Effects of Stress on the Academic Performance of Dentistry Students of National University

Submitted by:

Aragon, Angelika

Blanquera, Mary Grace

Bugayong, Jessica

Cabaltera, May

Garcia, Ella Jazelle

Pueblos, Kim Joshua

Salgado, Ciarie Mae

Trasmil, Juluis

Yson, Gleichel Maera

ACT 152
Chapter 1

Background of the Study

Stress is most undermined syndrome in our society that is neglected since the element of

mental health associated with it. Mental health is the parameter for improved or enhanced

performance in every society.

Having mentioned that, there was a need for identification of Stress and the key stressors

that are affecting the academic performance. We further refine the research by studying the effects

on Dentistry Students of National University and make it a gender base study which will help us

to differentiate between the effects and innate intuition of managing with stress in male and female

students.

For the very purpose, it was notorious that there broadly are two stressors that are external

in nature and have a solid impact on person’s abilities. These stressors include, Health Factors and

Social Factors. We are taking the Intellectual Abilities and Academic performance to be the

dependent variable whereas stress is regarded to be an independent variable.

Our literature review will base academic performance, intellectual abilities, Stress, two

identified stressors and each dissected to an extent, and the impact of stress in academic elaboration

in both genders.

Problem

Research is carried to investigate what are stress and its factors but are influencing the

intellectual abilities and in turn, Academic Performance of National University’s Dentistry

Students and is there any difference between the influence among male and female students.
Hypothesis

Significance of the Study

 To find out what are the factors that causes stress in National University’s Dentistry

Students.

 To find out the different effect of stress and its factors on both genders.

Scope and Limitation of the Study

This study specifically examines the National University’s Dentistry Students since their

program is considered one of the most stressful college in the university. Also, this study only

focuses on the National University Dentistry Students because of the availability of resources.

Theoretical Framework

Gender

Health Factors

Intellectual Academic
Stress Performance
Factors

Social Factors
Definition of Terms
 Stress – Emotional pressure suffered by a human being.

 Stressor – An environmental condition or influence that stresses an organism.

 Dentistry – The field of medicine concerned with the study, diagnosis and treatment of

conditions of the teeth and oral cavity.

Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature

Related Literature

Stress is the process by which an individual or a person react when opened to external or

internal problems and challenges. "the organism processes numerous systems to coordinate such

adaptive responses both at systematic and cellular levels "by this, stress has direct effect on the

brain and the whole anatomy of the body as such failure to adapt to a stressful condition can

result in brain malfunction, physiological problem and also many areas of psychological

challenge's in the form of depression, anxiety, pain and burnout (Essel and Owusu 2017).

According to UKEssays, Stress is a common and inevitable component in the lives of

every individual, regardless of race or cultural background. Over the past few decades, there has

been significant investigation on the issues of stress and management of stress. In addition,

university students have shown to possess a unique set of stressors which can affect their

everyday experiences.

Studies from different Universities shows that there is a correlation between stress and

academic performance of a student. Most of the stress that students experience has a negative

effect on their academic performance. According to studies, stress itself is not a problem but

problem is how we handle stress. If we are not handling it well then it will cause problems. And

if we will not handle it properly it will seriously affect our behavior and thoughts. People who

experiencing stress can be easily angry, feel depression, having problem in memorizing things,

got irritate even with no reason and start to feel sad. Stress also changes their behavior some

times. People start to eat too much or too little due to stress, some starts to taking drugs or

smoking because they feel it will give them relaxation. Some people withdraw social
relationships under stress and some start to cry. It’s not necessary that everyone will face all of

these. Some can have few of them and it can be different for other one but whenever person feels

stress some of these impacts will came with stress.

Essel and Owusu said that stress is basically force applied to a person and may result in a

strain which is as a result of an unmanaged stress that is when a person is not able to handle a

challenge or problem encountered strain result. To some people, the effect is minimal which

means they are able to endure pressure whiles in others the effect is enormous and have an

adverse effect.
Chapter 3: Methodology

Research Design

Using the descriptive design, survey questionnaires was distributed to the respondents in

order to achieve the main purpose of the study which is to determine how stress affects the

academic performance of a dentistry student in National University. The researchers tried to

make a survey that will totally define, evaluate, and interpret the status of the respondents. Since

the research should investigate the relationship of the variables without manipulating and altering

them, the best way to present this is using descriptive non-experimental correlation method. In

this method, the variables cannot be controlled but instead it relies on observation and

interactions to come to a conclusion. The research focuses on two main variables which studies

the relationship between the academic performance and stress level of dentistry major in

National University. These two are the variables being evaluated in the survey.

Population Sampling

A non-probability sampling procedure was used for selecting the participants in this

study, particularly convenience sampling and quota sampling. This technique was employed

because the sample and the place where it is conducted are accessible to researchers. The quota

sampling technique was used in getting the 30% of National University's Dentistry students to

become the respondents of our research.

Sampling technique was employed to select 134 students from the College of Dentristy of

National University. This was based on the fact that there were 448 students from the College of

Dentistry.
Data Instruments

In order for us, the researchers to answer the questions in our study we distributed several

survey questionnaires to the respondents. The survey questionnaires contain a wide range of

questions designed to know the effects stress in the academic performance of an accounting

student in National University. These survey questionnaires have five parts and the first part will

focus on the profile of the respondent; the name, gender, age, year and section. The second part

will tackle on how stressed they are in a daily basis during the school year. The third part

focused on the top five stress factors that affect the respondents the most. The fourth part will

concentrate on the effects of stress in the attitude of the respondents on a certain situations in

school. this part are in Likert scale form in which respondents will be tasked to indicate whether

they strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree or strongly disagree in the given statements. The

last part will contain the midterm General weighted average of the respondents.

