International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, Vol.

24, Special Issue 1, 2020

ISSN: 1475-7192

Academic Stress, Study Habits and Academic

Achievement among University Students in Jeddah
1
Asma Sami Alnahdi, 2Mariya Aftab

Abstract--The study aimed to determine the relationship between academic stress with demographic
variables, study habits and academic achievement among university students in Jeddah. In this study, correlational
research design with survey method was used. This study conducted a study in two universities in Jeddah for
different departments, inspected academic stress, study habits and academic achievement of 50 students (16 males
and 34 females) undergraduates by using demographic information, the academic scale and the study habits
inventory. The data was collected through survey which given to the targeted sample. The participant's responses
were collected, scored coded, and analyzed using the Statistical analysis software SPSS. Correlation and t-test were
applied. The results found that the females were more stressors than males. In addition, there was a significant
negative correlation between academic stress and study habits which that mean more academic stress lead to have a
poor study habit. Besides, there was no significant relationship between academic stress and academic achievement
of university students.

Keywords--Academic stress; study habit; academic achievement; demographic information; academic level

I. INTRODUCTION

Stress is defined as general nonspecific to external factors action which can be physical, chemical,
biological and psychological [1]. Stress have significant effects on individuals and affect their attitudes, behavior
and interpersonal relationship [2]. Stress also increase motivation, practice and efforts, stimulate individuals to
defend and protect themselves and improve their potential [3]. In previous studies found stress is associated with
depression, anxiety and physical conditions such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases [4].

University students faced many stress sources included lifestyle changes, academic burdens and
interpersonal relationship lead to psychological dysfunction [4]. University student are categorized who are exposed
to the stress and prone to stress related issues included depression, anxiety, eating disorders, drug addiction and
sleep disorders [5].

The prevalence of several mental health issues among university students is high such as mental health
distress rate ranges from 21% to 82%, anxiety between 34% and 47%, stress between 33% and 79% and depression
rate between 13% and 53% [5]. The medical students and physician among students group experiences higher
symptom loads of psychological distress, anxiety and professional burnout than average population [6].

According to Kadapatti et al. (2012), academic stress among students has been the most important topic of
interest for researchers in many years. College students experience and encounter high stress because of different

1
College of Humanities, Effat University, An Nazlah Al Yamaniyyah, Jeddah 22332, Saudi Arabia,[email protected]
2
College of Humanities, Effat University, An Nazlah Al Yamaniyyah, Jeddah 22332, Saudi Arabia,[email protected]

DOI: 10.37200/IJPR/V24SP1/PR201138
Received: 15 Jan 2020 | Revised: 05 Feb 2020 | Accepted: 25 Feb 2020 97
International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, Vol. 24, Special Issue 1, 2020
ISSN: 1475-7192

stressors. At the point when stress is seen contrarily or gets to be over the top, it can influence both wellbeing and
academic execution. The study was led to know the stressors of academic stress among 360 pre-university students.

The outcomes demonstrated that high aspiration, poor study habits, more study problems, change in
medium of direction and low financial conditions are the most important elements responsible for to academic stress
and get to be stressors for anxiety and stress among chose respondents.

In another study reposted by Nakalema et al. (2014) in Uganda to inspect academic stress, study habits and
academic performance of 196 undergraduates by using a cross-sectional survey research design. Discoveries
demonstrated that day by day academic hassles were observed to be the most stressful while individual problems
were accounted for as the minimum stressful. The students who are in their first year experienced more prominent
academic stress from three main factors which are (financial hardships, academic overload/time social expectations
for their academic life more than continuing students. In addition, they found the most utilized study habits was
motivation among the respondents, however the technique of studying chapter by chapter was the minimum regular
study habits among the students. Faculty of Development Studies students would be wise to have better study habits
than different faculties/institute taking into grade performance. The GPA/CGPA 4.40 - 5.00 classification had
unrivaled study habits than the other GPA/CGPA classifications. Also, age was a huge indicator of having
supplementary exams.

Meanwhile, Rao et al. (2015) discovered the impact of study habits, mental health and academic stress on
academic achievement among teacher trainees and reposted that there is huge and significant effect of mental health
on study habits and academic stress. In addition, Edem et al. (2015) examined 275 students using multistage
sampling procedure in Ghana. The results showed that the level of stress was observed to be huge for every single
demographic variable assessed. In any case, the causal variables for stress classes have been blended. Finally, no
critical impacts were found in the middle of stress and academic performance.

