Sources of academic stress: the case of first year Jewish and Arab college students in Israel

Abstract

This study examined sociocultural and gender group differences in perceptions of major sources of academic stress in first year college students, in addition to the relationship between reported academic stress and college achievement. Data were collected via a self-administered student stress inventory given to a sample of 184 Jewish and 209 Arab college undergraduates studying in a major Israel university. They evaluated the personal stressfulness of each of 53 potential sources of academic stress along a 6-point Likert-type scale covering a wide range of potential academic stressors (academic curriculum and course requirements, course evaluation procedures, college instruction, social milieu and cultural factors on campus, college administration and bureaucracy, physical conditions and accommodations, economic factors, organismic and interpersonal factors, student expectations, daily hassles and constraints). Arab, lower-status, and female students were hypothesized and found to be more stressed than their respective Jewish, upper-class and male counterparts, respectively. Cultural group background was found to be the most salient background predictor of student stress, followed by social class and gender, with each exerting independent (noninteractive) effects. Although group differences were observed in mean ratings, there proved to be a strong correspondence in the hierarchy of perceived stressors across sociocultural and gender subgroups. As a whole, students appeared to be most stressed by pressures originating from course overload and academic evaluation procedures and least stressed by a variety of personal, familial, and social factors. Furthermore, student stress and achievement factors were found to be inversely correlated, with little evidence for the contention that stress differentially debilitates the academic performance of students as a function of gender or sociocultural group membership. The findings also lend some evidence to the cross-cultural generalizability of major stressors in academia.Stress and its psychological manifestations are inherent in human life and are a major source of concern in modern day society (Selye 1956). Environmental stress occurs when environmental stimuli or demands are perceived by an individual to tax or exceed his or her resources to handle them (Lazarus and Launier 1978). The degree of stress experienced by an individual in a given situation depends not only on the objective properties of the stressor (e.g., intensity, frequency, duration), the individual's perception and processing of the event, and one's personal coping resources and strategies in transacting with environmental stressors, but also on the specific context and period of one's life cycle in which environmental demands are experienced. Accordingly, certain events, social environments and contexts in a person's life may be perceived as more stressful than others. A case in point is the first year college experience.The first year in college poses many new challenging and potentially threatening ...

Academic Stress: Its Causes and Results at a Ugandan University

“…Academic stress is a student's interpretation of the present demands, challenges and threats in the academic environment in relation to available personal resources for coping (Siegel, 2008). A 53-item student-life stress scale by Zeidner (1992) was adapted to determine the academic stress levels of the university students. Items described the levels of stress as a result of course requirements and demands, personal problems and impediments, campus environment and administration, financial concerns, academic overload and time pressure, daily academic hassles like academic exams and course instruction, and social milieu.…”

“…Course load versus time available has also been cited to be a stressful factor in the academic environment (Zeidner, 1992). Studies reveal that students perceive course load to be high in their first year of study, and that the perception of course load positively correlates with exam stress (Mani, 2010).…”

“…Jou and Fukada (1996) confirmed this as their research findings illustrated a positive correlation between interpersonal problems and other stressors implying that the more interpersonal problems students had, the more stress they were likely to face. Personal factors were recognized as a challenge that influenced their coping mechanisms and eventual levels of stress (Bang, 2009;Zeidner, 1992).…”

“…This is evidenced by the fact that students from low social economic status were found to be more stressed by having to meet parental expectations (Zeidner, 1992). Furthermore, students were more sensitive to remarks from significant others like teachers and parents in their lives (Ang & Huan, 2006).…”

“…The environmental demands are quite different from one student to another (Zeidner, 1992). Kuh (2000) highlighted the important characteristics of a supportive academic environment as one that provided support to students to succeed academically and socially.…”