How to Manage Stress as a Student: Essay Abstract
Stress is a part of every life on earth, and everyone has their own strategies for managing it. Stress and anxiety among students, especially teenagers, are widespread. Most of the time, this stress is negative, and they are unable to deal with it.
There are studies that suggest stress and anxiety in students can keep them on track with schoolwork. But if the stress is not taken in a positive attitude, it can be detrimental. Researchers have classified stress into physiological, social, and psychological types. The symptoms of these stresses are also classified into physical, emotional, and mental.
Teenage depression or tension experienced by students growing up further increase academic pressure. If they fail to adapt to the transition and change, teenagers start suffering from anxiety, developing negative personal traits, and having attention problems.
Besides, it is also noted that over-scheduling a student’s life can put them under stress. Anxiety reduction and time management, together with leisure activities, may be helpful approaches for reducing academic stress among college students. This paper discusses some major sources of Physiological, Social, and Psychological stress and anxiety in students. Additionally, it also provides intervention strategies and recommendations to manage stress.
How to Manage Stress as a Student: Essay Introduction
Education is one of humanity’s most fundamental needs, as it is responsible for advancing our civilization. It is difficult to put a price tag on education. Apart from the basic knowledge of various subjects, education brings many intangible benefits.
For instance, it gives individuals the experience and confidence they will use later in life. A good education is the basis for financial, professional, and personal success.
Acquiring knowledge is a large part of studying. Aside from that, the main purpose of education includes learning culture, developing social skills, refining the use of language, and developing problem-solving skills and logical reasoning.
Students learn more than reading, writing, and arithmetic as they discover how to function in society and succeed. The increasing complexity in education today is considered a major source of developing stress and anxiety in many students.
The education system has become an endless stream of papers, assignments, exams, midterms, etc. This turns into a never-ending flow of information that needs to be processed (Ditkofsky, 2004). “Stress can be defined as the biological reaction to any undesirable internal or external stimulus in the form of physical, mental or emotional stability that has a tendency to disturb the person’s homeostasis”.
If the person cannot tolerate the stress reactions, it may lead to the development of disorders. Stress is considered positive if it can stimulate people to grow professionally and personally, learn, or improve. Therefore it is an essential part of our lives (George, et al. 1986).1
Researchers suggest that stress is normal and can keep a student on track with schoolwork. Still, if this purpose is not solved and it prevents them from focusing or maintaining a healthy lifestyle, it can be detrimental.
The amount of stress a person can take comfortably varies from individual to individual. It depends on personal health, energy or fatigue, family situation, and age. Stress tolerance generally decreases with age, when a person is ill, and when they have sleep problems (Rada and Johnson-Leong, 2004).
If we look at the sources of stress, we will see they are numerous. In the case of students, stress may result from various sources both within and outside the school campus, from intense workload and trouble managing their time to economic problems and intricacy with family. There is no answer to this question, as how a student reacts to stress as it is as different as the individual.
In general, the symptoms of stress can be classified into physical, emotional, and mental. Physical symptoms include headaches, stomach upsets, heart pounding, sweaty palms, sleeplessness, and uneasiness. These factors may prevent one from attending class.
Emotional symptoms include being short-tempered, feeling dejected, restless, intimidated, and nervous. These are factors that inhabit or make it difficult for a student to work with others. Mental symptoms of stress are expressed as absent-mindedness, loss of concentration, poor judgment, incompetence, uncertainty, and negative self-talk (Ditkofsky, 2004).
Several studies have reported a disturbing tendency in college student health due to excessive stress (Sax, 1997). Researchers have also classified the stressors affecting students as academic, financial, time- or health-related, and self-imposed (Goodman, 1993; LeRoy, 1988).
In general academic stressors comprise the student’s insight into the broad knowledge base necessary and the perception of an insufficient time to develop it (Carveth, Gesse, & Moss, 1996).
Several studies have found a general pattern of time when students report experiencing academic stress each semester. The peak sources of academic stress result from taking and studying for exams, grade competition, and when there is an extensive syllabus to cover in a small amount of time (Abouserie, 1994; Britton & Tesser, 1991).
