Student Stress

'Stress' is a word that is very familiar to post-secondary education students. This term is defined as "the pressure to adapt or adjust." (Nevid, Rathus, Greene, 1997). The source of stress is labelled a stressor, which can be psychological or environmental. Different people find different experiences stressful and react to them in different manners. However, Lafreniere and Ledgerwood (1997) wrote that there are certain events commonly assessed as being stressful, such as "events that are typically regarded as being negative, involve areas of life that are central to the person's identity, are unpredicatble and uncontrollable, are characterized by ambiguity, and are overwhelming in their cumulative impact." Often in a students' life the accumulation of difficulties with finances, discrimination, living arrangements, examinations, and personal relationships can increase the stress level.

It is important to examine the stress being experienced by students so that reduction or prevention may ensue. The studies examined should be considered significant to the academic society because "students' problems affect their academic studies, test performance, personal functioning, and career progress." (Schweitzer, 1996). To explore this subject the causes, effects, and coping strategies will be considered.

Test Your Stress!

Following are links to sites that contain stress tests:

http://www.findingstone.com/allkindsofstuff/stress/index.htm

http://www.cliving.org/stresstst.htm

http://www.processes.org/stress.html

http://www.stressanxiety.com/stress2.html