ACADEMIC STRESS, SUICIDAL IDEATION & MENTAL WELLBEING AMONG 1ST SEMESTER & 3RD SEMESTER MEDICAL, ENGINEERING & GENERAL STREAM STUDENTS

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:Present age is the age of competition. Scientific and technological advancement all over the globe has made man very conscious and sensitive about his studies, vocation, lifestyle, relations etc. This immense progress has given rise to certain problems. One of the major problems of today's world is stress. Every person has a unique nature as regard to capabilities, attitudes, personality characteristics and interest. The students have a major impact of stress due to bloodshed competition in every field. Stress occurs when there is substantive imbalance between environment and demand and response capability of organism.The event of joining the college is one of the major and significant transitions in the life span of any individual. It defines one's future career and the path towards realization of his or her vocational goal.Stress can exist at any stage of life, however, the time of entry to college is fraught with a number of changes that the likely hood of stress at this stage increases. The new surroundings, non-availability of older support system, the demand for acting and thinking independently, a different style of teaching, moving away from home and need to take one's own responsibility rather than depending on others for directions, are some of the factors that might make more difficult for a college entrant.Academic work in learning environment poses great challenges both mentally, physically and psychologically on the learner. The academic challenges are very stressful and different learners respond mentally to such pressures differently. Academic stress is therefore mental and emotional pressure, tension or stress that occurs due to the demands of college life. (Mac. George, Samter & Gilliham, 2005). Stress associated with academic activities has been linked to various types of psychological factors which are manifested in terms of negative outcomes with varying extents among the students. Researchers have shown that college students are most susceptible to stress. Gray and Rottman (1988) stated that College Students represent a population who perceive and experience an immense amount of stress.The transition from high school to college is a challenging life transition in the development of young adults and many students are inadequately prepared for the psychological, emotional and academic realities of higher education (Francis, Mc. Daniel & Doyle, 1987).The association between academic stress or and suicidal ideation among college students have been well documented in several research studies. Toero et al arranged that there is a strong link between the pressure to excel in college and suicidal behaviors among students. In their study, Toero et al showed that the number of suicide cases in a year usually peaked during examination periods where children and adolescents experienced a high level of stress in school. Juon et al examined factors contributing to suicidal behaviors in 9.886 highs schools Korean adolescents and found that students who reported feeling a high level of stress regarding academic performance and higher education were more likely to have serious thoughts about suicide than those students who did not experience academic stress,Mental well-being of the learner is very important for efficient learning and proper development of personality. The research findings showed that there is a significant negative relationship between stress and mental health which means that increase of stress lead to decrease of mental health and vice-versa.Now a day's academic stress has become an important subject matter in research studies as well as in our society. According to Wilks (2008) academic stress arises when academic related demands exceeds to those available resources to an individual which he / she adopts. Research findings revealed that mental well being and suicidal ideation are considered as two correlated factors of academic stress among college students (Ali Mostafei, Toero et al 2001). …