Academic stress among high school students in biratnagar Page |1
Research on:
Academic stress among high school students in biratnagar
Submitted by:
Ekata Niraula
Karishma Niraula
Neha Rauniyar
Amrita Jha
Nabeena Khatri
Chandrashekhar yadav
Author Note
This Report was prepared for Faculty Head of Business Research, BBA 3723,
taught by Mrs. Bandana Jain
Academic stress among high school students in biratnagar Page |2
Acknowledgement
The success and final outcome of this report required a lot of guidance and support
from many people. All that we have done is only due to such supervision and
guidance and we would not forget to thank them.
We are thankful and fortunate enough to get constant encouragement, support and
guidance from our Faculty Head of Business Research, Mrs. Bandana Jain. It
would not have been possible without her kind support and help. We will also like
to thanks our Founder Chairman Dr. Bhesha Prasad Dhamala and Academic
Director Prof. Dr. Ved Raj Acharya. who gave us the golden opportunity to do
Research on the topic “Academic stress among high school students in
biratnagar”. We came to know about so many new things we are really thankful
to them.
Lastly but not the least, We are extremely thankful to our classmates for providing
such a nice support and guidance which helped us a lot in finalizing this report
within the limited time frame.
Academic stress among high school students in biratnagar Page |3
Table of Content
1. Introduction…………………………………………………Page No 4
2. Objective……………………………………………………..Page No 5
3. Literature Review……………………………………………Page No 5
4. Research Methodology……………………………………….Page No 7
5. Data Analysis………………………………………………….Page no.8
6. Conclusion……………………………………………………Page No 14
7. Bibliography………………………………………………….Page No.15
Academic stress among high school students in biratnagar Page |4
Introduction
Stress has become part of students’ academic life due to the various internal and external
expectations placed upon their shoulders. Academic stress among students have long been
researched on, the researchers have identified stressors as too many assignments, competitions
with other students, failures and poor relationship with other students or lectures. In particular,
stress that occurs in an academic environment can affect students as much as teachers, at any
educational level. The stressors affecting students can be categorized as academic, financial,
time or health related.
The definition of academic stress is the anxiety and stress that comes from schooling and
education. There is often a lot of pressures that comes along with pursuing a degree and one’s
education. here is studying, assignments, tests, labs, reading, internships etc. here are a stress
doing all of the words balancing the time and finding time for extra' curricular activities.
Academic Stress is especially college students who are often living away from home for the first
time.
Researchers have found that the main sources of stress in the academic environment are exams,
homework and work outside of school, giving presentations, competition with classmates.
However, not all sources of stress are academic, as family problems , anxiety about upcoming
school terms, and difficulty adapting to change and body image perception have also been
identified as important stressors.
To prevent negative outcomes associated with stress, such as suicide or more commonly among
students, depression and anxiety we must measure students’ stress to help those in need improve
their coping strategies so they can manage stress and thereby improve their quality of life.
(https://www.google.com/search?q=Ghosh%2C+M.S.%2C+(2016).+Academic+Stress+among+
Government+and+Private+High+School+Students.+%EE%80%B3e+International+Journal+of+I
ndian+Psychology.+10.+Hussa&oq=Ghosh%2C+M.S.%2C+(2016).+Academic+Stress+among+
Government+and+P)
Academic stress among high school students in biratnagar Page |5
Objectives
To find out the level of academic stress among higher secondary students.
Students from government and private schools differ significantly in their academic stress
Literature Review
Stress is viewed as a negative emotional, cognitive, behavioral and physiological process that
occurs as a person tries to adjust to or deal with stressors. Stressors are defined as circumstances
that disrupt, or threaten to disrupt, individuals‟ daily functioning and cause people to make
adjustments. It is regard stress as an unpleasant state of emotional and physiological arousal that
individuals experience in situations that they perceive as dangerous or threatening to their well-
being. The purpose of this study is to examine the prevalence of academic stress and exam
anxiety among private secondary school students in India as well as the associations with socio-
economic and study-related factors.
Stress becomes an integral part of human life. Anything that creates a challenge or a threat to our
comfort is a stress. All kind of stress is not considered to be bad because it helps people to
perform well. In academics, stress is unavoidable among students, and it influences students'
performance in all academic activities. Academic stress plays a major role in determining the
mental health of students. It is study was conducted to explore the academic stress and its
relationship with mental health among high school students. 200 high school students from
Government and Private schools in and around Salem city, Tamil nadu were selected through
stratified random sampling and the data was collected with Educational Stress Scale for
Adolescents and Positive Mental Health Scale. The results revealed that students from private
school experienced higher academic stress than that of government school students, and private
school students have higher mental health status than their counterpart. It was also found that
academic stress had a significant relationship with the mental health of high school students. The
implications of this are presented in this article.