Data Gathering Procedure

In gathering data, we decided to use the surveying, data mining and a self-administered

descriptive questionnaire. We used three methods because it maximizes our time and effort and

has the ability to maintain respondent’s confidentiality. The respondents will be given survey

questionnaires to provide the necessary data needed in the study. After gathering the data, the

researchers will group the responses according to the sub-problems of the study.
Statistical Treatment of Data

All the information and data that we have collected will be turned into percentage and

will be reported in a graphical and tabular forms. In order for us to turn these raw data into

meaningful information, we will use the following formulas.

1. In order to determine the profile of the respondents, their gender, GWA, the stress level

percentage and the different factors of stress that affects their academic performance the most.

The percentage method will be used:

Formula: % = F/N x 100

Where:

% is the percentage

F is the frequency

N id the total number of respondents

100 is a constant value

Chapter 4: Interpretation and Analyzing of Data

Interpretation and Analyzing of Data

A survey was conducted at National University, the College of Dentistry students as the

respondents to look into their perception regarding the effects and measures of stress on their

academic performance. The questionnaire given by the researchers consists of questions

recognizing the developing stress of the student.

Fig. 4.1 Illustrates how stressed the students feel on the daily basis during school year.

From this chart you can see that the highest percentage (37%) went to number 10 which is also

the highest number to ranked how stressed the students are. However, none of the respondents

chose number 1 which means that all of them are experiencing stress regardless of its level.

Fig. 4.1
1
2
3
1%
1%
3%
2% 4

38% 22% 5
6
7
16%
17% 8
9
10

Fig. 4.2 shows the common stressors of students. Based on the result, the top five

stressors are time pressure, course load, financial issues, family problems and health problem.

The figure below shows that course load has the highest percentage when it comes to be the
number 1 stressor among students while the environment and other factors like finding patients

for clinical trials got the lowest percentage in terms of being the number 1 stressor.

Fig. 4.2
Family Problems
Financial Issues
3% 8%
5%3% Health Problem
17% Course Load
27% Time Pressure
5%
Relationship
Social Issues
32%
Environment
Others

Figure 4.3
70

60 57 58
53
49
Number of Students

50 47
45 45
42
40
40
33
31 31
30
23 23
19 19
20 17
14 15
9
10

0
Stress affects my Stress affects my Stress affects me when I Stress affects my Stress always affects me
concentration on class outputs in school am taking my exams or comprehension negatively
discussion quizzes
Effects of Stress

Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree

 Figure 4.3 shows how students are affected by each scenario. Based on the result, 53

students, (40%) strongly agreed that stress affects the concentration of students on class

discussions, 45 students, (34%) agreed, 19 students (14%) disagreed and 17 students, (13%)

strongly disagreed. On the second question, 57 students, (43%) strongly agreed that stress affects

their output in school, 40 students (30%) agreed, 23 (17%) disagreed, and 14 students, (10%)

strongly disagreed. A total of 58 students, (43%) which is the highest percentage strongly agreed

that stress affects them when taking exams or quizzes. Out of 134, 47 of the students also

strongly agreed that stress affects their comprehension of lessons they are studying having the

highest percentage of 35%. The last category shows that 49 of the students (37%) strongly

agreed that stress always affects them negatively.

Figure 4.4

1.00 - 1.50
1%
1% 1.51 - 2.00
19% 19%
2.01 - 2.50
2.51 - 3.00

24% 3.01 - 3.50

36% 3.51 - 4.00
 Figure 4.4 shows the general weighted average based on midterm this semester of the

students. The result shows that the range 2.01-2.50 has the highest percentage (36%), and both

range of 1.00-1.50 and 3.51-4.00 has the lowest having 1% each.

Conclusion

This study was conducted to find out the effects of stress on academic performance of

Dentistry students of National University. Stress is an inevitable component in the lives of

individuals and as shown in the figure 4.1 in the daily basis, students feel stress regardless of its

level. The study has identified the common stressors that affect students’ academic performance.

Course load being the number one stressor strongly affects students in different scenario. The

study has also provided situation on how students affected by stress. In which in different

situation the highest percentage was always strongly agreed that stress affects when taking exam

and quizzes, concentration on discussion, comprehensive and outputs in school resulting a

negative effect on their academic performance where in the figure 4.4 shows that the highest

percentage of students got a midterm grade of 2.00 to 2.50.

Recommendation

Based on the study and analysis of the answers of survey, stress has a great impact to

your performance in school. If students do not handled stress properly, it can affect their

physiological, psychological and behavioral actions. The researcher suggested for future

research to find ways on how students will overcome their stress on their own especially on daily

basis that they will experienced stress. Elaborate how will students manage their time to cope

with their course load. Discover strategies and guidance that will help the students of College of

Dentistry to lessen their stress.

References:

Effect of stress on academic performance. 2015. Retrieved from

https://bohatala.com/effect-of-stress-on-academic-performance-of-students/

Essel, G., Owusu, P. Causes of students’ stress, its effects on their academic success, and

stress management by students. 2017. Retrieved from

https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/124792/Thesis%20Document.pdf?sequence=

1&isAllowed=y

Impact of stress on students’ academic performance psychology essay. 2015. Retrieved

from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/psychology/impact-of-stress-on-students-academic-

performance-psychology-essay.php

Mehfooz, Q., Haider, S. Effect of Stress on Academic Performance of Undergraduate Medical

Students. 2017. Retrieved from https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/effect-of-stress-on-

academic-performance-of-undergraduate-medical-students-2161-0711-1000566-95704.html