A Co Relational Study on Academic Stress and Self-Esteem of students from Higher Secondary Schools of Guwahati city

Hiranmayee Sarma; Bibi Bordoloi

doi:10.4103/2231-1505.262449

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Year : 2018 | Volume : 15 | Issue : 2 | Page : 4-12

A Co Relational Study on Academic Stress and Self-Esteem of students from Higher Secondary Schools of Guwahati city

Hiranmayee Sarma¹, Bibi Bordoloi²
¹ Lecturer, Arya Nursing College, Guwahati, Assam, India
² Professor, Regional College of Nursing, Guwahati, Assam, India

Date of Web Publication

9-Jul-2019

Correspondence Address:

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None

DOI: 10.4103/2231-1505.262449

Abstract

Higher secondary school stage is a stage of human development of the students that occurs between childhood and adulthood. Some sensitive factors like physical, mental, family, school, relationship and social factors influence on the students while learning. All people have minimum stress but excessive stress may cause anxiety and it’s harmful for health. A co relational Study on Academic Stress and Self-Esteem among Higher Secondary Students in selected Schools of Guwahati City, Assam, India was conducted. Descriptive Co relational research design was used for the study and it was conducted on 250 students selected by using ‘multi-stage random sampling technique’ from five randomly selected Government Higher Secondary Schools of Guwahati city, Assam. Data were collected by using ‘Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents’ (ESSA) and ‘Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale’. Results: Findings of the study revealed that out of 250 students, 169 students (67.6%) had moderate level of stress, 41 students (16.4%) had low level of stress and 40 students (16.0%) had high level of stress. Also that 177 students (70.8%) had moderate level of self-esteem, 37 students (14.8%) had low level of self-esteem and 36 students (14.4%) had high level of self-esteem. It was found that the level of academic stress and the level of self-esteem were negatively correlated with one another with r = -0.165 (P=0.004, <0.05) at .05 level of significance. Conclusion: Therefore, appropriate strategies for ‘stress management’ are highly recommended.

Keywords: Higher secondary students, academic stress, self-esteem

How to cite this article:
Sarma H, Bordoloi B. A Co Relational Study on Academic Stress and Self-Esteem of students from Higher Secondary Schools of Guwahati city. Indian J Psy Nsg 2018;15:4-12

How to cite this URL:
Sarma H, Bordoloi B. A Co Relational Study on Academic Stress and Self-Esteem of students from Higher Secondary Schools of Guwahati city. Indian J Psy Nsg [serial online] 2018 [cited 2023 Mar 28];15:4-12. Available from: https://www.ijpn.in/text.asp?2018/15/2/4/262449

Background of the Study

Stress may be viewed as an individual’s reaction to any change that requires an adjustment or response, which can be physical, mental or emotional. A stressor is a biological, psychological, social, or chemical factor that causes physical or emotional tension and may be a factor in the etiology of certain illness^[1]. Higher secondary school stage is a stage of human development of the students by skill development through proper education that occurs between childhood and adulthood. Some sensitive factors like physical, mental, family, school, relationship and social factors influence on the students while learning^[2]. Teenagers especially those who are students always face learning problems, career management and also problems in solving personal and social matters. Students are starting to shift from a life that is dependent on others to a life that needs them to release the dependency and start carrying their own responsibilities^[3]. Coopersmith SA (1967)^[4] defines ‘self-esteem is a set of attitudes and beliefs that a person brings with him or herself when facing the world’. Self-esteem is one’s more or less sustained sense of liking oneself. Self-esteem refers to the degree of regard or respect that individuals have for them and is a measure of worth that they place on their abilities and judgments. Self-esteem is an emotional component that is essential for psychological survival^[1].

Adolescence can be a stressful time for children, parents and adults who work with teens. Many also worry about moving from a middle or junior high school to secondary school level. Adolescents experience a spectrum of stress ranging from ordinary to severe. Long term exposure to stress is associated with a variety of chronic psychological and physiological illness in addition to smoking; drug abuse and high risk sexual behavior^[2]. Academic stress is the major source of stress among adolescents and it may lead to low self-esteem. Many psychological problems such as depression and suicide occur as a result of low self-esteem. Main stress sources of children in the period of primary and secondary education can be summarized as: Parental pressure, inter-personal difficulties between the family and adolescent, physical and mental health problems It is stated in literature that the students who effectively overcome their stress use self-confident and optimistic approaches, and the ones who cannot overcome use indulging and desperate approaches of emotion-oriented methods more often. Adolescent’s point averages of active coping with stress and unconfident and desperate approach are similar ^[5].

