Volume 5, Issue 5, May – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology

ISSN No:-2456-2165

Survey on Stress and Coping Strategies of Post

Graduate Students
B.Y. Kavitha1, C. Swetha2, Shruti Joshi3, V. Deepthi4, D. Mounika5
1
Head, Department of Biotechnology, A. V. College of Arts, Science &Commerce
2&3
Assistant Professor, Department of Biotechnology, A. V. College of Arts, Science &Commerce
4&5
Postgraduate Students, Department of Biotechnology, A. V. College of Arts, Science &Commerce
Hyderabad, India

Abstract:- In the present day of globalization, a lot of students are focused for the analysis that helps in
competition, creativity, innovation and adaptability is understanding the level of adjustment and the academic
required to survive in society which creates stress. Stress performance of students for an improved living.
is the condition of emotional pressure of an individual by
socioeconomic & environmental constraints. It is caused The causes of stress or stressors, generally considered
mainly by physical & emotional tensions which lead to among the students include academics, financial aspects,
change in feelings and physical state of the body. The career, time management, relationships, etc. The stressors
stress usually shows a negative impact on health, which discussed in this paper are related to academic performance,
results in anger, depression, poor concentration, anxiety, poor understanding capacity, assignments,
headache, bowel disorder, skin rashes, insomnia, etc. competition in placements, relationship with friends &
The stress in students mainly comes from academic family and status of the family as the most significant
performance, relationship with family and friends and possibilities.
career exploration that leads to psychological, physical,
and behavioral problems in the individual. The younger II. LITERATURE REVIEW
generation should enhance their stress management
strategies to overcome the pressure and lead a healthy Every person faces different stress like work stress,
life. The postgraduate students are more susceptible to family stress, financial stress, or any other type in which
experience stress because of the tension related to their work stress is the biggest source of stress. Stress is a feeling
immediate professional career. The main objective of the of the individuals when they have to struggle to meet the
study is to find out the stress levels among postgraduate demands in financial, relationships, work and any other
students of different disciplines. In this paper, we situation. Perceived stress in the youth or college students is
conducted a survey by structured google form for the an alarming inclination. There are many factors which
analyzation of the sources, causes, stress signs, health causes stress- emotional, congenital, economic, social,
issues faced & coping methodologies that help to make a biological and psychological. The students face academic
healthy life by minimizing the negative impact of stress due to competition among students for scoring the
stressor. highest marks, academic failures, assignments with
deadlines, insufficient pocket money leading to mental
Keywords:- Stress, Stressor, Coping Strategies, Symptoms of health problems among them in collegiate life. These
Stress, Postgraduate Students. students carry the stress not only with them but also to their
family members. The stress is proportional to the existence
I. INTRODUCTION of the stressor, due to which students experience a
substantial amount of stress, that leads to negative academic
Stress is a change of physical or mental disturbance in outcomes or health problems.
the body which makes your emotions express like feeling
frustrated, showing anger, becoming nervous, over These stressors were analyzed in many different fields
sweating, etc. Stress is a state of mind, when a person feels of students. Any individual showing the symptoms of
experiencing a situation requires more resources than the depression, increase or decrease in appetite, restlessness,
ability of the individual. As the younger generation in tension, anxiety, unable to concentrate are the victims of
the present competitive society is more stressed, they stress. Stress initiate a complex reaction of neurological and
experience psychological symptoms like depression, attempt endocrinological system of the body where adrenaline or
to suicide tendencies, and many more according to various noradrenaline hormones respond to sudden situations that
articles and statistical analysis. The stress is categorized into arises by behavioral, physiological reactions. The immune
two types, acute or short-term stress and chronic or long- defense mechanism of the body is activated by a
term stress. The chronic stress leads to many health issues sympathetic nervous system against the stressors and
like high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, releases adrenaline hormone to overcome stress. The
acne or eczema, depression or anxiety, menstrual problems, negative impact of stress varies from person to person and
and so on. Considering all the factors, young college also depend on their coping strategies adopted. There are

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Volume 5, Issue 5, May – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
two coping strategies, approach style coping and avoidance IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:
style coping. Balancing academics, personal life,
relationships and other peer activities by students is very The respondents are from the different colleges
difficult. The difficulty alters the situation to a challenge in from faculty of Arts, Science & Commerce given under
case of career in students. the inclusion criteria of colleges in Hyderabad. The first
section of questionnaire is demographic factors. The
 Rationale of the Study: table 1 shows the total number of distribution of samples
The rationale of the study is to find out the different that consists of 263 respondents. By taking all the
factors of stress, expression of stress, coping technologies to respondents into consideration, 72.2% are females and
overcome the stress among the postgraduate students. In the 27.8% are males (Fig.1). The respondents in survey
present scenario of the education system, all the school and shows that there is almost equal participation of both
college students are exposed to various stressors and the first year and second year students of 20-23 years old
level of stress changes from individual to individual, teacher (given in table.2) of which 21-year age group students
& institution. Based on the factors the following objectives are more in number (Fig.2)
are listed out.

 Objectives of the Study: Gender N %

 To list out the major causes and symptoms of stress Female 190 72.2
affecting the postgraduate students.
 To identify the effect of the level of stressors on the Male 73 27.8
physical and mental health of individuals.
 To know the strategies and cope up to overcome Total 263 100
stress by the postgraduate students.
Table 1:- Distribution according to Gender
III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

 Coverage of study:
This study covers the stress levels among the
postgraduate students by an online questionnaire survey.
The target group for the survey includes the students of
Arts, Science & Commerce streams studying in various
affiliated and constituent colleges under Osmania
university located in Hyderabad. The exclusion criterion
includes the university colleges.

 Data collection or sources of data:

The data and information are gathered by an online
questionnaire survey by using google platform for
generating responses of the post graduate students. The Fig 1
data is collected based on primary data-Questionnaire
and secondary data- Internet, Journals, Books etc. The
questionnaire includes demographic factors, causes of Age Number %
stress, signs of stress, relation of stress and health &
coping strategies 20 23 8.7

 Sample size: 21 92 35
The population size considered is 22,230 at 95%
confidence level and Margin of error being 5%, the 22 80 30.4
targeted sample size n = 138, while we have received
responses from 263 samples. The google structured 23 68 25.9
questionnaire is sent to different college post graduate
students given under inclusion criteria. Total 263 100
Table 2:- Age in years

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Volume 5, Issue 5, May – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165

Hours of study Number of students %

0-2 125 47.5

2-4 85 32.3

4-6 41 15.6

6-8 10 6.8

＞8 2 0.8

Total 263 100

Fig 2
Table 4:- Hours of study
Each course students of different streams are prone
to different stresses based upon their curriculum
designed as per the requirement of their discipline of
study. The respondents in the study are faculty of science
(76%), Faculty of Arts (4.9%) & Faculty of commerce
(19%) (Table 3). The fig.3 shows that respondents from
Master of Science are more in number.

Course Number %

M.Sc. 200 76

M.A 13 4.9

M.Com 50 19 Fig 4
Total 263 100
Study time Number of students % of students
Table 3:- Academic course stream
Late night hours 136 51.7

Early morning 127 48.3

Hours

Total 263 100

Table 5:- Study hours- early or night

Fig 3

Long duration of study and sleeping hours may or

may not be linked to increased stress. Thus, to
understand and analyze the Stress level in the students,
their sleeping, working and studying pattern was
focused. From total respondents, 51.7% students were
night owls (table 5), maximum of them work & study for
around 0-2 hours (47.5%) (Table 4) and sleep for around
6-8 hours a day (62.4%) (Table 6). (Fig. 4, 5, 6) Fig 5

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Volume 5, Issue 5, May – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165

Hours of study Number of students %

0-2 3 1.1

2-4 4 1.5

4-6 56 21.3

6-8 164 62.4

8-10 31 11.8

＞10 5 1.9

Total 263 100

Table 6:- Study hours- early or night Fig 6

The general causes included in the stress questionnaire shows that students with low financial background are prone to
more stress comparatively. In the present society, the cost of education is high, due to which students are unable to maintain
balance between the family financial status and their aspiration of attaining the higher education. Out of all the respondents,
almost 47.9 % students feel that family financial status is causing stress. Next to financial status, other general causes are
choice of career (41.1%) and employment opportunities (35%) showing maximum respondents (Table 7, Fig. 7)

General factors which cause stress Number of students % of students

Family financial status 126 47.9

Parental belief 59 22.4

Placement opportunities 92 35

Career option/Aspiration to get job 108 41.1

Health issues(self) 48 18.3

Health issues of family and friends 35 13.3

relationship with family 59 22.4

Social Relationship with Friends 43 16.3

Social media profile 19 7.2

Table 7:- General factors which cause stress

Fig 7

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Volume 5, Issue 5, May – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
In academic stressor, competition in performance, performance(21.3%), Uncertainty of placements
work/project deadlines, project presentations and public (15.6%), long working/studying hours(17.9%) in
speaking almost show the similar number of responses decreasing order of the responses of the students.(Table
comprising 23-26% followed by academic 8 , Fig. 8)

Academic stress factors Number of students % of students

Work/project deadlines 65 24.7

Long working/studying hours 47 17.9

Academic performance 56 21.3

Viva voice 39 14.8

Public speaking & project presentations/stage fear 62 23.6

Team workloads 11 4.2

Duration of course 22 8.4

High fee structure/cost of study 44 16.7

Uncertainty - placements 41 15.6

Creativity/Uniqueness 14 5.3

Competition in performance 68 25.9

Table 8:- Academic Stress Factors

Fig 8

An individual is different from another individual in expressing the stress signs and depends on time of exposure of
stressor. Some may show early sign of stress like insomnia, frustration, worrying etc., but few signs of stress often appeared in
most of the individuals include anger (31.6%), Tears (30.4%), Agitated Irritability (25.5%), Sleeplessness (22.4%) by
maximum number of respondents. These signs of mood irritability or mood swings appear at instances based upon situations.
Only few signs of stress are taken into consideration in the questionnaire given in the table 9 (fig.9)

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Volume 5, Issue 5, May – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165

Regular stress symptoms Number of students % of students

Upset/Tearfulness 80 30.4

Agitated Irritability 67 25.5

Guilty/Worthless 43 16.3

Empty/Blank/Numb 33 12.5

Isolated/separated 24 9.1

Lacking of self confidence 55 20.9

Hopelessness/Despair 24 9.1

Exhausted/Tired/Unable to sleep 59 22.4

Anger 83 31.6

Suicidal tendency 6 2.3

None 50 19
Table 9:- Stress symptoms

Fig 9

The post graduate students are usually in the age group of 20-23 which is a very tender age to get any health issues, but
then it is clearly understood by the responses that stress is linked with health. Maximum numbers of respondents are facing
headache/migraine comprising 51% of sample size. Other health problems of respondents showing maximum number are
loneliness, poor concentration, depression, back ache (fig.10). The stress on students is also making them experience
hypertension, stomach, skin disorders, dizziness but in low proportion given in table 10.

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Volume 5, Issue 5, May – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165

Health problems faced due to stress Number of Students % of students

Headache/migraine 134 51

Hypertension 15 5.7

Stomach Upset/bowel disorder 18 6.8

Chest pain 16 6.1

Back ache 37 14.1

Skin problems 19 7.2

Diabetes 0 0

Respiratory Problems/breathing difficulty 6 2.3

Fatigue/Dizziness/Drowsiness 19 7.2

Depression 48 18.3

Poor concentration 61 23.2

Loneliness 48 18.3

None 64 24.3
Table 10:- Health problems faced due to stress

Fig 10

The coping strategies help in reducing the stress in students. The maximum number of respondents are with intention of
getting psychological support from family and friends (35.4%) and being optimistic (34.6%). The other coping strategies
mentioned in questionnaire is to divert them by taking active participation in activities to get distracted, sharing views with
family and friends, Meditation, and so on. Among the respondents, the chance of getting addicted to smoking and boozing
comprises about 1-3%. (Table 11, Fig. 11)

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Volume 5, Issue 5, May – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165

Coping strategies Number of students % of students

psychological support from friends and families 93 35.4

advice of health care professional 12 4.6

Mentoring (Faculty, Professors) 12 4.6

Diverting in other activities 78 29.7

strategic planning to deal with situation 60 22.8

Chill out/Making fun of the situation 57 21.7

Be optimistic 91 34.6

Exercises/Sports 51 19.4

Participation in University clubs and societies 8 3

relaxation postures/Breathing exercises 19 7.2

Meditate/Pray 43 16.3

Drink alcohol 7 2.7

Smoke Cigarettes 3 1.1

Eat junk/Comfort food 25 9.5

Use any medication 3 1.1

Vacation trips 27 10.3

Resort to pet therapy 4 1.5

Others 20 7.6

None 27 10.3
Table 11:- Coping strategies practiced to reduce stress

Fig 11

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Volume 5, Issue 5, May – 2020 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
V. CONCLUSION:

Stress in post graduate students is caused by many

different factors with numerous negative health issues. From
the above results, it is clear that headache/migraine, poor
concentration, depression, back pain are more common
signs of stress among the students. It is also helping us to
realize that long working hours and less sleeping hours can
be harmful to health. It is analyzed from the above data that,
the major general causes of stress in postgraduate students
are financial situations, choice of career, employment
opportunities and major academic causes are competition,
deadlines of project, academic performance. The uncertainty
of getting placed with good academic performance to
survive in the present competitive environment of the
society is one of the major factors for the stress of young
postgraduates. Bouncing back from stress using different
coping strategies is the good idea to overcome the distress.
Some coping strategies identified by majority of young
postgraduates to cope up from stress are psychological and
emotional support from the family and friends and the other
is meditation, yoga & exercises. The meditation and
yoga comprise asana, pranayama, Dhyana which revitalize
the body, mind & spirit to lead healthy lives. This research
paper addresses the limited factors or causes of stress, the
stress symptoms experienced with relation to the health
issues faced and coping strategies adopted by professional
post graduate students. It would be further protracted to find
the comparative stress with additional quantitative and
qualitative analysis of diverse experiences among various
discipline professionals.

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