ACADEMIC STRESS AND QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG BUSINESS STUDENTS

______________________

A Research
Presented to the Faculty of the College of Accountancy and Business
Management Education
Central Mindanao Colleges
Kidapawan City
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A Partial Fulfillment
of the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Business Administration
Major in Financial Management
_______________________

Ralph Aldren D. Calapate

Rianie R. Villaver
Precious Pearl D. Paman
Jeanel F. Camenero
Shaira A. Capilitan

October 2022
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

The reasons behind why students go to school is the wants to have a good

quality of life, but there are a lot of factors that the students may face in process of

achieving it. Academic stress is one of the common problems of the students. Academic

stress is characterized as a student's psychological condition brought on by ongoing

social and self-imposed pressure in the environment of school, which decreases the

student's emotional stability. On the other hand, quality of life is a highly subjective

measure of happiness that is an essential component of many financial decisions.

Factors that play a role in the quality of life vary according to personal preferences, but

they often include financial security, job satisfaction, family life, health, and safety.

Business is a practical field of study for many students because of the

organizations, regardless of industry, rely on business principles to prosper, stated by

Colarado Technical University. According to a 2019 survey from the National

Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), 83.2% of companies responding

planned to hire different types of business majors at all degree levels in 2019. It was

further reported that business-related degrees accounted for five of the 10 most in-

demand bachelor’s degrees, including finance (64.4%), accounting (61.4%), business

administration and management (54.5%), management information systems (48.5%),

and logistics/supply chain management (48.5%). On the other hand, students are

struggling to achieve academic outcomes for their future life, that stress is a major
source of problems (Lee & Graham, 2001) and Quality of life of students during their

educational process, which is recognized as a high-stress period (Berlin & Fleck, 2003).

Thence, students express their academic stress in the form of depression,

behavioral problems and sometimes suicide (Schooland 1990). Suicide is a wrong

choice which an individual makes to the experienced stress in the absence of proper

guidance to manage it. NCR Bureau reported that in 2013 alone, 2,471 suicides were

committed due to examination failure. It has been found that 10% -30% students

experience academic stress which affects their academic performance (Brackney &

Karabenick, 1995) psychosocial adjustment along with their emotional and physical

wellbeing. Students who experience academic stress express their distress in a variety

of ways, including in terms of depression, anxiety, and somatic symptoms (Lee &

Larson, 1996).

Moreover, Malik & Balda, (2006) found academic achievement to be negatively

related with stress among high IQ adolescents. Moreover, academic performance was

found to be negatively related with procrastination, test anxiety, worry and emotionality

(Sud & prabha 2003). Studies conducted with western samples have found that parents

may have high expectations for their child’s future, hold positive beliefs about their

child’s abilities, and involve themselves in the education of their children (Jodl, Michael

& Malanchuk, 2001).

Meanwhile, Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as

the individual’s perception of his/her position in life, within the context of culture and

system of values in which the individual lives, and as relates to his/her objectives,

expectations, standards, and concerns. According to Nguyen, Shultz, & Westbrook

(2011) the impacts are significantly stronger for students with higher assessments of the

functional value of a business education. These findings suggest that universities could

enhance the Quality of College Life and academic performance by offering programs to

cultivate students’ psychological hardiness in learning and their learning motivation, and

by providing them with objective information about the functional value of business

careers.

Furthermore, in relation to Astin’s Theory of Student Involvement (1984), a study

by Nguyen et al. (2012) that involved over 1,000 business students in Vietnam

supported the theory by indicating a positive strong correlation between students’

psychological readiness and motivation toward perceived QCL. Nguyen et al. (2012)

mentioned that students’ learning motivation covers their willingness to participate and

be persistent in their efforts, which eventually had a positive impact on perceived QCL.

Besides that, the impact could be stronger when the students understand and

comprehend the functional value of business education (Nguyen et al., 2012). Referring

to Astin’s input-environment-output Model (1984), there is an influence of input on the

environment. Kuh and Hu (2001) further supported those institutional environments

such as high-quality personal relations among various groups of people in the campus,

including faculty, administrators and students, have consistently and positively affected

the students. Students’ perceptions of college qualities are indeed influenced by

information from a wide variety of sources, including significant persons, written

materials, recruitment activities and programs (Kealy and Rockel, 1987).

Statement of the Problem

This research aims to find the Effect of academic stress and quality of life among

Business Students. Specifically, the research seeks to answer the following specific

questions:

1. To determine the socio-demographic profile of the students in terms of;

1.1 Age

1.2 Sex

1.3 Year/Course

2. What is the impact of stress in terms of;

2.1 Academically

2.2 Socially

2.3 Physically

3. What is the aspect of quality of life in terms of;

3.1 Psychological

3.2 Level of independence

3.3 Environment

4. What is the significance difference between academic stress and quality of life

among business students?

Theoretical Framework

Stress arises from an interaction between a person and the environment (for

example, the transactional stress model; Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). A situation is
perceived as stressful if it “is appraised by the person as taxing or exceeding his or her

resources and endangering his or her wellbeing” (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984, p. 19).

This means that experiencing stress is at least partially individual and subjective

(Lazarus and Folkman, 1984; Lazarus, 1999; Fliege et al., 2001). Therefore, some

people experience stress in a given situation, while others do not because they perceive

and evaluate the same situation differently. It can be concluded that all kinds of changes

in people’s lives, including changes and transitions in the learning environment, can

lead to an increased level of stress (e.g., Clinciu, 2013; Sohail, 2013; Denovan and

Macaskill, 2017).

From the time the theory was proposed, it has been revised several times

(Lazarus, 1991; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Lazarus & Launier, 1978). In the latest

version Lazarus (2000) proposes that stress is a relationship of transaction between

people and their environment. Stress is, therefore, defined as a psychological state

arising from the 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 & Folkman, 1984)

The cognitive theory of stress is relevant in this study because it explains the role

of the students’ cognition in their experience of stress. This means that if different

students are exposed to similar stressors such as impending examinations or living

conditions in the hostel their stress experience are likely to be influenced by how each

of them appraises the stressors and their abilities to manage the stressors.
Conceptual Framework

Figure 1 shows the conceptual model showing the relationship between stress

and quality of life among students. There are two independent variables that include

Academic stress and Quality of life; while the dependent variable is the business among

students.

Academic Stress is the feeling of anxiety or apprehension over one's performance in

the academic activities. This variable has three indicators that include academic, social

and physical.

Quality of life is an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the

culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations,

standards and concerns. This variable has three indicators that includes psychological,

level of independence and environment.

Business students a person who obtained a college a university degree in Business

Administration. This variable has three indicators include Age, sex and course and year.

INDEPENDENT VARIABLES DEPENDENT VARIABLE

ACADEMIC STRESS
BUSINESS STUDENTS

QUALITY OF LIFE

Figure 1. Conceptual framework showing the result between variables.

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