INTRODUCTION

Stress is a common issue faced by individuals and it is a feeling of

being under pressure, in which pressure turns into stress when one
is unable to cope with it. It depends on the individual how they
manage stress as some may take stress as a source of pushing
themselves to do something new or difficult, whereas too much of
stress could lead to serious implications. This research, the author
has a research question which is “How much does stress affect a
student’s academic performance at Lancaster University ?” and this
research enables the author to carry out a primary research in
Lancaster University to produce a conclusion that would answer the
research question.

LITERATURE REVIEW

According to Fink (2010), the author expresses stress as a

“perception of threat, with resulting anxiety discomfort and
emotional tension”. However, it is written in his literature that stress
has various meanings for different people under different conditions.
Whereas, Mills (2005) suggests there is a difference between
eustress which is a term for positive stress and distress which is
negative stress and has its own characteristics.
Besides that, Bulo (2014) has described that university students are
exposed to many problems from family,financial, and the social
environment. In contrast, Redhwan (2009) in his paper states that it
is not only stressors that cause stress but also the individuals
perception and emotional reaction to it that causes stress.
This research mainly looks at the causes of stress in a students life
and leads to investigating the research question which is “How much
does stress affect a students academic performance at Lancaster
University”
In conclusion, the review of literature leaves an unanswered question
which is to what extent does stress affect academic performance and
this guides to the research question which is to investigate “How
much does stress affect a student’s academic performance at
Lancaster University”.

AIMS AND METHODOLOGY

In this research project, the study is aimed at gathering data on how
much does stress affect a student’s academic performance. To
conduct this research, questionnaires were used as a method of
collecting primary data. This method was chosen to collect
qualitative and quantitative data as results are easy to analyse and
university students are familiar with it. The research was carried out
on 2nd July-3rd July 2016 which was a weekend as it was easy to
approach students on campus. Participants for research were
approached at Alexandra Square, Lancaster University as many
students are easily approachable.Hence, 20 students were
approached and given the questionnaire to fill in. The results were
later on compiled and used as part of this research project.

Results & Discussions

Figure 1 : In what ways does stress affect students?

Ways stress affect students

Health
Lifestyle 5%
15%

Emotions
35%
Academic
Performance
45%

Figure 1 shows the various ways stress could affect students.

45% of participants have responded that academic performance is
one major area that is affected by stress. Whereas, another 35% of
participants feel that their emotions are easily affected. Other areas
responded to have affected students is lifestyle and health.
As demonstrated, the area that majority of participants responded to
have affected them is Academic Performance. A student’s academic
performance is seen to be easily affected when one is unable to
manage stress and amount of pressure they encounter. As a result of
stress, a student may perform poorly in examinations and in result
makes their academic performance to be affected drastically.

This findings seems to incorporate with Akgun (2010) where the

author stated that stress would have a negative effect on academic
performance as it infuses the life of student and result in an adverse
impact.

Figure 2: How often do you feel nervous and “stressed” when it comes
to academic performance

Frequency of stress when it comes

to academic performance
Never
0%

Sometimes
30% Very often
45%

Fairly often
25%
Figure 2 above is a pie chart which illustrates the percentage of
students on how often they feel stressed when it comes to academic
performance.

A majority of students which is 45% of the participants had

responded that they feel stressed very often when it comes to
academic performance and this in result shows how much stress is
playing a role in affecting students academic performance as the
result of being nervous and stressed in any situation would lead to a
negative effect. Another 25% feel nervous fairly often whereas a
balance of 30% felt that they only experience this feeling sometimes.

In conclusion, Rosenbaum (1990) expressed that students may feel

very anxious in examinations if they are less resourceful in
minimising the effects of stress on their performance. Hence this
links to Figure 2, where the majority of participants feel stressed
very often and in which it implies that students are not highly
resourceful in minimising the feeling of being over pressured. The
remainder of respondents can be classified as resourceful to a certain
extent as they are able to manage stress and not feel nervous very
often as compared to the majority.

Figure 3 : Why do students feel stressed out?

 Reasons students feel stressed
out
Excess
Assignments/C
ourseworks
20%
Health Issues Examinations
0% 40%
Family issues
10%

Relationships Peer pressure

25% 5%

In Figure 3, the pie chart depicts the number of students that had
responded to an interesting question of the research which is why do
they feel stressed out.

A majority of respondents which is 40% felt that the fear of

examinations is a cause of stress in their lives. Feeling stressed due to
facing examinations and the process of preparing for examinations is
indeed a stressful experience according to these participants. Besides
that, 25% of respondents find that relationships are another reason
to why they feel stressed and this could also affect their academic
performance to a certain extent. To support this, Mills (2005)
illustrated that any conflict in relationships or any issues of this sort
is a form of personal stressor that can lead to distress among
students and in which could affect their academic performance.
Elsewhere, 20% of respondents feel that excess amount of
assignments and coursework contributes to the stress they have and
in spite of that the students have to also study well for their
examinations. Family issues and peer pressure is also seen as other
stressors among participants but has the least amount of
contribution towards stress faced by them.

In conclusion, the results obtained shows that stress does affect the
majority of the respondents in terms of their academic performance.
In contrary, Siraj (2014) stated that many previous research has
found a significant relation between stress and academic
achievement. Therefore, it can be concluded it entirely depends on
how a student perceives stress and acts upon it as it could either
affect performance or motivate a student to achieve.

Figure 4 : Is stress a major issue in your academic performance?

Is stress a major issue?

Yes, 15
16
14
12
10
8
No, 5
6
4
2 Maybe, 0
0
Yes No Maybe

Figure 4 represents the number of students that think stress is a

major issue in their academic performance. It is evident that more
than half of the participants agree that stress is a major issue faced by
them in their academic performance.

Stress affects us in various ways and many implications can be

developed from it. From the graph, out of 20 Lancaster University
students that were approached for the research, 15 responded that
stress is a major issue in their academic performance and see it as a
potential peril to their poor performance. However, 5 out of 20
responded that their performance is not affected by stress. This
implies that these students are highly resourceful and can turn stress
into a positive motivation to achieve better academic performance.

In conclusion, stress is a major issue in a student’s academic

performance based on the data compiled nevertheless the academic
performance of a student relies upon how much a student is affected
by stress and how he or she manages to react to it.
Conclusion
Commentary

Based on the results compiled, it is evident that stress occurs among

students and poses to be a serious issue among university students. If
stress is not managed in an effective way, it could develop an adverse
effect on students, especially in their academic performance. On the
contrary, stress could also help a student to motivate themselves and
improve their academic performance and this is possible if a student
is high in learned resourcefulness as illustrated by Akgun (2010). To
conclude, this research has not been able to give a definite answer to
the research question, although the findings suggest that stress does
affect a student’s academic performance to a certain extent.
Limitations

In this research, a definite answer to the research question could not

be developed due to the limitations encountered. Among the
limitations of this particular research are the location and sample
size. This research was only refined to students of Lancaster
Univeristy and a better findings would be able to be collected if the
area for research was widened to other universities or cities. Also,
the sample size in this research is small as only 20 students were
queried, thus a bigger sample size would provide better data to be
analysed. Besides that, another limitation to the research was that
only one method was used, which is a questionnaire. Hence, the
number of questions used was limited and better questions could
have been used in the questionnaire to collect better response from
participants.
Recommendations

Given the limitations of this research project, a need for a future

research is highly recommended as the research question is still yet
to be answered with a clear and definite stance. Thus, by considering
the limitations in this research, a future research would be able to
provide and answer how much stress really affect a student’s
academic performance.