Objectives of the Study

To assess the level of academic stress among higher secondary students in selected schools of Guwahati city.
To assess the level of self-esteem among higher secondary students in selected schools of Guwahati city.
To find out the correlation between academic stress and self-esteem among higher secondary students in selected schools of Guwahati city.
To find out the association between academic stress of higher secondary students with selected demographic variables, viz. age, gender, education of parents, type of family, birth order, number of siblings, occupation of parents etc.
To find out the association between self-esteem of higher secondary students with selected demographic variables, viz. age, gender, education of parents, type of family, birth order, number of siblings, occupation of parents etc.

Operational Definitions

Academic stress: According to Oxford Dictionary, ‘academic’ means Relating to an educational or scholarly institution or environment. According to Townsend MC1, ‘Stress may be defined as an individual’s reaction to any change that requires an adjustment or response, which can be physical, mental or emotional’. In the present study, ‘academic stress’ refers to mentally or physically stressful condition of the higher secondary school students as assessed by ‘Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents (ESSA)'.

Self-esteem: According to Townsend MC1, ‘Self-esteem refers to the degree of regard or respect that individuals have for them and is a measure of worth that they place on their abilities and judgments’.In the present study, ‘self-esteem’ refers to the degree of regard or respect that the higher secondary students have for themselves, the measure of worth that they place on their abilities and judgments, measured by ‘Rosenberg self-esteem scale’.

Higher Secondary students: In the present study, higher secondary students refer to the first year and second year higher secondary students studying in the selected Government higher secondary schools of Guwahati city irrespective of gender and stream (Science, Arts Or Commerce).

Selected Socio-Demographic Variables: It refers to the demographic variables age, gender, education of parents, type of family, birth order, numbers of siblings and occupation of parents.

Hypotheses

H1: There is significant correlation between the academicstress and self-esteem among higher secondary students at 0.05 level of significance.

H2: There is significant association between the level of academic stress with selected demographic variables at 0.05 level of significance.

H3: There is significant association between the level of self-esteem with selected demographic variables at 0.05 level of significance.

Review of Literature

In a comparative study (2014)6 on ‘Self Esteem and Stress among Private and Government High School Students’ in Karnataka, India among 60 High School Students (private 30 and government 30). Results revealed that students from government and private schools don’t have any difference on self esteem and stress. Students from both schools had low level of stress and normal level of self-esteem. 15 % students had good control over on stress, majority of students (63.3%) had low level of stress, 20% of respondents had medium level of stress and only 1.7% had high level stress. In another (2012)7 study on ‘Self-Esteem and Academic Stress among Nursing Students’ in Kathmandu, Nepal The results revealed that nearly 78% students had low self esteem and 74% had high academic stress. Significant variable for high academic stress and low self esteem were lower the age, lower the education and low perceived family support. Lower financial support had also high academic stress. In a study (2015)8 conducted on ‘Impact of Stress, Self-Esteem and Gender Factor on Students’ Academic Achievement’ among 300 students from different private universities of Karachi, Pakistan revealed that significant negative correlation exists between stress and level self-esteem of the participants. It also shows the GPA is not correlated with the levels of self-esteem of these students. The findings revealed that self-esteem and stress are strongly correlated with each other but gender has no significant impact on students’ GPA, level of stress and self-esteem of the surveyed students.

A Comparative Study on Learning Stress and Academic Self-Concept: A Small Town vs. a Metropolitan City’ by in South Korea was conducted (2015)9 The subjects of this study were a total of 313 elementary school students from both Small Town and Metropolitan City schools were examined for academic stress resulting from learning English. The results show that the students living in the small town had a higher level of stress than those in the metropolitan city, and the differences in all three factors of learning stress were statistically significant. Unlike the small town students, students in the metropolitan city received a constant support for learning English. A co relational study on academic stress and self-esteem among higher secondary students’ in Udupi, Karnataka (2013)10. Research design adopted for the study was co relational survey design. The study was conducted among 96 higher secondary students conveniently selected from Udupi district. The study found that 80.20% students have moderate stress, 13.5% have mild stress and 6.2% have severe stress. Among the subjects 82.30% were having normal self – esteem and 6.2% were having low self-esteem. Significant but low negative relationship is found between academic stress and self-esteem. A study was conducted (2010)11 on ‘Stress and academic self esteem in primary school children who applied to the hospital: in Turkey’ among 241 primary school children between ages 8-13 years and applied to two public hospitals in Ankara region. Results showed a significant difference between self-esteem points of students in terms of educational levels of parents. It is understood that academic self esteem points of students, who are between ages 11-13, are higher than the students who are between ages 8-10. The result of correlation analysis shows that there is a medium-level, significant and negative relation between stress level factors and academic self esteem level factors of the students.

