Your heart rate steadily increases, your vision sharpens, your muscles tense, and you begin to sweat. This is all a natural response of the human body to distressing events. The body reacts to stress by activating the nervous system and releasing hormones, which enhances an individual’s ability to work while under pressure. Stress isn’t always blamed on abrupt events, but can also by at fault of a long-lasting situation. Stress is a healthy occurrence, but only in moderation. Long-term stress can release a constant stream of stress hormones over a prolonged period of time, wearing down the body’s energy, and immune system, leaving a person feeling overwhelmed and tired (Lyness). School students, especially those enrolled in universities, can experience an abundance of stress which can be detrimental to health, as well as learning. Within the past decades, the average stress level of students has exponentially increased, and continues to grow still. Rigorous time dedication to demanding academic workloads, pressure for scholarly excellence, and poor future job outlook, has driven students to be infatuated upon their success in the classroom. It is imperative that high school teachers and college professors, ease the taxing workload, and stress that is allocated upon students, because such stress can lead to a restriction of extracurricular involvement, deterioration of quality academic performance, and development of negative health and habits. College and high school students around the country are experiencing increased workloads. According to the University of Michigan, a survey taken place in 2004 showed that the amount of time spent doing homework as increased 51% since 1981 (Furr). Challenging homework/projects can ... ... middle of paper ... ...d hormone released because of stress by the brain, can adversely damage the brain cells, directly affecting memory and learning (“The Human Brain- Stress”). It’s bewildering, that despite all of the shortcomings, teachers still neglect to realize the stress of students. It is imperative that high school teachers and college professors, ease the taxing workload, and stress that is allocated upon students, because such stress can lead to a restriction of extracurricular involvement, deterioration of quality academic performance, and development of negative health and habits. Chronic stress too students is not only harmful to themselves, but to us, a nation as a whole. Professors and teachers need to focus on ways to drastically reduce the amount of stress placed on students, by removing irrelevant projects and homework, and focus more on the material being learned.
Glenn Altschuler addresses the difficulties and conundrums associated with entering college in his article “Adapting to College Life in an Era of Heightened Stress” He presents the experience of Kate Wilkinson and her feeling of unpreparedness for college. Glenn brings together statistical evidence to show how students are more stressed today than any time in the past. Glenn presents many solutions to decrease stress and uses Henry David Thoreau’s short story “Walden” as a basis of how stressed students should come back to a state of relaxation by meditating on what really matters in life.
Alexandra Ossola, a graduate of the liberal arts college Hamilton College, wrote an article called “High-Stress High School”, in hopes of addressing the growing concern that high school students are stressed to the point of degrading their health. Unfortunately, the article, which cites several studies, does contain some bias, as does every paper, including this one, but in this case the bias happens to disprove Ossola’s claims. In her article, Ossola states, “A recent study surveyed and interviewed students at a handful of these high schools and found that about half of them are chronically stressed. The results aren’t surprising—between the homework required for Advanced Placement classes, sports practices,
College is a new and dynamic environment. However, it also contains many challenges that student have to deal with. One of the challenges is dealing with stress. Among all of the new experiences, learning and growing opportunities available in a college environment, many may lead to unhealthy levels of stress which hinder students' abilities to socialize and to achieve their academic goals.
Powell, Kathryn. "Stressed and Obsessed Part 5: The Effects of Stress on Student Life | Online Gargoyle." Gargoyle RSS. 3 May 2013. Web. 11 May 2014.
Stress comes from many areas of life especially as an adult student incorporating school at a time in life when family and work are paramount. “Adults just returning to school have substantially higher anxiety about school in general and writing in particular than younger students.”3 Stress, best described by its "synonyms: strain, pressure, (nervous) tension, worry, anxiety, trouble, difficultly"1 has a medical history "According to the American Psychological Association, the majority of office visits to the doctor involve stress-related complaints, and stress is linked to the six leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide."2 If managed, stress can be a way to inform me; learning how to recognize my level of stress capacity is important. The Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory 5 http://www.stress.org/holmes-rahe-stress-inventory/ is a list of stressful events that contribute to illness. My personal score on this life stress inventory is 236; I fall in the category of about a fifty percent chance of a major health breakdown in the next...
