SHAY 3013

RESEARCH METHOD

CAUSES LEAD TO STRESS AMONG FM STUDENTS,

UTM SKUDAI

ABSTRACT

There are many obstacles to face when it comes to be a student. It could be because of
overbearing responsibility, adjusting with new peers, or maybe stresses over academic
accomplishments. The reason for this study was to distinguish the causes of stress among
students from Management Faculty (FM), and finding the relationship between independent
variable (iv) and dependent variable (dv). Methods: Exploratory research using quantitative
design. The Cross-sectional study was conducted from 18 October 2017 among FM students.
The population is 1018 students and the respondents were 280 (n=280) The data was collected
using a survey. A simple sampling technique was used. The information was conducted using set
of questionnaire, Pearson’s relationship coefficient, percentage and weighted mean. Cronbach’s
Alpha was utilized to demonstrate how well the things in a set are correlated to each other. There
are three IVs that lead to stress, which are interpersonal, intrapersonal and academic stress while
the DV is stress.

NOR AFIQAH EZZATIE BINTI MOHD NEZAM (A15HA0295)

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Study

This study aims at assessing stress among FM students. Nowadays, stress has become
an important issue in the academic circle including our faculty. It is a term that can be
connected to life circumstances that individuals are gone up against with such as
relationship, lifestyles, constant change in values and also family expectation (Rees &
Redfern, 2000) It also specified that numerous researchers of behavioral science
disciplines have completed broad research on stress and presumed that the topics
require constant attention from time to time (Ibrahim, N.F. also, Bohari, A.M., 2012).
The rapid transition in lifestyle from high school to university student especially in
education level can expose them to stress. Garret stated that stress is a common
element in the life of every individual, regardless of race or cultural background, as
cited by Amponsah M., Owolabi H.O. (2011). Stress can lead to various impacts and
causes from various factors. The stress is felt among university students and
obviously academic pressure can also trigger the development of unhealthy habits.
They have to keep up with both high level of achievement and social environment.
D’Zurilla & Sheedy mentioned that university students, especially freshmen are
particularly prone to stress. Stress is a complex, and dynamic procedure of
collaboration between an individual and his or her life (Rose, et. al.,1999). It is a war
that one responds mentally, physically and emotionally. Students usually related with
the stress which later can affect their daily life. There are various causes which lead to
stress such as interpersonal, intrapersonal and academic stress. This study will be
conducted particularly in Faculty of Management, UTM Skudai and will
concentrating on finding the causes of stress and the relationships each IVs and the
stress.
1.2 Problem Statement

Students always related to stress which can affect their daily life especially in their
routine activities. Life as a student is not just about the requirement to get good
grades, but also in terms of interactions and their social life. Sometimes, students are
not aware they are actually in stress condition. Thus, we come out with the problem
statement regarding the causes of stress among students of Faculty of Management,
UTM Skudai.

1.3 Research Questions

1) What are the causes of stress among FM students?

2) Is there any relationship between the causes and the stress?
3) Which stressor results to highest percentage towards stress among FM students?

1.4 Research Objectives

1) To identify the main factors leading to stress among FM students

2) To study the relationship between interpersonal cause and stress
3) To investigate the relationship between intrapersonal cause and stress
4) To understand the relationship between academic cause and stress
5) To decide which stressor contributes the highest percentage towards stress among
FM students

1.5 Conceptual and Operational Definition of Terms

Stress: Difficulty that causes worry or emotional tension and produces strain on the
physical body
Stressors: Events which can lead to stress
Interpersonal: Relationship between people
Intrapersonal: Something that occurs within one’s mind
Academic: Education, especially in colleges and universities
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

This chapter demonstrates the overview of current literature within the frame of the
presented research problem. Each of the literature reviewed about the specific
element from the relevant literature which can support this study. A literature review
is a well ordered process that includes the identification of published and unpublished
work from secondary data sources on the topic of interest, the assessment of this work
in relation to the issue and the documentation of this work (Sekaran and Bougie,
2013, p.50). In this way, each IV and DV will be checked on previous studies that are
related to this topic.