Methodology

The Research approach and Research design

‘Quantitative Descriptive Survey approach’ and ‘Descriptive Co relational research design’ were selected for the study as they were found to be the most suitable for studying the problem under study.

Study setting

The present study was conducted in Guwahati city, Assam. Setting of the study was selected Government Higher Secondary Schools of Guwahati city. In Guwahati there were 24 Government Higher Secondary Schools, out of which 5 schools were selected by using ‘Simple Random sampling’ (Lottery method). Schools were namely: Cotton Collegiate Govt. HS School, Panbazar, Arya Bidyapeeth HS School, Gopinath Nagar, TC Govt. Girls HS School, Guwahati, Ulubari HS School, Ulubari and Kamrup Academy HS School, Guwahati Club.

Study Population

The population of the study was the higher secondary students (class XI and XII), studying in the five randomly selected Government Higher Secondary schools of Guwahati city, irrespective of gender and stream (science, arts or commerce). The total population was found to be 1122 Higher Secondary students. The study population is shown in the following table

Table 1: Study Population

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Sample and Sample size

The sample size in the present study was 250 higher secondary students of the five randomly selected Higher Secondary schools, comprising 22% of the total accessible population (1122).

Sampling technique:

A multi-stage random sampling technique was used for the selection of samples in the present study.

Stage 1: Out of 24 Government schools of Guwahati city, 5 schools (21%) were selected by using ‘Simple Random sampling (Lottery Method)'.

Stage 2: The total numbers of students studying in Higher Secondary 1st year and 2nd year from the selected 5 schools were collected. Total population was found to be 1122, out of which 250 students (22% of the total population) were drawn as sample size.

Finally, the desired subjects were drawn randomly (Lottery method) in proportionate numbers from each class of each school by using ‘Proportionate Stratified Random Sampling Technique’ [Table 2].

Table 2: Sampling Technique

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Criteria for sample selection

□ Inclusion criteria: All higher secondary students irrespective of gender and stream (science, arts or commerce). Students those were willing to participate in the study.
□ Exclusion criteria: Students who were acutely ill during the period of data collection.

The Variables

The variables of the present study were -

Research variables:
1. Academic stress as assessed by ‘Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents (ESSA)' and
2. Level of self-esteem as assessed by ‘Rosenberg self-esteem scale’.
Socio-Demographic variables: Personal characteristics which include age, gender, education of parents, type of family, birth order, numbers of siblings and occupation of parents.

Description of tools

Data in the present study were collected by structured, self-administered questionnaire.

Part I - Demographic Performa

Demographic Performa was developed to collect back ground information of the subjects selected for the study. It consists of 8 items, which included age, gender, education of parents, type of family, birth order, numbers of siblings and occupation of parents.

Part II - Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents (ESSA)

Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents (ESSA) is a standardized questionnaire developed by Sun, Jiandong, Dunne, Michael P., Hou, Xiang-Yu, &Xu, Ai-qiang (2011). It consists of 16 items expressed in the form of statements. Each item has 5 alternatives on a Likert scale: strongly agree, agree, uncertain, disagree and strongly disagree with the scoring of 5, 4, 3,2 and 1 respectively.

Interpretation of the scale:

Low level of stress : < Mean – Standard deviation

Moderate level of stress: (Mean – Standard deviation) to (Mean + Standard deviation)

High level of stress : > Mean + Standard deviation

Part III - Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale

Rosenberg self esteem scale is a standardized scale developed by Rosenberg (1965), it consists of ten items. Each item has 4 alternatives on a Likert scale: strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree with the scoring of 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively. Items 2, 5, 6, 8 and 9 are reversed scored.

Interpretation of the scale:

Low level of self-esteem: < Mean – Standard deviation

Moderate level of self-esteem: (Mean – Standard deviation) to (Mean + Standard deviation)

