the number comes
down when asked if they are forced to engage in an activities. The number of students who
agreed to have joined in activities they do not like goes up to 38% and includes 39.62% males
and 36.17% female. It shows that more male engage in activities they do not like tan females for
different kind of factors which will be discussed later. On the other hand people who replied
negatively was 62% and it consisted of 60.3% males and 63.83% of females proving that females
aren‘t as pressurized by different factors to join activities they do not like as men. In the context
of our society it is true since women are not still forced to work for family but men are
constantly pushed to take the responsibility of the family. This chart proves that very well.

Table 7: Reasons for engaging in activities they do not enjoy.

In continuation to the previous question, the respondents were now asked to give reasons as to
why they engage themselves in activities they do not like. They gave out various interesting
reasons or factors which shows the scenario of stress in the students of University of Dhaka. The
chart given below shows the data given by the respondents.

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 Percentage

35

30

25

20
32
15
23 22
10
15
5 8

0
Future Planning Family Pressure Societal Pressure Peer Pressure Others

When asked for the reasons of engaging in activities they do not like, the students gave out
interesting factors. 23% of the students (28.30% male and 17.02% female) said they do it for
their future career on the contrary 22% of the students including 20.75% male and 23.41%
female responded that their family pressurize them to engage in such activities. 15% of the
students including 11.32% males and 19.15% females agrees that society puts a pressure on them
to engage in those activities. 9.4% male and 6.38% female, a total of 8% said they feel peer
pressure and others option has been chosen by 32% people which includes various answers like
earning pocket money, to pursue their hobby, travelling with friends and feeling bad to ask
parents for pocket money. We also see that the students who have said they like what they do or
do not have to engage in activities they do not like provided reasons for engaging in such
activities.

Table 8: If they ever get stressed from the activities they do (both enjoyed and hated ones).

As said before, this is the single most important question asked to the participant from my part.
This question helped me to find out if my given hypotheses were right or wrong. When asked if
the students ever get stressed form the activities they do that they like or dislike they gave away
interesting facts as to 0% of the students responded with Yes as to they get stressed whereas only

54 | P a g e
20% said No, they do not get stressed from the activities they do regardless of the fact that they
enjoy it or not. The chart below shows the data.

Percentage

80
70
60
50
80
40
30
20
20
10
0
Yes No

Although we have seen previously that most students like what they do and only a few have to
engage in activities they do not like but when it comes to stress, its applicable for all regardless
they like the activity they engage in or not. From the 80% of the people who gave positive
answers consists of a staggering 79.24% male and 80.85% female students. So we can see that
most of the students of University of Dhaka are stressed due to the factors given above proving
my hypotheses. Only 20% students (20.76% male and 19.14% female) said they do not get
stressed from the activities they do.

Table 9: If this stress hamper their physical health and studies.

Although 80% of the students said they get stressed from doing activities, but not all of them has
severe stress problems. And that is why the percentage goes down to 65% when asked if this
stress hampers their physical health and studies. On the other hand 35% students thought that
their stress could be handled and does not hamper their own physical health or academic
activities.

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 Percentage

70

60

50

40 65
30
35
20

10

0
Yes No

From the 65% of the people who said their stress hampers their physical health and studies
consisted of 60.37% male students and 70.21% of female students. It shows that in our society
the severity of stress is higher for females than males. Among the 35% students who replied
negatively there were 39.62% male and 29.79% were female. It also shows an interesting thing
that male are good at handling their stress than female in the University of Dhaka which can be a
national picture.

Table 10: Kind of coping strategies they follow to relief stress.

Since 80% students said they are stressed and 65% said their stress hampers their physical health
and studies, it was important to know how they function while they are in stress or what kind of
coping strategies they follow when they are under stress. Among different options 9% chose
sports, 20% chose hanging out with friends, 30% chose listening to music, 24% chose sharing
with family and 17% chose others option including praying, sleeping, travelling, going out,
watching movies etc.

