*Assistant
Professor, Department of Business Administration, Sarhad University of Science
and Information Technology Peshawar, Pakistan. Email: abbas.ba@suit.edu.pk
**MBA Student, Department
of Business Administration, Sarhad University of Science & Information
Technology Peshawar, Pakistan.
***Assistant
Professor, Institute of Management Sciences (IMS), University of Balochistan,
Quetta, Pakistan. Email: kamal.badar@um.uob.edu.pk
Abstract. This exploratory research aims
to shed light on the sources and consequences of stress of university students
of a private sector university of Peshawar, Pakistan. Studies on
stress reveal that the stressors though vary in different environments but
ultimately lead to physical (somatic) ill-health and even depression. The
students in educational institutions increasingly
face many stressors which may have negative impact on their physical and
psychological health. A sample of 100
students from a private sector university of Peshawar filled a structured
questionnaire. Results revealed that
most of our independent variables i.e. family problems, financial problems,
work overload and vulnerability to terrorism have a significant positive
relationship with somatic stress & depression. However, teachers’ support
did not reveal any significant relationship with both our dependent variables
i.e. somatic stress & depression. Stress management strategies at
primary, secondary and tertiary level have been recommended to help university
students in coping with the harmful effects of stress.
Key words: Students,
Family Problems, Financial Problems, Terrorism, Overload, Somatic Stress,
Depression
Introduction
Stress is the general term applied to the
pressure we feel in life and is almost inevitable in every walk of life however,
individual differences lead to wide range of reactions to stress for example a
task viewed as challenging by some individuals may produce high level of unease
in others (Newstrom & Davis, 2003). This unease may cause adverse strain on
a person’s emotions, and physical conditions and if it becomes excessive,
people may develop different symptoms of stress which can harm their health and
performance. Not only professionals, but a student life is also exposed to many
types of disturbing and stress creating events, although some of them are
necessary for success and growth, but others are really depressing and effects
health negatively (Fish & Nies, 1996) e.g. students’ financial & family
problems, work overload, lack of teachers support etc. As in the current world
situation, where terrorist networks are present and particularly where the
terrorists’ attacks have already taken place in educational institutions,
terrorism can be guessed as one of the significant stressors leading to stress
& depression. This study aimed to explore the linkage between different
sources & consequences of stress being faced by university students of Peshawar
(Kyber Pakhtunkhwa), a province of Pakistan where the educational institutes
have been prone to terrorism during last two years. In this context, through
this research we aim to present some suggestions in the form of recommendations
particularly for the higher education administration, which has a pivotal role
of facilitating all the functions of any organization to assure the
implementation of policies in true letter and spirit (Nas, Rahman & Rahman,
2015).
Stress & Stressors
The dictionaries define stress as the negative
feelings between individuals or groups that encounter unfavorable and
uncomfortable situation which the other way round means that those who
experience stress will have difference in their thoughts and experiences (D
'Zurilla & Sheedy, 1991). As far as stressor is concerned, Feng (1992)
defined it as something that confronts with the ability of anyone and may have
physical (somatic stress) or mental effects (depression) on an individual. The
psychological factors, environmental factors, societal factors and biological
factors are causes of stress. There are many experts who think of stress as the
pressures in the world that produce emotional discomfort however others feel
that emotional discomfort is the stress that is caused by pressures or
conditions called stressors. A stress or pressure can have a positive or
negative effect on an individual, dependent on the ability, strength and
determination of the stress, the individual’s personality traits and social support
(Abbas, et al., 2014).
Stress is not static but considered as a
dynamic condition in which people are faced with an opportunity or demand
related to what they desire, and for which the results is perceived to be
uncertain and important (Robbins, 2001). There are many experts who think of
stress as the pressures in the world that produce emotional discomfort however
others feel that emotional discomfort is the stress that is caused by pressures
or conditions called stressors thus the concept of stress is very difficult to
define in specific terms, manifest itself in both negative and positive way.
