An Examination of the Relationship Between Stress and Quality of Life Factors in College Students
Introduction
Stress seems to be an especially common feature of college student life, particularly at highly competitive colleges and universities. As we begin a new century, college students worldwide are faced with increasing numbers of stressors. Sorting through, evaluating, and assimilating vast amounts of knowledge is particularly challenging to today’s college students. To add to this dilemma, they have to cope with financial problems thus compelling them to work either fulltime or part-time to support themselves. However, dealing with these issue at the same time had been shown to create stress and affect the health of college students (Aysan, Hamarat, Simons, Steele and Thompson, 2002).
Common themes exist in the symptoms of stress. Among college students, it may result in depression, insomnia, loss of intimacy with friends and family (Arvay & Uhlemann, 1996). Health symptoms of stress arise after being confronted with an event that involved death, injury, or extreme threat resulting in intense feelings of fear or helplessness. When symptoms last less than one month, they are considered normal reactions to crisis situations (Figley, 1995, 1998). However, Figley (1995) suggests this cluster of symptoms becomes classified as a disorder, when experienced for more than 30 days following exposure to the traumatic event.
There is no doubt that for many students, university life can be a very stressful and traumatic experience. Using case studies as examples, Rana’s (2000) which posited that the link between mental health and learning/study and the common difficulties experienced by students with academic work, some of the processes involved with learning and additionally the link between intellect and the ability to handle emotions can lead to stress. Add to this stress, Scott and Scott (2001) suggested that financial problems among students which compels them to work also adds to this problem. The researchers found that student debt did negatively impact on student well-being, with depression occurring in nearly one third of graduates who anticipated owing substantial amounts of money. Consistent with previous research, Surtees (2000) concluded that psychological distress amongst students was apparent, with usually one fifth of students reporting at least one problem which caused them substantial worry. Academic problems caused students greatest concern, closely followed by financial concerns and social/personal relationship problems.
Thus, the popular impression that working students usually hold jobs in fast food establishments, spend most of their earnings on cars and clothes, and suffer academically, is not fully borne out by Morgan, Peebles and Ruscoe (1996). Bonvillian and Fram (2001) analyzed the impact of personal stress on individuals who are simultaneously working full-time and studying part-time. These persons account for 25% of undergraduate degree candidates and probably a much larger portion of graduate students (King, 1998). To maintain educational quality, faculties expect students to attend class thoughtfully prepared. These expectations are pitted against time-starved professionals and the demands of their personal lives. Students are being pulled in too many directions.
This proposed study attempts to investigate the impact of working full-time and part-time among college students. The stress associated with this arrangement shall be compared between students working full time and students working part-time. It is posited in the literature that the work environment can greatly contribute to stress. Moreover, the effect can be enhanced by school pressures. The effects of stress on four health factors shall be tested: depression, insomnia, loss of intimacy with friends and family. These factors stipulated in the student stress scale, shall be tested separately to evaluate its causal relationship with stress using a correlation path analysis.
Research Aims
This proposed research attempts to achieve the following objectives:
1. To analyze the factors affecting stress level of college students and its effect on health factors specifically depression, insomnia, loss of intimacy with friends and family using a correlation path analysis
2. To illustrate the causal relationship between stress and health factors such as depression, insomnia, loss of intimacy with friends and family using a correlation path analysis
3. To compare and evaluate the causal relation of stress and health factors (depression, insomnia, loss of intimacy with friends and family using a correlation path analysis) among college students working fulltime and college students who works part-time
Statement of the Problem
This proposed study seeks to investigate the casual effect of stress and health among college students who are working full-time and those who works part-time. Consequently, this study shall evaluate the factors affecting the stress level of working students and how it affect the health of respondents based on their degrees of depression, insomnia, loss of intimacy with friends and family using a correlation path analysis.
Specifically, the following questions shall be asked:
1. What is the relationship of stress level on health factors such as depression, insomnia, loss of intimacy with friends and family?
2. What are the causal effects of stress on health factors such as depression, insomnia, loss of intimacy with friends and family among college students who works full-time and to those who works part-time?
3. What are the differences in the stress level of college students working full-time from those who works part-time based on the causal relation of stress on the health factors (depression, insomnia, loss of intimacy with friends and family)
4. How significantly different are effects of stress on health by college students who works fulltime from those who works part-time?
