The Relationship between stress, anxiety and depression and students performance of ESL

Undergraduate students in Universiti Putra Malaysia

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Learning-related issues are another escalating concern on college campuses. DuPaul et al. (2009)
report that anywhere between 2-8 percent of college students suffer from Attention-Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). ADHD is also a mental health problem such as stress, anxiety
and depression. This problem is a very concerning problem for a university student.

Next, according to Chiauzzi et al. (2008), students facing high levels of stress also tend to
experience an increased risk of academic difficulties, substance abuse, and emotional problems.

Moreover, according to Surteeset al.’s (2002) survey showed that anxiety or depressive
conditions in the students’ first year reduced the likelihood of achieving a first-class degree,
although this relationship disappeared when adjustment was made for other factors.

According to Jacobi et al. (2004), over the years, depression plays a big role in students’
problems. Depression emerges as a significant predisposing risk factor for eating disorders in
college students. From this statement, depression is a dangerous mental health that students
nowadays faced in their university life. For that, there are still many students who have these
mental health problems such as stress, anxiety and depression that affect their academic
performance. Hence, this study will attempt to the relationship between stress, anxiety and
depression and students performance of ESL undergraduate students in Universiti Putra
Malaysia.
SCOPE AND LIMITATION

As this is a study that is based on mental health such as anxiety, stress and depression, the
findings of this study are only limited to this form of mental health only. Hence, other forms of
mental health might give different results in determining students' performance ESL.

In addition, since this study concerns on students’ performance among ESL Undergraduate
learners in Universiti Putra Malaysia, the implications drawn are hence limited to this particular
group only. Therefore it may be wrong to conclude that other groups of university students show
the same result in terms of their performance.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, some significant research will be reviewed and related to the objectives that have
been mentioned in Chapter 1. In the previous chapter, the possible factors that could affect
students’ performance of ESL Undergraduate students in Universiti Putra Malaysia could be the
stress, anxiety and depression where the students facing these problems. Therefore, this chapter
not only will explain more about the factors but also explain about the effects through some
reviews on past research.

2.1 STUDENTS PERFORMANCE

Student’s performance is the academic achievement level that is exhibited by an individual. In

other words, it is the degree of success attained at the end of an academic exercise which can
conceived to mean the extend one is able to accomplish after learning has taken place.

Vroom’s (1964) expectancy theory, which provides a useful conceptual framework for
understanding a student’s motivation to strive for academic success

One way to determine the level of academic performance is by using Bloom’s Taxonomy.
According to a research by Lord and Baviskar (2007), Bloom found in the study which involve
the analysis of third level examination script, 95% of questions exam were lower level of
cognitive thinking. Anderson and Sosniak (1994), it was initially design to be applied when
setting examination papers at third level but it now has been used as a basic reference for
educator globally. Research found that the taxonomy is used most frequently at policy making
level and sparingly by school and teachers in the classroom. Teacher have been using the
taxonomy for decade to help common errors which is specifying objective, preparing test, asking
question at different taxonomic level and increasing the cognitive level of activity. Useful
application of the taxonomy includes formulating questions to challenge your students in class
test during class time and for homework assignment. The taxonomy is also useful in the
designing of lesson plan and can be used to adapt a previously design lesson.

2.1.1 PAST RESEARCH OF STUDENTS PERFORMANCE

According to Bloom (1976), a review of the educational and cognitive psychological research
literature indicates that prior content and metacognitive knowledge is an important educational
variable that explains learning and academic performance.

Mental health illness such as anxiety, stress and depress could affect their academic
performance.

According to Chia (2005), even documents that graduate’s academic performance represents a
significant indicator of future initial job interviews. This statement shows that student’s feel
worried about their academic performance for their future that could affect their mental health.

Student’s performance also could motivate students to excel in their future. This confirms the
opinion of Guney’s (2009) discussing the idea of examination structure, noting that students do
care about the way the examination questions are asked, and pleading for a rigorous and
pedagogic preparation of examination questions in accounting. This is also in agreement with the
finding from Carmen Giorgiana Bonaci, Răzvan V. Mustaţă, Alexandra Muţiu, Jiří Strouhal
(2014), The manner in which educators, through the evaluation process, are assessing students’
academic performance is therefore extremely important in motivating their future behavior.
Moreover, we believe that students should also develop the ability to self-acknowledge their
academic performance and gain awareness of their actual status. As a saying goes, we almost
always get what we measure, the assessment process of students’ academic performance should
be very carefully considered.
Refferences

1. DuPaul, G.J., Weyandt, L.L., O’Dell, S.M. and Varejao, M. (2009), “College students
with ADHD”, Journal of Attention Disorders (in press), available at:
www.allacademic.com/meta/ p116618_index.html.
2. Jacobi, C., Hayward, C., de Zwaan, M., Kraemer, H.C. and Agras, W.S. (2004), “Coming
to termswith risk factors for eating disorders: application of risk terminology and
suggestions for a general taxonomy”, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 130, pp. 19-65.
3. Chiauzzi, E., Brevard, J., Thurn, C., Decembrele, S. and Lord, S. (2008), “My student
body-stress:an online stress management intervention for college students”, Journal of
Health Communication, Vol. 13 No. 6, pp. 555-572.
4. Surtees, P. G., Wainwright, N. W. J., & Pharoah, P. D. P. (2002). Psychosocial
factors and sex differences in high academic attainment at Cambridge
University. Oxford Review of Education,28, 21 – 38.
5. Vroom (1964) Vroom, V. H. (1964). Work and motivation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-
Bass.[Google Scholar]
6. Bloom, B.S. (1976), Human Characteristics and School Learning, McGraw-Hill, New
York, NY.
7. Chia, Y. M. (2005). Job offers of multi-national accounting firms: The effect of
emotional intelligence, extra-curricular activities and academic performance. Accounting
Education, 14(1), 7593.
8. Dochy, F.J.R.C. (1992), Assessment of Prior Knowledge as a Determinant for Future
Learning, Uitgeverij Lemma BV, Utrecht.
9. Guney, Y. (2009). Exogenous and endogenous factors influencing students’ performance
in undergraduate accounting modules. Accounting Education, 18(1), 5173.
10. Lord, T and Baviskar, S. (2007) ‘Moving from information recitation to exploting
Bloom’s Taxonomy in creating science questions’. Journal of College Science Teaching
36(5) 40-44.
11. Anderson, L. W. & Sosniak, L. A., eds. (1994) Bloom's Taxonomy: A forty year
retrospective Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
12. Carmen Giorgiana Bonaci, Răzvan V. Mustaţă, Alexandra Muţiu, Jiří Strouhal (2014),
Assessing accounting students’ academic performance: A case study on Romania, in
 Cătălin Nicolae Albu , Răzvan V. Mustaţă (ed.) Accounting in Central and Eastern
Europe (Research in Accounting in Emerging Economies, Volume 13) Emerald Group
Publishing Limited, pp.279 - 319
13. Bloom, B., Englehart, M., Furst, E., Hill, W. and Krathwohl, D. (1956) Taxonomy of
educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive
domain. , New York, Toronto: : Longmans, Green.