The State of Academic Stress in the Higher Institutions of Ghana: The Way Forward

Abstract

Stress resulting from academic work among lecturers and students in Ghanaian higher institutions greatly affects their health and academic output. The study aimed at identifying the sources and causes of academic stress in the higher institutions in Ghana while suggesting effective stress coping mechanisms. The study was driven in the convergent parallel mixed method research with questionnaire administration, private interviews and focus group discussion as data collection tools. A total of 478 sampled respondents in three higher institutions in Ghana were involved in the study. This included 74 lecturers and 404 students in three higher institutions in Ghana. The findings of the study revealed that lack of planning of work schedule, unnecessary delays of work while striving to meet deadlines or procrastination, poor eating, sleeping and exercise habits as well as unrealistic academic goals were the main causes of academic stress. The study contends that the setting of healthy academic goals, good planning and schedule of academic work, giving room for exercise and relaxation at regularly planned intervals, meticulously following healthy eating and sleeping habits as well as Africultural coping mechanisms were the effective management strategies of academic stress. The study tasks the Ministry of Education and the regulatory bodies of higher institutions in Ghana to ensure the setting of guidance and counseling units as well as task welfare committees to periodically organize workshops and seminars to sensitize the members of the higher institutions on the dangers of academic stress and effective approaches in curtailing them.

Analysis of the Pedagogical Aspects of Academic Stress Research at University: A Systematic Review

“…This is a unique study as other studies primarily look at academic stress in relation to distress. The significant link between academic stress and the academic objectives students set themselves was also confirmed by Adom, Essel and Chukwuere (2020). An important finding presented in this study is the fact that academic stress cannot be entirely eliminated from academic life.…”

“…Other studies focus on researching academic stress without looking at a particular subject (e.g. Ma and Bennet, 2021;Chacon-Cuberos et al, 2021;Travis, Kaszycki, Geden and Bunde, 2021;Adom, Essel and Chukwuere, 2020;Dada, Babatunde and Adeleye, 2019;Aihie and Ohanaka, 2019). Only one study (Valdivieso-León, Mangas, and Espinoza-Díaz, 2020) has a research sample comprising students of pedagogy subjects.…”

“…Other recommendations we found in the research studies included: (1) better interaction between university, teachers and students; (2) teaching students various strategies for managing stress (Gustems-Carnicer, Calderon and Calderon-Garrido, 2019;Adom, Essel and Chukwuere, 2020); (3) supporting students in self-care (O'Neill, Slater and Batt, 2019); (4) increasing students' psychological immunity and academic resilience in order to reduce academic stress; (5) identifying students who are in danger of stress due to low socio-economic status and providing them with support (Adom, Essel and Chukwuere, 2020); (6) including a course that prepares students for the academic environment and helps them develop stress management strategies in the first year of bachelor's degrees (Aihei and Ohanaka, 2019); (7) teachers should create meaningful tasks and give a reason for undertaking the task (You, 2018); (8) taking account of the difficulty of tasks for students (You, 2018) with excessively easy or difficult tasks not able to motivate students (Vollmeyer and Rheinberg, 2006).…”

Exploring the Process of Occupational Adaptation among Novice Lecturers: A Preliminary Case Study

“…The process of role adaptation is complex and procedural. It is a process of continuous mutual adaptation between the individuals and the environment [24]. For novice lecturers, in order to make a smooth transition, they must actively adjust themselves and form correct self-cognition.…”

Burnout Syndrome During the Covid-19 Pandemic among Visual Art Teachers in Ghana

“…Academic activities in various educational institutions are fertile grounds for breeding stress among teachers and students (Edjah et al, 2020;Adom et al, 2020a). In its aggravated form, stress turns into burnout (Shailesh, 2018).…”