Stress Management and Its Contributing Factors among Post-Graduate Students : A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Stress has become an important topic in academic circle. Many scholars in the field of behavioural science have carried out extensive research on stress and its outcomes and concluded that the topic needed more attention. This study checked the prevalence of stress in college students and its association with three factors. It explored the components of academic stress among post graduate students and their effects on overall academic life, intrapersonal life and social life. A questionnaire based study was conducted between Commerce and Law students in Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh (UP), India. Questionnaires validity was checked and reliability was computed through the cronbach's alpha. Stress level was assessed by using a short version Stress Scale along with pretested socio demographic variables. The scale addressed academic, intrapersonal and social sources of stress. Items in the scale were daily hassles and major life events were not taken. It was concluded that the Post Graduate Commerce Students and Post Graduate Law Students have statistically significantly different mean scores regarding their overall academic life and intrapersonal life. Further, authors found no difference between the two groups in terms of their social life. A substantial proportion of post graduate students were suffering from stress. Most of the commerce students opted to talk to their friends and family, listening music, sleeping and doing religious practices to cope up with the stress while law students emphasized on sleeping, religious activities and eating. Further studies need to be carried to identify other associated factors related to academic stress.

Stressors and coping strategies: The case of teacher education students at University of Ghana

“…Overall resident students (M = 60.3, SD = 23.0) were more stressed than non-resident students (M = 59.7, SD = 21.7). This finding is consistent with studies conducted by various researches at specific universities on stressors encountered by university students (Kabir et al, 2018;Parveen, 2016).…”

“…A study was conducted between Commerce and Law students in Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh (UP), India. This research found the pervasiveness of stress in college students and its relationship with academic life, intrapersonal life and social life (Parveen, 2016). The findings indicated that resident students experienced more stressors than non-resident students.…”

“…Similarly, majority of research was also conducted on the coping stratagems adopted by these students to manage stress (Ganesan et al, 2018;Govender et al, 2015;Mathew, 2017;Okoro, 2018). Additionally, a few studies on stressors and coping techniques adopted by residential and non-residential college students suggest that residential students face more stress than non-residential students (Kabir et al, 2018;Parveen, 2016), although Addai (2015) found otherwise.…”