All humans will face a stress and its psychological manifestation in their life and are a major wellspring of
concern in the modern life in our society. Sani et al. (2012) conducted the study on medicinal students at Jizan
University in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The researchers used the GHQ 20 questions to assess the level of stress.
The pervasiveness of stress was breaking down on the gender, academic year, body mass index, education level of
parents, occupation of parents, place of residence, type of residence, number of siblings and with whom the students
were living. The results found that pervasiveness of stress among medical students was found 71.9%, with females
being more stressed by many different reasons on 77% than the males (64%) [11]. There was a measurably huge
relationship between stress and gender among students. In addition, there were different main factors for stress such
as parents’ education level or 10 occupations, the responsibility for many thing in their life ether families or houses,
kind of habitation, number of siblings, whether living with parents, type of living arrangement, method of going to
the college, time taken to reach college, marital status and epidemiological factors other than those identified related
to academic issues were not connected with stress. Seen sleeping issues and waking time in the morning found a
statistically huge relationship with stress. The main consideration connected with perceived stress was long hours of
study. Examinations and tight time timetables were alternate variables recognized. However, there were some

DOI: 10.37200/IJPR/V24SP1/PR201138
Received: 15 Jan 2020 | Revised: 05 Feb 2020 | Accepted: 25 Feb 2020 98
International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, Vol. 24, Special Issue 1, 2020
ISSN: 1475-7192

factors showed that have a little causes of stress such as psychological and family issues, absence of entertainment in
the campus and the education framework itself were different stressors for the medical students. Finally, stress was
predominant in roughly three fourths of the study group, with dominance among the females.

Based on brief review of literature, a number of studies have been carried out on the academic stress of
university students and that academic stress scale (ASS) is a good tool to examine the level of stress among the male
and female students in public and privates universities. The study aimed to determine the relationship between
academic stress with demographic variables, study habits and academic achievement among university students in
Jeddah.

II. METHODOLOGY

In this study, correlational research design with survey method was used. The population for this study
comprised of university students studying in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A sample of 50 university students were taken
from both private and public universities in Jeddah which are namely, EFFAT University and King Abdulaziz
University.

The demographic form was prepared to collect demographic variables, included name of the university,
collage, major, gender, age, the year in college are the student currently in, academic level, the amount of credit
hours. The cumulative GPA of the last semester, Residential Status, marital status, college expenses and the amount
of hours a week do the student usually spend working on a job for pay. The Academic Stress Scale (ASS) was a 40-
items scale developed by Rajendran and Kaliappan, (1990) designed to measure a student’s stress levels on a 5-point
scale, ranging from 0 to 4. 0 indicated ‘No Stress’, while 4 indicated ‘Extreme Stress’. The possible scores for this
test range from 0 to 160. A higher score indicates a higher level of academic stress and vice – verse. The test-retest
reliability of academic stress scale (ASS) is reposted to be 0.82.

In Study Habits Inventory (SHI), participants are asked to indicate their responses on a 3-point scale,
ranging from 1 to 3. 1 indicates rarely, 2 indicates sometimes, while 3 indicates often. Study habits inventory (SHI)
score is calculated by adding the individual scores of all items together where the possible range lies between 25-75.
The higher score the better one the study habits of the student. The test-retest reliability of the questionnaire is found
to be 0.882 by the test constructors.

Academic Achievement scale indicated from the GPA of the participants. The statements are about the
GPA scores and from these statements we can measure the highly academic achievement of the student. The higher
score the better one the academic achievement of the student.

The surveys were then given to the targeted sample where they were asked if the participants like to answer
the survey, then sign a consent form, while taking into consideration that their identity would remain anonymous.
After this step was completed participants were then given the surveys to complete. The participant's responses were
collected, scored coded, and analyzed using the Statistical analysis software SPSS. Correlation and t-test were
applied.

DOI: 10.37200/IJPR/V24SP1/PR201138
Received: 15 Jan 2020 | Revised: 05 Feb 2020 | Accepted: 25 Feb 2020 99
International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, Vol. 24, Special Issue 1, 2020
ISSN: 1475-7192

III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Result

In Table 1, the result indicated that the Academic Stress Scale (ASS), which contains a number of 40 items
displays a reliability coefficient of α = 0.82. Meanwhile, the Study Habits Inventory (SHI) contains a number of 25
items and holds a reliability coefficient of α = 0.88.

Table 1:Psychometric properties of the scales [N=50]

Variables α Number of items

Academic Stress 0.82 40
Scale (ASS)
Study Habits 0.88 25
Inventory

In Table 2, the result showed that half of the students in (54%) in both universities faced a normal stress In
addition, there were a big number of students (40%) of the participants who were able to overcome the academic
stress. Besides, all males was under this percentage. Moreover, there were 6% of participants who faced a huge
stress in their study life.

