THE ACADEMIC STRESS AND ITS IMPACTS ON THE MENTAL HEALTH OF STEM STUDENTS
IN SLU LHS-SH
BARNACHEA, Rean; CASTRO, Joss; TANGALIN, Jericho; BAUTISTA, Yvonne; CALIMLIM, Clary;
LOCLOC, Mariedale; MANLIGAS, Rochie; OBAR, Ruth; SACRIZ, Julianne; SIM, Rioja
11 STEM K - ST. ATHANASIUS
11 STEM K – ST. ATHANASIUS
INTRODUCTION
Stress is a particular part in the life of
every individual that is indeed inevitable. As
stated by Akram & Khan (2013), stress aids
children to enhance the skills and abilities that
they need to cope up with the different
situations in life. On the other hand, academic
stress is a kind of tension that generally occurs
due to the extra work of a person as compared
to his/her capacities and capabilities during an
educational performance. According to Shadi et
al. (2015), academic stress is defined as the
increasing demand for knowledge, wherein,
there is a lack of time to acquire that
knowledge.
Kaur (2014) pointed out that the rising
expectations of the parents in terms of scores
and academic performance sometimes put an
extra burden on children, which may sometimes
cause many physical or mental ailments. It is
very much true that some students are under
active stress and some are normal, some are
adjusted and some are maladjusted. Hence it is
very important to identify the students
possessing stress and also to see the effect of
the academic stress on the mental health of the
students.
Students tend to undergo so much
pressure, which serves as stressors, due to the
increasing amount of school requirements that
they need to fulfill. According to the study of
Schonfeld et al. (2015), daily stressors are
connected with the growing number of
symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress and
with reduced subjective well-being. This study
justifies that due to constant academic stress,
the mental health of students is more likely to
be affected. The objectives of this study are to
broaden the knowledge that can help identify
ways on how to cope up with the stress and to
develop the psychological thinking of the
students who are in need.
Today, the entire world is witnessing
stress and its consequences. Bernstein (2008)
viewed stress as a negative emotional,
cognitive, behavioral and physiological process
that occurs as a person tries to adjust to or deal
with stressors. The effect of stress is understood
in many walks of life with a diverse population
especially among students. Richlin-Klonsky
(2003) reported that stress has lessened
academic performance, hinders a student's
capability to involve in and adds to campus life
and raises the probability of substance abuse
and other potentially destructive behaviors. Fair
brother (2003) recognized academic stress as
stressors that occurred due to various reasons
such as too many assignments, competitions
with other students, failures and poor
relationships with other students or teachers.
Mental health is viewed as a state of
well-being in which individuals realize their
potential, can cope with the normal stresses of
life, can work productively and fruitfully, and
able to contribute to the community, according
to World Health Organization (2014). Galderisi,
et al (2015) defined mental health as a dynamic
state of internal equilibrium which enables
individuals to use their abilities in harmony
with universal values of society. Basic cognitive
and social skills; ability to recognize, express
and modulate one's own emotions, as well as
empathize with others; flexibility and ability to
cope with adverse life events and function in
social roles; and harmonious relationship
between body and mind represent important
components of mental health which contribute,
to varying degrees, to the state of internal
equilibrium. Being in a transitional stage
between childhood and adulthood, adolescents
have to confront with varied types of stressors.
Madlan (2004) indicated that mental health is a
way of thinking, feeling, and behavior in a
person's daily lives. People with positive mental
health can recognize themselves on their ability
to accept failure, to control their emotions and
appreciate themselves.
Many kinds of research were attempted
to explore the relationship between academic
stress, mental health and other correlates among
students. Prabu (2015) reported that higher
secondary students experienced a moderate
level of academic stress, especially students in
private schools experienced a high level of
stress than the students in government schools.
Deb (2015) indicated that students' academic
stress and parental pressure, as well as
psychiatric problems, were positively correlated
in India. It is emphasized by this study that
academic stress was a serious issue, affected
about two-third of senior high school students.