Conceptual Framework
This proposed study shall utilize the Student Attrition Model proposed by Bean (1980, 1982) which explain the college persistence process. Bean’s work builds upon process models of organizational turnover and models of attitude-behavior interactions. Bean and associates have argued that student attrition is analogous to turnover in work organizations and stress the importance of behavioral intentions (to stay or leave) as predictors of persistence behavior. In this context, the Student Attrition Model presumes that behavioral intentions are shaped by a process whereby beliefs shape attitudes, and attitudes, in turn, influence behavioral intents. Beliefs are presumed to be affected by a student’s experiences with the different components of an institution (that is, institutional quality, courses, and friends). The Student Attrition Model also recognizes that factors external to the institution such as involvement in the workforce can play a major role in affecting both attitudes and decisions and student stress while the student is still attending college (Cabrera, Castaneda and Nora, 1993).
Hypothesis
This proposed study shall test the following null hypothesis:
Significance of the Study
This study shall guide college students on the factors affecting stress, the conditions where stress is severe and how to minimize the effects of stress o health factors such as depression, insomnia, loss of intimacy with friends and family using a correlation path analysis. Moreover, the specific focus of this research is the relationship of stress and health on part-time or full-time employment of college students.
Review of Related Literature
Unhealthy adaptation to stress by college students can take many forms, such as school maladjustment. For example, stressors at school may lead to reduced attention span and to diminished motivation to succeed academically (Printz, Shermis and Webb, 1999; Pryor-Brown & Cowen, 1989). Anxiety (Swearingen & Cohen, 1985a, 1985b), depression, and suicidal ideation (Cohen-Sandier, Berman, & King, 1982) are other reactions to stress. Moreover, some youths experience psychophysiological symptoms in response to chronic or severe levels of stress (Walker & Greene, 1987).
College students experience high stress at predictable times each semester due to academic commitments, work, financial pressures, and lack of time management skills (McKean, et al., 2000). When stress is perceived negatively or becomes excessive, it can affect both health and academic performance (Campbell & Svenson, 1992). University students often attempt to control and reduce their stress through avoidance, religious and social support, or positive reappraisal (Mattlin, Wethington, & Kessler, 1990; Blake & Vandiver, 1988). Leisure satisfaction and fitness activities act as stress buffers, providing a sense of purpose and competence for college students (Ragheb & McKinney, 1993). Student academic stress is also reduced and controlled through effective time management and study techniques (Brown, 1991). Macan (1990) found that students who perceived themselves in control of their time reported greater work and life satisfactions and fewer job-induced and somatic tensions.
The impact of stress on college life has been substantiated by a number of researchers (Chang, 1998; Kent, Gorenflo, Daniel, & Forney, 1993; and Nowack, 1991). Chang’s (1998) research, for example, indicates that the amount of perceived stress among college students correlates with levels of depression and life satisfaction. Chang’s findings indicate that the more stress students experience, the lower their levels of life satisfaction. Chang’s research further found that the more optimistic the student, the greater the satisfaction with life.
Using the same measures as Hamarat et al. (2001), the present investigation examined the relationships among perceived stress, coping resource availability, and satisfaction with life in young adults. Hamarat et al. (2001) assessed this relationship in North American participants, across three age groups, one of which was college students. Both separate and joint effects of perceived stress and coping resource availability upon life satisfaction were examined. It was hypothesized that the combination of coping resource availability and perceived stress would be better predictors of satisfaction with life than either variable would be alone.
Full-time employees who are also part-time students describe themselves as highly stressed, always trading off between work, family, and school and often lacking sufficient sleep. This comment certainly highlight the problem as individuals juggle the multiple roles of wage earner, family member, and part-time student. In addition, burnout is frequently mentioned as a concern (Shellenbarger, 1997). More important, they indicate that too many part-time students see their educational experience as an exercise in survival, rather than intended broader developmental process.
Methodology
There are three kinds of research methods, correlational, experimental and descriptive (Walliman and Baiche, 2001). The correlational research refers to studies in which the purpose is to discover relationships between variables through the use of correlational statistics (r). The square of a correlation coefficient yields the explained variance (r-squared). A correlational relationship between two variables is “occasionally the result of an outside source, so we have to be careful and remember that correlation does not necessarily tell us about cause and effect” (Creswell, 1994; 23). If a strong relationship is found between two variables, using an experimental approach can test causality (Creswell, 1994).