Students’ Stress: Sources & Consequences
Dealing with
stressors among university students and other
professionals as well have been the focus of a many studies previously emerging
from the English-speaking countries (Bédeian & Amenakis, 1981) and, then
recently from the French-speaking countries (Perrot, 2001) but very few studies
conducted in Asia (e.g. Hang-Yue, et al., 2005).
Adding up to the several previous studies which
have shown that there are many factors which are related and have influence on
students perceived level of depression and stress. These factors are gender,
age, marital status, financial dependency, family problems, lack of support and
societal issues which varies from country to country. Folkman and Lazarus
(1984) said that, these different factors should be recognized and examined to
determine their significance and influence in creation of stress,
therefore the management of such institutions should design the response
plans to help the students in dealing with them (Bosco & Harvey, 2003). No
doubt, everyone intends to reduce his/her stress and depression through
motivation, as it affects the performance, (either negatively or positively).
This positive or negative effect depends on how one sees it. When the stress is
taken negatively, it affects health and creates mental and physical illness.
Cotton, et al. (2002), states that generally
the students face different stress causing factors, and when they are unable to
cope with them, they get stressed and this can be well defined as unhappiness,
doubts, anxiety, disturbance etc. which causes depression and that can be
temporary or long lasting. It has been cleared from many researches and studies
that highly depressed and tensed students are more prone towards suicidal
intentions. According to Leskow and Field (1989), stress causes depression and
due to this the health matters and performance in academia is highly affected.
As other health matters are concerned, it can cause the high blood pressure,
which leads to risk of other diseases and even depression.
According to Walker (2005), some of the
ordinary reasons of depression can be the problems with the parents and
siblings, troubles in the school, difficulties in studies, faculty and staff,
class fellows etc. and such issues start as a usual stress which can turn into
depression and the outcomes are many health harms. According to Peden (2001)
the level of stress is increasing in students as they found in one of their
studies and 9.7% of freshmen were having stress and depression problems. In one
of the other studies, 48% of female students and 59.3% of male students were
considered to be certain in their emotional and mental health.
Studies show that stressors in any form effects
the student`s health (Archer, et al., 2003) and directly affects the endocrine
system, the cardiovascular system, the muscular system, and the emotions.
Stress has been linked with a vast array of disease, such as headaches, muscle
spasms, heart diseases, peptic ulcer, hypertension and various psychological
problems ending up in depression. (Abbas, et al., 2014). The existing text and
research that deals with stress revealed the negative feelings and thoughts of
students about stressors leading to more disturbing factors specifically in
family and other relations.
Rakesh and Shailendra (2007) studied the
various groups of university students in India and found overburden and role
stagnation were the most significant stressors, which the students experienced.
When the outcomes and results were seen, that do not proved any main
differences on any of the role stressors among first year students and their
seniors. Some studies also show that teachers on a normal basis emphasize on
the gaining of knowledge, and they do not pay any attention to the feelings of
students, which creates the emotional stress and educational troubles for
students. Moreover the students might suffer other situations like
dissatisfaction, nervousness, be anxious, depression and abasement etc .If
proper and timely decisions and advices are not taken and considered by the
institutions, teachers and parents, these certain and unstable feelings easily
start strange behavior, which results in influencing the student learning and
achievements, (Chen et al , 2006).
Towbes, et al. (1996) in “College of Life
Survey” focused on the level of stress in the students’ lives. This survey consisted
of items, such as interpersonal conflicts, self-esteem problems and financial
problems that are considered for a long time to create stress. These were
evaluated on the basis that how many times a student has to deal with them in a
week. It was found that the stress in the students of first year was higher
than other level and years of students. Rocha (1994) also investigated the
sources of stress among students with similar studies. Hirsch and Ellis (1996)
stated that the active connection between a person and the environment, in
stress sensitivity and response, is especially amplified in students. The
situations and troubles which the college students face can be different from
those which are faced by their non-student peers. The most important academic
stressors, which were discussed, subject related or time related which support
Carroll's (1963) argument that learning is a function of time permitted,
capacity, class of instruction and capability to know instruction. Some of the
studies concluded that student stressors included: societal relations,
financial matters, academic activities and routine hassles (Larson, 2006).