Students in secondary and tertiary
education face a wide range of ongoing
normative stressors, which can be defined as
normal to hassle days due to ongoing academic
demands. Students commonly self-report
experiencing ongoing stress relating to their
education, which we refer to as academic-
related stress, such as pressure to achieve high
marks and concerns about receiving poor
grades. This data demonstrates that education
and academic performance are a significant
source of stress for students. The impact of this
ongoing academic-related stress on student
outcomes and well-being has not been
comprehensibly explored. Therefore, the
current narrative review explores the impact of
academic-related stress on students’ academic
performance, mental health, and well-being.
RESEARCH GAP
Even though there are a lot of
researchers who conducted studies connected to
this particular research, there is still a limited
number of published studies on how the mental
health of students in the Philippines is affected
by academic stress.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Education is one of the most important as-
pects in the life of every individual. However,
due to multiple requirements that the students
need to comply, academic stress comes into
place. Through this study, people would have
enough knowledge about the different repercus-
sions of academic stress on the mental health of
students. In that way, this study would be bene-
ficial in different ways:
To the students. It will give then proper
knowledge on what proper attitude they must
possess to eradicate or lessen academic stress.
To the educators. It will enable them to
be more understanding with their students.
To the future researchers. It will allow
them to have additional knowledge about the
mental health of students that may contribute to
the improvement of their study.
THEORETICAL & CONCEPTUAL
FRAMEWORK
Psychological Theories of Stress
The psychological theories of stress
gradually evolved from the Theory of Emotion
(James-Lange), and The Emergency Theory
(Cannon-Bard).
 Because stress is one of the most
interesting and mysterious subjects we have
since the beginning of time, its study is not only
limited to what happens to the body during a
stressful situation, but also to what occurs in the
psyche of an individual. In this article, we will
discuss the different psychological theories of
stress proposed by James & Lange, Cannon &
Brad, and Schachter & Singer.
James-Lange: Theory of Emotion
In 1884 and in 1885, theorists William
James and Carl Lange might have separately
proposed their respective theories on the
correlation of stress and emotion, but they had a
unified idea on this relationship - emotions do
not immediately succeed the perception of the
stressor or the stressful event; they become
present after the body’s response to the stress.
For instance, when you see a growling dog,
your heart starts to race, your breath begins to
go faster, then your eyes become wide open.
According to James and Lange, the feeling of
fear or any other emotion only begins after you
experience these bodily changes. This means
that the emotional behavior is not possible to
occur unless it is connected to one’s brain.
Cannon-Bard: The Emergency Theory
This theory is quite the opposite of
what James and Lange proposed. According to
theorist Walter Cannon, emotion in response to
stress can actually occur even when the bodily
changes are not present. Cannon said that the
visceral or internal physiologic response of
one’s body is more slowly recognized by the
brain as compared with its function to release
emotional response. He attempted to prove his
theory by means of creating the so-called
“decorticated cats", wherein the neural
connections of the body are separated from the
cortex in the brain of the cats. When faced with
a stressful response, the decorticated cats
showed emotional behavior which meant
feelings of aggression and rage. This emotion
was then manifested by bodily changes such as
baring of teeth, growling and erect hair.
To further enhance Cannon’s theory,
theorist Philip Bard expanded the ideals of
Cannon by arguing that a lower brain stem
structure called the thalamus is important in the
production of emotional responses. According
to Bard, the emotional response is released first,
and then sent as signals by the thalamus to the
brain cortex for the interpretation alongside
with the sending of signals to the sympathetic
nervous system or SNS to begin the physiologic
response to stress. Therefore, this theory argues
that emotional response to stress is not a
product of the physiologic response; rather, they
occur simultaneously.
SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS
The scope of the study is mainly about
the academic stress and its impacts on the men-
tal health of STEM students in SLU LHS-SH.
The participants will be purposively selected to
answer the questionnaires. This study limited
the participants to only the STEM students of
SLU LHS-SH. In that case, only the perceptions
of this group would be focused on. Also, some
participants may not take the questionnaire se-
riously and honestly or misinterpret the idea of
the questions in the survey. With that, it is pos-
sible that there would be a problem with the
clarity of data.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
This study aims to answer the following
questions:
1. What are the effects of academic stress on the
mental health of STEM students of Saint Louis
University Laboratory Highschool?
2. Who are more affected by this kind of
problems?
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