Perceived Academic Stress of Senior High School Students in Ciudad Nuevo de Naic National High School: A Basis for Stress Management Action Plan

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

As part of the K to 12 Curriculum, Senior High School students are required to undergo academic and technical subjects to be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills related to their post-secondary goal. In anticipation, as perceived in the classroom setting, may immense adjustment and result to academic stress with the greatest sources resulting from taking and studying for exams, peer/teacher factor, a large amount of content to master in semesterly period and the like. The objective of this study is to find out the profile and number of students who are experiencing academic stress and provide solutions to help them combat those stressors. This study was conducted among the first batch of SHS students as they are perceived to go through various kinds of academic stress due to big and new transition from junior high school to senior high school.

METHODS

The descriptive research used a survey questionnaire adopted from The Students-Life Stress Inventory (SSI) by Gadzella (1991) to gather demographic information and elicited views on perceived academic stress to the participants comprising of all Grade 11 GAS students.

RESULTS

The result shows the SHS students perceived stress level, that, out of a total of 56 respondents, 20 (36%) were males of which 1 (2%) had a low stress level, 15 (26%) had moderate stress level and 4 (7%) had high stress level. Out of a total of 36 (64%) were females out of which 3 (6%) had low stress level, 25 (45%) had moderate stress level and 8 (14%) had high stress level. With regards to students' age, those with ages ranging from 16-18, 4 (7%) had low stress level, 33 (58%) had moderate stress level and 11 (20%) had high stress level. The respondents with 19 and above years, 0 (0%) had low stress level, 7 (13%) had moderate stress level and 1 (2%) had a high stress level.

DISCUSSIONS

The research concluded that none of the students were marked as highly stressed, however, the majority of them marked as moderately stress. Therefore, the study revealed that since there is a tendency that academic stress may increase later in their SHS academic year due to more complex requirements like work immersion, research papers, and academic subjects, stress should be address in such ways that students could minimize it in order to focus more on their studies and help them manage stress to avoid negative effects on their academic performance and social behavior and adapt in the changing setting of life as a student and prepare them in their post-secondary goal.