The following study was conducted to measure certain variables related to stress and its causes in college students. Specifically this study measured when college students experienced stress, at what level they would define that stress and what affect, if any, working contributed to the student’s exposure to stress.
Attending college has always been a period of great stress for the aspiring graduate. The traditional student must balance the responsibilities of attending class, reading the required materials, studying for their tests and managing their time effectively. The traditional student may also face the additional responsibilities of living on their own for the first time, be it in the college dormitories or off campus. If the student is a freshman he will also have to adjust to new environment consisting, possibly, of an entirely new city with new people to meet and will almost certainly have to devote tremendous effort to reestablishing and maintaining his or her social life. We must also consider the plight of the non-traditional student. Those people who did not pursue the traditional route of attending college immediately after high school are considered “non-traditional” students and are usually older than 25 or 26 years. These non-traditional students often have many additional stressors to deal with during their college experience. Some of these stressors include the need to maintain a fulltime or nearly fulltime job, managing spousal relationships, taking care of their children, and often the awkwardness of having to interact daily with traditional college students who may be 10 to 20 years younger than themselves. This is not to say that there are not many traditional college students who also have child...
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... colleges already attempt this at some level, by offering programs designed to teach the student better time management skills and relaxation techniques, but we also need to make more grant money available to students who are already stretched too thin from the demands of home life, school and work.
References
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Smith, P. M., & Taylor, C. B. (2006). Implementing an inpatient smoking cessation program. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
The article starts with information on the purpose of the study given to nontraditional college students who have outside stressors that conflict with college. Giancola and her colleagues talk about the importance of the study, and that colleges need to understand that stress affects nontraditional college students different from traditional-age college students. In this study, Giancola and her colleagues discuss three components of stress to understand how stress affects the nontraditional student. These three components include personal, work, and school. The article also talks about the comparisons between traditional and nontraditional students. Giancola and her colleagues also talk about coping skills that nontraditional students practice dealing with and how each student has his or her own way of coping with stress. The article ends explaining that ...
Students entering college for the first time become concerned with their college life. The students are on their own once they enter college. There are no parents or guardians telling them when to do homework, when to go to bed, or how to eat healthy. These students are now responsible for how they are going to succeed in school and meet their own needs. From the beginning, these students wonder what their experience is going to be like and are they going to handle the demands of college?
Although perhaps supportive of higher education, their parents and family members may view their entry into college as a break in the family system rather than a continuation of their schooling. In families, role assignments about work, family, religion and community are passed down through the generations, creating intergenerational continuity. When a family member disrupts this system by choosing to attend college, he or she experiences a shift in identity, leading to a sense of loss. Not prepared for this loss, many first-generation students may come to develop two different identities: one for home and another for college, the student might feel he needs to do better in college than his parents.
First generation college students are students who comprise a distinct minority within most institutions of higher learning. These groups of students are the first generation of students in their family lineage to attend a college or university (Allwood, 1966). Due to the lack of family guidance in navigating through the college experience, first generation students face an array of obstacles upon entering the realm of higher education. These students are less likely to obtain their bachelor degree due to finance, family support and retention, all which ultimately limit their college experience. Not only do these students experience issues migrating through high school into college, they also lack the necessary resources some students need to achieve higher standards. For instance financial assistance, mentorship, and other motivating factors that can help a student grow into a professional.
Most first generation college students are significantly older than the average, approximately 24 year of age (Pascarella et. al 2004). The surrounding low-income environments that many of these students are raised around can explain this late age. This financial pressure can also explain another category of first generation students, preparation (Chen & Carroll, 2005). These students are often less prepared to enter the college life. They have not been exposed to the necessary preparation needed to succeed on college admissions tests and furthermore don’t meet the performance requirements that universities and institutions require. Analyzing the prefaces that surround the environment of first generation college students aids in understanding current problems faced in college as well as assist in proposing solutions for this subset of
Bryant, J., B. Bonevski, C. Paul, et al. 2011. A systematic review and meta-anaysis of the effectiveness of behavioural smoking cessation interventions in selected disadvantaged groups. Addiction 106: 1568–1585.
4 Giancola, J.K., Grawitch, M.J., and Borchert, D. (2009). Dealing with the stress of college: A
Many first year college students face problems as they enter a new educational environment that is very different than that of high school. However, the common problem is that many first year students become stressed. For many students, college is supposed to be the most fun time of their life; however, their fun can be restricted if it is limited by stress and other mental illnesses. According to the National Health Ministries (2006), stress is caused by “greater academic demands,” the feeling of being independent from family, “financial responsibility,” homesickness, being exposed to meeting new people, peer pressure, “awareness of one’s own sexual identity,” and the abuse of drugs and alcohol (p. 2). However, the causes to first year students’ stress mainly include academic demand, parents, finance, and peer pressure.
...d the way in which she makes friends, also suffered. So what can other first generation college students do to avoid what has happened to Sarah? The answer lies in directing a passion towards learning and education in students and their families that will build self-motivation and avoid the negative predispositions of being the first in the family to attend college. While Sarah has not been attending the University of Miami for too long, her experiences thus far have given her a very good understanding of her position in this academic community, and nevertheless, gives a representation of first year first generation college students. Sarah is only one person though and may not be fully representative of the population first generation college students, but as a member of this community, Sarah’s input is essential to the ideas and views of the students in this group.
Smoking cigarettes is a detrimental practice not only to the smoker, but also to everyone around the smoker. According to an article from the American Lung Association, “Health Effects” (n.d.), “Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., causing over 438,000 deaths per year”. The umbrella term for tobacco use includes the use of cigarettes, cigars, e-cigs and chewing tobacco. While tobacco causes adverse health consequences, it also has been a unifying factor for change in public health. While the tobacco industries targets specific populations, public health specifically targets smokers, possible smokers, and the public to influence cessation, policies and education.
It seems as though the majority of college students these days aren’t looking to further their education because it’s what they really want, they do it to please their parents, to be accepted by society, or because there’s nothing else for them to do (Bird, 372). These expectations have led to students being unhappy and stressed, and have pushed them into a school or a job that they don’t particularly care for.
Driscoll, Emily. “Stress in College: What Causes it and How to Combat it.” Online posting. 31
Stress has been shown to have negative effects on college students and their learning. Academic burnout is a substantial problem associated with academic performance and is brought on by stress. A study explained by Shu-Hui Lin and Yun-Chen Huang (2014) is based on two scales, the “Undergraduate Life Stress Scale” and “Learning Burnout Scale” that were used as research tools to explore the life stress among college students and whether or not the results can be used as predictors of academic burnout. This study is intended to specifically identify life stresses associated with academic burnout and to
Diclemente, C., Fairhurst, S., Prochaska, J., Rossi, J., Velasques, M., Velices, W. (1991). The process of smoking cessation: An analysis
Everyone deals with stress at some point in his or her life. Most people deal with it daily. As defined in the book called Principles and Labs for Fitness and Wellness, stress is, “The mental, emotional, and physiological response of the body to any situation that is new, threatening, frightening, or exciting” (Hoeger & Hoeger, 2012). This stress is caused by a stressor, which is also known as “a stress-causing event” (Hoeger & Hoeger, 2012). Stressors can take all different forms, from moving to a new town, having a baby, or even writing a paper (Boyd, Wood, & Wood, 2011). One major stressor in life can be going to college. If not coped with properly, these stressors can leave a person with too much stress that could end up harming them mentally and physically, such as developing an illness (Boyd, Wood, & Wood, 2011). There are several ways to cope with stress. Some healthy ways to cope with stress would be practicing emotion-focused coping, building time-management techniques, and practicing meditation.