The Causes Of Stress In College Life

The definition of stress according to the Oxford dictionary is “A state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances.”

Stress and anxiety in the average college student. Selye (1936) defined stress as “the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change” (The American Institute of Stress, 2017). Stress can lead to feelings of anxiety. Anxiety is a normal part of life, but can be considered a type of worry or fear that can inhibit everyday life. College students show higher stress/anxiety than average individuals. Major sources of stress are from new responsibilities, campus living, money issues, and classwork (Ross, Niebling, & Heckert, 1999). There have been a number of studies circled around how stress can affect college students. Females and males show differences in anxiety/stress in college. (Misra and McKean (2000)) found that females

According to Lupien, McEwan, Gunnar, and Heim (2009), going off to college involves significant adjustments to their daily routines; sleeping and eating habits, time-management skills, and stress levels will be altered in one way or another. First-year students have to adjust to the new school environment, different social settings, and new schedules, all without the help and guidance from their parents, who have been there for them for eighteen years. Over 30% of college freshman report that they feel overwhelmed (Klainberg, Ewing, & Ryan, 2010), where some students even opt to work as they juggle their class and work schedules. Some students work at a job or study harder than others, but they are all trying to get degrees so maybe one day they will have meaningful and significant lives. It is a constant struggle for everyone who is trying desperately to make him or herself into a success. And every college student wants to be involved in society in a positive manner, allowing contribution of their ideals and values to others.

Stress is a word that many college students hear on a daily basis; it is a concept that resonates with all students, regardless of age or major. People of all ages experience stress at various times in their lives, but college is a particular time when an individual can be plagued by heightened levels of it. At any given time, a college student might feel academic, financial, and social strains, yet they might not possess the resources to satisfy the demands of these stressors. Accumulation of these stressors (and stress in general) can have a negative impact on the lives of college students, but authors of a recent scientific study made an attempt to find the best techniques for reducing stress in college students.

Although the stress of college students is largely present, it is just another part of college. The real epidemic here besides added pressure on female students is how students as a whole can reduce the amount of stress that is put on them by personal practices. The hardships that students are going through now will be prevalent in the future when they become very successful from all the aspects they were challenged

Stress as defined by Dr. Laura A. King is “the response of individuals to environmental stressors”. The biggest types of environmental stressor that a majority of adults are facing, will face, or have faced, are college and work. College is a time in someone’s life where they are faced with what the “real world” truly is. It can be a great time in one’s life where they have the opportunity to meet new people, experience new things, and find themselves for who they truly are. It is also a time where people are spending hundreds of dollars, they don’t have, on books, housing, rentals, classes, and so much more; they are also being shoved into a room with possibly fifty other young adults, they have never met, to learn new things or ideas and

Leaving High School, I thought I was prepared to go into college. I knew how difficult college was going to be. So i told myself I would do my homework the day it was assigned, I would go to the tutors if i needed help, and I would study more to succeed. But one thing I did not prepare myself for was, how to overcome stress and anxiety. According to an article, “Stress in College: Experts Provide Tips to Cope” by Megan Reed, “…30% of students reported that stress had negatively affected their academic performance within the past year, and over 85% had felt overwhelmed by everything they had to do at some point within the past year.”(National Health Assessment) This report really captivated me because 30%

Stress is a physical, mental, or emotional stimuli that causes bodily or mental tension. People often associate stress as experiencing feelings of anxiety. People who go through stress often report feeling overwhelmed and edgy. Stress can be

Stress is unavoidable, no matter the situation, location, or time; stress is always present. Stress is found in higher levels during the duration in which students attend college. It is predictably higher among college students, freshmans in particular, because of the extreme expectations set upon them by their parents and, of course, society. The need to please their parents, longing for success in life, and being able to sustain a reasonable income in the future, all of which falls into the hands of college students who are making critical decisions which may decide the outcome for a large portion of their lives. If these students end up hating their future jobs, the stress of having to go back into college to study for a new career

Like many of the questionnaires utilized for research in the articles used for this literature review, it was anonymous, and administered and collected during class. This form of data collection provided high turn in rates allowing researchers to have a wide study scale. According to Hicks, T., & Heastie, S., contrasting levels of stress and coping mechanisms were present in these students. It was noted that traditional college students experience more psychological stress than their nontraditional student counterparts. In addition, during the first year of college, the amount of stress experienced by students is the highest in comparison to stress in the remainder of the years. These results are especially important because it stresses the need for a strong health and wellness center within colleges and universities.

Generalized anxiety is a problem that the United States faces nationwide. As we grow older and move into educational settings that are more taxing, anxiety becomes more prevalent. Today, college students are facing more stress than ever before. They are constantly pushed to be the best they can be, to be in the most extracurricular activities they can be in, and to attend the best schools possible. All of these goals and high expectations lead students to be harder on themselves, which makes other aspects of their life fall by the wayside, leading to high levels of stress and pressure.

Students’ state of mental and emotional health will contribute to the way that stress manifests and presents itself, once he or she enters college. “The emerging categories related to sleep and health problems could be a manifestation of a general increasing level of stress and psychopathology” (Murphy and Archer 26). There are a great number of studies, both past and on going, of stress and college students which have mainly focused on academics, personal relationships, finance and family status. A more in depth look has revealed that students with emotional disorders or those of poor health are even more ill equipped to

Modern life is full of demands, frustrations, hassles, and deadlines. Everyone experiences stress as it is a natural part of human life. Our bodies have a built mechanism for responding to stress. However, during a certain period of time, people tend to face more stress than usual. One of such periods is college life. It can be very stressful for some people, especially for those who are not used to carrying out with so many responsibilities. Students spend most of their time balancing classes, projects, tests, final exams, personal life, and work; that is enough to make anyone feel overwhelmed. This stress can cause multiples problems, not just emotional, but physicals as well.

Nontraditional student numbers continue to rise on college campuses and few institutions meet the mental health needs for this special group of students (Carney-Crompton & Tan, 2002). It is the purpose of this study to examine both the stressors (i.e. triggers of the stress response) and perceived stress levels between traditional and nontraditional students.

Over the years many studies have been conducted to determine what creates stress and how college students can cope with stress. Stressors in a student’s life can be created through personal, educational and social experiences. A student faces many experiences while transitioning from high school, to college, and into adulthood. These experiences include: living arrangements, personal finances, important career decisions, experiences of failure, interpersonal relationships, and personal finances. These stressors involved with daily hassles can create an unhealthy high pressure environment which makes stress for college students inevitable. During one study, researchers found that physical activity throughout a student’s life can increase one’s stress tolerance and positively cope with stressors (Bland, Melton, Bigham, & Welle, 2012).