Within each area difference, time demands, deficient resources, and new tasks
had characterized stress.
Northern, et al. (2010) defined the financial
stress as the failure to meet one’s financial obligations, and as a result the
psychological and physical effects are caused.
Much of the studies and literature regarding financial stress has paid
attention on stress results. Many of the researches has pointed out the
following unfavorable outcomes of financial stress: like depression,
nervousness, reduced academic performance, poor health and problems in degree
completion. Presnall (2008) conducted the survey regarding student stress, that
survey showed that high stress causing academic problems affected their
emotional and mental health. Moreover, the survey questioned 2,253 students
aged 18 to 24 who were randomly selected shown that the main causes of stress
were relationships issues, financial matters, family problems, and
extracurricular activities. MacGeorge, Samter and Gillihan (2005) stated that
depression and stress has been a big issue and trouble for students.
Intrapersonal and interpersonal factors were examined by the psychologists that
worsen college stress. The study showed that stress was a usual part of their
daily living. The study indicated that student’s face encounters many and
unique kinds of stress, getting good grades, managing schoolwork with other
tasks, decisions about future careers were the common stressors.
An important student stressor particularly
nowadays is vulnerability to terrorism. The terrorist attacks on students not
only affect their immediate health and life, but it leaves long term
psychological scars of hatred and aggression against some religious groups and
minorities (Argyrides & Downey, 2004; Pyszcynski, et al., 2002). To the
present date a very little amount of research has been done on the students
stress related to terrorism. This is because very few instances have been noted
where the students were directly targeted, and it was perceived that most
institutions of education will not be the main targets of terrorism in the
future. However, it is important to know and understand the effects of students
stress related to terrorism particularly in wake of terrorists attacks
conducted in educational institutes.
Research Context
The research in the field of stress and
depression has been mainly conducted in the Western context. However in this
era of change, where the Pakistani universities are striving too hard to have
good rankings, and as there is a trickle down impact on students as well, there
is a need to browse the Pakistani students’ stress, where there are significant
differences in socio-cultural environment. This research was
conducted in Pakistani context involving private universities of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province. Pakistan is a developing country, ranked 6th
highest in world population, estimated as approximately 200 million in July
2014 which makes 2.61% population of the whole world. Pakistan being a rapidly developing country is
one of the “Next Eleven”, the eleven countries that, along with the BRICs,
which are the world’s emerging markets (Zahirullah & Adeel, 2015), have a
high potential to become the world's largest economies in the 21st century.
However, in recent years, Pakistan’s economy has suffered a lot due to many
factors particularly energy crises, law and order situations and war against
terror, political and social instability. Being a low income country,
confronted with many challenges on economic front, Pakistan faces many issues
pertaining to jobs creation which is the failure of the economy being unable to
create jobs in comparison with the increasing population. These economic
problems of Pakistan have a trickle down impact on the students who desire to
study at higher level (universities), even get admission in the universities
but with a fear of unknown. The number of courses being offered and student
enrollments also increased with an appreciable rate e.g. the number of students
during 2000-2001 was 276,274 which jumped to 1,230,000 in 2013-14.
Figure 1 Increase in
Student Enrollment in DAIs of Pakistan (2000 - 2014)
The rapid growth of private sector and public
sector universities in most of the developing countries has initiated and
environment of competition, which in turn has changed the conventional culture
of a university where not only the faculty but also the students have much more
challenges to overcome, more financial issues, have more performance pressures,
more overload and work-life conflict and have perception of more vulnerability
to terrorism particularly after the incident of Army Public School in 2014 and
Bacha Khan University in 2016. Hence there is an ominous need to explore the
higher education sector within the context of student stress, which is an area
of main importance for universities in the developing countries like Pakistan.
Thus, this research
effort was made to explore the following stress related issues with particular
reference to university student stress and propose recommendations to overcome
these issues
·
What are
the perceptions of students regarding sources of stress?
