Another aspect that possibly adds to stress experienced by students is the experience of being female. Nugent, Faucette, and Kromrey's (1996) study found that "female respondents reported school related stress to be a greater problem (MN = 2.23) than males did (MN = 1.84)."
Frazier and Schauben (1994) did a study to discover what female college students considered to be stressful life events and how they adjusted psychologically. The subjects completed the Psychological Distress Inventory (PDI), the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES), the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), and the McPearl Belief Scale (MBS). The participants were two hundred eighty-two female students at a midwestern university who were taking courses in psychology or women's studies. Frazier & Schauben's study found that for female students "the five most frequently endorsed stressors were test pressure, financial problems, being rejected by someone, relationship breakups, and failing a test." A limitation to this study is it's subjects were solely females, therefore, a comparison cannot be made to men. Sexual victimization has been found to be an extremely stressful life event (Frazier & Schauben, 1994). It was indicated by Frazier and Schauben's study that "15% of the sample had been victims of attempted rape during their lifetime and that 21% reported having had an experience that met the legal definition of rape." Since females are more likely to be sexually assaulted than a man, an increase in stress level may be due to this.
Schweitzer (1996) related that the female subjects in his study "reported significantly more problems related to sexual harassment, emotional distress, and health problems.". Schweitzer mentions that sexual harassment may seriously affect the students' accomplishments in education.
In Woolfe's (1996) article about the counselling of students in British universities it is cited that "Phippen suggests that female students are over-represented among the clientele of counselling services." Woolfe writes that this "perhaps reflects the conventional wisdom that, for whatever reason, women are more in touch with their emotions. At the same time, it is necessary to acknowledge that female students may experience additional problems generated by sexism."
Lafreniere and Ledgerwood (1997) did a study to examine what influence leaving home, perceived family support, and gender had on a student's transition to university. The subjects completed a questionnaire that was comprised of the Perceived Social Support from Family Scale (PSS-Fa) and Cohen, Kamarck, and Mermelstein's (1983) Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Also, an additional item was added by the authors in which the subject rated their adjustment to university. The participants were "100 first-year university students who were enrolled in Introductory Psychology classes, and who voluntarily completed a questionnaire in exchange for one experimental credit point." (Lafreniere & Ledgerwood, 1997). Lafreniere and Ledgerwood (1997) state that "females experienced lower levels of emotional and psychological well-being than males". They also found that females exhibit higher overall levels of perceived stress than males. The result of this stress can have a very large impact on the life of a student.
In Frazier and Schauben's (1994) study on female university students they found that "students who reported experiencing more stressors and who rated those events as more stressful reported more psychological symptoms and more disrupted beliefs than those experiencing less stress." Although this was found, Frazier and Schauben suggest it could be argued that "experiencing psychological symptoms makes certain stressors more likely." Race A student considered to be from a racial minority may experience an increased amount of stress as compared to a non-minority student. In Frazier and Schauben's (1994) study on female students they also examined the effect that race has on stress level. When they administered the BSI they found a larger number of stressors, a superior degree of stress, and more psychological symptoms were reported among the Asian American students. They also reported that Asian American students related more disrupted beliefs on the MBS.
Leong and Mallinckrodt (1990) did a study "to examine possible cross-cultural variations in stress among Asian graduate students in comparison to Caucasian graduate students." The subjects completed a questionnaire comprised of the Proxy Measure of Health Status (Kisch, Kovner, Harris, & Kilne, 1969) self-report checklist, the Bell Global Psychopathology Scale (Schwab, Bell, Warheit, & Schwab, 1979), and the Life Event Questionnaire that was adapted from the Life Experiences Survey developed by Sarason, Johnson, and Siegel (1978). The subjects were two hundred and seventy-two graduate students who lived in the University of Maryland graduate housing complex. It was found that "Caucasian students reported a higher number of total life events (M=6.58; SD=4.40) than that reported by Asian students (M=4.81; SD=5.89; t=2.47, p<.05)." (Leong & Mallinckrodt, 1990). A related difference was found in that "Caucasian students also reported significantly more chronic physical symptoms (M=1.45; SD=1.47) than did the Asian students (M=0.87; SD=1.47; t=2.74, p<.05)." (Leong & Mallinckrodt, 1990). Caucasian students also reported having greater concerns about drug and alcohol use problems than Asian students. On the other hand, Asian students experienced more problems on the Memory Difficulties and Hallucination subscales and reported more trouble with paranoia than Caucasians.
Please find below links to other sites which you may find interesting.
University of Texas: University Alliance - Gender Issues
Beyond Segregation and Integration on the College Campus: A New Approach
Gender Differences in Adjustment to American Colleges Among Japanese Students
The Faces of Science: African Americans in the Sciences