2.2 Stress

Stress is characterized as a reaction to a request that is put upon you, expressed in the
Anxiety Administration conducted by Scholastic Abilities Focus of California
Polytechnic State College. Vivek et al. (2013) specified that eustress, truly interpreted
as “good stress”, is a positive type of stress that persuades a person to keep working,
while trouble, or “bad stress”, is the time when the good stress turns out to be too
much to endure or adapt to. Everybody could experience stress including university
students. University students need to adjust to the new environment and keeping up a
decent academic accomplishment by being away from home. As indicated by
Amponsah and Owolabi (2011), stress is part of a university student’s life and
profoundly affects their ability to adapt to university life. In addition, undergrads
regularly manage weight identified with rivalry for decent evaluations, connections
and future profession decision. Greenberg (2013) found that younger university
students’ stressors include grades, work overload, finance management, making
friends, love and then breakups.
2.3 Interpersonal

Macmillan English Dictionary stated that, interpersonal means involving relationship

between people. Interpersonal abilities among college students are important in order
to get a good relationship between peers, classmates, lecturers and others. The
problem is that, engaging yourself in a good relationship between people can be
challenging. According to the research of “Sources of Stress among College Student”
Ross et. al demonstrated that 19% of stressor was relational. This type of skill is used
to communication purpose between people for better social life. Sometimes low
interpersonal skill might lead to conflict between students, causing them to feel
pressured by that matter. The examples of interpersonal stressors are having friends
with different values, doing group assignment with new group members instead of the
usual ones and misunderstanding with parents. As indicated by Ross, et. at(1999)
Interpersonal stressor includes conflict with roommate, having to work with people
you are unfamiliar with, having a fight with girlfriend or boyfriend and argument with
parents. Parents are one of the main causes that lead to stress among university
students. According to Rader, (2006) parents who put high expectation towards their
children can cause a great deal of stress to their children. If a child feels like he does
not meet up to his parents standards, it can leave negative impact in himself. Besides
that, having an issue between lovers can lead to stress as well. If something happens
between a student and his partner, it will somehow affect the student’s mind,
gradually leading to stress and affecting student’s daily life (Burgess, n.d.)

2.4 Intrapersonal

According to Oxford Dictionaries, intrapersonal is something which occupies or

already exists inside the mind. In addition, intrapersonal is something that happens
within individual. Intrapersonal is connected with one person’s interests, feelings, and
thoughts. As a university student, there could be different issues that could influence
one self and these issues may emerge from his or her responsibilities, habits, families
and companions. Intrapersonal causes such as financial issues, change in sleeping
 patterns, new responsibilities or change in dietary patterns can lead to emotional
disturbances within students. Students with financial issues might practice unhealthy
habits to cope with the situation. They tend to ignore other important elements just so
they could afford the most basic necessities, such as food. Pressure in student will be
experienced when uncontrolled changes occurred in one self. These circumstances
could prompt worry in a student, which leads to stress if the problems just left
unchecked (Scott, E., 2014). Ross, et. al.(1999) demonstrated in a research of
‘Sources of worry among College Students’ that intrapersonal stressor contributes the
highest percentage, which is 38%. Subsequently, intrapersonal is a factor that could
prompt stress among university students

2.5 Academic

Macmillan English Dictionary characterized scholarly is something related to

education, particularly education in universities. Academic exercises of university
students are assignments, reports, presentations, quizzes, tests and final examinations.
Students will experience the pressure of being a student, for example, the need for
perfection in doing assignments while completing academic activities. According to
Mathew (2014), academic factors that could triggers stress are competition for
postgraduates’ seats, changes in studying method, and excessive tasks to do such as
reports, presentations, quizzes, tests or examinations. In addition, Ross, et. al., (1999)
demonstrated in a research of ‘Sources of worry among College Students’ that
academic stressor contributes as much as 15% towards students’ stress. It is evident
that academic activities could impact students to encounter stress.
2.6 Framework

Independent Variables Dependent Variables

-Interpersonal causes
Stress
-Intrapersonal causes

-Academic causes

2.7 Hypothesis

H1: There is a significant relationship between interpersonal causal and stress.