·
What is
the impact of those stressors on the psychosomatic health and behaviors of the
students?
·
Which
stressors have the most significant impact of somatic stress & depression
of the university students?
This exploratory study is basically
quantitative in nature, mainly based on statistical applications and use of
quantitative techniques (in SPSS). However, to enrich the understanding about
the research problem we decided to conduct a brief qualitative study as well.
Thus for this study we initially conducted the qualitative study using brief
interviews and for the analysis, we preferred to use quantitative study using
questionnaires.
As mentioned above, we
conducted brief structured interviews for our qualitative study. These
interviews enlightened us regarding the perceptions of students of a private
sector university (of KPK) regarding the different sources and consequences of
stress. We
conducted 20 informal interviews to get an insight into the above mentioned
issues. From the feedback of the students, we concluded the following sources
& consequences of stress to be explored in this study; Work Overload,
Vulnerability to Terrorism, Family Problems, Financial Problems, Lack of
Teachers’ Support, Somatic (Physical) Stress, & Depression.
This quantitative study
was based on detailed questionnaires and the target sample was students of a private sector
university of KPK. We focused on quantitative data collection techniques and
used questionnaires using cross sectional design. We used the cross-sectional
research design using survey questionnaire so as to comply with the research
questions under consideration and the study objectives.
This study focused on the students of private
sector universities of Pakistan. The rationale for selecting higher education
sector as a population for this study is the dynamic and challenging work
environment (for the students) in universities of Pakistan, which has observed
an abnormal/mushroom growth during the last decade.
Thus despite of the financial crunch and
negative image of Pakistan because of terrorism and political instability
during last ten years, the higher education sector of Pakistan witnessed growth
and prosperity which has not been observed in any other sector. We thus decided
to select higher education sector as a population for this study and our target
population for this exploratory survey was a private sector university of
Peshawar (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-KP)
We used non probability sampling for drawing
the sample for this study. A convenience based sample of 110 regular students
of a private sector university was selected for gathering information through
questionnaires. In convenience sampling, members of the population are chosen
based on their relative ease of access and is suitable when the researchers
have little time for data collection as it is one of the limitations of the
current study.
To measure somatic stress & depression, we
did not take the risk to construct new instruments but preferred to use the
already tested instruments and a survey instrument/questionnaire based on five
point Likert scale was. Because of the complexities involved in defining &
measuring stress, we preferred to use a simplified version of the Four
Dimensional Stress Questionnaire (4DSQ – Terluin et al., 2004) for this study
and limited our study to somatization and depression only but not all the 4
dimensions of stress as studied by Terluin, et al. (2004).
However, as discussed earlier, to get an
understanding of some of the stressors (with particular reference to university
students) tools used in this study and to adapt the already existing scales in
this particular context, 20 students were interviewed which provided us with a
number of insights regarding sources of stress, which in-turn helped us to construct
some survey instruments according to our needs.
As mentioned earlier, this study aimed to
explore the sources & consequences of stress among university
students. Table 1 shows the list of the Independent & Dependent
Variables used in this study.
Table 1 List of Variables
|
Independent Variables (Stressors) |
Dependent Variables (Outcomes) |
|
Work
Overload |
Somatic
Stress (physical ill – health) |
|
Work
Overload |
Depression
(mental ill – health) |
|
Vulnerability
to Terrorism |
|
|
Family
Problems |
|
|
Financial
Problems |
|
|
Lack
of Teachers’ Support |
|
All the
measures were based on five point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree
(1) to strongly agree (5).
The survey forms were distributed
personally to the respondents, and were also collected personally from all the
respondents. This effort helped us to proactively overcome some of the problems
related to missing values in data. While distributing the survey forms, some of
the apprehensions of the students pertaining to anonymity and our research aims
were specifically discussed. 10 of the semi-filled questionnaires were removed
and only completely filled (n=100) questionnaires have been considered for our
study. In additional, we briefly interviewed few of the students who seemed to
be interested in this noble effort.
Table 2: Demographic Break-up of Sample (Questionnaires Collected n=100)
|
Demographic Variables |
Frequency |
Percent |
Cumulative Percent |
|
|
Gender |
Male |
86 |
81,0 |
81,0 |
|
Female |
14 |
14,0 |
100,0 |
|
|
Total |
100 |
100,0 |
||
|
Course Type |
Science & Technology oriented |
66 |
66,0 |
66,0 |
|
Social Sciences & Theory oriented |
34 |
34,0 |
100,0 |
|
|
Total |
100 |
100,0 |
|
|
Once the data was obtained, it was
coded into SPSS and preliminary data analysis was conducted. Preliminary data
analysis was aimed to clean our data for further analysis and we analyzed
missing values, psychometric properties and descriptive statistics of all
variables.
The Variance Inflation Factor (VIF)
and tolerance are both widely used measures of the degree of multicollinearity
in a regression model. As a rule of thumb, VIF more than 4.0 may require
further investigation. In our case we found no issue of multicollinearity as
the VIF values were less than 4.
Principal
component analysis of students stressor scale
Our initial exploratory factor analysis on the
items of students stressors scale generated a five factor solution. Table 3
shows that there were few items which had multiple factor loadings on some
other factors so we suppressed those items. After deleting those items,
exploratory factor analysis showed very clear loadings of the five independent
variables of our study i.e. Work Overload, Vulnerability to Terrorism, Family
Problems, Financial Problems & Lack of Teachers’ Support.
Table 3: Rotated Component Matrix –
Stressors
Note: The factor loadings equal and less than 4 are suppressed & Cronbach alpha values for all the sets of items mentioned
in Final Rotated Component Matrix was more than 70%.
As already discussed, we used a revised and
adapted version of Four Dimensional Stress Questionnaire (4DSQ – Terluin et
al., 2004) for this study and limited our operationalization to Somatization
and Depression. Our questionnaire consisted of 8 items for somatic Stress and 7
items for Depression
B: Principal component analysis of somatization
and depression
Our initial exploratory factor analysis of somatic
stress and depression (total 15 items) generated
a 2-factor solution (see table 4), and it revealed few abnormalities in the
form of multiple loadings. When four items of Somatic Stress and three items of
Depression were removed, the exploratory factor analysis showed clear loadings
for both the dependent variables of our study.
Table 4: Rotated Component Matrix – Somatic
Stress & Depression
|
Rotated Component Matrix (Initial) |
Rotated Component Matrix (Final) |
||||||
|
|
Component |
|
Component |
||||
|
1 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
||||
|
Somatic1 |
0.595 |
0.448 |
Somatic2 |
0.659 |
|
||
|
Somatic2 |
0.677 |
|
Somatic6 |
0.830 |
|
||
|
Somatic3 |
0.601 |
0.545 |
Somatic7 |
0.755 |
|
||
|
Somatic4 |
|
0.524 |
Somatic8 |
0.899 |
|
||
|
Somatic6 |
0.802 |
|
Depress1 |
|
0.637 |
||
|
Somatic5 |
0.481 |
0.546 |
Depress3 |
|
0.830 |
||
|
Somatic7 |
0.741 |
|
Depress5 |
|
0.750 |
||
|
Somatic8 |
0.878 |
|
Depress6 |
|
0.772 |
||
|
Depress1 |
|
0.617 |
|||||
|
Depress2 |
0.643 |
0.508 |
|||||
|
Depress3 |
|
0.849 |
|||||
|
Depress4 |
0.506 |
0.487 |
|||||
|
Depress5 |
|
0.657 |
|||||
|
Depress6 |
|
0.787 |
|||||
|
Depress7 |
0.481 |
0.664 |
|||||
Note: The factor loadings equal and less than 4 are suppressed & Cronbach’s alpha values for all the sets of items mentioned
in Final Rotated Component Matrix was more than 70%.
Regression Analysis
To test the results, regression analysis
was conducted between different variables including student stressors as
independent variables while somatic stress & depression as dependent
variables. The results are as under:
Tables 5a
Regression Analysis (Somatic
Stress as Dependent Variable)
|
(a) Model Summary |
|
|||||||||||
|
Model |
Change Statistics |
|
||||||||||
|
R Square Change |
F Change |
df1 |
df2 |
Sig. F Change |
|
|||||||
|
1 |
.504a |
19.105 |
5 |
94 |
0.000 |
|
||||||
|
a.
Predictors: (Constant),
TeacherSupport, FinProb, Terrorism, WOverLoad, FamProb Tables 5b Regression
Analysis (Somatic Stress as Dependent Variable) |
|
|||||||||||
|
(b) Coefficientsa |
|
|||||||||||
|
Model |
Unstandardized Coefficients |
Standardized Coefficients |
t |
Sig. |
||||||||
|
B |
Std. Error |
Beta |
||||||||||
|
1 |
(Constant) |
-0.009 |
0.249 |
|
-0.036 |
0.972 |
||||||
|
FamProb |
0.301 |
0.090 |
0.340 |
3.352 |
0.001 |
|||||||
|
FinProb |
0.267 |
0.093 |
0.241 |
2.862 |
0.005 |
|||||||
|
WOverLoad |
0.386 |
0.087 |
0.421 |
4.424 |
0.000 |
|||||||
|
Terrorism |
0.008 |
0.088 |
0.008 |
0.092 |
0.927 |
|||||||
|
TeacherSupport |
-0.100 |
0.090 |
-0.116 |
-1.118 |
0.266 |
|||||||
|
a. Dependent Variable:
SOMATIC_STRESS |
|
|||||||||||
Summary of the Findings / Results (Somatic
Stress as Dependent Variable)
Student
Stressors as independent variable against Somatic Stress dependent variable
1-
Family
Problems has a highly significant positive impact on Somatic Stress.
(Beta = 0.301**)
2-
Financial
Problems has a highly significant positive impact on Somatic Stress. (Beta = 0.267**)
3-
Work
Overload has a highly significant positive impact on Somatic Stress (Beta = 0.386**)
4-
Vulnerability
to Terrorism & Teachers’ Support has no significant impact on Somatic
Stress.
Table 6a Regression Analysis (Depression as Dependent
Variable)
|
(a) Model Summary |
|
||||||||||||||
|
Model |
Change Statistics |
|
|||||||||||||
|
R Square Change |
F Change |
df1 |
df2 |
Sig. F Change |
|
||||||||||
|
1 |
,448a |
15,280 |
5 |
94 |
,000 |
|
|||||||||
|
a.
Predictors: (Constant),
TeacherSupport, FinProb, Terrorism, WOverLoad, FamProb Tables 6b Regression Analysis (Depression as Dependent
Variable) |
|
||||||||||||||
|
(b) Coefficientsa |
|
||||||||||||||
|
Model |
Unstandardized Coefficients |
Standardized Coefficients |
T |
Sig. |
|
||||||||||
|
B |
Std. Error |
Beta |
|
|
|||||||||||
|
1 |
(Constant) |
0.068 |
0.254 |
|
0.268 |
0.789 |
|||||||||
|
FamProb |
0.224 |
0.092 |
0.261 |
2.442 |
0.016 |
||||||||||
|
FinProb |
0.197 |
0.095 |
0.184 |
2.069 |
0.041 |
||||||||||
|
WOverLoad |
0.349 |
0.089 |
0.394 |
3.918 |
0.000 |
||||||||||
|
Terrorism |
0.195 |
0.090 |
0.187 |
2.157 |
0.034 |
||||||||||
|
TeacherSupport |
-0.108 |
0.092 |
-0.130 |
-1.184 |
0.239 |
||||||||||
|
aDependent Variable: Depression |
|
||||||||||||||
Summary of the Findings / Results (Depression
as Dependent Variable)
Student
Stressors as independent variable against Depression dependent variable
1-
Family
Problems has a significant positive impact on Depression. (Beta = 0.224*)
2-
Financial
Problems has a significant positive impact on Depression. (Beta = 0.197*)
3. Work Overload has a highly significant
positive impact on Depression. (Beta
= 0.349**)
4.
Vulnerability to Terrorism has a significant positive impact on Depression.
(Beta = 0.195*)
5.
Teachers’ Support has no significant impact on Depression
Discussion
and Conclusion
Our results in the
last section revealed that most of our independent variables i.e. family
problems, financial problems, work overload and vulnerability to terrorism have
a significant positive relationship with somatic stress & depression.
However, teachers’ support did not reveal any significant relationship with
both our dependent variables. Most of our results corroborate with the studies
of past researches in the same domain e.g. Presnall (2008) revealed that high stress
causing academic problems affected students’ emotional and mental health and
that the main causes of stress were financial matters, family problems and
extracurricular activities whereas Rakesh and Shailendra (2007) found role
overburden and role stagnation as the most significant stressors, which the
students experienced. Our results also revealed work-overload as one of the
most significant stressor (p=.000) leading to somatic stress & depression.
Thus it is important for the academicians to further identify the reasons due
to which the students feel overburdened which leads to stress & depression
(as revealed by our results) and may finally lead to low performance.
It’s very obvious that students’ problems related to finances have increased during the last decade, specifically the tuitions and college fees are getting expensive day by day. Students and their families are struggling hard to meet their financial requirements and this has a spillover effect on other important attributes of life. In our case, we found financial problems as a significant contributor towards somatic stress & depression among students and our results corroborate with few of the studies in past e.g. Towbes and Cohen (1996), Larson (2006), Presnall (2008) and few others. However there are different options which can be considered in order to provide assistance for students in this regard
Surprisingly,
teachers’ support revealed no significant relationship either with somatic
stress or with depression. This doesn’t mean that teachers’ support as a
variable should be taken for granted in such studies. One cannot make a
sweeping statement and generalize these results on other institutes of higher
education. We had a small (convenience based) sample of hundred students who
may not have any issues pertaining to teacher’s support or our respondents may
not have understood this variable the way we were expecting.
As mentioned earlier,
the terrorist
attacks on students affect their immediate health and life, and it also leaves
long term psychological wounds of aggression against those who are involved in
it (Argyrides & Downey, 2004; Pyszcynski, et al., 2002). Our results also
revealed a significant relationship of “Vulnerability to Terrorism” with
depression. The variable related to “terrorism” was specifically added to our
study though to the present date a very little amount of research has been done
on the students stress related to terrorism. As mentioned earlier, Pakistan in
general and KP province in particular have been in hot waters because of issues
pertaining to terrorism. To be more specific, after the two terrorists
incidents in KP province i.e. Army Public School in 2014 and Bacha Khan
University in 2016, vulnerability to terrorism has increased which in turn has
increased the security concerns with particular reference to terrorism. As very
few instances have been noted in West, where the students were directly
targeted by terrorism, and it was a perception that educational institutions
will not be the main targets of terrorism very little research covers this
aspect. In current scenario particularly in the context where this research
endeavor has been done, it is important to know and understand students’
perception related to terrorism and its impact on stress which in turn will
help us to suggest managerial implications to overcome it negative impact.
Recommendations
As discussed earlier, stress can be subjective
by one’s ability to well manage with stressful matters and situations (Segal,
2013). For example when the students cannot deal with stress effectively, they
feel nervous with too much worrying because of the failure to cope with their
negative thoughts. In this context (of coping) with particular reference to our
results (already discussed), we recommend the following suggestions to be
incorporated on the primary, secondary or tertiary level in the institutes of
higher education either by the captains of the institute or the students and
their families:
Coping
with Financial Problems
As discussed earlier, there are different
options which can be considered in order to provide assistance for students to
overcome the financial issuesstudent’s funds & loans by the university, government
or NGOs which provide financial
assistance to the students in their education. The funds which are provided by
them can help the students to overcome their temporary financial problems and
tuition fees. Such loans can be paid back by the students in installments once
they get their jobs. Such loans should have fixed longer payback period and so
they should be repaid however the donor bodies must make sure that such funds
and loans are distributed among the needy students only.
