Effects of Stress on Grades

Students at universities worldwide oftentimes find stress to be a part of everyday life. Stress is defined as the way one responds to the changes and demands of life either emotionally, physically, or mentally. Stress is registered in one’s â€Å"fight or flight† response. When an exciting or dangerous event occurs changes take place in the body to prepare the person to deal with the stressful situation. After the stressful situation has subsided the body returns to a normal state. The constant stress of being a college student does not allow the body to return to a normal state so a student may never be able to fully relax. This can lead to stress overload (Bower, 2010). Many factors can affect a student’s academic performance and grades. The National College Health Assessment of 2004 shows that the most significant impediment to effective listening, retaining information, and studying is stress. Stress is noted to be the number one cause of poor academic functioning in a student above other problems like depression, illness, eating disorders, death of a family member, and even sexual assault. The study reviewed 47,202 college students and 32. 4% listed stress as the number one barrier to schoolwork (Temple, 2006). Many college students have multiple stressors. Most are taking multiple classes, working full-time jobs, have family members to take care of, are working long hours at unpaid internship sites, or any combination of these. Many college students must deal with the stress of just leaving home and no longer benefiting from familial support. Relationship problems may begin to develop between the student and the friends, families, or significant others that have been left at home. This overload of responsibility and worry can lead to a lack of sleep and improper nutrition, which can cause difficulty in school (Bower, 2010). Proper nutrition may become a problem for a student because he or she may be unable to grocery shop on a regular basis. Other problems with nutrition occur because a student who is living in a dormitory may be unable to cook proper meals and unable to store large quantities of food. Some students new to living without parents may not have the knowledge to cook a decent meal. Others simply do not have the time to eat properly. Without proper nutrition the brain does not function properly and the student may have difficulty concentrating on schoolwork (Womble, 2002). Maintaining employment while attending college can also be a source of stress. This stress may come from working long hours that can make the student too tired to focus on his or her studies or working long hours may lead to attendance problems at school. Mentally focusing on both work life and school life can be exhausting for a student and can lead to increased amounts of stress. The number of hours a student spends at work can be directly related to that student’s grade point average (GPA) because the more time a student spends at work, the less time that student can spend studying (Womble, 2002). Sleep, or lack of, is the most important factor on a student’s GPA. Many college students do not sleep enough during the week to properly rest the body and mind. Lack of sleep has been shown to increase anxiety and stress. Simple sleep patterns like waking earlier during the weekdays than on the weekends have also been shown to affect the GPA of a student (Womble, 2002). Not all college students complain of experiencing stress, many do. Although some stress is good for a person and may be energizing or motivating, it is important for a person to recognize and be able to manage bad stress before it spirals out of control and has a negative effect. Coping mechanisms are important for anyone but may prove to be more so for a college student. Coping mechanisms include sleeping enough, spending time doing fun activities, relaxing, and practicing time management. Developing ones communication, writing, and test taking skills is important to reduce stress. Engaging in physical activity, reading a book that is not school related, or getting a massage are ways to reduce stress and relax. Daily use of a planner to track assignment due dates and upcoming project deadlines is useful for staying on track with studies (Bower, 2010). Coping mechanisms come from within, from something called personality hardiness. The idea of personality hardiness first came to be with regard to protecting business executives from the health effects of stress. This concept involves having a sense of control and commitment. Commitment means that a person can view the world as a meaningful place and he or she seeks to be involved in the world rather than withdrawn from it. Control shows that a person believes he or she can influence events that take place in his or her world. Personality hardiness means that a person may not feel threatened by changes to his or her environment. Theoretically, a student with personality hardiness should be able to adapt to the changes that come with enrollment in school, taking multiple classes, maintaining employment, and family obligations without stress overload. The result should mean that a student takes on the new challenges with less stress and instead turns the stressful events into opportunities for growth and personal development (Hystad, Eid, Laberg, Johnsen, & Bartone, 2009). Two studies have been performed by Lifton and colleagues. These studies assessed the personality hardiness of individuals throughout the college years. These studies had newly arriving college students complete hardiness measures and found a positive interrelationship between persistence and the student’s graduation date four years later. The hardiness scores among those who did not complete four years of college were lower than those who did not drop out. The scores on the hardiness exams were not directly related to scores on entrance exams or high academic ability. Personality hardiness is not based on a person’s academic ability but rather a person’s attitude or the manner in which he or she approaches life’s challenges (Hystad et al. , 2009). Though the information contained in the numerous studies that have been done regarding stress and the college student’s ability to achieve a decent GPA is helpful to understanding stress and how it affects different people there are always exceptions to every rule. Although it is true that every person handles stressful situations in his or her own unique way there are many resources available to help a college student achieve passing grades regardless of the stress factor. At the same time, there are many choices a college student makes that adds to the amount of stress he or she carries in everyday life. Many times when a college student is sleep deprived it is that he or she has made the choice to be sleep deprived. Staying up all night partying is common among college students as going off to college may be the first time the student has had the opportunity to do so and many consider it to be a bonding experience or a way to make friends in a new place. Grabbing a less than stellar meal from the nearest fast food joint or having a pizza delivered is oftentimes a choice that a student makes rather than a necessity. Eating a meal like this is easier than shopping for a meal, cooking a meal, and cleaning up after a meal. Eating on the run may also be what â€Å"all of the other kids are doing† and again it is a way to fit in. Whereas it is true that some students must maintain employment while attending school this may not have to be the stressor that it often is. Time management skills can come in handy when trying to juggle work and school. Taking time to relax is one of the most important and effective ways of reducing stress. This can; however, oftentimes be misconstrued and taken out of context. One of the worst, and most common, pastimes college students use to relax is drinking alcoholic beverages. Binge drinking can be very detrimental to schoolwork as this can do away with a person’s judgment skills, time management skills, and a person’s healthy well-being. Research shows that binge drinking affects approximately 50% of college students (Stunn, n. d. ). Binge drinking can lead to missing classes because the student may be to hung-over to attend or if the student does manage to attend the mind and body may not be functioning at full capacity and may lead to an inability to concentrate and retain information. When this kind of drinking is done night after night it can lead to many absences or missed assignments, which can compound a student’s stress level by having to make up the work or complete the work in a shorter time with little to no instruction This information would be recommended to others in the class because as students stress will be an important factor during not only college years but also in future years as well. It is important that as an individual a person has coping mechanisms to deal with stress to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Research done on the topic of how stress can negatively affect a student’s GPA is important in learning how to better deal with the stressors in one’s life to overcome barriers and achieve the goals he or she has set. Enrolling in college is a big step in which nobody intentionally sets up to fail. Whereas there are many changes that a college student must adapt to there are an equal number of services both on campus and off that will help a student overcome the barriers to effective learning and to become a better student despite the changes in life. Learning ways to manage time, learning to make choices that will facilitate not only a healthy relationship with peers but also a healthy lifestyle, and learning to cope with the sometimes daily changes in life is part of growing up and moving into the adult world.