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Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

To be able to understand this study, this chapter present some studies and literature which

contains relevant information that are important to the subject matter. It is mainly composed of

two parts, the related literature and related studies that are from local and foreign studies.

Related Literature

Academic Stress

Stress is typically defined in two categories, short-term and long term. Stress is

experienced for a short period of time and is usually caused by a traumatic event. Acute stress is

sometimes considered as beneficial and can create motivation. Its study further provides an

example where a student is approaching a deadline, which is causing the student stress. The

stress that is caused due to this deadline is considered good because it is temporary and hence

helps the student to focus and complete their task before the given time. A student being stressed

during an examination is a very common depiction. Some of the symptoms by which stress is

identified include a headache, shortness of breath, and dizziness. A certain amount of acute stress

can be seen among everyone and student are no exception. (Seki, 2002).

Stressed children show signs of emotional disabilities, aggressive behavior, shyness,

social phobia and often lack interest in otherwise enjoyable activities. According to Dawood

(1995) he revealed that students’ stress affects their academic performance. He further showed

that the most frequently mentioned stressor by students was school and fear related stressors.

Many teenagers tend to become non-conformist and fall prey to teenage depression in response

to a variety of growing up anxieties.

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Broadly speaking, “a student’s life is subjected to different kinds of stressors, such as the

pressure of academics with an obligation of success, uncertain future and difficulties envisaged

for integration into the system” (Shaikh, 2004) but exactly, what is meant by academic stress?

According to MacGeorge, Samter and Gillihan (2005), it is a mental and emotional pressure,

tension, or stress that occurs due to the demands of college life (as cited in DeDeyn, 2008).

Similarly, Wilks (2008) believes that “academic stress is the product of a combination of

academic-related demands that exceed the adaptive resources available to an individual”.

Academic stressors also include the student's perception of the extensive knowledge

base required and the perception of an inadequate time to develop it (Carveth,

1996). Students report experiencing academic stress at predictable times, each semester

with the greatest sources of academic stress resulting from talking and studying for

exams, grade competition and to master the large amount of content in a small amount

of time (Abouserie, 1994).

Gunnar (1998), defined the explanation of academic stress is the anxiety and stress that

comes from schooling and education. There is regularly a lot of compressions that comes along

with following a degree and one's education. There is studying homework, tests, labs, reading,

and quizzes. There is the stress of doing all of the work, balancing the time and finding time for

extra-curricular activities. Academic stress is particularly hard on school students who are often

living away from home for the first time. Its study show that teachers expect work to be

completed on time. Students may miscalculate the amount of time it takes to complete reading

and writing tasks, to print out replicas of their work. Stress and its displays, such as stress,

depression, and tension, have always been seen as a common problem among people in different

businesses and occupations.

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Bisht (1989) defined academic stress as a demand related to academics that tax or exceed

the available resources (internal or external) as cognitively appeared by the student involved.

According to her, academic stress reflects perception of individual’s academic frustration,

academic conflict, academic pressure and academic anxiety. She has given the definition of four

components of academic stress as follows: Academic Frustration: - Academic frustration is a

state caused by harm of some academic goals. Academic Conflict: - Academic Conflict is the

result of two or more qua] hut in compatible response tendencies to academic goals. Academic

Pressure: - When the student is under heavy demands of time and energy to meet academic goals.

And Academic Anxiety: - Apprehension of harm to some academic goals.

Academic stress pervades the life of students and tends to impact adversely their mental

and physical health, and their ability to perform schoolwork effectively". (Clark and Rieker;

Felson and Wilcox,1992). There are difference cause of academic stress and here the following

(1) Academic Track (2) College admission (3) Students forced to change schools (4) Board (5)

Entrance Exams (6) Tuitions and Coaching Classes (7) Social Comparison (8) Exam (9)

Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (10) Teacher's Expectation. (11) Overs scheduling

(12) Parents Expectation.

Academic stress is an important factor accounting for variation in academic achievement.

Ghosh (2016) observed that students in private schools have more academic stress than their

counterparts in government schools (Prabhu,2015; Hussain, Kumar and Hussain,2008) and it was

also found that male participants experienced less academic stress than female participants

(Mathew,2006), but Prabhu (2015) found that academic stress of female participants is low than

male participants. It was also found that urban participant’s academic stress was higher than rural

participants. Barthwal and Raj (2014) investigated no significant difference between male and
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female adolescents with regard to academic stress (Busari, 2012). It was also found that rural and

urban adolescents did not differ in their academic stress. Lal (2014) investigated that government

and private secondary school students did not differ in academic stress.

