Stress Implications for College Students - Research Paper Example

?Osama Alnassir Tulley English 104 15 July Stress Implications for College become victims of immense amount of stress during their regular studies and extracurricular activities at graduation colleges. According to a study conducted by MtvU and The Associated Press, 80% of college students claim to have experienced stressful situations in their routine life over a certain period of time. This research involved survey of various college students who were inquired about different factors relating to stress (MtvU 1). Another similar article, by Melton, Bland, Welle and Bigham, suggested the thesis that students pertaining to recent millennial generations have faced most stress as compared to previous ones. However, this generation has adopted certain ineffective and unconstructive methods to overcome stress and consequently stays more troubled (Bland et al. 362). As a result of majority of students being troubled and stressed out, it raises concern as to what underlying root sources are involved and what solutions shall work best to combat these causes. I believe that the college students of this generation suffer largely from stress because of financial issues, transitional difficulties and technicalities of burdensome study courses. Therefore, after conducting comprehensive research and studying various pieces of literature, this paper has been prepared to identify and analyze most common and major reasons that have exposed college students to stress and anxiety. Masses around the globe have suffered from recessionary downfall and inflationary pressures. Inflation has caused an increase in costs of living and competition, resulting in stressful circumstances for students joining college. The added expenditure of tuition fees, purchase of books and other supplementary necessities covers a substantial proportion of any household income. Consequently, families suffer from liquidity difficulties and students get tensed about their financial burdens being borne by their caretakers. Moreover, if students approach the college trust for financial aid, then it creates a stressful burden of liability that must be eventually repaid and settled by them. In fact, “62% of students say that over the past three months financial worries have had some/a lot of impact on the stress the experience in their daily life” (MtvU 2). Students, who are already facing increased expectations and demands for academic performances from their families and mentors, also have to go through additional stressful factors pertaining to college studies, including regular tuition fees, study material expenses, hostel or alternate residing arrangements, traveling and entertainment expenses and other miscellaneous outflows that come part and parcel with college life (May & Stephen 264). In majority of cases, students are left independent by their families as soon as they enter their college lives. They are allowed to live alone at a distant location near college or in hostel which results in excessive independence and lack of moral support. Moreover, they have to arrange for their meals, traveling and other household expenditures on their own. As a result, funds provided by their families falls short of their needs and they are forced to work on part-time odd jobs to cover for the shortfall. Situation worsens for students who get no financial support from their families. Such financial pressure to earn adds up greatly to their psychological and physical stress and affects their education as well as daily lives. To combat stress stemming out of financial distress, students often adopt avoidant coping mechanisms that are very harmful and ineffective as they do not manage or reduce stress; instead, they just help student temporarily avoid or turn away from confronting it and finally facing them subsequently in a more aggravated form. Avoidant strategies are explained further by claim that “previous research identified avoidant coping strategies to include self-distraction, denial, or mental or behavioral disengagement. As exhibited by the results of this study, these coping mechanisms employed by an individual may be maladaptive dependent upon how one ultimately manages stress. The types of coping strategies as well as the corresponding approach or avoidant orientation used by the millennial population may prove to be important and predictive of their stress tolerance and overall adjustment to the stressful college life” (Bland et al. 372-73). Students come to college from high school stage which is entirely a different ballgame. The new social challenges and demands of college life are very unique for each of these students. The transition process between passing out of high school and entering college is difficult to handle for students and they end up feeling stressed out. They have to learn to adapt to distinct social norms, lack of supervision and monitoring from families and various formalities of the new system. Previously, they had in force certain stress coping strategies to defend against limited anxiety in high school. However, these mechanisms are no longer effective since the stress level is substantially higher in college life and thus further contribute to tension and stress as Bland et al. explained that “combine these challenges with the Millennial's search for identity, autonomy, and purpose, creates an incredible amount of pressure and stress” (Bland et al. 364-65). The major component of this stressor relates to the loss of family support and increased independence. This independence isolates the student to make his own significant decisions which were previously taken by parents or families. This tremendous transitional change is very difficult to handle since an amateur might not feel he’s ready to make such calls without any parental intervention, moral support and social attachment. This is demonstrated by research conducted by Bland whereby major factors, which were evaluated during the experiment