The Effects of Stress and Anxiety on College Students

The Effects of Stress and Anxiety on College Students

Latina Zayid

Florida Atlantic University

Abstract

This study examines the relations between stress and anxiety among college students. In the study, we tested and explored the relationship which exists in the student’s levels of anxiety, stress with the elements of the working hour among immigrants students and the nonimmigrant students. The study was conducted among 67 undergraduate psychology students from Florida Atlantic University, with an average of being 23.39 years.  The participants were asked to complete forms pertinent to the study, such as the age, GPA, place of birth, and working hours. These were completed in a classroom setting and results used for the stud. The three hypotheses which were considered for the study included; It was predicted that there would be a difference between immigrants and nonimmigrants studies in total USQ score and state anxiety score, with immigrants reporting considerably higher scores in stress and anxiety, also Higher working hours predicted higher stress and anxiety, and both anxiety scores and stress levels were predicted to be positively associated with each other. However, after an examination of the individual’s hypothesis of the study, we were able to establish that the levels of the college student’s anxiety and stress are not rated.

The Effects of Stress and Anxiety on College Students

There are numerous causes of stress for college students; these range from working through challenging academic courses and balancing their schedules. While it is considered experiencing stress as a student is normal, there are ways of managing the stress in college and beyond. Approximately twenty percent of people in the USA have a mental illness that has been or could be diagnosed. Depression and anxiety are the most common types of mental illness (Julian, 2011). Many students with depression also have a concern and vice versa. Stress and anxiety are more dominant among college students compared to the whole population. Many universities and colleges have, therefore, implemented counseling programs on their campuses that are designed to help address and combat mental issues of their students.

According to the American Psychological Association. (2003) on “Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct,” stress is a factor of personal life. In a report by Karpinski (2014), the program was renamed ‘Students Opportunities, Resources, and Advocacy.’ This program was, however, created to provide an environment where students could discuss the problems they are facing and receive social support as well as connecting them with resources to help them overcome their difficulties. According to Julian (2011), the direct impact involved in totally failing to address the anxiety problem can significantly impact the college students’ academic life and even other areas of their lives.

Little study has been done to study the effect of social support for those students with stress and anxiety on their academic performance. This study incorporated three hypotheses that explore the relationship between state anxiety, trait anxiety, and university or college students. The main objective here is also to ascertain or identify the extent to which stress affects students’ academic success and the general lifestyle as well as to inquire and bring measures to counteract the effects of existing stress in college students. This study aims at examining the impact of stress and anxiety in college students. The study will investigate various factors of stress and anxiety among students such as immigration and working hours

The research seeks to investigate the cause of stress and anxiety among college students. There are numerous causes of stress for college students; these range from working through challenging academic courses and balancing their schedules (Julian, 2011). A significant number of college students recommended this program and could self-disclose that they have symptoms of stress and anxiety. According to the survey by Endler & Kocovski, (2001) frequently, these college students do struggle with low-class attendance, lack of focus, and difficulty in taking tests. Endler & Kocovski (2001), defines stress as any demand placed on your brain or physical body while anxiety is a feeling of fear, worry, or unease. Our study will test three significant hypotheses. While it is considered experiencing stress as a student is normal, there are ways of managing the stress in college and beyond. Mental health issues seemingly affect many students across the country.  These challenges are not new and have been on for a long time despite the awareness that exists globally.  The theoretical implication of the study is to inform various theories of stress and anxiety management. According to the study, it aims at looking at its manifestation. Research that involves social support as it relates to their academic achievement in college students is quite limited. It examines the theoretical aspect of the stress among young people and, most notably, the college students.  Independent variable; the critical, independent variable in the study will be immigration status and working hours among students. Dependent variable; the study dependent variables will be the factors that cause stress and anxiety. These include higher working hours and immigration

The three hypotheses included: It was predicted that there would be a difference between immigrants and nonimmigrants studies in total USQ score and state anxiety score, with immigrants reporting considerably higher scores in stress and anxiety, also Higher working hours predicted higher stress and anxiety, and both anxiety scores and stress levels were predicted to be positively associated with each other.