In the
west, there is another type of financial assistance called payday loans which
are cash loans given to needy students, for a limited time of a month or two.
These payday loans are very easily approved and processed. If such type of
facility is considered to be started in Pakistan, this will be quite helpful
for the students.
While it
is impossible to get a fulltime or part-time job for the students during their
education, the students can meet their financial problems if the university
provides them internship opportunities (on-the-campus or off-the campus). Such
initiatives also augment students’ confidence and may help the students to
fetch jobs easily once they complete their studies.
Last but not the least, the financial literacy
of students should be increased through which the students should be made aware
of the funds & loans for which they are entitled. The financial literacy
and personal finance seminars/workshops should be conducted.
Coping with
Terrorism Fear
As discussed earlier, fear of terrorism is one
of the stressors factor it has long lasting emotional and physical effects on students and the main aim of
coping is to reduce the level of stress and stress causing factors (Fleishman,
1984). The stress related to terrorism and its fear has very deep psychological
and mental effects, it can be reduced and minimized by the employment of
trained security staff, installation of necessary security related equipment
which includes walk through gates, small handy scanners, CCTV and alarm systems
etc. One of the psychological effects of this measure is that students
generally consider such equipment reliable and feel mentally relaxed and safe.
In addition, self-defense trainings should be
initiated, which are given to the students regarding their self-defense in any
problematic situation. it helps the students to understand and identify the
threat and also shows the best possible ways to save themselves and get out of
such panic situation, if occurs. These trainings are considered to be very
helpful to minimize the stress related to terrorist activities.
Overcome
Family Problems
As discussed earlier, students’ family problems
has a direct influence on their stress and some recommendations for the family
members (particularly parents) in which they can help their children are
Work Over
Load Management
Many of the Universities and colleges focuses
on stress management interventions and trainings, so that their students are
able to cope with stress but the root cause of stress is ignored, which is work
over load (Mueller, 2015) which can be firstly reduced by setting priorities,
organizing & planning i.e. prioritize different jobs according to
their significance, high value jobs are needed to be completed at first and
then should move forward towards low priority tasks.
It has been seen that mostly when the students
get stressed because of overload, they start panicking, and may expect the
worst results and it is very important for the student to control his/her
feelings and emotions.
During the times when students are overloaded
with tasks (e.g. during examinations, projects etc.), not necessarily all the
tasks are important. Unnecessary and useless tasks, which are time consuming,
should be completely eliminated from to-do list. Such tasks are needed to be
eliminated, and they should not be carried on, so that time is saved and other
necessary works are completed.
The habit of procrastination should be avoided
as it adds a lot to work overload. When the tasks are not completed in time
intentionally, because of lethargy or any other reason, the tasks pile up and
later on the students are unable to differentiate between urgent &
important tasks, cannot prioritize and many important tasks remain pending. In
this context we also recommend that the educational institutes should regularly
conduct workshops on “Time Management”.
Limitations and Scope for further research
One of the limitations of this exploratory
study was that because of shortage of time and resources, it targeted a small
sample of 100 students of a private sector using convenience based sampling. Based
on this initial small scale pilot study, there is so many scope for future
research for example a comparative analysis of public and private sector
universities can be researched. We didn’t used coping as a moderating or
mediating variable so for the future researches, it is suggested to use the
coping variables being used by students e.g. proactive planning, avoidance,
turning to religion, social support etc.
Students performance is one of the important
variable which is usually on top priority for academicians (Shah, Rahman, & Abbas, 2015) but this important variable has
not been studied in current research (because of shortage of time in inaccurate
data). Thus relationship between stressors, stress, coping skills and
performance can be focused with reference to different type of departments and
different types of universities by the future researchers. Furthermore in
future the control variables e.g. gender, department, status in etc. should
also be considered to see the impact of these demographics on different
dimensions of stress. One of the limitations of this study is that it is a
cross-sectional research rather than longitudinal. We also recommend the future
researchers to conduct longitudinal studies in this domain.
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