For example, suppose a student was not able to attend regular classes due to some illness. In that case, the student will find it very difficult to study the syllabus completed when they were absent. This creates immense mental stress. It is also possible that students may think they’re simply overstressed when their condition has progressed to severe anxiety problems or depression.
It is important for parents and teachers to recognise the symptoms of stress and take necessary actions. Otherwise, stress can build and develop into outbreaks of depression and anxiety. It is also possible that students under pressure can also be more directly triggered by subsequent stressful or traumatic events (Coping with Anxiety and Stress in Everyday Life, 2008).
Studies have estimated that anxiety disorders are serious medical illnesses that affect about 19 million Americans (Regier, et al. 1998). In students, these anxiety disorders are bound together by the common feature of extreme, irrational fear and fright. Unlike the relatively mild, brief anxiety caused by stressful events in a student’s life, anxiety disorders are chronic and harsh and can grow increasingly worse if not treated (NIMH, 2004).
Stress and Anxiety in Students: Physiological Stress
There are several types of physiological stress students undergo. It varies between the genders, age, physique etc. In general, growing up itself can be a difficult experience for both males and females. A boy has a distinct set of likings, friends, etc., than a girl.
During this period, several physical transitions demand a changeover in a student’s mental make-up and their approach towards people and situations. Several researchers have pointed out that children, in general, are often unprepared to handle stress during the transitions from a child to pre-adolescence and from pre-adolescence to adolescence.
For pre-adolescents and teens, an individuality crisis, the threats of peer communication, recognition, and denial of circumstances, persons, and ideas are a regular source of stress and teenage depression.
This is the stage when most of the teens think in terms of “Where do I stand?” and “How do I compare to others?” These are the key questions for this age group. This is also a stage for risky behaviors such as drinking, smoking, drugs, and sex. And these choices are common stressors.
Student life corresponds with adolescence, and stress can be evident in children as a response to the alterations in life and academic pressures. It sometimes becomes the most stressful stage in a student’s life.
Students become more self-aware and insecure, and their thought process becomes more critical and difficult. Simultaneously, this is the stage when some of them become defocused from their academics. They often lack educational motivation and performance, as their concentration is divided among many things, particularly creating an identity for themselves (Life Positive Foundation, 2008).
When stress is perceived negatively, or it becomes too much, students experience physical and psychological impairment (Murphy & Archer, 1996). As mentioned earlier, the differences in genders are also a major point of difference between students.
For instance, studies found that female students had more successful time management behaviors than males. At the same time, they also experienced elevated academic stress and anxiety.
It was also found that males gained more than females from spare time or leisure activities. “Freshmen and sophomore students had elevated reactions to stress when compared to juniors and seniors in the same institution.
Researchers found that anxiety, time management, and leisure satisfaction all impacted the academic stress. Many studies suggested that anxiety reduction and time management together with leisure activities may be a useful approach for reducing academic stress among college students” (Misra, 2000).
Social stress and anxiety disorder are considered the fourth most common psychiatric disorder. The devastating effects of social anxiety extend way beyond an individual feeling of distress in social situations, as will be demonstrated later.
Social anxiety disorder is now and then referred to as social phobia, which generally affects academic success, social situations, and personal relationships among students. “According to a study among college students, it was found that around 40 percent are under the vicious habit of alcohol consumption” (Kennard, 2007).
Another study examined the association between anxiety, social stress, substance use, and gambling behavior. With a sample size of 1,044 high school students from grades 7-11, this study has brought out important observations.
The researchers examined the adolescents’ state, traits, and presence of generalized anxiety, social stress, substance use, and gambling behavior. Results of this study disclosed facts such as “probable pathological gamblers report more daily and weekly alcohol consumption, use more uppers, downers, and hallucinatory drugs, and smoke more cigarettes every day when compared with non-gamblers, social gamblers, and gamblers at-risk for serious problems.
