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VSRD-TNTJ, Vol. 2 (7), 2011, 320-325

R RE ES SE EA AR RC CH H A AR RT TI IC CL LE E

An Examination of the Relationship between Academic Stress and Academic Achievement in Secondary Classes Students of Meerut
1

Mohan Gupta*, 2Renu Gupta, 3Subhash Chandra Mishra and 4Seema Sharma

ABSTRACT
This study examined the process of how some factors of academic stress effect to children academic achievement. These factors are conflict frustration pressure and anxiety. The literature on academic stress consistently has clarified that factors of academic stress play an important role in childrens academic achievement. The mechanisms for the academic stress have not been well studied. This study aimed to know the level of academic stress and educational achievement of secondary schools children. The tools, which are used in study are high reliable. Academic stress inventory of Abha Rani Bist (1972) was used. Sample of 200 students was selected from various schools of Meerut. In which two groups were formed according to their gender. Statistics were used. Mean, S.D. & T value were calculated. The findings are although the mean difference between boys and girls failed to reach in acceptable level of appreciation, the trend of such a difference clearly went in favour of boys. The academic stress was measured through its four components i.e. frustration, conflict and presser anxiety. 1. 2. About frustration, the result shows that boys are comparatively more frustrated than girls. While about academic conflict, the result shows that boys and girls both experience mental conflict equally in their academic situation. 3. 4. About academic pressure the result shows that girls student perceive more pressure than boys. About the anxiety the result shows girls were found comparatively more anxious than there boys counter parts in their academic situation.
____________________________ 1

Principal & Dean, Swami Vivekanand Subharti University, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, INDIA. 2Research Scholar, Department of Education, Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, INDIA. 3Head of Department, Department of Education, Amity College of Education, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, INDIA. 4Reader, Department of Teacher Education, Meerut College, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, INDIA. *Correspondence : dr.mohangupt@gmail.com

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This study is more important in opening the co-education institution and per providing the additional education. Keywords : Stress, Achievement, Gender.

1. INTRODUCTION
We react to our environment with different degrees of intensity; in 20th century with anxiety and in the present century with stress. In an academic situation, such as school, a student reacts in the form of mental distress to an anticipated frustration associated with failure in annual examination or even to the awareness of the possibility of such failure (Gupta & Khan, 1987). Academic stress is an emotional tension of a student which is expressed or felt by him during his failure to cope with the academic demands and its consequences may be exhibited in the form of major health hazards and problems, both physical and mental. Stress related diseases may be high blood pressure, peptic ulcer, allergies, headache etc. In academic life, stress may act as a negative predictor of academic performance (Endler et al., 1994). One of the important sources of academic stress in school children is the great expectation of parents for achieving good marks in their examination. Students now have more home work than ever before and if the child fails to do home work as per the expectations of their teachers, the results is the cumulative academic stress. In recent time, there have appeared several news regarding the increasing suicide rate among students of as young age as 8 year old. Obviously, such incidents should have motivated increasing number of educationists and psychologists besides social activists to ponder over the relationship between academic stress and academic achievement in students; whether increasing load of studies is increasing the achievement level of students and if yes what side effects of such stress is producing on their health. The present investigator was highly motivated to take the task of examining the relationship between academic stress and achievement in both male and female students of IX class in Meerut. Academic achievement is the level of learning in a particular area of subject in terms of knowledge, understanding, skill and application usually evaluated by teachers in the form of test scores in their annual examination. Academic stress is measured through its four components, namely frustration, conflict, pressure and anxiety.

2. METHODOLOGY
In the present study, a sample of 200 students of IX class of Govt. aided High Schools/Inter Colleges of Meerut city; both boys and girls were subjected to: Academic stress scale of Abha Rani Bisht (1972) for measuring academic stress through its four components, namely, anxiety, conflict, pressure and frustration. Academic achievement of the sample of students was measured in the form of total marks obtained in their annual examination. Schools records were traced for this purpose.

