Personality Factors as Determinants of the Stress Experienced By the Adolescents

Abstract

Adolescence is an age of opportunity for children, and a pivotal time for us to build on their development in the first decade of life, to help them navigate risks and vulnerabilities, and to set them on the path to fulfilling their potential. During adolescents there are high rates of drug abuse, suicides, social withdrawals, alcohol abuse or sudden angry outbursts. The present study aims at investigating the personality factors as determinants of the stress experienced by the adolescents. Anything that poses threat to our wellbeing is a stress for us. Stress is experienced by everyone from time to time. Not all stress is bad, thus, there is both eustress and distress. According to Baum (1990), stress is any uncomfortable emotional experience accompanied by predictable biochemical, physiological and behavioral changes. Hans Selye defined stress as a non-specific response of the body to any demand for change. Adolescence has been considered, almost by definition, a period of heightened stress (Spear, 2000) due to the many changes experienced concomitantly, including physical maturation, drive for independence, increased salience of social and peer interactions, and brain development (Blakemore, 2008; Casey, Getz, & Galvan, 2008a; Casey, Jones, & Hare, 2008b). Although new-found independence can be stimulating it may also lead to feelings of being overwhelmed by change, which has historically led some researchers to characterize adolescence as ridden with ‘storm and stress’ (Hall, 1904). Thus, being pushed under the pressure of increased competition mostly in career opportunities, parent/ peer/ teacher’s pressure, there is lot of stress among adolescents and there is high need to focus on this issue amongst them. Many factors affect stress, personality is one major amongst them. Specific inherited characteristics, early experience in life, and particular, learned cognitive predispositions make individuals more or less susceptible to the effects of stressors. Intensity of stress response are greatly dependable on age, gender, intelligence, and numerous characteristics of personality, such as hardiness, locus of control, self-efficacy, self-esteem, optimism, hostility (component of type A personality) and type D traits (negative affectivity and social inhibition). The increasing number of suicide rates indicates that there is stress among adolescents, so we can work on the personality traits which help in reduction of stress amongst adolescents such as resilience, hardiness etc. Thus, to understand the relation between personality and stress, it is essential to recognize the impact of individual differences on stress. Quantitative method is being used by the researcher. Appropriate data analysis will be done.