High level of self-esteem: > Mean + Standard deviation

Results

Characteristics of the Subjects

The socio-demographic characteristics included were-age, gender, religion, education of parents, type of family, birth order, number of siblings and occupation of parents. Subjects were described in frequency and percentages. The results reveal that majority of the study samples 215 (86%) were within the age group 15-17 years, 34(13.6%) were in the age group of 18-20 years and only 1 (0.4%) were above 20 years. Majority of students were female (55.2%) and 44.8% were male. 184 students (73.6%) were Hindu, 63 students (25.2%) were Muslim, 3 students (1.2%) were from other religion and none were from Christian religion. It was found that 115 fathers (46%) were educated from primary to class X, 81 fathers (32.4%) were educated from class X to graduation, 37 fathers (14.8%) was illiterate and only 17 fathers (6.8%) were educated up to graduation or above. On the other hand, 139 mothers (55.6%) were educated from primary to class X, 67 mothers (26.8%) were educated from class X to graduation, 38 mothers (15.2%) were illiterate and only 6 mothers (2.4%) were educated up to graduation and above. 200 students (80%) were from nuclear family and 50 students (20%) were from joint family. 108 students (43.2%) were the 1st child of their parents, 82 students (32.8%) were 2nd child, 48 students (19.2%) were 3rd child and only 12 students (4.8%) were from other birth orders. Results also reveal that 106 students (42.4%) had two siblings, 67 students (26.8%) had one sibling, 44 students (17.6) had more than two siblings and only 33 students (13.2%) had no siblings. In case of occupation of parents, 130 fathers (52.2%) work in Government sector, 53 fathers (21.1%) work in Private sector, 45 fathers (18.2%) were self-employed and only 22 fathers (8.5%) were unemployed; 139 mothers (55.6%) work in Govt. sector, 67 mothers (26.8%) work in private sectors, 38 mothers (15.2%) were unemployed and only 6 mothers (2.4%) were self-employed.

Level of Academic Stress among Higher Secondary Students

The academic stress was assessed by a scale named ‘Educational Stress Scale for Adolescents (ESSA)' (2011).

The data presented in [Table 3] reveals that out of 250 students, 169 students (67.6%) had moderate level of stress, 41 students (16.4%) had low level of stress and 40 students (16.0%) had high level of stress.

Table 3: Distribution of the Subjects according to the Level of Academic Stress n=250

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Section III: Levels of Self-Esteem among Higher Secondary Students

The academic stress was assessed by a scale named ‘Rosenberg self esteem scale’ (1965).

The data presented in [Table 4] reveals that out of 250 students, majority, i.e. 177 students (70.8%) had moderate level of self-esteem, 37 students (14.8%) had low level of self-esteem and 36 students (14.4%) had high level of self-esteem.

Table 4: Distribution of the Subjects according to the Levels of Self-Esteem n=250

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Correlation between Academic Stress and Self-Esteem among Higher Secondary Students

This section presents the findings on the correlation between Academic Stress and Self-Esteem among Higher Secondary Students. For statistical testing, the ‘Karl Pearson’s Co relation Coefficient’ was computed at 0.05 level of significance.

As given in [Table 5] that the relationship between the level of academic stress and the level of self-esteem. It was found that the relationship between the levels of Academic Stress and the levels of Self-Esteem was r = -0.165, P=0.004 and so it was found to be highly significant P=0.004 (<0.01). Thus it can be concluded that there is significant correlation between academic stress and self-esteem and as the calculated ‘r’ value was found negative, academic stress and self-esteem were found to be negatively correlated with each other.

Table 5: Correlation between academic stress and self-esteem n=250

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Association between level of academic stress with selected socio-demographic variables

To determine the association between the level of academic stress of higher secondary students with selected socio-demographic variables, the ‘Chi-square test’ was computed. The findings are presented in [Table 6].

Table 6: The association between levels of academic stress of with selected socio-demographic variables n=250

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As given in [Table 7] that that the level of self-esteem is independent of gender, religion, education of parents, type of family, birth order, numbers of siblings, occupation of father and occupation of mother. On the other hand, a significant association was found between level of self-esteem and age only.

Table 7: Association between levels of self-esteem with selected socio-demographic variables n=250

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Discussion

The findings of the present study reveal that there is a highly significant negative correlation with r= -0.165, P=0.004 (<0.05) between the level of academic stress and the level of self-esteem among higher secondary students. This finding is of similar kind with another study conducted by Farhan S and Khan I (2015)8 which revealed that there was significant negative correlation between stress and self-esteem among the students. Another study conducted by Erturguta P and Erturgutb R (2010)11 which revealed that that there is a medium-level, significant and negative relation between stress level factors and self esteem level factors of the students. Nikitha S, Tessy TJ, Valsaraj BP (2013)10 showed a low negative relationship between academic stress and self-esteem.

Recommendations

Recommendations for future study

Evidence from this study contributes to the nursing science and has implications to nursing practice. Stress among students should be carefully monitored and effectively managed to prevent deleterious effects of stress on their physical as well as mental health. Nursing interventions should be adopted in order to reduce stress.
Nursing interventions may be implemented to improve the self-esteem of the students. Several health teachings on ‘improvement of self-esteem’ may be given to the students through school health problems.
Student nurses can be taught regarding stress, various stressor, stress management techniques, techniques for improving self-esteem etc, so as to prepare them to create awareness regarding stress and self-esteem among different students from other areas.

References

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