56 | P a g e
 Percentage

30

25

20

30
15
24
20
10 17

5 9

0
Sports Hangout Listening to Sharing with Others
Music Family

Among the sports people a staggering 100% were male and no female. It shows that women
participate in sports far less than men do. Again, among the 20% who chose hanging out with
friends there are 22.64% male and 17.02% female which shows that male prefer hanging out
with friends more than women do. On the contrary Listening to music was chosen by 30% of the
people where there is 26.42% male but 37.04% is female. It shows that females find their way to
stay home and cope with their stress more than men, men rather go out and play sports or
hangout with friends. The 24% people who chose sharing with family option has 20.75% male
and 27.66% female, again it proves the same point that women prefer to stay home and has a
better bonding with family than men as a part of staying home and interacting with family. This
also shows a great fact that less people chose sharing with family than listening to music. This is
because most of the students interviewed stay in the dorms of the university so they cannot
always go home or talk to their family members over phone, which is why they have to choose
their own way to cope with their own stress. Only 17% chose other as an option or strategy of
coping with stress as mentioned before.

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Table 11: If they sought counseling for their stress.

Since Bangladesh is a 3rd world country and the university cannot always provide all the
privileges like those of modern countries, it was important to know if or how many students have
actually sought counseling to reduce their stress.

Percentage

80

70

60

50
80
40

30

20
20
10

0
Yes No

Although a lot of our students are stressed as mentioned earlier but only a few sought counseling
for their stress. Only 20% went to psychiatrists where as 80% did not. Among the 20%, 15.09%
are male and 25.53% are female which shows and complies with previous data that female goes
to counseling more than males because male are better at handling their own stress. And the
same way, 84.91% male and 74.47% female did not go for counseling proving my previous
statement about handling stress. This chart also shows that counseling as a mechanism of coping
with stress is not very popular in Bangladesh despite lots of stress. It also shows the limited
capacity of the university to provide these advantages.

Table 12: If they feel Excited/Pumped or Sad/Depressed because of their stress.

This chart shows an important data as to the type of stress out students are in, Positive or
Eustress or Negative or Distress.

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 Percentage

70

60

50

40
66
30

20 33

10
1
0
Excited/Pumped Sad/Depressed Neutral

Only 33% students (41.51% male and 23.41% female) said they feel Excited/Pumped due to
their stress i.e. they are under Eustress. It also shows that more men than women feel pumped
due to their stress complying with my previous deduction that men handle stress better than
women. On the contrary 66% of the students said they feel Sad/Depressed due to their stress
which means they suffer from Distress. So more people in the University of Dhaka are in
Distress than in Eustress. Only 1% of the students stayed neutral here.

Table 13: If they think students of their age are stressed as well.

This chart shows what the responding students think of other students of their age or age group
in terms of being in stress. When asked about their opinion on the question, a stunning 83%
students replied that they think other students of their age are stressed as well while only 16%
said they don‘t think so. 1% replied with maybe. The chart gives the data below.

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 Percentage

90
80
70
60
50
83
40
30
20
16
10
1
0
Yes No Maybe

Among the 83% people who think other people of their age are distressed as well consists of
81.13% male students and 85.11% of female students. While amongst the disagreeing 16%
students, there were 18.86% male and 12.77% female students. 1% of the students who replied
with maybe were female students.

Table 14: Reasons to think that students of their age are stressed as well.

After getting the answer to the question if the students think other students of their age are
stressed as well, 83% replied positively which led to the question why they think other students
of their age are stressed. The students were free in giving their opinion here as this was an open
ended question. The most to least mentioned factors were Family Pressure, Social Pressure, I am
affected too, Career Planning, Lack of Future Plan, Not enjoyable, Multitasking, Job Insecurity,
Lack of Skill, Shared by Victims etc. the rest were Positive Comments and some people did not
comment on the matter. The following chart shows the factors mentioned by participants.