The study also revealed that probable pathological gamblers reported greater levels of state anxiety, trait anxiety, and social stress than non-gamblers, social gamblers, and at-risk gamblers. Further, they established through the study that adolescents with the highest state and trait anxiety scores had more severe gambling and substance abuse problems” (Ste-Marie et al. 2006).
There are also some contradictory results coming from the studies. For instance, recently published research by Ham et al (2007) aimed to reveal the relationship between social anxiety and drinking, particularly within a college student population.
They found that social anxiety was not connected to alcohol-related problems. Furthermore, social anxiety was largely unconnected to students’ motives for drinking alcohol.
Only individuals with high or moderate social anxiety appeared more likely to use alcohol as a coping mechanism. According to a recent report by the National Institute of Health (NIH), it was found that anxiety is a psychological risk factor connected with heavy or problem drinking among college students (Repich, N.D.).
Racial-ethnic differences that increase social anxiety are another cause of social stress among college students. According to a study, it was found that social anxiety was lower for White Americans when compared to Hispanic American and Asian American students.
It was reasoned that racial-ethnic differences in social anxiety might be ethnically linked and precipitated by diverse concerns for racial-ethnic minority groups (Lesure-Lester and King, 2005). For example, Joseph, a 1st generation Korean American student, faces serious psychological stress and depression.
Though he was a student with an excellent track record in his previous educational programs, he is presently facing serious challenges in his health and grades. This is more of a psychological problem that a good counseling program could help. Similar problems are faced by many other students who come from different places to college.
Good counseling at his high school counseling center could be of great help not only to him but also for similar cases. Students with emotional disturbance frequently require services from counseling that apply different eligibility criteria. The teenagers of Joseph’s age are quite diverse in terms of their needs and strengths.
Students present with a complex range of disabilities, from conduct disorder to schizophrenia. Teenagers who feel their ethnicity, culture, values, learning styles, and interests are not in sync with the evident services and mission of the college they attend are placed at risk for underachievement and for leaving. They either seek transfer elsewhere or forsake higher education altogether.
Researchers have found that most causes of psychological stress are perennially linked to emotional and psychological disorders. In fact, students may feel numerous emotional symptoms in stressful situations, whether long-term or short-term.
It may vary from individual to individual and can set forth a series of symptoms such as a feeling of behavior disintegration, fear, nervousness attacks, unfocussed attention or distractions, high levels of emotional responses, and psychological agitation such as gloominess, uncertainty, burn out, etc. Some of this stress and anxiety may become life-threatening through accidents.
Students during their academic life face these psychologically stressful situations and experience anxiety. In fact, researchers have found that almost all anxiety attacks and stress-linked mind-body illnesses are known to cause sleep disorders.
These may include problems such as sleep apnea, overdue sleep phase syndrome, and even oversleeping in classrooms. In intense cases, these stressors can even cause insomnia.
It is proven that students with Attention-Deficiency Disorder, Predominantly Inattentive Type (ADD), show signs of six or more symptoms of lack of concentration and less than six symptoms of hyperactivity-impulsivity.
They typically display some of the following symptoms: lack of concentration, distractibility, incompetence, vagueness, lack of insight, negligence, lack of memory, lack of enthusiasm, lack of determination, and procrastination.
It is a fact that regular stress can damage one’s spirit, slowing down the enthusiasm to live a fulfilling life. The student may fall into compulsive, obsessive behavior and fear during these situations. Stressed-out children seem to be easily attracted to negative habits of procrastination, addiction to alcohol, smoking, and substance abuse. All these incapacitating mental traits arise from a loss of confidence and inner strength (Life Positive Foundation, 2008).
Researchers have also found that several psychological signs of stress manifest as physiological responses. For instance, in a study on dental students it was found that the physical disorder reported most frequently by dentists is lower back pain.
Besides, they often feel physical manifestations such as headaches and intestinal or abdominal problems. Though in most cases these disorders may not be so severe that they require intervention, they may interfere with the dentist’s professional performance and quality of life (Gale, 1998).