One of the most challenging problems faced by psychologists, counselors, educational
administration and teachers of today is the accurate prediction of psychological traits of children.
This problem has aroused the attention of many psychologists and is assuming greater
Academic stress among high school students in biratnagar Page |6
importance day by day as our society has changed drastically. Because adolescence is the age of
stress and strain and children have to cope up with many type of stressful situation, academic
stress affects the personality make up of the child the most .It has adverse effect on the mental
health of the students. Therefore knowledge of the stress management helps the adolescents to
cope up with the problem of stress. Thus for this it becomes necessary to study the effect of
academic stress on mental health. The present study will be helpful to school administrator,
curriculum makers and councilor to provide educational and vocational guidance and counseling
to the students. The study is also beneficial to the parents so that they can help their children in
study and be particular about their need in the academic affairs and thus reducing their academic
stress. (http://www.ijhssi.org/papers/v4(10)/Version-2/I04102063068.pdf)
Academic stress among high school students in biratnagar Page |7
Research Methodology
Sample
The research sample consisted of one hundred twenty participants divided into two groups i.e.
Group A and Group B. Group A consists of public colleges and Group B consists of private
colleges of high school students. All belong to the high school level age 14-20 years. All
participants were from colleges of Biratnagar. It is a descriptive research design. The researcher
has collected the primary data using survey method to questionnaire tools.
Table: 1 Total number of colleges
S.N Colleges N ∑
1. Public Colleges 60 120
2. Private Colleges 60
Sources: Field visit 2019
The data was collected through standardized “Academic stress questionnaire” by Jiandong Sun,
MPH (2012).
Procedure of Data Collection
There were 120 participants selected from the colleges of Biratnagar. The data was collected
with the help of the researchers and friends. Detailed instruction were given to all the participants,
how to fill the scoring sheet. Participants have done the test in peaceful environment with full
concentration.
Academic stress among high school students in biratnagar Page |8
Data Analysis
Sample of 120 students were taken at total which consists of both Public and Private Schools.
The questionnaire was filled by students of college on following quantity 60 students from
private school and 60 students from public students.
Table: 2Gender of respondents
Gender Frequency
Female 53
Male 67
Source: Field survey, 2019
The first section of questionnaire inquired about Gender which consists of 53 females and 67
males. The majority of the respondent in this research was attained by male.
Table: 3 Age of respondents
Age (in years) Frequency
16 17
17 41
18 28
19 18
Sources: Field visit 2019
The questionnaire was filled by the students of +2 level up to 16-19 age groups in which more
students belong to 17 age group.
Table: 4 Standard of respondents
STANDARD FREQUENCY
11 82
12 39
Sources: Field visit 2019
Academic stress among high school students in biratnagar Page |9
The section explain that both 11 & 12 students filled the form of the questionnaire which
includes 82 students from 11 class and 39 students from 12 class.
Table: 5 Father Education of respondents
FATHER EDUCATION FREQUENCY
ILLITERACY 12
BELOW SLC 43
+2 34
BACHELORS 20
MASTERS& ABOVE 16
Sources: Field visit 2019
This table explain about the father education of the respondent which shows that below SLC
level is more in compare to master degree.
Table: 6 Mother education of respondents
MOTHER EDUCATION FREQUENCY
ILLITERACY 32
BELOW SLC 32
+2 26
BACHELORS 12
MASTERS & ABOVE 19
Sources: Field visit 2019
This table explain about the mother education of the respondent which shows that below SLC
level is more in compare to master degree.
Table: 7 Father Occupation of respondents
FATHER OCCUPATION FREQUENCY
BUSINESS 21
SERVICES 15
OTHER 85
Academic stress among high school students in biratnagar P a g e | 10
Sources: Field visit 2019
This table explains about the father occupation of the respondent which shows that 85 belong to
others sectors and 21 belong to business sectors. Most of the occupation is semi-skilled and
occupation includes works like carpenter, tailoring, farmer, watchman etc.
Table: 8 Mother occupation of respondents
MOTHER OCCUPATION FREQUENCY
HOUSEWIFE 91
OTHERS 30
Sources: Field visit 2019
This table explains about the mother occupation of the respondent which shows more than 80%
women are housewife. This indicates literacy rate of women is very low and they are not
contributing to economic development. Rest of the 20% of women are involved in service sector
and own the profession i.e. Teacher, layer etc.
