EFFECT ON ACADEMIC SELF-EFFICACY DUE

TO PERCEIVED STRESS IN COLLEGE STUDENTS

Submitted To:
Dr. Jatin Christie

Submitted By:
Preksha Porwal, Fifth Year Integrated MBA,
Ahmedabad University

Date:
25th October 2018
Table of Contents
Acknowledgement .................................................................................................................................. 3
Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 4
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 5
Research Objective ................................................................................................................................. 5
HYPOTHESES STATEMENT....................................................................................................................... 5
Literature Review .................................................................................................................................... 6
Methodology........................................................................................................................................... 7
Type of Research ................................................................................................................................. 7
Sampling Method ................................................................................................................................ 7
Respondents ....................................................................................................................................... 7
Questionnaire ..................................................................................................................................... 7
Analysis ................................................................................................................................................... 8
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 11
References ............................................................................................................................................ 12
Annexure ............................................................................................................................................... 13
Acknowledgement

I, Preksha Porwal, of Amrut Mody School of Management would like to thank the university
to give me this opportunity to learn and study on the topic "Effect on Academic Self-Efficacy
due to Perceived Stress in College Students" for Organisational Development course.

I would like to thank my instructor and mentor Dr. Jatin Christie to guide me throughout the
course and in this project. I would also like to thank my friends and various students of
colleges like AMSOM, GLS, SMPIC, PDPU and Nirma University for trusting, motivating
and guiding me throughout this project.
Abstract

In this paper, I have discussed about the effect of perceived stress on the Academic Self-
Efficacy of college students. The aim is to find the relation between these 2 variables and to
know whether Academic Self-Efficacy is dependent on the Stress perceived by college
students. The findings show that there is an inverse relationship between them and when the
stress level on college students increase, their Academic Performance like on factors like
examination, Co-curricular activities, Reading, Goal Orientation, Time Management, their
Relationship with peers and teachers also decreases.
Introduction

ACADEMIC SELF-EFFICACY - Academic Self-Efficacy is placed within the framework of

Social Cognitive theory. The scale is based on the idea that the efficacy of the students in
each of the dimensions of academic work would contribute to the overall academic Self-
Efficacy. The selected dimensions of academic work are Learning process, Reading,
Comprehension, Memory, Curricular Activities, Time Management, Teacher Student
relationship, Peer Relationship, Utilization of resources, Goal Orientation, Adjustment and
Examination.

PERCEIVED STRESS - It is a measure of the degree to which situations in one’s life are
appraised as stressful. A person at a given point of time thinks how much he or she is under
stress due to the surroundings

Here, Perceived Stress is the independent variable and Academic Self-Efficacy is a dependent
variable. A college student academic activity is affected by variables caused due to perceived
stress which in turn affects the academic Self-Efficacy.

Research Objective

To see whether Perceived Stress have Impact on the Academic Self-Efficacy of college going
students.

HYPOTHESES STATEMENT

Does Perceived Stress have an impact on the overall Academic Self-Efficacy of college going
students?

H0= There is a significant association between Perceived Stress and Academic Self Efficacy

H1= There is no significant association between Perceived Stress and Academic Self Efficacy
Literature Review

Today academic, personal or social pressure is increasing on college going students, and
hence becoming a biggest reason for the stress. Though, certain degree of stress is required as
it makes students work hard to achieve their goal which further improves their performance.
But too much stress has also been seen to have adverse effect on student’s health. (Deckro, G.
R., Ballinger, K. M., Hoyt, M., Wilcher, M., Dusek)

Stress is defined as the perceived or actual threat on physical and psychological mind of the
human body. Chrousos, GP. Stressors, stress, and neuroendocrine integration of the
adaptive response. The 1997 Hans Selye memorial lecture. (Ann. N. Y. Acad.
Sci 1998, 851, 311–335)

It is also known as a phenomenon of the external environment because of painful

stimulation, noise, arguments and others. It is also considered as a response by the
individual because of factors like sympathetic arousal, release of cateocolamines, anxiety
or anger, which leads to stress. (Ramírez, M. T. G., & Hernández, R. L. 2007)

It is the interaction between the individual and the environment, a process. (Sandín, 1999)

Stress is considered a particular relation between the individual as threatening or

overwhelming his resources, and which jeopardizes his well being. It is known as the
transactional perspective of stress, because of both – internal and external condition. Because
of which different people react in different way. (Lazarus and Folkman (1984))

Self-efficacy is one's perceived capabilities for learning or performing actions at designated

levels. It is a belief about what one can do. Self-efficacy is a key component of positive
psychology and a central influence on individuals' well-being. Researchers have found those
self-efficacy influences individuals' learning, motivation, and self-regulation. (Schunk, D. H.,
& DiBenedetto, M. K. 2014)
Methodology
Type of Research
The type of research used for this study will be a Qualitative Research. This research method
helps in having in-depth understanding about the behaviour and reasons that governs the
behaviour. This method helps in understanding “why” which is not actually coming if it was
a Qualitative as it is a Subjective matter that is researched “Effect of Stress” and “Self-
Efficacy”. Besides this it will be calculated through the Questionnaire and Statistical tool so it
will even have base and proof to prove the Conclusions Backed by the Results filled by the
Respondents. The data collected is only through Primary Data Collection directly with
respondents for the analysis of the data as similar research isn’t conducted

Sampling Method
The Sampling method used for the research is Stratified Random Sampling as we need
particular Strata from the population that is only college students of different institutes. The
sample data that is selected for the research has 30 respondents randomly and the population
is not specifically defined but the research may restrict it to the college going students only in
the boundaries of Ahmedabad as all the respondents are from different universities of
Ahmedabad like AMSOM, GLS, SMPIC, PDPU and NIRMA.