Hussain, Kumar and Husain (2008) made a conclusion that “academic stress not only

impedes academic performance but also adjustment to a greater extent” and as early as 1985,

Whitman already believed that even personal growth requires some form of stress, the ability to

cope by a student can still be affected by the amount of stress especially when it is

overwhelming. But as concluded by Malik and Balda (2006), it is a requirement to fight stress to

survive and for Agolla and Ongori (2009), since students are regarded as future leaders, the

society is being denied of future leaders when there is something that interferes with their well-

being.

Peer Pressure

A peer group consists of people or individuals that are within ages that are close in years,

for instance between range of one to four years, the school serves as primary setting for the

membership of peer group, they may be in the same class, the same sex and close

interaction is of equals. It is generally observed that peer group has a lot of influence on students.

This is seen from the role played by the peer group in the life and learning of a child, it is

believed that students feel more comfortable and relaxed among fellow students. A child who is

brilliant and surrounded by dull friends would lose interest in learning. On the other hand, a peer

group which inclined to study would have positive effect on a dull member towards learning and

stimulate his/her interest on learning.

Katz (1960) wrote that the nature of a peer group determines the impact on the

motivation of and achievements of its member. The attractiveness of the group, the nature of
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conformity demanded by the group and the morals of the group determine whether a group is

likely to have positive or negative impact on members’ motivation and

achievement. If the atmosphere of the group is warm, understanding and supportive, the group

influence or motivation, task performance and achievement will most likely be positive. A hostile

atmosphere, constant frustration and frequent conflicts produce a negative impact not only on the

member’s growth and behavior but also on his motivation to work and achievement.

The kind of person a child is dictates the type of group he/she is in, as children tend to

imitate each other. Festigen (2006) also shares the same view that imitation of behavior in a

group occurs when a person acts in a way that is likely to be joined by the rest of the group.

Students who are playful but have academic traits should be encouraged to join a study inclined

group.

Grulund (1990) feel that acceptance by a peer group improved social relation. These have

beneficial effects on individual learning insecurity that arises from satisfying emotional tension

enables him to concentrate more on his assigned learning tasks. This indicates that acceptance by

the group may have positive effect on the child. A child who is not brilliant enough may do better

if he is accepted by a group that is inclined to study. It has been observed that a child learns more

easily within his peer group. Where he is wrong, he prefers to be corrected by a member of his

peer group than by the teacher.

Cressey (1992) found that peers were involved in the socialization of novices,

considerable sociable interactions and the maintenance of loose, unwritten code of conduct to be

followed by those who wished to remain in the group. This is more important to the secondary

school level. There are students who found to be dull in their primary school but became brilliant

in secondary school because of peer group influence. Dull students should be identified from
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playful students. Therefore, attention should be concentrated on students in their first three years

of secondary education as these are the most easily influenced by peer groups. This is because

most of the time these students do not have a set goal until they get to higher level when they are

faced with reality of subsequent examinations.

Academic performance is the educational aim that is achieved by a student, teacher or

institution achieves over a specific time. Academic performance depends on the school, teacher

and staff management. This is measured either by examinations or continuous assessments and

the goal may differ from an individual or institution to another. Especially teachers play the main

role in the academic achievement. Academic achievement is a period used in school when a

student does well in academic’s performance. Academic performance is the successes which

demand from parent’s family and friends. They achieve or do well in an area of the school and do

well in their studies. Academic performance is not only degree it is the identification of any

students. All the successes in every field of life depend on the academic achievement. The

academic performance of students seriously depends upon the parental involvement in their

academic activities and to achieving the advanced level of excellence in academic success

(Barnard, 2004).

Related Studies

The following paragraphs show the conducted study from different places which has a

relation to this study.

A number of studies have explored a relationship between stress and poor academic

performance (Clark & Rieker, 1986; Linn & Zeppa, 1984; Struthers, Perry & Menec,2000).
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Felsten and Wilcox (1992) found a significant negative correlation between the stress levels of

college students and their academic performance. Similarly, in a study, Blumberg and Flaherty

(1985) found an inverse relationship between self-reported stress level and academic

performance. Struthers (2000) also reported that a high level of academic stress was associated

with lower course grades. Students experience a high level of academic stress due to exams,

assignments, time pressure, grade pressure, and uncertainty. In summary, this stress has a

detrimental effect on their academic performance.

A study on the effect of stress on academic performance of students in different streams

by Aafreen, Priya, and Gayathri (2018). For many young adults, college and school are the best

time of life. These critical years can also be undermined by depression, anxiety, and stress.

Students who do not cope well with stress have a very drastic effect in their studies and behavior.

A sample of 80 students were asked to answer a survey prepared in online. The objective of the

study was to assess the stress among students of various professional colleges and its association

with various academic, social, and health-related factors. Based on the findings, students

studying in science stream had stress more compared to students studying in other streams. It

affects them mentally, physically, and emotionally. Students face anxiety and go in to depression

which later leads to decreased performance in academics. Above all, stress is the body’s reaction

to a challenge. This research can help us in finding the reason and the causes of stress thus

helping the students in finding a solution to their problems and help them enjoy their schooling

stress-free and tension-free.