Table: 9 Academic stress of respondents
S.N Situations Never Seldom Some Often Almost
true true (2) times true always
(1) true (4) true (5)
(3)
1 I am very dissatisfied with my grades 14 25 30 26 26
2 I am always worrying that my exams result may 12 16 52 17 24
not be ideal
3 I feel studying is my duty, but something I don’t 13 26 36 19 27
like to do
4 I don’t know what I can do in future if I don’t get 30 20 13 27 30
into ideal college or university
5 Academic grade is very important for my future 11 12 13 16 68
and can decide my whole life
6 Future education and employment bring me a lot 15 23 29 15 38
Academic stress among high school students in biratnagar P a g e | 11
of pressure
7 My parents worry about my academic grades too 19 26 20 19 36
much which brings me a lot of pressure
8 I feel a lot of pressure in my daily studying 30 22 30 15 23
9 I feel a lot of pressure from teachers urging me to 34 22 32 17 15
study
10 There is too much competition among classmates 19 11 26 33 31
which brings me a lot of academic pressure
11 I feel that there is too much school work 20 24 39 14 23
12 I feel there is too much homework 19 35 37 14 15
13 I almost have no time to do anything except 44 22 34 15 5
studying
14 I feel that there are too much tests/exam is a 26 26 22 21 25
school
15 I feel studying is a heavy burden for me 39 20 28 14 19
16 I feel that I have disappointed my parents when 17 16 22 26 39
my tests/exams grades are poor
17 I feel that I have disappointed my teachers when 16 10 30 25 39
my tests/exams grades are not ideal
18 It would be an embarrassing among classmates if 24 19 29 11 37
I did not get ideal score in exam tests/exams
19 I feel myself when I cannot live up to my parent 21 18 29 25 27
expectations of me
20 My parents never stop snagging me that I don’t 27 18 35 20 20
study hard enough
21 I am always blaming myself because I feel I 14 17 36 20 33
didn’t try my best in studying
22 I feel stress when I do not live up to my own 14 21 31 23 31
standards
23 When I fail to set up my own expectations, I feel 12 19 36 23 30
Academic stress among high school students in biratnagar P a g e | 12
I am not good enough
24 I always cannot sleep and worry when I cannot 21 13 33 24 29
meet the goals for myself
25 When I do not do well as I could have in an 24 24 26 25 21
examination or test, I feel stressed
27 I feel that school work is very hard for me 28 40 32 11 9
28 I always lack confidence with my academic 23 16 36 28 17
scores
29 I always feel very nervous with my tests/exams 19 30 26 19 26
30 It's very difficult to concentrate during class 32 18 29 28 13
Source: Field survey, 2019
The data researchers have obtained through questionnaire sections are interpreted here. Among
120 samples of students the students seem to have average level of stress. There was a list of 30
questions and five options were provided for each question. Respondents were supposed to tick
on the best answer as per their convenience. Table 9 Question no 5 i.e. "Academic grade is very
important for my future and can decide my whole life" 68 respondents have given the same
conclusion. This shows students are very serious about their studies and future and is a good
indicator. Similarly, Question no 13" I almost have no time to do anything except studying" Only
5 respondents have agreed on this statement. This proves very few students are highly stressed
and have no time for other work except studying. Moreover, question no 2 "I am always
worrying that my exams result may not be ideal" 52 students have given the same respond. Most
of the students seems to be in dilemma about their studies and have no idea how they will take
their studies to the best level. On Question no 27 "I feel that school work is very hard for me"
only 9 students have given negative comments about their students. Rest of 111 students find
their study quite interesting.
Academic stress among high school students in biratnagar P a g e | 13
Conclusion
After the deep observation of our research, the researcher came to conclusion that Most of the
higher school students are unwilling to discuss their problems with their parents and as a
consequence they are overwhelmed with stress, and finally they end up as failures. A student
under stress may initially scoreless, but finally it develops into failed projects and low grades,
can also develop behavioral problems such as depression, deliberate self-harm, substance abuse,
suicide attempts, eating disorders etc. Ultimately, it ruins the life and future. Hence it is
necessary to learn how to deal with it before it turn terrible. Higher school students seem to have
stress all around them. Trying to deal with life as well as trying to get a degree. Is there really a
way to reduce the stress? I am sure there are many ways to help reduce stress for a higher school
student. Most will still stress about the financial issues, how they are going to make time for
studying, having family, friends, or even partner issues, worry about what the economy holds for
them after they receive their degree, and just being a college student. Each student is different
with what stresses them as well as how well they cope with it.
Academic stress among high school students in biratnagar P a g e | 14
Bibliography
https://www.google.com/search?q=Ghosh%2C+M.S.%2C+(2016).+Academic+Stress+among+Government+an
d+Private+High+School+Students.
http://www.ijhssi.org/papers/v4(10)/Version-2/I04102063068.pdf