There are several kinds of correlational research (Creswell, 1994). However, a path analysis was selected to be used in this study. Path analysis is used to determine which of a number of pathways connects one variable with another (Printz, Shermis and Webb, 1999). For instance, we know there is a relationship between stress and health. Path analysis has been used to show that while there is a small path that “goes through” physiology, the predominate path connecting stress and health goes through health behaviors (Shipley, 2002; LI, 1975). That is, stress affects physiological factors such as coronary and immune functions. Research has shown that there is a stronger connection between stress, health behaviors, and health than there is between stress, physiology, and health (Shipley, 2002). And this research used correlational statistics to draw this conclusion.
The research described in this document is based fundamentally on quantitative research methods. This permits a flexible and iterative approach. During data gathering the choice and design of methods are constantly modified, based on ongoing analysis. This allows investigation of important new issues and questions as they arise, and allows the investigators to drop unproductive areas of research from the original research plan. Moreover, the result of the study shall be compared and verified based on the existing literature on the subject.
This study basically intends to investigate the process and effect of health and stress on college students who works full-time and those who works part-time. Specifically, it shall compare the level of stress and its subsequent effect on the health of college students who are working fulltime and those who are working part-time.
The primary source of data will come from a questionnaire and interviews conducted by the researcher. The questionnaire that will be used for the study shall consist of the College Chronic Life Stress Survey (CCLSS) which shall measure the stress level of the respondents while health will be measured using the Inventory of Health Status proposed by originally proposed by Homes and Rahe (1967). These instruments will be utilized because of their proven reliability and validity. In this manner, the author need not test the instrument nor doubt the validity of the instruments used.
The secondary sources of data will come from published articles from medical, education and business journals, books and related studies on stress, health, work, and school.
For this research design, the researcher will gather data, collate published studies from different local and foreign universities and articles from health and college journals; and make a content analysis of the collected documentary and verbal material. Afterwards, the researcher will summarize all the information, make a conclusion based on the null hypotheses posited and provide insightful recommendations on the dealing with stress and health among college students.
Respondents of the Study
The sample shall be consisted of two components. The first component consist of a survey of full-time students with full-time jobs. The survey consisted of a cross-sectional survey of full-time students (freshmen to senior) at the University. The sampling frame chosen was the University Registrars’ directory of address files. The advantage of using this sampling frame was that it provided an up-to-date address list of students. Information was collected using a questionnaire.
The second component consist of full-time students with part-time jobs. The sample are randomly selected based on the records of the University registrar. I will first purposively choose working students and segregate their working status profile. After it has been sorted, a random sampling shall be conducted. Sixty (60) respondents for each component shall be chosen from the responses. In order to assure that 60 respondents shall be collected from the two component, one hundred twenty survey questionnaire for each components shall be distributed, predicting a turn-out rate of 50%.
Data Analysis
Demographic characteristics of college students who works part-time workers and full-time students were compared using chi-square analysis. Total scores in addition to scores on the nine categories of the student stress scale were compared between students who works full-time and part-time. Data will be analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software.
References
Arvay, M. J., & Uhlemann, M. R. (1996). Counselor stress in the field of trauma: A preliminary study. Canadian Journal of Counseling, 30,193-210.
Aysan, F., Hamarat, E., Simons, C., Steele, D. and Thompson, D. (2002) Coping resource availability and level of perceived stress as predictors of life satisfaction in a cohort of Turkish college students. College Student Journal, Vol. 36.
Bean, J. P. (1980) Dropouts and Turnover. The Synthesis and Test of a Causal Model of Student Attrition. Research in Higher Education, 12 (1980), 155-87.
—–. (1982) Conceptual Models of Student Attrition: How Theory Can Help the Institutional Researcher. In Studying Student Attrition, edited by E. T. Pascarella, pp. 17-33. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1982.
Blake, R.L., & Vandiver, T.A. (1988). The association of health with stressful life changes, social supports, and coping. Family Practice Research Journal, 7, 205-218.
Bonvillian and Fram, E. (2001) Employees as Part-Time Students: Is Stress Threatening the Quality of Their Business Education? SAM Advanced Management Journal, Vol. 66.