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3. RESULTS
Table 1 shows the summary of scores of both the gender groups on the VIII class achievement scores of 200 students. It can be seen here that boys scored better than girls but this difference of achievement, as statistically measured by t-test, failed to obtain significance level. Table 1 (Achievement Scores) GROUPS Boys Girls MEAN 485.65 477.08 S.D. 93.17 73.51 t-value 0.72 ns ns Not Significant As stated above, the academic stress was measured through its four components: Frustration, Academic Conflict, Academic Pressure and Academic Anxiety. Table 2 shows the summary of scores of both the gender groups on their Academic Frustration. It can be seen in this Table, that boys are comparatively and significantly more frustrated than their girls counterparts; the tvalue reached a 0.01 significance level in favour of boys. However, the girls low frustration mean was less consistent as is seen in the high standard deviation than those of boys. Of course, boys are more frustrated but highly consistent in their frustrated behavior as the S.D. of their mean performance is comparatively lower than those of girls. Table 2 (FRUSTRATION) Significance of Mean Difference on Academic Frustration Scores among Boys and Girls GROUPS Boys Girls MEAN 111.36 104.94 S.D. 8.55 13.12 t-value 4.10** ** Significance at 0.01 level Table 3 shows the summary of scores of both the gender groups on their scores of academic conflict. It can be seen here that both the sex groups failed to reach an acceptable level of significance when their mean difference was tested by the t-test. Table 3 (Academic Conflict) Significance of the Mean Difference on Academic Conflict Scores among Boys and Girls GROUPS Boys Girls MEAN 45.54 44.95 S.D. 6.91 8.85 t-value 0.52 ns ns Not Significant Table 4 reveals the summary of scores of both boys and girls on their scores of Academic Pressure. It is important to see that the mean difference of these two gender groups, as measured by the t-test, reached an appreciable level of significance; showing that girls perceive Academic Pressure comparatively more than their boys counterparts, and their perception is equally consistent as shown by their equal standard deviations.

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Table 4 (Academic Pressure) Significance of Mean Difference on Academic Pressure of Boys and Girls GROUPS Boys Girls MEAN 92.39 96.88 S.D. 13.14 13.26 t-value 2.40*

Table 5 exhibits the summary of scores of both boys and girls on their perception of academic anxiety. Very interesting to note is the fact that the girls are comparatively higher anxious that their boys counterparts, their mean difference acquired a highly significant level in favour of girls. It is also interesting to note that although girls experience comparatively higher level of anxiety in their academic environment but their anxious behaviour is not so consistent (due to their high standard deviation) as that of the boys. Table 5 (Academic Anxiety) Significance of Mean Difference on the Scores of Academic Anxiety of both the gender groups. GROUPS Boys Girls MEAN 37.25 43.87 S.D. 5.41 10.70 t-value 5.52** ** Significance at 0.01 level

Table 6 shows the significance level of coefficient correlation between academic achievement and academic stress in the total sample of 200 students including both the gender groups. The coefficient of correlation failed to achieve the required level of significance, although the trend of relationship is in the predicted direction, the correlation is negative but non-significant. Table 6 (Achievement/Stress) Significance of coefficient of correlation between academic achievement and academic stress of 200 students including both Boys and Girls VARIABLES Academic Achievement Academic Stress N 200 200 r -0.04 ns ns

Not Significant df --- 198

Table 7 shows the level of significance of coefficient of correlation between academic achievement and academic stress in the sample of only Boys. Here too, the correlation between achievement and stress in the sample of boys failed to reach acceptable level of significance. Not only the significance level, even the trend of the relation is not in the predicted; the value of the correlation is in the positive direction. Table 7 : Significance of the coefficient of correlation between Academic Achievement and Academic Stress in the sample of 100 Boys VARIBALES Academic Achievement Academic Stress N 100 r 0.019 ns ns

Not Significant df ---- 198

Table 8 shows the significance level of coefficient of correlation between academic achievement and

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academic stress in the sample of only girls. Here also, the correlation failed to achieve an acceptable level of significance, although the trend of the relationship is in the predicted direction as is observed in the form of negative correlation between achievement and stress. Table 8 : Signification of coefficient of Correlation between Academic Achievement and Academic Stress in the sample 100 Girls. VARIBALES Academic Achievement Academic Stress N 100 100 r -0.087 ns. Not Significant df. ---- 198

