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Analysis of Academic Sources

Hailley Garellek

Department of Methods: John Abbott College

300-300-AB: Social Science Research Methods

Elise Marianne Boer

October 6th, 2023

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Today, there are many mental illnesses that are diagnosed, however the most common

disorders in the world that have developed in youth are anxiety disorders and depression. While

it is no surprise that many people suffer from these specific illnesses, it has become a growing

problem over the past few years. These issues implore the question: How has anxiety/stress

changed in the past decade, affecting university students’ well-being? This topic is important as

there are many students who suffer from these mental illnesses yet have no reason or explanation

as to what is causing them to develop it. Almost every university student in the past decade has

been suffering from high stress or anxiety levels. This results in having stress and anxiety

hindering students' well-being as well as affecting their performance in school. In each research

article, the results have shown that most of the participants suffered from moderate levels of

stress, anxiety and depression. After examining and analyzing four peer-reviewed and credible

articles, it is apparent that these findings are important to my future research as they can prove

the vast number of students whose well-being is affected due to stress and anxiety and can reveal

potential solutions to resolve it.

A common research goal on this subject among each of my four articles is to determine

the underlying factors that cause high levels of depression, anxiety, and stress in university

students which ultimately affect their well-being. While all my articles agreed on this goal, there

was one dissimilarity on my second and fourth article. Lopes remarks on the psychological

influence that Covid-19 had on university students by examining their symptoms of stress,

anxiety and depression. Balkis mentions how procrastination affects the well-being and academic

life satisfaction of university students. It is evident that this research goal has evolved over time

because rising levels of stress, anxiety, depression have only become more pertinent over the
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past decade, allowing there to be new research conducted on these issues and permitting

researchers to solve the different factors that cause these illnesses to occur.

Research methods on this topic were somewhat diverse. One article only mentions using

qualitative data on their study, while the rest of the other articles did not state whether they used

qualitative or quantitative data for their study. However, Othman, Lopes and Slimmen

acknowledged that they used cross-sectional studies which could include qualitative or

quantitative data. All the research articles shared a similar theme of having the same age range of

participants involved in the study. To be able to take part in the research, all the participants had

to be over 18 years old and had to attend a university as well. While the age range was similar,

the sample size between all the articles were different. Furthermore, the four articles all share a

common approach to analyze the data of the topic. They use different kinds of scales to interpret

the results and determine the findings of stress, anxiety and depression. However, Othman,

Lopes, and Slimmen also used questionnaires that involved certain study variables (i.e. academic

pressures, family/personal factors, financial issues, sociodemographic and socioeconomic

factors, and social factors) to determine the association between stress and anxiety on the well-

being of undergraduate students.

A shared finding between three of the four articles is there are multiple statistics that can

prove certain variables mentioned in the methods paragraph would lead to a high prevalence of

stress, anxiety and depression. Othman found that 39.5% of university students had moderate-

severe depression, 23.8% suffered from moderate-severe anxiety and 80.3% had symptoms of

high stress (Othman et al., 2019, p.5). Lopes, like Othman discovered that there was an elevated

pervasiveness of stress, anxiety, and depression in university students. He also found that 29.8%

of participants experienced severe to extremely severe symptoms of depression, 30.9% suffered

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from severe to extremely severe symptoms of anxiety and 28.2% had severe to extremely severe

levels of stress (Lopes & Nihei., 2021, p.8). In the third article, Slimmen uncovered that 15.3%

of the participants in the study had high symptoms of stress, 65.8% had moderate levels of stress

and 18.9% had low symptoms of stress (Slimmen et al., 2022, p.7). The fourth article did not

mention any common findings with the three other articles about proofs/statistics with respect to

stress and anxiety affecting students’ mental health.

Results on this topic discussed in all of the four articles show that there are several

negative correlations between the underlying factors that cause stress and anxiety. On this topic

Othman finds there is a negative correlation of age and self-rated health based on the statistics

mentioned in the above paragraph (Othman et al., 2019, p.5). Lopes asserts that there are several

negative correlations in common between the symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression which

are satisfaction of life and psychological well-being (Lopes & Nihei., 2021, p.8). Slimmen

determined that there is a negative correlation between perceived stress and mental well-being of

university students. Additionally, several perceived pressures including academic, family, side-

activity and financial have the most negative correlation with the well-being of university

students (Slimmen et al., 2022, p.8). This means that undergraduate students may perceive many

stresses, but it does not necessarily impact their mental well-being. Balkis argues that university

students who procrastinate more have a disagreeable academic life as well as an unpleasant life

in general (Balkis & Duru., 2016, p.6). It is also claimed that procrastination (which can be

qualified as an underlying factor) is positively correlated with depression, stress and anxiety and

has negative effects on students’ well-being (p.6).

All the four articles came to the same conclusion and discussed that there are several

factors whether it is academic pressures or other issues that have a negative impact on university
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students’ well-being. Not only do these factors have a negative affect but it also causes a high

prevalence of anxiety, depression and stress to occur. Othman, Lopes, Slimmen and Balkis have

all found significant outcomes that support their results and initial hypothesis that stress and

anxiety have detrimental causes/consequences on the well-being of university students. These

findings represent proof that can be used to not only determine the causes or factors of stress and

anxiety, but also to find potential solutions on how to reduce the certain stressors that affect

undergraduate students. Across my research, there were no common limitations among the four

studies as each of my articles had their own limitations, however the most significant limitations

were information bias and sample size.

In conclusion, despite the limitations of each of the studies, it is proven that anxiety and

stress have harmful consequences on the well-being of university students. Othman, Lopes,

Slimmen and Balkis all have given potential solutions or recommendations on improving the

well-being of university students. However, for future directions for research on this topic, there

should be studies done on the recommended solutions to determine whether those findings

improve their well-being and reduce their anxiety and stress.

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References

Balkis, M., & Duru, E. (2016). Procrastination, self-regulation failure, academic life satisfaction,

and affective well-being: underregulation or misregulation form. European Journal of

Psychology of Education, 31(3), 439–459. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24763398

Lopes, A. R., & Nihei, O. K. (2021). Depression, anxiety and stress symptoms in Brazilian

university students during the COVID-19 pandemic: Predictors and association with life

satisfaction, psychological well-being and coping strategies. 16(10), 1–22.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258493

Othman, N., Ahmad, F., El Morr, C., & Ritvo, P. (2019). Perceived impact of contextual

determinants on depression, anxiety and stress: a survey with university students.

International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 13(1), https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-

019-0275-x
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Slimmen, S., Timmermans, O., Mikolajczak-Degrauwe, K., & Oenema, A. (2022). How stress-

related factors affect mental wellbeing of university students A cross-sectional study to

explore the associations between stressors, perceived stress, and mental wellbeing.

17(11), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275925