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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1
INTRODUCTION Stress is a feeling in which a person faces high level of depression due to the requirements he /she need to perform in any task that they undergo. Stress is a normal physical response to events that make you feel threatened or upset your balance in some way. As for this study, the stress level is mainly tested the first semester students in Northern University of Malaysia. According to our research on previous studies, there are many factors that can contribute to the stress among the first semester student. The investigated variable that we analysis in this study are academic and social factor. On the other hand our dependent variables (DV) are physical factor and office relationship (stress). In this study, we will also investigate the correlation on the students relationship with their course mate, roommate, their family background, financial support and etc. 1.1.1CURRENT ISSUE ON STRESS According to an article published in Berita Online, on Thursday, October 6 th, 2011, revealed that the stress level among students is very high. The issue is also being experienced by others locally and globally. This is because students are everywhere in the world wide and as their education level is getting higher, they need to accomplish many tasks and face new environment which can be slightly or totally different from their primary and secondary school life. They have to go through all this stages in their life to prepare them to working environment. Unfortunately, their colleges or universities life cause them a lot of pressure due to the lack of skills or certain knowledge to accomplish those tasks. Besides that, some of them who facing with personal or family problem could make their stress level to increase causing them to be in trauma. Therefore, everyone who involve in developing students should be more concern on this issue and find solution to overcome this problem.
1.2
PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.3
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE The objective of our research can be divided into two parts, the general objectives and specific objectives. The general objective is our research is looking at the existence of relationship between the stress experience by first semester students and
1.4
SCOPE OF THE STUDY This basic study is carried out mainly to investigate the factors that influence stress among students. The study is made mainly by considering two aspects which is academic and social factors. The study is constructed especially for the first semester students of Northern University. As the study is made by having the first semester students in mind, the findings obtained from this study will be mainly generalized among them only. The number of students taken in this research is about 100 students. In academic, we study on the academic achievements, examinations and course material where can be collected through their current exam result and study on their weekly or monthly assignments or coursework task. Besides that, competition among students also is studied in this category. Another factor that contribute stress is social factors which included social aspects in college, relationships in classroom, parental influences and socioeconomic supports.
1.5
RELEVANCE OF THE STUDY This study has been done mainly for the benefit of the first semester students as it could be made as guideline by them to handle their stress better. From this study, both the first semester students and the Northern University management team could consider the adjustment that should be made in order to reduce or eliminate the stress level to enhance the education process.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INVESTIGATED VARIABLE The investigated variables that are used in this study are academic, physical factors, office relationship and social factor. In this study, the investigated variables consist of both independent variable and dependent variable. Academic means studies that is liberal or classical rather than technical or vocational (The American Heritage, 2009). Next is social factor, which means interaction of organisms with other organisms and to their collective co-existence (Dolwick, JS, 2009). Other than that, physical factors mean Non-living factors that affect organisms and their survival (Wiki Answers.Com). Next is the office relationship, this term means the degree of success obtained in achieving a favorable relationship with the public (Public Relations Research, 1989). In addition,stress means body's reaction to a change that requires a physical, mental or emotional adjustment or response (Lazarus,R.S & Folkman,S, 1984).
2.2
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.3
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Stress factors Stress in university Academic Physical stress Social Office relationship stress
2.4.
RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
H1: There is a significant relationship between the academic factors and stress in university H2: There is a significant relationship between the social factors and stress in university. H3: There is a significant relationship between social factors and physical factor H4: There is significant relationship between social factors and office relationship H5: There is significant relationship between academic and physical factor H6: There is a significant relationship between academic and office relationship H7: There is significant differences of stress level in university between gender
H8: There is significant differences of stress level in university between hometown H9: There is a significant differences of stress level in university among family background H10 : There is a significant differences of stress level in university among academic background
2.5
OPERATIONALIZATION OF VARIABLES
2.5.1 STRESS FACTORS The operational definition of factor leads to stress in this study is a multidimensional construct capturing the academic and social factor. The items for each dimension adapted from (Shah, Trivedi, Diwan, Dixit, & Anand, 2009) in the Table 2.2. With the use of 5-point likert scale, they will be asked to specify from (1) No stress (5) Extreme Stress on each items.
