No abstract

Any individual who progresses through life goes through various changes and transitions where ‘stress’ becomes invariably part of the journey. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the concept of academic stress as the transitions occur at an individual and social level. It, therefore, becomes imperative to understand the sources and impact of academic stress to derive adequate and efficient intervention strategies. This review aims to understand academic stress at a bio psychosocial level highlighting the impact and sources of academic stress. For the literature review, articles were collected from online databases such as EBSCO, ProQuest, Springer, PubMed, Jstor and Google Scholar. The literature search was done using keywords academic stress, academic anxiety, coping, physiological reactions of stress, academic performance, stress and mental health.The prevalence rate of stress varied from 15%-45% in studies conducted after 2000. The review examines stress and its physiological impact, cognitive and social influences, sources of stress detailing Indian findings.

Objectives: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection has emerged into a widespread pandemic that stalled the world. Humanitarian missions like Vande Bharat during the first wave of COVID-19 and passenger as well as cargo services during its second wave were carried out extensively by civil aircrew. Operating under such challenging circumstances is likely to affect the well-being and psychological health of the aircrew. Exploring different coping strategies adopted by civil aircrew and assessment of their subjective well-being while operating during the pandemic was the desired objective of the study. Material and Methods: In a descriptive cross-sectional design, 100 Indian civil and cabin crew voluntarily participated in the study. Two standardized questionnaires and a demographic inventory were administered to the sample to identify the coping strategies (the Brief COPE) and assess subjective well-being (WHO-5). Quantitative and qualitative analyses were computed for the data obtained on study variables. “t”-test was carried out to find the differences in the coping strategies utilized by the aircrew in the first and second waves of the pandemic. Results: The mean age and flying experience of the sample were 43.74 ± 10.36 years and 17.34 ± 11.66 years. It was observed that the adaptive coping strategies were higher than the maladaptive coping styles with acceptance (6.56 ± 1.40) and active coping (5.98 ± 1.39) being predominant. There was no significant difference between the coping strategies used during the first and second waves of COVID-19. Imposition of financial constraints and discomfort while flying with a PPE kit was observed in qualitative analysis. The policies and regulations about the COVID protocols were reported to be frequently amended by airlines and regulatory authorities leading to ambiguity amongst the crew. Conclusion: The present study revealed that the Indian civil aircrew used adaptive coping strategies frequently and maladaptive coping strategies sparingly while operating during the COVID-19 pandemic. Certain stressors under this unique situation may be unchangeable with specific coping strategies, but their application may nonetheless lead to positive feelings of autonomy or a reduction in the experience of anxiety. Thus, airlines may initiate the trend of positive psychological interventions as a preventive measure. Pilot training may also incorporate techniques for adopting healthy behavior using specific coping strategies.