Are Academic Demands Causing You to Lose Control?
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Stress contributes to many health problems in college students and can be caused by the academic demands placed on them by the college or university. Many have researched stress caused by academic demands and it has become an important topic in academic circles(Ongori and Agolla, 2009). Academic institutions have a different structure than compared to non-academic settings, and therefore one expects differences in symptoms, causes, and consequences of stress.
A study was conducted at the University of Botswana among 320 undergraduate college students. This study investigated the symptoms and stressors that are experienced by students. This study discovered that 88% of students reported experiencing anxiety or stress more than once at a University. 81% of students reported that the academic workload was stressful and 66% of students felt that poor performance in their classes made them feel stressed out.
Evidence has shown that students are experiencing higher levels of stress due to intensive academic workload, the knowledge base required, and inadequate time to develop it. Students have reported that the greatest source of academic stress comes from taking tests, grade competition, and mastering large amounts of information in a short period of time. The stress that is caused from these academic demands can disrupt the internal and external environment of the body of a college student. These academic demands heighten stress and can cause sleep disturbance, which result in physical stress placed on the body. Physical stress forced on the body can cause muscle strain, joint imbalance, and soft-tissue stresses.
A fear of failure or achievement anxiety in an academic setting causes major stress among college students. This fear is place on the student by their parents, teachers, or themselves. The stress occurs when the students feel the academic expectations placed on them exceeds what the student can actually achieve. Psychosocial stress is high among college students because they have to adjust to a new academic environment without the support from their families, siblings, and high school friends.
Institutions worldwide have not taken steps to understand how the academic demands of colleges are causing high-level stress for students (Ongori and Agolla, 2009). This is because students are only at the university for a short period time and their stress has little impact on the activities and operations of the college. Also colleges feel that student stress has no direct correlation with the education that the students get((Ongori and Agolla, 2009). This is a major issue because unless the demand is reduced among students, the stress that results will have an effect on the student’s health and can compromise the quality of education that the student receives.