60 | P a g e
 Number of Times Mentioned

25

20

15
22
10
17
15
13
5 10
7 7 6 7
5 4
2
0

Interestingly, the top factor which the respondents think as the reason of other students being
stressed was ‗Family Pressure‘ mentioned 22 times and second was ‗Social Pressure‘ mentioned
17 times. This proves my hypotheses that Family Pressure and Social Pressure are two major
factors in stressing students. The students also mentioned ‗Because I am affected too‘ gave a
good information about social context, since all the students are in the same social context, so it
is not illogical that if one is stressed other should be too. ‗Career Planning‘ leads to stress,
believed the respondents by mentioning it 10 times, ‗Lack of Future Plan‘ and ‗Not Enjoyable
Work‘ was mentioned 7 times each. 6 times were mentioned ‗Multitasking‘ which means
multitasking in different activities may lead to stress. ‗Insecurity in Job Sector‘ was mentioned 5
times and ‗Lack of Skill, was mentioned 4 times. 2 people said they think other students of their
age are stressed because they heard the story from a victim himself. On the contrary, 7 people
gave positive comments and 15 did not comment at all.

Table 15: Suggestions to reduce stress.

The last and final thing I asked from the respondents were to give some suggestions so that
people in distress could cope up or what can be done to reduce stress. They suggestions they
gave is mentioned below from most to least mentioned.

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 Number of Times Mentioned

30
25
20
15 29
10
16 15 13 11 11
5 10 10 9 7 6 4
0

The most mentioned suggestion among all the 12 were ‗Sharing with Family and Friends‘. It is
ironic that these respondents said that ‗Family Pressure‘ was the most major factor in building
stress in individuals. But when it comes to solutions, they want others to share with family and
friends to reduce stress. 16 times mentioned was the option ‗Trying to enjoy the work‘, ‗Seek
Counseling/Do Meditation‘ was suggested 15 times in comparison to sharing with family and
friends. 13 people mentioned ‗Hanging out with Friends‘ and 11 times ‗Sports‘ was thought to be
a coping mechanism along with ‗Discipline and Planning‘ mentioned the same number of times,
‗Self-confidence‘ was mentioned 10 times, 9 people did not comment on the matter, ‗Listening
to Songs/Watching Movies‘ was mentioned 7 times and ‗Praying‘ was mentioned 6 times.
Interestingly enough ‗Shopping‘ was mentioned 4 times and it was mentioned every time by
females. This shows how coping mechanism can vary by gender.

In the above discussions we saw and tried to find out the meaning behind the numbers, what they
mean, why they mean what they mean. Below we will see some graphs of corresponding
questions to see the relations between answers to different questions the respondents provided
and try to find out what those graphs and number mean.

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Graph 1: A graph between the array of activities and hours engaged in them.

This graph tends to show the different amount of time needed for different activities.

Chart Title
60

50

40

30

20

10

0
Social Services Part time/Full time Clubs or Cultural GRE/BCS Others
Job Activities Preparation

Series1 Series2

Graph 2: A graph between the factors and coping mechanisms of stress.

Chart Title
35

30

25

20

15

10

0
Future Planning Family Pressure Societal Pressure Peer Pressure Others

Series1 Series2

63 | P a g e
The above given graph shows different points which symbolizes the different factors of stress
and mechanisms taken by students to cope against stress.

Graph 3: A graph between the factors and coping mechanisms of stress suggested by the
respondents.

Chart Title
35

30

25

20

15

10

Series1 Series2

This graph shows the multidimensional relationship between the reasons of being stressed and
the coping mechanisms suggested by the respondents.

In the above discussion I have shown my research findings, discussed them and through the
process have proven that the objective of my research were successful. My hypotheses were
‗Students of this generation of University of Dhaka are more stressed than those of former
generations‘ and ‗Family and Societal expectations are two of the major factors of stress in
students, same applies for University of Dhaka‘ have been proven by the data collected and
analyzed. Finally, it can be said that the students of University of Dhaka in the recent generations
are more stressed than those of older generations.