H0 : There is no significant relationship between interpersonal causal and stress.
HA: There is a significant correlation between interpersonal causal and stress.

H2: There is a significant correlation between intrapersonal causal and stress.

H0 : There is no significant relationship between intrapersonal causal and stress.
HA: There is a significant correlation between intrapersonal causal and stress.
 H3: There is a significant relationship between academic causal and stress.
H0 : There is no significant relationship between academic causal and stress.
HA: There is a significant correlation between academic causal and stress.

3.0 METHADOLOGY

This chapter will be focusing on the approach of the study. In this chapter, there will be
discussion research design, population and sampling, adopted research instrument and data
analysis method. Meanwhile for the research instrument, adopted research instrument was
used. Factor analysis, reliability test, descriptive statistics, and mean were used as data
analysis method which helping on the development for this study.

3.1 Research Design

The main focus of this study is to identify the causes of stress among FM students,
UTM Skudai. The following step is to structure the research in such way that
essential data can be accumulated and then analyzed to get the solution of the
problem. A research design is an outline for the data collection, measurement, and
analysis of data, based on the research questions stated of the study. (Sekaran
&Bougie, 2013). This study used quantitative research as its method of study.
Creswell (2013) stated that, a quantitative method includes data collection, analyzing,
deciphering and jotting down the result. The advantage of using quantitative research
is that the data produced from the results are more reliable.

3.2 Population and Sampling

Target population is the group of individuals where researcher is interested to

investigate to get relevant data for research. The population refers to the whole group
of peoples, occasions, or things that attract the researcher to investigate about. The
population for our research is 1018 students. The information was provided by
 Students Academic Affairs (HEMA) of UTM Skudai. As indicated by Sekaran and
Bougie, (2013), sampling design is the process of choosing the right people, items, or
events as a representative of the population. Sampling is the process of choosing an
adequate number of the right elements from the target population, making it easier for
the researcher to generalize properties or characteristics of the population rather than
conducting survey on each of every people in the population, which is time-
consuming (Sekaran and Bougie, 2013, p.244). There are five main steps in sampling,
which are define the population, determine the sample frame, determine on the
sampling design, determine the appropriate size, and execute the sampling procedure.
The respondednts of this study is student from Faculty of Management, UTM
Skudai. FM has a population of 1018 students, using Krejchie &Morgan table as
guideline, 280 respondents range from 19 to 24 years old were selected for this study.

3.3 Data Collection Procedure

This study was conducted using primary data so it is an adapted research instrument.
The primary data that has been used is data survey by questionnaire paper. While
conducting the survey, the researcher got participation and clarification from the
sample respondents. Other than that, primary data refers as firsthand information
acquired initially by the researcher on the factors of enthusiasm for the particular
motivation behind the examination (Sekaran and Bougie, 2013, p.113). The
questionnaire was distributed to the respondents whom their respond and answers
may different on particular issues regarding to the subject. Questionnaires can be
reliable data collector of what and how to measure the chosen variables. Those
questionnaires were administered personally to the respondents and anonymously so
the respondents do not have to write down their private information along while
answering the sheets provided.
3.4 Data Analysis Method

The data result from the study was analyzed by determining their frequency,
percentage and weighted mean correspondingly. Frequency was displayed in the form
of bar chart and pie chart to represent the percentage of the personal profiles of FM
students, UTM Skudai. For correlation, this study was conducted using Pearson
correlation coefficient to get the interval and ratio-scaled variables. The Pearson
correlation framework shows the direction, strength, and significance between all the
variables that were measured at an interval or ratio level. Next is reliability, it is
established by testing for both consistency and stability. Consistency proves how well
the items measured correlated to each other. In this study, Cronbach’s Alpha was
used so how well the items are positively correlated to each other can be determined.
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