Eremsoy, Celimi and Gencoz (2005) carried out a study to find out the associated

variables of depression and anxiety symptoms for young adults confronted with an academic

stress. Ninety-two graduate students, who were actively involved in preparing their thesis,
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participated in this study. Two regression analyses were conducted to see different variables

associated with depression and anxiety symptoms separately. Consistent with the expectations,

depression and anxiety had over lapping predictors, such as negative automatic thoughts and

hopelessness. However, adequacy of problem-solving abilities seemed to be associated with

anxiety symptoms.

Stress makes a significant contribution to the prediction of subsequent school

performance and act as a negative predictor of academic performance in school children (Ender,

1994) shows the components of Academic Stress Akbar Hussain. Ashutosh Kumar and Abid

Hussain in their finding that magnitude of academic stress among high school students was

found to be high particularly among the public school students. academic stress and overall

adjustment of students were inversely related to each other for both public school as well as

private school students. Private school students by and large stiffer from higher level of academic

stress than their government school counterparts.

Academic stress is a main source of stress for many students. In the study of Mr. Bijender

(2017) it examines the level of academic stress among higher secondary school students.

Descriptive research design was adopted and stratified random sampling was chosen for study. A

total sample of 180 students participated in this study were obtained from 10 higher secondary

schools at Bareilly district. The study revealed that there exists high significant difference

between the academic stress of male and female participants of higher secondary school students,

but no significant difference was found among academic stress of arts, science and commerce

stream students. It was also found that there was no significant difference between academic

stress of government aided & self-finance school students and rural & urban area school

students.
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Misra, McKean, West, and Russo (2000) examined perceptions of academic

stress among male and female college students, and compared faculty and student

perceptions of students' academic stress. The sample consisted of 249 students and 67

faculty members from a midwestern University. Mean age of the students and faculty

members were 21 years and 42 years respectively. Results indicated a considerable

mismatch between faculty and students in their perceptions of students' stressors and

reactions to stressors. The faculty members perceived the students to experience a higher

level of stress and to display reactions to stressors more frequently than the students

actually perceived. This could result simply from the faculty observing the students only

during their moments of stress in the classroom. Results also supported the hypotheses

that stress varied across year in school and by gender.

Struthers (2000) examined 203 college student’s academic coping style and emotional

factors, to measure their academic stress and performance. Student Coping Instrument (SCOPE)

was used to measure student coping style. The structural educational analysis showed problem

focus coping and motivation to be more effective in reducing academic stress and improving

course grades. Students having low course grades had greater academic stress. Thus, results

showed problem-focused coping helped students to be motivated and perform better.

Omotere (2011) conducted a research on the influence of peer group

on adolescents, selected schools in Ogun State. The study investigated the

influence of peer group on adolescent performance. Descriptive research

methodology was used. Random sampling techniques were also adopted in

selecting 150 in-school adolescents from four secondary schools in two local

Government Areas of Ogun State. Questionnaire was developed to collect

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data. The data collected was analyzed using t-test and Pearson. The findings

of the study revealed that peer group could positively influence the academic

performance of in-school adolescents. In line with present study parents and

teachers should provide adequate guidance to adolescents to help them

understand how the friends they keep can either positively or negatively

influence their academic performance in school. Also, in-adolescent should

relate with students that will influence them academically.

In the study of Deepika and Prema (2017) it aimed to analyze the relationship between

peer pressure and academic achievement of deviant students. Purposive random sampling

method was used to study the deviant students behavioral factor. The sample was drawn from the

population of 7546 students. There are 145 deviant students were taken as sample from classes

VI to XII about 2% of the entire population of the school. The result revealed that there is no

significant difference between male and female with respect to peer pressure and academic

achievement. Friends influence towards deviancy had privileged in the age group of 16-18 than

in other younger age groups. There is a negative correlation exists between peer pressure and

academic achievement and this study reveals that peer pressure plays a vital role in lowering of

achievement in academics.

The study of Ezzarrouki (2016) was about the Peer Influence on Academic Performance

of students. Wherein its motivation to the said study was to identify any change in the intensity

of peer influence on academic performance as a result of collectivism. It has been hypothesized

that peer influence should be greater due to the collectivistic cultural framework. Thirty students

from the Faculty Polydisciplinary of Ouarzazate have participated in this study. They have
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completed a questionnaire of two different scales. The results show significant changes in the

intensity of peer influence on academic performance which supports the research hypothesis.

Peer influence has been found to have a greater impact on the academic performance both

positively and negatively depending on the makeup of the group.