as stress relievers, pertained to need and desire for moral support from family, friends and mentors. Psychological stress is easier to tackle for students when they have social support to defend themselves from depression and anxiety attacks. Bland claimed that “Social support, or the perception that an individual is loved and cared for by others, may provide the foundation for developing high stress tolerance in the millennial college student population” (Bland et al. 372). The former high school lives offer students a more controlled, structured and scheduled routines. As a result of excessive dominance by parents, youngsters are not expected to participate in decision making and hence do not mature in this regard. Due to lack of problem-solving tactics and decision-making skills for these students, the swift transition from highly structured lives to absolutely independent lives causes them a great amount of distress and anxiety (Bland et al. 364). These students run out of patience, make hasty decisions and often fail to manage newly established priorities, thereby ultimately enduring stress and taking up harmful measures to struggle against it. Social support plays a vital role at these sensitive ages and sudden transition without proper supervision and moral assistance is, therefore, another common source of stress for college students. Another reason for stress has been found out by some previous studies but cannot be projected generally for all college students. Not as common as other mentioned in this paper, this reason is mostly seen in students who are comparatively weaker in studies or get stressed out more easily. “One of the few research found undergraduate pharmacy and engineering majors to experience significantly more stress than undergraduate Art and Science majors such as English majors, History majors, Psychology majors and Business majors” (May & Stephen 265). The above quotes clearly suggest that the level of difficulty attached to a particular college course also determines the level of stress that it is capable of triggering in students while studying for it and preparing for its examinations. Nonetheless, we cannot project on all students that they get stressed out by technicalities of studies. However, students with lower aptitude or even lower stress-handling capabilities might react adversely to complexity and complications of any subject they are majoring in. Due to rigorous dynamics of competition and increased expectations from parents and mentors in college studies, students attempt to give their maximum in all courses to score best grades possible. As a result, there are likely chances that they get stressed out when they are unable to perceive the technical content of course and feel inferiority complex against their classmates. Additionally, fear of not meeting expectations also acts as a great source of stress for such courses that are difficult to interpret. Many educational institutions recognize this fact and have in place various educational programs and mentors which guide students through their difficult times and help them in stress management. Also, these institutions focus more on students that are pursuing technically difficult or voluminous course as their degree majors since they have more potential chances of being affected by stressful situation. The main problem that arises in this aspect is the lack of interest and commitment exhibited by students to participate in such schemes and benefit from them, as explained in one of the articles: “Although many universities have stress management systems available, a noted problem is that students do not make an effort, or take the time, to attend stress management classes or workshops” (May & Stephen 270-71). When students fail to approach college management or mentors to ask for help in relieving stress and to take walkthrough guidance on how to prepare for difficult courses, they break out with stress, anxiety and fear of ‘letting down’. It is essential for families, students, tutors and college administration to acknowledge the presence of high levels of stress affecting college students. Failure to manage and reduce stress at initial stages might lead to psychological distress, mental pressures, poor academic performances and severe disorders in extreme cases. The major causes of stress, including financial problems, transitional obstacles and complexities of course content, must be identified and analyzed thoroughly by educational institutions, parents and the students themselves. Identification of causes of stress will help them develop coping strategies beforehand instead of collapsing when trying to defend against stress in an unplanned manner. Passive measures such as publishing brochures or self-help guidelines are ineffective: Highly active approach is required to appeal students to attend such workshops and seminars. Educational initiatives must be taken at national level, as well as by educational institutions, regulatory authorities, pressure groups and other activist bodies, that target stressed students and spread awareness on causes, symptoms and measures to tackle stress. Stress is very fatal for people bearing younger ages since they do not have developed capabilities to bear it and such stress might become a cause of mental disorders, social detachment and, as frequently reported, suicide attempts. The social evil of stress must be eradicated from our society by removing causes discussed in previous sections of this paper so that college students can live healthier and happier lives. Works cited Bland, Helen W., et al. Stress Tolerance: New Challenges for Millennial College Students. College Student Journal 46.2 (2012): 362-375. Print. May, Ross W., and Stephen P. Casazza. Academic Major as a Perceived Stress Indicator: Extending Stress Management Intervention. College Student Journal 46.2 (2012): 264-273. Print. MTVU. MtvU and Associated Press College Stress and Mental Health Poll – Executive Summary (2008). Print. Read More