4. CONCLUSION
The result of the present survey of Academic Achievement and Academic Stress of 200 students of Meerut High School/inter Colleges including 100 male and 100 female IX class students shows significance of Mean Difference between boys and girls on the scores of academic achievement in Table 1. Although the mean difference failed to reach an acceptable level of appreciation, the trend of such a difference clearly went in favour of boys. This conclusion may be treated as tentative as exhibited in the present study but the trend of mean difference atleast indicates that boys may be superior that girls in their annual examination of VIII class in Meerut schools. This trend seems to go in the unexpected direction as several publications of High School results have shown better performance of girls than boys. As the mean difference failed to reach a significance level, no definite conclusion could be arrived in the present survey. The fact that the Academic Stress was measured through its four components, Academic frustration, Academic Conflict, Academic Pressure, and Academic Anxiety, it was decided to evaluate the difference between boys and girls by t-test on each of the four parameters of Academic Streets separately. Table 2 shows such a t-test evaluation of mean difference between both the gender groups on the parameter of academic frustration where it can be seen that boys are comparatively more frustrated than the girls. Similar results were shown by Verma & Gupta (1990), Seema (2003) and Pratibha (2006) and, therefore, seem to support the result of the present survey in showing that boys are easily frustrated than the girls while studying in IX class of Meerut Schools. Table 3 shows mean difference of boys with girls on the dimension of academic conflict; indicating nonsignificant t values. This failure of mean difference to emerge as significant may be supported by the findings of Verma & Gupta (1990) and Frazier & Schauben (1994) who also did not find any significant difference between boys and girls in their perception of academic conflict. It can, therefore, be safely concluded that boys and girls both experience mental conflict equally in their academic situations. Table - 4 reveals the t-test evaluation of the mean difference of boys and girls on their perception of academic pressure. The significantly higher pressure of girls than on boys clearly indicates that girls remain under great pressure than the boys in their academic environment. These results find sample support from the results obtained by Gupta (1986), Verma & Gupta (1990) and Galton et al. (1995), who also reported the higher pressure on girls than that on boys during their academic studies. It can, therefore, be safely concluded that girls

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perceive more pressure than boys in their academic environment. Table 5 exhibits t-test evaluation of the group mean difference on the scores of academic anxiety wherein girls were found comparatively more anxious than their boys counterparts in their academic situation. These results find sample support in the results obtained by Gupta (1986), Verma & Gupta (1990), Galton et al. (1995) and Frazier & Schauben (1994). Thus, table 4and table 5 have taken together the results obtained in the present study of academic pressure/and academic anxiety/. It can be safely concluded that girls experience more than boys the academic stress as defined by academic pressure and academic anxiety. In contrast boys remain highly frustrated than the girls (Table 2) in their academic situation, whereas no gender difference was noticed on the academic conflict dimension of academic stress. In the light of the above results it can be safely argued that Academic Conflict may not be a reliable measure of Academic Stress in discriminating both the gender of 5 students from each other. Moreover, as one should expect, boys experience more easily and effectively frustration in their academic environment. This fact cab be observed in regular life of students in their schools; boys express their frustration more by within group quarrels and abuses than their girls counterparts. On the contrary, girls remain a bit inhibited in their group-behaviour due to their higher level of pressure and anxiety in the school environment. These two dimensions of Academic Stress become more prominent in girls when they study in co-educational schools. This fact could be confirmed by further studies. Table 6 exhibits the significance level of coefficient of correlation between Academic Achievement and Academic Stress, as measured through its four components and, although no significant level of correlation was found, there was atleast an indication that the negative correlation between these two parameters may be taken to suggest that academic stress is related to poor achievement, and this trend was shown by the girls (table 8)/ prominently, Boys (table 7) showed no such relationship between academic achievement and academic stress. This may provide further evidence to show that girls experience more than boys the academic stress and this higher stress affects their achievement in the class adversely, as shown in Table 1; girls scored poor than boys in their annual examination.

5. REFERENCE
[1] Garton, A.F. et al (1995): A study of stress among secondary school students. Prachi Journal of Psychocultural Dimensions, 23(2): 150-152. [2] Frazin, P.A. & Schauhan, L.S. (1994): Stress life Events and Psychological

Adjustment among College students. Measurement & Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 27, 1, 280-292. [3] Gupta & Khan (1987): A study of the effect of the trait, anxiety, Psychological Stress and Intelligence on state and performance, Indian D. Abstract July-Sept, 1988, 360-365. [4] Pratibha, Sood (2006): Educational Choice in Relation to Academic Stress, Achievement Motivation and Academic self-concept. Journal of Community Guidance and Research, Vol. 23(2), 1 41-152 [5] Seema (2003): Achievement of Standard VII students in Hindi with respect of Academic Stress and Home Environment. An Unpublished M.Ed. Dissertation, DAV College of Education, Punjab University, Chandigarh.

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