Brown, R. T. (1991). Helping students confront and deal with stress and procrastination. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, 6(2), 87-102.
Cabrera, A., Castaneda, M. and Nora, A. (1993) College persistence: structural equations modeling test of an integrated model of student retention. Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 64.
Campbell, R.L, & Svenson, L.W. (1992). Perceived level of stress among university undergraduate students in Edmonton, Canada. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 75, 552-554.
Chang, E. C. (1998). Does dispositional optimism moderate the relation between perceived stress and psychological well being.’?: A preliminary investigation. Personality and Individual Differences, 25, 233-240.
Cohen-Sandler, R., Berman, A. L., & King, R. A. (1982). Life stress and symptomatology: Determinants of suicidal behavior in children. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 21, 178-186.
Creswell, J.W. (1994) Research design. Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.
Figley, C. R. (1995). Compassion fatigue: Toward a new understanding of the costs of caring. In B. H. Stamm (Ed.), Secondary traumatic stress: Self-care issues for clinicians, researchers, and educators (pp. 3-28). Lutherville, MD: Sidran Press.
Figley, C. R. (Ed.). (1998). Burnout in families: The systemic costs of caring. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Hamarat, E., Thompson, D., Zabrucky, K., Steele, D, Matheny, K., & Aysan, F. (2001). Perceived stress and coping resource availability as predictors of life satisfaction in young, middle aged, and older adults. Experimental Aging Research. 27, 181-196.
Holmes, T. and Rahe, R. (1967) Social Readjustment Rating Scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. vol.II p. 214
Kent, J., Gorenflo, D., & Forney, M. (1993). Personal behavioral variables related to perceived stress of second year medical students. Teaching and Learning in Medicine, 5, 90-95.
King, J. (1998, May 1). Too many students are holding jobs too many hours. The Chronicle of Higher Education, A72.
Li, C.C. (June 1975) Path Analysis: A Primer. Boxwood Press.
Macan, T. H. Shahani, C., Dipboye, R. L., & Phillips, A. P. (1990). College student’ time management: Correlations with academic performance and stress. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 760-768.
Marsh, H. W. (1991). Employment during high school: Character building or a subversion of academic goals? Sociology of Education, 64, 172-189.
Mattlin, J.A., Wethington, E., & Kessler, R.C. (1990). Situational determinants of coping and coping effectiveness. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 31, 103-122.
McKEan, M., Misra, R., Russo, T. and West, S. (2000) Academic Stress of College Students: Comparison of student and faculty perceptions. College Student Journal, Vol. 34.
Nowack, K. M. (1991). Psychosocial predictors of health status. Work and Stress. 5, 117-131.
Printz, B., Shermis, M., and Webb, P. (1999) Stress-buffering factors related to adolescent coping: A path analysis. Adolescence, Vol. 34.
Pryor-Brown, L., & Cowen, E. L. (1989). Stressful life events, support, and children’s school adjustment. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 18, 214-220.
Ragheb, K.G., & McKinney, J. (1993). Campus recreation and perceived academic stress. Journal of College Student Development, 34, 5-10.
Rana R (2000) Counseling Students: a psychodynamic perspective Macmillan Press Ltd.
Scott, L. & Scott, L. (eds) (2001) Student Debt: The causes and consequences of undergraduate borrowing in the UK. The Policy Press 2001
Shellenbarger, S. (1997, July 9). Some readers saw the burnout coming, and many empathized. The Wall Street Journal, B1.
Shipley, B. (August 2002) Cause and Correlation in Biology : A User’s Guide to Path Analysis, Structural Equations and Causal Inference. Cambridge University Press.
Surtees, P. (March 2000) Student Mental Health, Use of Services and Academic Attainment: A Report to the Review Committee of the University of Cambridge Counseling Service.
Swearingen, E. M., & Cohen, L. H. (1985a). Measurement of adolescent’s life events: The Junior High Life Experiences Survey. American Journal of Community Psychology, 13, 69-85.
Swearingen, E. M., & Cohen, L. H. (1985b). Life events and psychological distress: A propsective study of young adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 21, 1045-1054.
Walker, L. S., & Greene, J. W. (1987). Negative life events, psychosocial resources, and psychophysiological symptoms in adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 16, 29-36.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment