A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Sources Contributing to Academic Stress

Stress is common among the college students. The research was undertaken to determine the prevalence, sources and components of academic and non academic stress among the under graduate medical college students at one of the premier university in India. A survey of randomly selected respondents with mean of age (M=23, 21) and standard deviation (SD=3, 27), varied in year in school, age and gender was conducted based on a questionnaire which included demographic data and items examining possible sources of stress. The data was analyzed using Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis test with the help of statistical software IBM SPSS version 21. The overall stress level was found to be 78.2%. Overall Stress level mean for female medical students is slightly above the male students stress level. Findings revealed that among the academic sources of stress, fear of failure factor was found to be the major contributor to stress. Among the non academic sources, limited time for recreation and home-sickness were found to be the greatest sources of stress. The research concluded that academic problems were the major contributors to induce stress in medical students compared to non-academic problems. The study provided scope for adopting strategies intended to reduce students’ stress and improve their mental well being. The findings from this study may be useful for further research on how these potential sources of stress influence health and well being of students.