National Health Ministries (2006). Stress & The College Student. The University of Illinois at Chicago. http://www.uic.edu/depts/wellctr/docs/Stress%20and%20the%20College%20Student.pdf
There is not one college student who has not experienced stress in at least one of their classes. The constant reminder of failing an assignment or not finishing one is enough to cause stress in anybody. The big issue though is how students overcome this stress. A survey funded by the Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development in Europe was conducted to determine how students are coping with school stress. This survey was performed in the United States and Switzerland. It was discovered that “An estimated 35–50% of college and university students drop out prematurely due to insufficient coping skills under chronic stress, while 85% of students receiving a psychiatric diagnosis withdraw from college/university prior to the completion of their education” (Mohr et al.). College students are finding help to their massive amounts of stress by ending their college career all together. Some students are even developing other mental illnesses from not getting help with their stress like anxiety, depression, and even suicide (Sharma and Tripathi). These students are so unstable that they cannot even function properly because of their stress and what it has caused them. Families are taking their loved ones out of college because the student needs significant help. The amount of stress that a college student experiences is unreal. This stress does not have an exact source but instead multiple sources leading to various consequences like taking a life or developing a mental
Studies have shown that many college students are not able to handle the stress while in school, which hinders the ability for the brain to act in a normal way (Shahrokh and Hales, 2003). If a person is unable to deal with the stress that one is being faced with, it will have negative consequences in terms of causing several psychological disorders (Canby et al., 2014). Entering post-secondary education is a completely new environment for students, as it can be tough for many to adjust to the new surroundings. There are many factors that cause stress when students enter college, as it can include having the ability to deal with lower marks (Struthers et al., 2000) and having to create a new social life. Once and if a social life is established, it can cause more stress among students because it can lead into peer pressure that results in risky behavior. In particular, peer pressure can cause alcoholism or drug abuse (Seiffge-Krenke, 1990) or it can also cause unprotected sex. Not only does stress revolve around peer-pressure, but it can also be caused by headaches and lack of energy. If a student is constantly staying up late to finish assignments or to study, it can cause headaches from the lack of sleep; thus causing stress. With all the given factors, it can be hard to overcome these external factors which can ultimately lead to stress among
Driscoll, Emily. “Stress in College: What Causes it and How to Combat it.” Online posting. 31
Everyone has daily burdens and responsibilities that they would prefer to avoid rather than begin. For college students that burden becomes anything relating to college academics, from homework assignments, to essays due next week, or projects. However, by delaying the time necessary to complete an assignment or to write a well and comprehensible essay. Students are putting their physical well being at risk.
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.
In today’s world, education is more important than ever, and with education comes homework. However, many teachers give too much homework, which makes students extremely stressed. In addition, some are into sports or after school activities, and some have part time jobs they have to work at, which adds additional stress to the already overworked students. Mounds of homework can cause students to be under so much stress that it affects them mentally, physically, and emotionally. Stress can make students sick with colds, stomach aches, high blood pressure, sleep disorders, and/or anxiety disorders (Menninger and Dugan).
Leaving home for the first time and going away for school can be very difficult for some people. In many cases for college freshmen this is their first time being away from their home and parents. Many times they get home sick and want to isolate themselves. They have to get into a new routine of going to school, and change can be very difficult. It is definitely hard to get into the swing of college. They have to navigate through classes in a new format while living away from all the comforts of parents. A college student’s life usually consists of attending classes, long hours of studying, working at a job (sometimes), and having a social life. 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 with something in order to further their education, or just have fun. There are lots of new opportunities out there. The struggle consists of demands on time, financial pressures, parental pressure and conflicts, interpersonal conflicts, managing freedom, peer and academic pressure and the transitional period to a new academic environment (Stanford University 4). All of these factors combined can cause emotional disturbances and one of the most common is stress.
College is a time of extreme stress due to societal and parental pressures. College students have expectations they have to live up to in order to fulfill and satisfy the needs of both their parents and society. Stress is expressed through a variety of symptoms that can be hazardous to student’s physical and mental health. With such high expectations to do well during college, students may become sleep deprived, which impairs mental capacity, but sleep deprivation is only one of a vast array of symptoms. Stress is present in all aspects of life and there are multiple causes of stress, especially, during the college period which may present itself through many symptoms, but with stress, there are also various coping methods to help students deal with it.
Sometimes a student need to take six to seven classes per semester and the professors can assign new assignments for each classes. The students need to submit all the assignments before the deadline and as the deadline closes in pressure keeps building up. It can monumental task to complete two to three assignments a day or sometimes up to seven per week. Thus, the students will not have enough time to concentrate on the assignments as they also need to do other things such as attending classes, getting involved in co-curricular activities and part time job. Thus, the students will be stressed because of lack of time to finish the assignments. Some assignments are group assignments that need to be done with other students. If every group member cannot give their full commitment to do the assignments together, the students will be stressed too. So a lot of assignments can be one of the causes of stress among university students. And then there are exams and midterms which can be very stressful on it 's own as the results of those exams will reflect on a student 's future career