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 Chapter- 4

Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations

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 Summary

This study tries to explain, describe as well as analyze the topic "Stress of the Students of
University of Dhaka: Myth and Reality". It seeks to find out the causes and triggering factors
behind the stress of the students. It also seeks to find out and suggest some coping mechanisms
so that students can cope with stress in order to lead a healthier life. It finds out how much family
is important in the life of a student in terms of stress. A student is stressed by the family pressure
but also goes back to his family whenever they are stressed, to share their feelings with them. I
worked in the social context of Bangladesh and in our country family bonding is still of great
importance unlike the individualistic societies of the western countries. We saw the same thing
while collecting data on field level and analyzing the collected data. The study reviews the
related works done by different scholars and related theory was discussed. Thus it helps to
expose the findings clearly. After going through all the procedure and analyzing all the first hand
and second hand data collected, I can finally come to the conclusion that the recent generation of
students of University of Dhaka is more stressed than the older generations due to being engaged
in a wide array of activities and also because of family and social pressure. I can also evidently
say that family is the first thing, at least still in Bangladesh, that students seek shelter of when
stressed, even more than psychiatrists. Then comes friends who are considered the second family
here, in Bangladesh, especially in University of Dhaka. So I can proudly say that students of our
country are more involved with family then psychiatrist or mental health doctors.

Youth are the single most important power for the bright future of a country as well as the globe.
But stress has spread like a chronic disease in the youths of the whole world. That is why this
study seeks to find out, in the context of Bangladesh, the main factors of stress and some coping
mechanisms. Hopefully the result and findings of this study will of value and importance and add
to the array of researches done in this sector by giving an image of the stress here, in Bangladesh,
in University of Dhaka. As mentioned before, since the study has been conducted in University
of Dhaka, it can be replicated in other universities of Bangladesh. And since university of Dhaka
is the biggest university of Bangladesh in terms of the number of students, it can be said that it
presents a national picture itself. So if the students here are stressed, same can be applied for the
students of other state universities of Bangladesh. There is need of separate researches to find out

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the factors, consequences and results in case of other state universities in our country but this
research can give us an overall picture.

Recommendation

Since stress is a big issue around the world, our beloved country Bangladesh is not out of the
picture as well. The students here are very stressed due to different number of reasons depending
on their social context, family background, economic stability etc. in this part of the study I will
give some recommendations for both the students and their families to help cope the full of
potential individuals to cope with stress. The recommendations are stated below:

For Students: the recommendations I have for the students of University of Dhaka are:

1. When choosing from a wide array of activities in the university level, a student should do
enough in depth research on the activity to make sure they will like it. They can talk to
seniors or people who were previously involved with those activities.
2. Have a stronger bond with family no matter how much the distance is.in this era of
technology staying close is not hat of a hard task if one wishes.
3. If a student thinks that his or her stress is getting out of control and hampering his or her life,
they should go to the psychiatrists that provide services for the students cheaply or even
sometimes free inside the university.
4. At university level, a student should learn to choose his or her friends wisely. Because when
in danger, actual and close friends will help them get out of it.
5. Sometimes family does not fully understand the context of the students, especially in this
modern era. So it is very important that a student has full confidence on himself and his
choice to hold on to his choice through thick and thin even if the family opposes.
6. Activities that are universally liked by most students like, sports, painting, travelling,
gardening, reading books, poetry, listening to music, going to movies alone or with friends,
cycling etc. should be taken up by a student as stress reliever. This can help them in times of
needs.

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7. No matter what the student is trying to focus on, their first and foremost primary focus
should be on their study. Doesn‘t matter if they can study in the subjects they want, they
should focus on doing good in the current subject. They must know the fact that their parents
usually count on them.
8. Just like making a bond with families students should also focus on giving time to their
relatives, hangout with cousins more often and share news and views. This will help to keep
their minds fresh.
9. One of the most important thing for a student studying in universities to do is set his
priorities. A student may sit alone, with family or mentor to set his future goal and work
accordingly.
10. Another important thing in the life of a student is discipline. A student should have his daily
routine which will gradually take him to the future goal he has set, in small steps.