Respondents
The respondents were college going students and no particular gender was focused on. There
was equal probability of both the gender to end up into the respondents list most of them
were collected from different colleges through friends and friends of friend.

Questionnaire
• Perceived stress scale (PSS) a global measure that measures the degree to which in one’s
life situations are appraised to be stressful

• Academic Self Efficacy Scale - It was prepared assessing the academic self-efficacy of
secondary school students based on the Self-Efficacy theory of Albert Bandura (1977) who
placed it within the framework of Social Cognitive theory.

(The questionnaire are attached in the appendix.)

Analysis

The analysis below has been done taking 2 variables – Academic Self-Efficacy and the Perceived
Stress of 30 college students. The data was run through PSPP, software similar to SPSS, to
understand the dependency of one dependent variable on other. And to know whether they have
any co-relation between them.

From the above table, we can see that the correlation coefficient, R, is 0.62, which positive
and it is close to 1 and thus, is positively correlated with stress perceived by college students
on their performance, and this relationship seems strong. Here, the R Square value shows
how much of the total variation in Academic Performance (Dependent Variable) can be
explained by Perceived Stress (Independent Variable), which is 36% in our case. This is
considered to be moderate, thus performance can be explained moderately.

ANOVA explains how well the regression equation can predict the dependent variable, i.e.
Performance. Through this table, we can interpret that regression model predicts the data
significantly well, as the Sig. Value is less than 0.05 (it is 0) and it explains that perceived
stress has an impact on the Academic Performance of a college student.
The Regression equation from the above table would be:

Academic Performance = 57.11 + 1.85 (Perceived Stress) (Y= a + bX)

As Y is the dependent variable, which is Academic Performance and X is independent

variable, which is Perceived Stress in our case. This means that stress would have an impact
of 1.85 times on the Academic Performance. Here, their overall performance would be
affected like – relationship with peers and teacher, examination, reading, memory, time
management, they won’t be able to manage their time and memorize.

Now, to analyse further deeply, I took another dependent variable that is one of the factors of
the Academic Self-Efficacy – Examination, to understand whether Perceived Stress has an
effect on the learning process of a student during exam.

From the above table, we can see that the correlation coefficient, R, is 0.86, which is highly
positive and it is close to 1 and thus, is correlated with stress perceived by college students on
their performance of exam, and this relationship seems very strong. Here, the R Square value
shows how much of the total variation in Academic Performance (Dependent Variable) can
be explained by Perceived Stress (Independent Variable), which is 74% in our case. This is
considered to be highly strong, thus examination can be explained very strongly.
ANOVA explains how well the regression equation can predict the dependent variable, i.e.
Examination. Through this table, we can interpret that regression model predicts the data
significantly well, as the Sig. Value is less than 0.05 (it is 0) and it explains that perceived
stress has an impact on the Academic Performance of a college student.

The Regression equation from the above table would be:

Examination = 4.56 + 0.43 (Perceived Stress) (Y= a + bX)

Here, our Dependent Variable is Examination (Y) and Independent Variable is Perceived
Stress (X). We can say that, Stress would have 43% of impact on the examination. If the
stress increases, students would be disturbed and would thus not be able to perform better in
their examination.
Conclusion

Our surroundings like - where we live, the condition, family, friends, competition, affects us
a lot. This can affect positively, which can give a human strength. But, if it affects negatively,
it can lead to stress or depression on human life. Especially for college students as this phase
of their life is where they build new relationships, they have to meet the expectations of their
parents and teachers. Also, competition around them is increasing which further adds
pressure on them and thus has an impact on their personal, social and academic life. Looking
at the analysis we can conclude that Stress is related with Academic Performance and would
affect the overall Academic Performance of a student.
References

Deckro, G. R., Ballinger, K. M., Hoyt, M., Wilcher, M., Dusek, J., Myers, P., ... & Benson, H. (2002).
The evaluation of a mind/body intervention to reduce psychological distress and perceived stress in
college students. Journal of American College Health, 50(6), 281-287

Chrousos, G. P. (1998). Stressors, stress, and neuroendocrine integration of the adaptive response:
the 1997 Hans Selye Memorial Lecture. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 851(1), 311-
335.

Ramírez, M. T. G., & Hernández, R. L. (2007). Factor structure of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) in
a sample from Mexico. The Spanish journal of psychology, 10(1), 199-206.

Sandin, P. (1999). Dimensions of the Stress. Human and Ecological Stress Assessment: An
International Journal, 5(5), 889-907.

Schunk, D. H., & DiBenedetto, M. K. (2014). Academic self-efficacy.

Annexure

Questionnaire for Academic Self Efficacy

Questionnaire for Perceived Stress