Method

Participants

The analyzed sample consisted of a total of 67 participants. The participants were undergraduate psychology students from Florida Atlantic University, with an average of being 23.39 years. The age range for the selected population of students between 18 -35 of the sampled population, 9 was male, while 58 of the participants were female. The professor recruited the participants for the study for their enrollment in the same Research method undergraduate course. All participants were awarded course credit for their participation in the study. Of the participants belonged to the sophomore class, 28 of the participants were in the junior class, and 38 of the participants were in the senior class of education levels. 52 out of the 67 participants for the study were born in the USA. 15 out of the 67 participants of the study were born elsewhere outside of the USA. On the other hand, 56 out of the 67 participants of the study did indicate that they were employed at the time of the study and did work for more than the recommended 8 hours a day. 10 out of the 67 participants had no job as they were not employed at the time of the survey, Working hours: (M = 30.64, SD = 15.19)

Measures

State-Trait Anxiety Questionnaire (STAI) From the STAI Questionnaire were presented to the participants in the same class setting as an in-class assignment task, and they filled out the inventory paper that was then handed over to the professor. The questionnaire had 21 questions with a Likert scale for each item ranging from 1-4, where one represented the least score and 4 representing the highest score. The investors are self-evaluation kind of a questionnaire. This the student filled ion an individual basis. The questionnaire basically had questions regarding the duration that the participants were working in a day and the element of immigration.  For this study, however, the primary focus was the experimenter and the subject of interaction. The experimenter interviewed the issues of the topics listed above (working hours, immigrant status, and state anxiety score).

Undergraduate Stress Questionnaire (USQ) we measured stress using the USQ (reference, Crandall, Preisler, & Aussprung, 1992), –

Procedure

The students were presented with study questionnaires in a classroom setting for course credit, which was administered by their professor. Consent and debriefing were not needed for this study. Each student, as well as the author (L.Z.), took part in the survey as an experimenter and as a participant. The students were first administered the general Basic Information Questionnaire on the paper for them to fill out by hand; this took note of their information concerning the respondents are, level of education, whether employee, their GPA, and the country where they were born. They were asked if they are employed and also asked to indicate how many how they work in a day. This was then followed by an STAI questionnaire and the USQ, which measured their stress and anxiety levels.  The independent variable was immigrants and nonimmigrants, as well as working hours, and the dependent variable was anxiety status and stress level as measured by the STAI and USQ.

Results

The analysis of the data for the study focused on stress and anxiety for undergraduates. Each hypothesis was tested, and the results presented on whether the hypothesis was to be supported or rejected. The calculation of the score for each hypothesis was conducted based on the STAI score and the USQ score as the dependent variables. For suggestion one, two independent samples t-test examined the difference between the immigrants and the nonimmigrant students (IV: immigrant students) in stress (DV: USQ total score) and the anxiety (DV: STAI overall score). For the second hypothesis, two linear regressions aimed at examining if higher working hours (IV) predicted higher stress (DV) scores and higher anxiety (DV) scores. Lastly, for hypothesis three, a correlation between the STAI Score and the USQ score was performed.

The average score of USQ nonimmigrants was 31.06 (SD =10.94), and USQ immigrant was 26.86 (SD = 14.72). The STAI average score for the nonimmigrant score was 40.74 (SD = 10.84), and the STAI, the mean for the immigrant, was 38.80. At the same time, the standard deviation SD (8.02) based on the values of t=9.801 and p=0.703, there is a significant relation between anxiety STAI and the stress (USQ) levels.   For the second hypothesis, we conducted the two linear regressions to examine if higher working hours predicted higher stress scores and higher anxiety scores. Based on the t and the p-value, the state of anxiety was found to have no significant relationships based on the linear regression.  Working hours did not significantly predict the level of stress and anxiety among the students.

The average score of USQ nonimmigrants was 31.06 (SD =10.94), and USQ immigrant was 26.86 (SD = 14.72). The STAI average score for the nonimmigrant score was 40.74 (SD = 10.84), and the STAI, the mean for the immigrant, was 38.80. At the same time, the standard deviation SD (8.02), based on the values of B=-.061, t=-.461, and the p=.647, there is a significant relationship between anxiety (STAI) and the stress (USQ) levels.   For the second hypothesis, we conducted the two linear regressions to examine if higher working hours predicted higher stress scores and higher anxiety scores. The state of anxiety and level of stress was not significantly predicted by working hours based on the linear regressions.  Working hours did not significantly predict the level of stress and anxiety among the students. Besides, the working hours did not significantly predict anxiety among students.  For the last hypothesis, anxiety scores and stress levels were predicted to be positively associated with each other and based on Pearson’s values of the value of the USQ B=-. 461 t=-.383 and p=.703, there was no significant correlation between anxiety score and stress levels and indicates that those with a higher level of anxiety did not necessarily have higher levels of stress as well.

