Running head: EFFECTS OF STRESS ON STUDENTS 1

Effects of Stress on Students

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Institution
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Introduction

Students in high schools and other educational facilities are subjected to a wide range of

normative stressors. Among the most significant stressors affecting the performance of students

in high schools and tertiary education, setting include day to day hustle and balancing school

work and home chores. Various studies carried out indicate learning and academic performance

are significant sources of stress among students. According to Saqib & Rehman (2018), student

performance is directly affected by the health of the student and anxiety towards school work.

Anxiety about schoolwork, homework, mathematics, and tests bears adverse effects on students.

The study aims at testing the impact of academic-related stress on student’s academic

achievement. The study will also test how academic stressors contribute to high rates of school

dropout. Even though stress affects the overall performance of students, male and female

students are affected differently. The study will base its arguments on a hypothesis that stressed

students perform worse on math tests than students who are not stressed because stress

negatively affects students' performance. It is expected that the study will expose investigators to

a better understanding of how education stressors affect student performance.

Stress is a body reaction to changes that require a living organism to adjust. When subjected to

stressful situations, the body reacts with emotional, physical, and mental emotions. In most

cases, stressors compromise the level of concentration among students, a fact, in turn,

jeopardizes the level of grasping academic concepts. According to arguments presented by

Yerkes-Dodson law, stress negatively affects the level of performance in a student.

Psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dillingham invented Yerkes-Dodson law in 1908. The

two psychologists experimented and discovered that subjecting rats to slight electric shocks

motivated them to complete a maze. A greater electric shock, however, decreased the
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performance of the rats. Similar scenarios are evident in a student and other human beings whose

level of performance is jeopardized by stress. The law concludes that performance and arousal

are directly linked in that increasing arousal to certain levels increases performance, but upon

attaining optimal performance level, arousal compromises performance (Cherry, 2017). Stress

affects college students in three ways that, in turn, affects their performance. These effects

include 1) decreasing the quality of sleep, 2) making the students angrier, and 3) worsening

grades of the students (Shankar & Park, 2016).

Objectives of the study

i. To find out the extent to which student's stress relates to their math grade scores

ii. To determine the connection between student’s stress levels and their mental adjustments.

iii. To establish the link between student performance in math and psychological adjustment.

iv. To differentiate the effects of stress on academic performance on male and female

students.

Variables

Variables in a study are items that have quantity or quality that varies. The study will use both

dependent and independent variables to test its hypothesis. The study will use age and gender as

its independent variable. A dependent variable is a thing that a researcher focuses on to note how

they respond to changes inflicted on the independent variable. The Independent variable is one

that is altered by a researcher (Kendra, 2019). Age and gender are perceived as independent

variables since they are not affected by other variables in a study. The dependent variable in the

study will include students' scores, psychological adjustment, and academic performance.

Explained variables attracted the study because they show a direct effect on student performance.
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For instance, a student exposed to psychological stress at a tender age will suffer poor academic

performance than an elderly.

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References

Cherry, K. (2017). The yerkes-dodson law and performance. Verywell. Retrieved.

Kendra Cherry (September 29, 2019). Dependent Variable in Experiments. Retrieved from

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-dependent-variable-2795099

Saqib, M., & Rehman, K. U. (2018). Impact of Stress on Students Academic Performance at

Secondary School Level at District Vehari. International Journal of Learning and

Development, 8(1), 84-93.

Shankar, N. L., & Park, C. L. (2016). Effects of stress on students' physical and mental health

and academic success. International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, 4(1),

5-9.