Stress Among College Students, Research Paper Example

Stress is an inevitable situation for all living things. Students experience different stress levels and are susceptible to the adverse effects of stress if they are not careful. According to Akacan (2017), stress can be considered the reaction exhibited by an individual to a situation of difficulty experienced at a stage in their lives. The reactions might emerge in different positions but often similarly manifest themselves. Among college students, potential stressors can be excessive homework, uncomfortable classrooms, and unclear assignments (Krishnan & Sequeira, 2012), among others, as discussed in the paper and the recommendable solutions evaluations. Therefore, stress becomes part of every day for an individual. This paper will concentrate on the stress factor among college students, the different solutions options, and evaluate these solutions.

Potential stressors for college students are often established using surveys. In line with a discussion by Brough (2015), it becomes evident that previous experiences or exposure to stress in childhood can affect the child when they are in college. Such exposures include arguments with friends and family of the faculty. Their reaction to the challenging environments based on upbringing dictates their response. Brough (2015), through a survey of an open-ended questionnaire, helps ascertain that academics for college students are primary triggers of stress. This might encompass simple activities such as homework, class time demands, and project preparation.

A solution recommended to the challenge calls for the need to increase the student’s internal and external resources pertinent to academic excellence (Brough, 2015). This recommendation as a solution to reducing the stress levels among children remains vital to ensuring the ability of the students to cope with stress. Considerably, stress tolerance among the students remains critical to guaranteeing excellence with a smooth transition of life for students in this stage of life. Further, lifestyle habits need to be reviewed by the college stakeholders to ensure the incorporation of imperative resources such as extracurricular activities, social support plans, and sufficient leisure, among others, as prerequisites to dealing with the stressors.

Stress is not always a negative thing in a person’s life. Stress is triggered by social, economic, political, and technological changes routinely. These advancements are not always harmful but an opportunity to change for the better. One critical aspect of a college student that manifests stress is the need to survive in an environment where social life is defined from different spheres due to the excessive multicultural groupings. According to a study by Edjah et al. (2020), all students present moderate stress levels, which dictates their success or failures in the academic journey. College students usually report to school from different backgrounds. One needs to enhance their cultural competence to survive in the school environment. A white student can meet a black student in college. Depending on their racial prejudice, the meeting or stress level enacted will elicit positive or negative results.

Further to the cultural dynamism in colleges, students experience language barriers as a pertinent challenge to communication. In this situation, students cannot interact effectively, resulting in challenges in their research process that might lead to elevated levels of stress (Mesidor & Sly, 2016). In such situations, it becomes imperative for the student to establish different technological advancements, including app translators, to help them learn the standard language to ensure their survival. For instance, a student from the west who travels to the east, China, will need to know the language of the Chinese, whether verbal or non-verbal, to survive or reduce the stress effects on themselves. As they learn the language, the student will even be able to stay the outside environment away from the school during their routine tours of the school environment, including the market to purchase consumables.

The stress levels expressed among the students causing distress, tension, and anxiety are much considered adaptational. According to a discussion by Akacan (2017), a university period for any student is a new period in their life pertinent to their development in acquiring many new experiences in the social, academic, and personal times in preparation for their survival. In the period, the students will be expected to adapt to the different exposures to survive and succeed in meeting their career or academic goals. An evaluation of the adaptation aim proves necessary since it is where the majority of the students experience challenges in dealing with stressful situations.

Attaining cultural competence is not an easy process. It is manifested with significant challenges that call for an adamant review of the potential solution givers to survive. According to Edjah et al. (2020), in choosing peers to help them overcome the situation, students often experience significant challenges or exposure to risky activities within and outside the institution. It is important to note that students are exposed to academically stress-related to their desire for success more than any other form of stress. Several demands characterize academic excellence. For instance, as shared by Edjah et al. (2020), students’ desire to win scholarships from different stakeholders forces them to remain under tension for a while as they work on to pass the tests they are assigned. This stress is good as it makes students concentrate on their studies while assuming other social exposures that might counter their probability of academic excellence. Even so, most of the students unable to deal with the stress exposure end up becoming victims of drug abuse.

Drug abuse can be evaluated as one of the solutions students consider in their effort to deal with the challenge. According to Kornely and Halfmann (2020), college students adopt substance abuse significantly as a solution to their stress exposures. It is essential to understand the subject considering it a high-risk activity. Unfortunately, most students who believe substance abuse is the countermeasure to their stresses increase their health problems, poor academic performance, and unsafe sexual practices within the institution. Therefore, the institutions need to evaluate the surroundings of the institutions to assess the probability of the students indulging in these risky behaviors, which students find to be solutions to their problems.

In conclusion, stress is an inevitable occurrence among college students. Institutions must establish appropriate environments for the learner to alleviate or reduce the risk of stressors that might result in unfavorable solutions for the student. The different answers, as discussed, will trigger good or bad results associated even with poor health conditions and riots in demonstrating the challenge. A learning environment should be a source of prosperity and not suffering. An evaluation of the different recommended solutions proves necessary to guarantee success.

References

Akacan, B. (2017). Stress Experiences and Reactions of University Students Studying in the Education Faculties. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 13(10), 6883-6890.

Brough, K. (2015). Factors associated with college students’ perceived stress (Doctoral dissertation, Colorado State University).

Edjah, K., Ankomah, F., Domey, E., & Laryea, J. E. (2020). Stress and its impact on academic and social life of undergraduate university students in Ghana: A structural equation modeling approach. Open Education Studies, 2(1), 37-44.

Kornely, D., & Halfmann, K. (2020). Psychosocial Stress and Attitudes Toward Substance Use Among College Students: An Exploratory Study. Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research, 25(4).

Krishnan, L., & Sequeira, A. H. (2012). Stress among college students and how to combat it. Available at SSRN 2041423.

Mesidor, J. K., & Sly, K. F. (2016). Factors that contribute to the adjustment of international students. Journal of international students, 6(1), 262-282.