For Families: the recommendation I would like to give to the families or parents of the
students are:

1. Parents should focus on creating a bond with their children where they can sit and talk to
each other about their own priorities and give logical reasons as to why they want the student
to engage in an activity. It will help the student understand the perspective of the parents.
2. Parents should also keep in mind that a student studying in a university a matured adult who
can take his own decisions. So sometimes they should listen or stick to the decisions they
students take.
3. Parent should not force students to do something if the student is not absolutely convinced
that he want to do it or he likes it. If forced, the student will never be able to create an
enjoyment while doing the job.
4. Parents must not have a dream to achieve something through their child that they could not
achieve by themselves. Every child is unique and full of potential individualities.
5. Rather than trying to make the children all squared, parents should try to help them have fun
in all the activities. That way student will not easily get stressed out.
6. Just like students do, parents too should sit together with their child and talk about the
progress or ask about how everything is going, or if everything is working according to plan.

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7. Parents should stay with the choice of his children through thick and thin rather than bashing
him if his choice goes wrong, it gives a student confidence on himself as well as his family.
8. Parents must be more supportive when a student is stressed and seek shelter of the family.
Providing a caring shoulder at that time is vital for a student to cope against stress.
9. Parents should teach their children that before becoming a good job holder or good student
one must become a good person first. This will boost the morality of a student.
10. Parents should always encourage and mentor a student to work hard rather than forcing or
pressurizing him or her to do something. This will help the student. Also giving the student
will to choose his activity or way to do somethings boosts his creativity level as well as
experience.

Stress is a problem that cannot be handled by family or the student alone. So both the student and
his family should come together and join hands to fight stress. Because the research proves it is
family who can pressurize a student the most and also a family is the best stress reliever. So
according to the social context of Bangladesh, a student and his or her family should work
together to reduce stress in the students.

Conclusion

In this recent era of modernization, technology and individualism, the bonding between family
friends and other social institution have almost been vanished. As a result, it has become
impossible for people to get rid of stress and stress has made its mark amongst the young
generation of this world. From early age we heard a saying, ‗Man cannot live alone‘ but now
people live alone for the sake of individual privacy. But coping up with the society alone is an
impossible task to accomplish. So in times of needs and dangers people need the help of their
family and close friends even relatives. Otherwise it becomes impossible for a person, especially
a student to get out from the grasp of stress and live a happier and healthier life. And if the
student cannot get out of stress then there will be nobody to lead the future of this universe
because students, especially university students are the ones who are in their prime now to lead
the country, the world in the future. So their families as well as the society needs to nurture these
potential individuals.

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The world has been suffering from ‗Stress Fever‘ for quite a while now. The young and talented
minds are not out of it either. Even in our country, in the biggest university, University of Dhaka
stress had made its mark and students are trying hard to cope with it. This study tries to collect
data from students and experts on the factors of stress and finds out the main causes and
triggering factors of stress in the students of University of Dhaka. Later, this study analyzes and
codes that data to bring out solutions and suggestions provided by the students themselves as
well as the teachers and give recommendations to the students and their families on how to work
together hand in hand to reduce strength in the young individuals. This study has given me the
chance to get closer to the students and find out their problems that lead to stress. It has given me
both negative and positive aspects about our students as well as students. It showed me how,
with little help our students are fighting against stress. On the contrary it also opened my eyes to
how family and society can matter so much in the life of an individual. The data given and
analyzed in this paper was solely used for academic purposes and taken only from the
participants who participated willingly. I only tried to analyze the data and objectively bring out
the hidden meaning of the numbers opinions and percentages. One good thing is if we can
control stress, we can use it to our advantage. Distress is bad for people especially students,
Eustress on the other hand is good for boosting creativity, challenging one‘s limits and push
someone to go further. So concentration should be given on the matter that stress of the students
must be controlled in a way so that it can help them achieve their future goal through efficiency
and effectiveness. And in that case family, society, close friends can help the student like no
other. Ending it with a quote,

―The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential... these are the keys
that will unlock the door to personal excellence.‖

--Confucius

And in order for a student to unlock that door to personal excellence he or she should work hand
in hand with family and society to defeat stress.

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 Chapter-5

Bibliography

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1. Aneshensel, C. (1992). Social Stress: Theory and Research. Annual Review of Sociology,
18(1), pp.15-38.
2. Bolger, N., DeLongis, A., Kessler, R. and Schilling, E. (1989). Effects of daily stress on
negative mood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(5), pp.808-818.
3. Bulo, J.G. & M.G. Sanchez (2014). Sources of stress among college students. CVCITC
Research Journal, 1 (1), pp 16 – 25.
4. BusinessDictionary.com. (2017). What is stressor? definition and meaning. [online]
Available at: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/stressor.html [Accessed 27 Dec.
2017].
5. Calaguas, G. (2012). Survey of college academic stressors: Development of a new measure.
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6. DEVI, R. and MOHAN, S. (2015). A STUDY ON STRESS AND ITS EFFECTS ON
COLLEGE STUDENTS. International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Applied
Science (IJSEAS), 1(7).
7. Devi, U. (2011). A Study on Stress Management and Coping Strategies With Reference to IT
Companies. Journal of Information Technology and Economic Development, 2(2).
8. Dickerson, S. S., & Kemeny, M. E. (2004). Acute stressors and cortisol responses: A
theoretical integration and synthesis of laboratory research. Psychological Bulletin, 130,
355–391.
9. Dictionary.com. (2017). the definition of stressor. [online] Available at:
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/stressor [Accessed 27 Dec. 2017].
10. Fogle, G. (2012). Stress and Health in College Students. Undergraduate. The Ohio State
University.
11. Helpguide.org. (2017). Stress Symptoms, Signs, and Causes: Improving Your Ability to
Handle Stress. [online] Available at: https://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-
symptoms-signs-and-causes.htm [Accessed 27 Dec. 2017].
12. Ji, H. and Zhang, L. (2011). Research on College Students‘ Stresses and Coping Strategies.
Asian Social Science, 7(10).
13. Juth, V. and Dickerson, S. (2017). Social Stress.
14. Kaplan, S., Madden, V., Mijanovich, T. and Purcaro, E. (2012). The Perception of Stress and
its Impact on Health in Poor Communities. Journal of Community Health, 38(1), pp.142-149.

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15. Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., Gouin, J. P., & Hantsoo, L. (2010). Close relationships, inflammation,
and health. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 35, 33–38.
16. Krohne, H. (2002). Stress and Coping Theories.
17. Kumar, S. and Bhukar, J. (2013). Stress level and coping strategies of college students.
Journal of Physical Education and Sports Managemen, [online] 4(1). Available at:
http://www.acadjourn.org/JPESM [Accessed 27 Dec. 2017].
18. Medlineplus.gov. (2017). Health Disparities: MedlinePlus. [online] Available at:
https://medlineplus.gov/healthdisparities.html [Accessed 27 Dec. 2017].
19. Mentalhelp.net. (2017). Types of Stressors (Eustress vs. Distress). [online] Available at:
https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/types-of-stressors-eustress-vs-distress/ [Accessed 27
Dec. 2017].
20. Meyer, I., Schwartz, S. and Frost, D. (2008). Social patterning of stress and coping: Does
disadvantaged social statuses confer more stress and fewer coping resources?. Social Science
& Medicine, 67(3), pp.368-379.
21. Pariat, M., Rynjah, M., Joplin, M. and Kharjana, M. (2014). Stress Levels of College
Students: Interrelationship between Stressors and Coping Strategies. IOSR Journal of
Humanities and Social Science, 19(8), pp.40-45.
22. Schneiderman, N., Ironson, G. and Siegel, S. (2005). Stress and Health: Psychological,
Behavioral, and Biological Determinants. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 1(1),
pp.607-628.
23. The American Institute of Stress. (2017). Daily Life. [online] Available at:
https://www.stress.org/daily-life/ [Accessed 27 Dec. 2017].
24. Toussaint, L., Shields, G., Dorn, G. and Slavich, G. (2014). Effects of lifetime stress
exposure on mental and physical health in young adulthood: How stress degrades and
forgiveness protects health. Journal of Health Psychology, 21(6), pp.1004-1014.
25. Yusoff, M. (2010). STRESS, STRESSORS AND COPING STRATEGIES AMONG
SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN A MALAYSIAN GOVERNMENT
SECONDARY SCHOOL: INITIAL FINDINGS. ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry, 11(2).

