Academic Stress and its Sources Among University Students
K. Jayasankara Reddy
, Karishma Rajan Menon and AnjanaThattilDepartment of Psychology, Christ University, Bengaluru – 560 029, India.
Corresponding Author E-mail: jayasankara.reddy@christuniversity.in
Abstract: Stress has become part of students’ academic life due to the various internal and external expectations placed upon their shoulders. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the problems associated with academic stress as transitions occur at an individual and social level. It therefore, becomes imperative to understand the sources and impact of academic stress in order to derive adequate and efficient intervention strategies. The study employed a quantitative research design where participants were screened using Academic Stress Scale (Rajendran& Kaliappan,1991 from four streams namely, commerce, management, humanities, and basic sciences. The five dimensions of sources such as personal inadequacy, fear of failure, interpersonal difficulties with teachers, teacher pupil relationship and inadequate study facilities were further analysed and gender differences were also obtained. Understanding the sources of stress would facilitate the development of effective counselling modules and intervention strategies by school psychologists and counsellors in order to help students alleviate stress.
Keywords: Academic Stress; Academic Anxiety; Adolescents; Stressors; Sources of Stress Back to TOC