REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

STRESS

Stress is defined as an insight incongruity between environmental burdens called stressors

and the persons ability to fulfil these demands. It is the undesirable response people have to

extreme strain or other sort of burden placed on them. Stress occurs when a person deal with

a situation that they recognize as irresistible and cannot manage (Vermunt & Steensman,

2005).

Stress is considered to be part of students life and can impact the students coping strategies

in accordance with the demands in academic life (Agolla & Ongori , 2009). Stress may come

from different situations that make them feel different emotions.

TYPES OF STRESSORS
A stressor is situation that makes people worried or anxious that provokes stress.

According to Selyes eustress concept (1975), stress is not necessarily always a bad thing.

Many people are unaware that there are two categories of stress: eustress and distress

(Lazarus, n. d). Eustress or the positive stress boosts and motivates people to continue

working in a situation. It is also that positive reaction to stress that generates within a desire

to achieve and overcome a challenge. However, when the good stress becomes too much to

bear and prolonged, the bad stress or the distress comes into action. Distress can follow both

acute and chronic stress, provided that the bodys biological functions are sufficiently

affected and leads to a decrease of performance (Moberg, 2000). A study by the Brock

University in Canada categorized the effects and symptoms of distress, namely; physiological

and behavioral symptoms. Physiological symptoms of distress include an increase in blood

pressure, rapid breathing and generalized tension. Behavioral symptoms include overeating,

loss of appetite, drinking, smoking and negative coping mechanisms.

CAUSES OF STRESS ON STUDENTS

According to Muzundar, et.al (2010), stress is inevitable in every aspect of students

life. With all the assignments, projects, papers to be passed at once, students suffer from

emotional imbalance. These learners often deal with pressure related to earn high school

grades and on acing every exam making sure to get the degree their parents envisioned for

them.

According to Yusoff (2010), stress is either good or bad depending on how the

person cope with it. The study is to acquire knowledge on the stress prevalence, stressors and

coping strategies among secondary school students. 100 secondary school students were

involved in this study; results then suggested that a number of 90 (90%) students participated

in this study. Based on the results, the main stressors were related to academic.

EFFECTS OF STRESS ON STUDENTS

Researchers defined stress as the perception of absurdity between dealing with

environmental stressors and the capacity of an individual to satisfy these demands (Vermunt

& Steensman, 2005). Stress start to arise when a person is dealing with something that is

beyond their capabilities and this may lead to a lot of negative effects on the person dealing

with it (Richlin-Klonsky & Hoe, 2003). Studies were conducted on the effects of perceived

academic stress on students performance with the use of Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) to test

the academic stress effects on the performance of the students in relation with the

demographic variables. Researchers took a sample of one hundred and fifty respondents

which involved seventy-five males and females; results then suggested that there were

significant effects of academic stress on the performance of the students. Based from the

scores on the PSS, stress was found to be higher in junior students than the senior students.

Whilst, there were non-significant difference on PSS scores among the students when stress
was measured at the beginning and at the end of the semester (Khan, Altaf and Kausar,

2013).

COPING STRATEGIES

According to Folkman & Lazarus, coping strategies can be grouped into two general

types; problem-focused and emotional-focused coping. Problem-focused coping is aimed at

problem solving or doing something to alter the stress. Emotion-focused coping is aimed at

reducing or managing the emotional distress that is associated with the situation. Although

most stressors elicit both types of coping, problem-focused coping tends to predominate

when people feel that something constructive can be done, whereas emotion-focused coping

tends to predominate when people feel that the stressor is something that must be endured.

Carver (1989), have proposed 16 dimensions of coping: five dimensions assess

conceptually distinct aspects of problem-focused coping [active coping, planning,

suppression of competing activities, restraint coping, seeking of instrumental social support];

five dimensions assess aspects of what might be viewed as emotion- focused coping( seeking

of emotional social support, positive reinterpretation, acceptance, denial, turning to religion);

and six dimensions assess coping responses that are less useful( focus on and venting of

emotions (venting), behavioral disengagement , mental disengagement (self-distraction),

humor, substance use, self-blame). These coping strategies may buffer the unwanted impacts

of stressful situation on physical, emotional and mental wellbeing.

(Uma, 2011) Stress has become significant due to social factor and changing needs of

life style. It is man's reaction towards a situation which can lead to physical, mental and

behavioral changes. Not all stress are destructive in nature, it may trigger passion for work

and ignite inspiration. It can also make an individual productive and constructive, when it is
identified and well managed. The stress levels among IT companies in Hyderabad was

studied. And as a result, the coping strategies such as management programs, physical

activities, life style modification, finding the trigger and stressors, supportive groups, stress

counseling programs, and spiritual programs has been distinguished.

The study of Hong and Lei (2011) investigates the mental stresses of college students

and comes up with four sources of stresses which are: employment situations, study

conditions, personal factors, and economic conditions. The researchers also list strategies for

college students to cope with stress, namely adapting the college life as soon as possible,

improve the student's ability of starting a career and establish a good concept of it, guide

students to rational consumption and help with financial difficulties, cultivate the

interpersonal skills of college students, and ease the mental stresses caused by family

conditions in time.

Another study by Hussain (2008), was conducted to examine the levels of academic

stress and adjustment between public and government high school students and to be able to

see the relationship between the variables. The result indicated that the levels of academic

stress was higher in public school students whereas the government students were better in

terms of their degree of adjustment. However, there is an inverse yet significant relationship

between academic stress and adjustment was found in both the group of students and for each

type of school.

Science, Technology & Engineering (STE) is an acronym that refers to the academic

disciplines of Science, Technology & Engineering. The term is typically used when

addressing education policy and curriculum choices in schools to improve competitiveness in

science and technology development. STE is based on the idea of educating students in three

specific disciplines in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. Rather than teach the three

disciplines as separate and discrete subjects. STE integrates them into a cohesive learning

paradigm based on real-world.