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 Chapter-6

Appendix

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 Stress of DU Students: Myth and Reality
I am a student of 8th Semester in Department of Public Administration, University of Dhaka. I
request you to help me collect some information. Your information will be used only for my
academic purpose. Any kind of cooperation will be highly appreciated.

Please put ‗Tick‘ (√) mark or describe where necessary.

Basic information of Respondent

Name: ______________________________________________________________

Age: _______________ Gender: ________________

Occupation: _______________

Current CGPA:

Below 2.74 2.75 - 2.99 3.00 - 3.24 3.25- 3.49 3.50- 3.74 3.75 - 4.00
Academic Year of study (Honors):
2nd Year 3rd Year 4th Year

1. What activities do you engage yourself in outside your curriculum?

Social Services Part time/Full time job Clubs or Cultural Activities GRE/BCS
preparation Others___________________________

2. How long do you engage yourself in those activities?

Less than 2 Hours 2-5 Hours 5-8 Hours 8-10 Hours

3. Do you enjoy the activities you engage in?

Yes No

4. Do you have to engage in activities you do not enjoy?

Yes No

5. Why do you engage in activities you do not like?

Future Planning Family Pressure Societal Pressure Peer Pressure Others___________

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6. Do you ever get stressed from the activities you do (both the ones you enjoy or do not
enjoy)?
Yes No

7. Does this stress hamper your physical health and studies?

Yes No

8. What kind of coping strategy do you follow to relieve stress?

Sports Hangout Listening to Music Sharing with Family Others___________

9. Do you or did you ever seek counseling for your stress?

Yes No

10. Do you feel Excited/Pumped or Sad/Depressed because of your stress?

Exited/Pumped Sad/Depressed

11. Do you think other students of your age are stressed as well?
Yes No

12. Why do you think so (in continuation to Question no. 10)?

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

13. Any suggestions you feel to make that you think might reduce stress?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for your precious time!

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 Stress of DU Students: Myth and Reality

I am a student of 8th Semester, Department of Public Administration, University of Dhaka. I

request you to help me collect some information through the interview. Your information will be
used only for our academic purpose. I will be grateful to you for your cooperation.

Basic information of Respondent

Name: ______________________________________________________________

Age: _______________ Gender: ________________

Occupation: _______________

1. Do you think the students of the recent generations are more stressed than the generations
before?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

2. Why do you think so?

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

3. What are the reasons do you think act in a major way behind their stress?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

4. How do you think it affects them?

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

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 5. Who do you think can help most when a student is stressed?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

6. Why do you think so?

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

7. What activities do you think can help students cope against stress?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

8. How much do you think professional counseling help?

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

9. Please give some suggestions for students to avoid getting stressed or relieve it as soon as
possible.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for your precious time!

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 Technical Details on Sampling Plan

Study Area: University of Dhaka.

Unit of Analysis: Unit of analysis is each student of University of Dhaka.

Population: The population of my study is the whole population of the world. It is impossible
to access whole population so that first I have chosen the population that I wanted to generalize
to and it known as the theoretical population. As the study area was chosen University of Dhaka
so the theoretical population is all of the students of University of Dhaka which is approximately
30,000. So, the accessible population is 30,000 students as I have access to that population.

Sampling Frame: Listed accessible population of the research study is 100.

Sample Size: So, the sample size is 100.

Sampling: Simple Random Sampling where the aim of sampling is easy access, so I have
chosen to stand at the entrance to the Arts Faculty, Science Faculty, Social Science Faculty and
Library of the university where it was easy to invite many students that passed by to take part in
the research and fill out my questionnaire.

Interview: I have also conducted interviews with two of different faculty members of
University of Dhaka. Professor. Dr. Naznin Islam from Department of Public Administration and
Mr. Khalid Hasan from Department of Music.

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