Psychological stress is often created by parental pressure to perform and to stand out among other children. When the students fail to rise up to that expectation, or during the process of meeting it, they may suffer from frustration, physical stress, aggression, undesirable complexes, and depression.
Besides, under-performing students exhibit negative traits such as nervousness, unfriendliness, and envy, and may become pathologically introverted (Life Positive Foundation, 2008).
Coping with Stress and Anxiety in Students: Interventions
Remarkable advances in the 21st century in information technology have revolutionized modern education. The educational systems must focus on certain issues such as character development, moral formation, discipline, safety, protection from drugs and early sex in schools, etc. These issues are as important as the subject knowledge.
Therefore it is essential that the instructors and the parents look into these aspects more seriously. Stress is a part of a student’s life and can lead to both positive and negative feelings. Therefore it is important to seek appropriate intervention programs in schools and communities.
Exercise is one clear type of stress management that can help students to develop “fight-or-flight” response to stress. It is one of the most important intervention strategies to combat stress.
It helps to check the increased heart rate and the high amounts of insulin and other hormones in the body. Besides, it gives natural mood-enhancing substances known as endorphins, which also counter the stress response. Regular exercise can have a positive impact on a student’s life.
Developing a positive mental attitude is one of the most important parts of stress management. Emotional and mental health is enhanced by exercise, but it also needs to be addressed in terms of some of the behaviors that we choose in the day-to-day life and get rid of harmful coping mechanisms.
Students need to find correct ways of thinking rather than use substances like alcohol, nicotine, and illicit drugs to combat stressful feelings. It becomes necessary to train students’ minds to think positively (Coping with Anxiety and Stress in Everyday Life, 2008).
Having a healthy diet is another aspect that students need to act on. Balanced nutrition is important. A proper diet will go a long way to reducing stress levels among students. When children are stressed, they often eat junk food to comfort themselves.
This leads to the serious problems such as obesity, cardiac problems, etc. at a very young age. Students need to be taught to be careful in their diet, drink plenty of water, and reduce the intake of caffeine and alcohol. All this will go a long way to helping the children cope with stress naturally.
Only then will we be approaching stress management in a healthy and life-extending way. Meditating regularly is quite normal and studies have shown that it is very useful in dropping stress levels and helping to decrease your blood pressure.
It is also essential to get enough sleep as this is the time the body uses to repair and renovate itself. Students after the stressful routines need to take adequate rest. Many students have taken up habits such as depending on alcohol and drugs as a nightcap.
This actually makes the sleep patterns worse. Long hours of reading at night and staying up too late can have serious health problems. Simple techniques like taking a long, soothing bath before bed is a way to support the body to go to sleep. Taking short breaks from routines is a good way to get rid of stress. Even a weekend away will help. Taking a short break will allow the student to recharge and let the stress drain away.
Some institutions offer group therapy for people with social anxiety, which provides an opportunity to learn how to overcome fears in a safe environment with people who understand the personal feelings of children. Researchers have demonstrated that alcohol, in fact, triggers the fight-or-flight response by stimulating the release of stress hormones such as corticosterone and adrenaline.
An important intervention strategy is increasing the sense of control over social anxiety by learning anxiety reduction techniques. Further, nutritional strategies for reducing anxiety, deep breathing, guided meditation, and cognitive-behavioral strategies are just a few examples of anxiety reduction techniques that need to be included in the intervention program.
For instance, “NIH studies indicate that cognitive-behavioral therapy can be as successful as medication in treating anxiety, and even more effective than medication at preventing the long-term reappearance of anxiety” (Repich, N.D.).
Counseling centers on the school campuses seek to support students’ personal and professional growth. It is the responsibility of counseling centers to support as many students as possible by facilitating mental health with the resources available to them. Many counseling centers are multifaceted, offering students direct services, personal, career, and group counseling, and broader outreach programming and consultation.
Counselors in the schools work individually and with other educators to meet the developmental needs of students, including those with special needs or learning disabilities. This program should focus on the academic, career, and personal/social developmental needs of students, including those with special needs.
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