Table 2:General patterns of academic stress among university students

Academic stress Total Percentage

subgroups (%)
Less stress 20 40
Moderate stress 27 54
More stress 3 6
Total 50 100

Figure 1 represented general patterns of academic stress among university students.

Figure 1:General pattern of academic stress among university students.

DOI: 10.37200/IJPR/V24SP1/PR201138
Received: 15 Jan 2020 | Revised: 05 Feb 2020 | Accepted: 25 Feb 2020 100
International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, Vol. 24, Special Issue 1, 2020
ISSN: 1475-7192

Table 3showed a significant negative correlation (r= -0.31) between academic stress and study habits. High
academic stress leads to poor study habits among university students, and vice-versa. In addition, the result also
showed that there was no significant relationship (r = -0.02) between academic stress and academic achievement of
university students. The negative direction of the correlation suggested that higher academic achievement is
associated with lower levels of academic stress, and vice versa. The study habits were correlated positively (r =
0.16) with academic achievement. That study indicated that good study habits lead to high academic achievement
while poor study habits lead to lower academic achievement among university students.

Table 3: Interco relations of the variables (N=50)

Variables Mean SD 1 2 3
Academic 63.78 31.15 -
stress
Study habits 50.52 9.22 -0.31* -
Academic 3.71 0.94 -0.02 0.16 -
achievement

In Table 4, t-test yielded statistically significant gender differences between the mean scores of male and
female university students on the academic stress (t = 6.41, p<0.01) and study habits (t=3.16, p< 0.01) scales.
Female scored significantly higher (M = 78.15, SD = 23.09; M = 53.12, SD = 7.86) than males (M = 33.25, SD =
23.12; M = 45, SD = 9.67) on both these scales of academic stress and study habits. In addition, there was no
significant gender difference is observed among both male and female university students with regard to their
academic achievement.

Table 4:Group differences (male and female) of the study variables

Variables Male Female t p-

Mean SD Mean SD value
Academic 33.25 23.12 78.15 23.09 6.41** 0.01
stress
Study habits 45.00 9.67 53.12 7.86 3.16** 0.03
Academic 3.73 0.80 3.69 1.02 0.14 0.89
achievement

Figure 2 represented group differences between male and female of study variables.

DOI: 10.37200/IJPR/V24SP1/PR201138
Received: 15 Jan 2020 | Revised: 05 Feb 2020 | Accepted: 25 Feb 2020 101
International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, Vol. 24, Special Issue 1, 2020
ISSN: 1475-7192

Figure 2:Group differences (male, female) of the study variables [n=50].

Discussion

The study was designed to investigate the relationship between academic stress, study habits and academic
achievement among university students in Jeddah. The results showed that most of students studying in university
were moderately stressed. However, the percentage of less stressed students though only 40% cannot be considered
as flattening.

The relationship between academic stress and study habits of university students was found to be
significant and negative in direction. This result suggested that the type of study habits students’ adopt was
dependent on the amount of stress that the student experience. This finding is plausible considering the nature of
stress which has the tendency to propel one to work harder when the stress is moderate and which also tendency to
lower one’s energy when it is excessive. Thus, stress could make students to work harder and perform well in
examinations especially when the stress is moderate. These findings also supported by [7] who have earlier found
that stress is inimical to learning and poor study habits is one of the factors responsible for academic stress.

A relationship between students’ academic stress and their achievement was found to be negative in
direction, but not statistically significant. This may be the result of the small sample size used in this study. This
study is partially supported by the previous findings who have also found that there is a significant but weak
negative relationship between undergraduate students’ stress level and their academic achievement [12] and [13].

The positive relationships between study habit and academic achievement point to the fact that students
who utilize effective study strategies, concentrate on the class, assimilate and study regularly in anticipation for
examination will achieve academically. The students who achieved academically adopted strategies to monitor and
manage their time for studying and success in course work reinforces continued use of these strategies.

IV. CONCLUSION

In conclusion, females face more academic stress than males, and hence revert to work hard and develop
good study habits as compared to the male students. Female students were also more recognized for taking good
lecture notes, proof reading work, and having the ability to recall more facts from lectures than the male students. In

DOI: 10.37200/IJPR/V24SP1/PR201138
Received: 15 Jan 2020 | Revised: 05 Feb 2020 | Accepted: 25 Feb 2020 102
International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, Vol. 24, Special Issue 1, 2020
ISSN: 1475-7192

addition, there was no significant gender difference is observed among both male and female university students
with regard to their academic achievement.

V. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author would like to thank all respondents for their unconditional support.

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DOI: 10.37200/IJPR/V24SP1/PR201138
Received: 15 Jan 2020 | Revised: 05 Feb 2020 | Accepted: 25 Feb 2020 104