Discussion

The primary aim of the study to analyze the Effects of Stress and Anxiety on College Students. The study proposed a total of three hypotheses to investigate this topic of study.  The first hypotheses did state that It was predicted that there would be a difference between immigrants and nonimmigrants studies in total USQ score and state anxiety score after examination results from this hypothesis test, we can see that there exists no significant difference between the immigrants and the nonimmigrant students (IV: immigrant students) in stress (DV: USQ total score) and the anxiety (DV: STAI total score). This is in line with the study conducted by which states that concern and sees among immigrants and the nonimmigrant is all the same and does not depend on the element of whether one was one in a given location or is an immigrant to those particular areas (Diekhoff et al., 2013). The levels of anxiety and stress among students are affected by different factors others than the elements of immigration, such as the psychological state of the student, the family background, and other factors such as the mental status (Diekhoff et al., 2013).

On the second hypothesis, which was states that higher working hours predicted higher stress and anxiety, the linear regulation did found out that working hours did not significantly predict the level of stress and anxiety among the students.  This is in line with the previous study by Kumaraswamy et al., (2013), which was able to establish that the stress levels and the levels of anxiety and stress depend on the aspect of psychological, economic, and others related factors others than the duration of work. According to him, stress and anxiety are not affected by the level of the student’s working hours.  The levels of stress and anxiety remained fairly insignificantly affected by the aspect of the psychological status of an individual and not the working hours.

Based on the third hypothesis of the study, there was no significant correlation between anxiety score and stress levels and indicates that those with a higher level of anxiety did not necessarily have higher levels of stress as well. The finding from the hypothesis is in line with the vital model by (Endler & Kocovski, 2001).  An aspect of a trait personality for anxiety is often impacted by stressful scenarios that results in a congruence that elicits an increase in the state of the anxiety.   The model of state and trait anxiety is not related to the elements of stress. The STAI has, in the past, indicated that there is poor visibility in differentiating parts between people with and without the aspect of anxiety disorder, which is not in any way rated to the element of the stress (Kumaraswamy et al., 2013).

Despite the massive success of the study, it had few limitations. One, the study was limited to the elements of time as a resource. The study was also limited in the aspect of scope as the scope only considers the stress and anxiety among students and not the general population. Another limitation that was associated with the study would be the sample size. The study sample size was considerably small by comparison of how many students were considered to the whole population in the institution

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References

American Psychological Association. (2003). Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. American Psychologists, 57(12), 1060-1073.

Crandall, C. S., Preisler, J. J., & Aussprung, J. (1992). Measuring life event stress in the lives of college students: The Undergraduate Stress Questionnaire (USQ). Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 15(6), 627-662.

Endler, N. S., & Kocovski, N. L. (2001). State and Trait Anxiety Revisited. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 15, 235-245.

Julian, L. J. (2011). Measures of Anxiety. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken), 63, 0-11.

Kumaraswamy, N. (2013). Academic Stress, Anxiety, and Depression among College students Brief Review. International Review of Social Sciences and Humanities, 5(1), 135-143.

Lepp, A., Barkley, J. E., & Karpinski, A. C. (2014). The relationship between cell phone use, academic performance, anxiety, and satisfaction with life in college students. Computers in Human Behavior, 31, 343-350. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2013.10.049

Mounsey, R., Vandehey, M. A., & Diekhoff, G. M. (2013). Working and non-working university students: anxiety, depression, and grade point average. College Student Journal, 47(2), 379-390.

Range, L. M. (2013). “State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI).” In Psychology and Mental Health (Online Edition).

Appendix

Table 1: table comparison of the USQ total and STAI total mean, standard deviation and the significance value (N)

Fig 1: comparison  how many hours students worked per week and the STAI (anxiety) total.

Fig 2: Comparison the means of students which were born in the US and those who weren’t on the mean of USQ (Stress) total.