College Student’s Stress and Associated Demographic Correlates

Susheelabai Srinivasa

doi:10.11114/ijsss.v9i6.5363

Abstract

Several research studies consistently identified that college student’s experience stress. However, there is hardly any substantive research that compared stress and its demographic correlates among international and American students. The current study, to address the knowledge gap in the literature, gathered data from the participants with multiethnic and cultural backgrounds. It provides perspective and insight into the stressors affecting international and American students and differences between them. The study collected data using a survey instrument from a sample of 221 students (90 international and 131 American students) at a mid-size public university in Midwestern region in the United States. The study findings confirmed the results of prior research studies that international students experienced low levels of stress than the American students. Among the demographic’s particulars, gender emerged as a key predictor of stress among both the groups. In addition, age and socioeconomic background too emerged as significant correlates of stress among students in both sample groups. Lower economic status of students caused moderate to severe levels of stress in both American and international groups compared to high income students.

Highlights

Stress and anxiety are common problems in modern lifestyle (Vroegap, 1975)
Gender emerged as an important predictor of stress. 34.44% of international students and 76.33% of American students included in the present study reported to have higher levels of stress, this included women students from both the groups
This study demonstrated that international students experienced stress, though statistically at lower level than the American students

Summary

Introduction

Stress and anxiety are common problems in modern lifestyle (Vroegap, 1975). College students encounter various challenges to achieve academic success. Appley and Trumbull (1967) pointed out stress is not an outcome of a single event or factor, but it rather results from a combination of factors and the whole organism in the context of stressful environment. The damages from stress can range from getting upset due to stress, psychosomatic symptoms, and onset of a disease, causing irreparable damage to internal systems of the body (Selye, 1956), and pave the way for health problems. When such a degeneration has occurred, it means an individual has failed to adapt an effective coping strategy to overcome stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Transitioning into college is a distinct phase in modern life, which is daunting for both American and international students as it has a variety of challenges Both academic and non-academic challenges may place heavy demand on resources and resilience to succeed. This phenomenon, though researched in the past, is currently under-researched because a complete body of knowledge is not available to engage in preventive efforts to reduce stress among students

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion