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Stress in College Students
“I can hardly sleep at night.” “I can’t help crying when I am taking an important and difficult exam.” “I don’t always have a good appetite before a presentation.” We’ve all heard about stress among college students. Adams (1980) points out that stress is required and positive in our lives. People cannot work effectively or even sustain good health and well-being without a fair amount of it; in other words, insufficient stress can make people give up. However, people who are over-stimulated with too many disruptions and surprises burn out (p. 1). This shows that a proper amount of stress is useful for our health, but if it goes beyond the limit, damage will result.
Apparently, stress has become increasingly serious for college students nowadays. “In one 1999 survey of 683 colleges and universities conducted in the first days of school by the University of California at Los Angeles, 30.02% of the freshmen acknowledged feeling frequently overwhelmed, almost double the 1985 rate” (“Transition to College,” 2001). This means that stress for college students has been rising dramatically. Therefore, society has been concerned enormously about this problem. Psychologists intend to find out the reason for stress among college students and help them to cope with stress effectively. According to some research, there are three reasons why college students often feel stressed in their studies: transitions required to adapt to the environment, the pressure of finances, and their ambition to achieve goals.
The first reason why college students feel stressed is that they cannot adapt to the variety of the new environment.There is no doubt that “the departure is a significant milestone in the life of their families . . . requiring an adjustment on the part of parents, the college-bound teenager, and the whole family” (“Transition to College,” 2001). Accordingly, students need to learn how to be independent without parents’ rules and restrictions. After all, independence cannot happen suddenly at a definite age or place for students, but rather, it is attained by sparing no effort to learn how to take responsibility and care for others (“Transition to College”).Firstly, the change in lifestyle causes students to feel uncomfortable. For example, students living in dormitories are often faced with distraction and attraction by things such as courses, potential friends, parties, and places to go, and many students try to be included in everything. This is extremely unreasonable. Next, a change in study methods also results in stress for college students. Education in college and university is totally different from education in high school. For example, college is a learning environment where students need to take responsibility for thinking about what they are learning and applying what they have mastered. However, high school is a teaching environment where students simply acquire skills. What’s more, there are 30 hours a week in class in high school, but there are only 12-16 hours a week in class in college. Hence, how to manage their time effectively is also a challenge for the freshman in college.
Thirdly, networking can become a problem for college students. In high school, there are no more than 35 students in a class. However, in college, there may be more than 100 students in one classroom, so students in college need to learn more about how to make good friends. For example, some students will want to make friends with others for the purpose of completing assignments (Johnston, 2003). College is like a small society in which students need to learn how to expand their socializing skills and build their network carefully. Thus, the arduous adjustment from high school to college can be a reason for stress among college students.
In addition, feeling stressed can be the result of not having enough financial support.Firstly, lack of parental funds causes stress for some poor families. In a report from the New York University Child Study Center, we read, “83% of high school students expect to have a job while attending college or vocational school, and 50% of college students end up working 25 hours/week and 30% work full time” (“Transition to College, 2001,” College and Finances section). This means that they need to make up for the lack of funds by taking a part-time job, which affects their studies and emotions sometimes. Hence, when earnings in their part-time jobs run out, they feel stressed inasmuch as they may have no money for their life or for continuing their studies.
In addition, the rising cost of tuition and the increasing prices of products can also result in stress for college students. According to Greener (2005),
Statistics Canada has reported that tuition fees in Ontario increased
at four times the rate of inflation over the past 15 years. In order to
compensate for this massive increase, tuition fees would have to
be frozen until the year 2043. (¶ 7)
This shows that tuition fees in college and university will still be increasing for a long time. Even now, tuition fees for university have reached approximately $4000 per semester for students. If the cost of living is included, studying at university costs more than ten thousand dollars per semester. Therefore, it is not hard to imagine how high tuition fees will be in the future. In a word, lack of funds can be a reason for great stress in college students.
Along with a lack of money, strong competitiveness can also be an important reason for stress.Firstly, almost all excellent college students have a strong inclination toward competition for grades and performance. According to a recent article, getting a job has become so hard that students need to be excellent students by making good marks and taking part in activities to get work experience before graduating (“Competition among College Students,” 1998). This means that the stress experienced in maintaining a good standing is due to the vehemently competitive surroundings outside the campus.
Secondly, pressure of exams and thesis preparation can also make students feel stressed. Toft and Swartz (2006) claim that a bit of tension before an exam is useful for students. It can help them maintain a high level of energy. However, if tension becomes extreme, it leads to many health problems due to dread, irritability, and desperation (p. 198). This shows that stress affects students who allow tension over exams to get out of control.
Thirdly, choosing a career and finding a job can cause stress in college students, also. Michie, Glachan, and Bray (2001) point out that when students’ major motivation focuses on career development, they encounter the highest levels of stress. (p.468). This means that deciding on a career goal and seeking a job are the most difficult things for students to do on account of the fact that they would experience a totally different environment from that of college life and would have to adapt to greater competition. Thus, being an outstanding student, adjusting to the pressure of exams, and determining an appropriate career direction results in stress for college students.
To sum up, accommodating to new surroundings, being short of financial support, and becoming outstanding students cause college students to feel stressed.It is quite clear that succeeding in finishing a whole college course is a challenge for college students. Although getting good grades and preserving a good standing are enormously important for every college student, maintaining an appropriate attitude toward college life is quite imperative for college students, also. After all, attending college and university are only the first important challenges in their lifetime. They will encounter more difficulties in the future. Park and Fenster (2004) state that adjusting to a better psychological condition and mastering how to adapt to stress are beneficial for people’s growth (p. 212). As a consequence, when experiencing stress, students need to analyze first why they feel stressed and then seek some useful methods to conquer it. Thus, after graduating, they will face the future in a more leisurely and efficient manner.
References
Adams, J.D. (Ed.). (1980). Understanding and managing stress: A book of readings.
San Diego, CA: University Associates. Competition among college students: Concerning grades. (1998). Retrieved Nov. 15, 2006, from Greener, J. (2005).The students’ perspective on tuition fees.College Quarterly, 8,
Retrieved Nov. 30, 2006, from Johnston, S. (2003). College life: Meet people and make new friends. Retrieved Nov. 29, 2006, from
Michie, F., Glachan, M., & Bray, D. (2001, December). An evaluation of factors influencing academic self-concept, self-esteem, and academic stress for direct and re-entry students in higher education. Educational Psychology, 21(4), http://www.ukassignment.org/uklunwen/455-472. Retrieved Nov. 15, 2006, from Academic Search Premier database.
NYU Child Study Center. (2001). Transition to college: Separation and change for
parents and students. Retrieved Nov. 15, 2006, from Park, C.L., &Fenster, J. R. (2004, April). Stress-related growth: Predictors of occurrence and correlates with psychological adjustment. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23 (2), 195-215. Retrieved Nov. 15, 2006, from #p#分页标题#e# Academic Search Premier database.
Toft, D., & Swartz, S. (Eds.) (2006). Becoming a master student. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
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