Type of scale and its construction
Variable Academic
Items used
Adapted from
Time table , Duration , 5-items, 5-point Likert scale anchored by: (1) Strongly disagree to (5) Strongly agree APA system, English , Course , Time ,Result, Smart ways, Recent course ,Pressure Social factor 5-items, 5-point Ragging, Shah.C,Trivedi.R.S., Shah.C,Trivedi.R.S., Diwan.J, Dixit.R, & Anand.A.K. (2009
2.5.2 STRESS IN UNIVERSITY The operational definition of stress among first semester students in this study is a multidimensional construct capturing the physical factor and office relationship.
Type of scale/question and its construction 5-items, 5-point Likert scale anchored by: (1) No stress to (5) Extreme Stress
Office relationship
5-items, 5-point Likert scale anchored by: (1) No Stress to (5) Extreme Stress
JPA scholarship, Shah.C,Trivedi.R.S., Procedure Requirement Service , Diwan.J, Dixit.R, & , Anand.A.K. (2009)
CHAPTER 3 : METHOLODOGY 3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN Both hypothesis testing and correlation study were used to suits the study nature and its specific objectives. The hypothesis testing design permits us to test the relationship between the stress experience by first semester students and the factors that contribute to stress in Northern University. The factors that contribute to stress of our research are academic and social factors. Therefore, these two dimensions are used as the independent variables in the hypothesis testing. Meanwhile, correlation testing was used to identify the relationship among the investigated variables on each aspect on factors that contribute to stress which enable us to describe the relationship level.
3.2
POPULATION, SAMPLE AND UNIT OF ANALYSIS The population for our research consist of semester one of UUM students who have been facing with stress. We have collected responds from 100 semester one students as the sample of the whole population and based on Shah.C, Trivedi.R.S., Diwan.J, Dixit.R, & Anand.A.K. (2009) in the journal of Common Stressors and Coping of Stress by Medical Students. Individual student is the unit of analysis of the study.
3.3
SAMPLING DESIGN As the study is interested to generalize the findings to the whole population, the probability sampling is the most suitable design for our research. Hence, all the elements in the population have chance of being selected as sample subjects. To collect the survey data, the simple random sampling.
3.4
DATA SOURCES The study involves the use of both secondary and primary data. The secondary data is taken from online journals and the Internet meanwhile the primary data includes the questionnaires that have been administered to students.
3.5
DATA COLLECTION METHODS The primary data will be collected through questionnaire that will be issue to any 100 randomly selected students according to the simple random sampling.
3.6
DATA ANALYSIS The quantitative statistical software programs will be used to address the research objectives which include the following analysis: Reliability Analysis which is to provide a unique estimate of the internal consistency and reliability. Correlation Analysis is to describe whether relationship exists between two continuous variables. ANOVA test which is use to compare the means of the samples.
Table 4.1: Frequency table on gender The table above showed the frequency on gender. We take a sample population of 100 students for our research which consist of 24 male and 74 female. Therefore, the percentage of male students is only about 24% meanwhile the female students consist of 74%.
Course Frequenc y Valid acct agribis banking bba bcomm bdm 4 1 1 17 1 2 Percent 4.0 1.0 1.0 17.0 1.0 2.0 Valid Percent 4.0 1.0 1.0 17.0 1.0 2.0 Cumulative Percent 4.0 5.0 6.0 23.0 24.0 26.0
Table 4.2: Frequency table on course Above table showed the respondents courses. From our research, most of the respondents are from the course of Economy (18 %), BBA (17%), and MOT (11%).
Qualification Frequenc y Valid STPM MATRICULA TION DIPLOMA Total 83 7 10 100 Percent 83.0 7.0 10.0 100.0 Valid Percent 83.0 7.0 10.0 100.0 Cumulative Percent 83.0 90.0 100.0
Table 4.3: Frequency on students qualifications The table above showed the frequency on students qualifications. From the 100 respondents, 83% is from STPM qualification. The remaining 10% is from Diploma background while another 7% from Matriculation.
Hometown Frequenc y Valid Rural Urba n 4 Total 51 48 1 100 Percent 51.0 48.0 1.0 100.0 Valid Percent 51.0 48.0 1.0 100.0 Cumulative Percent 51.0 99.0 100.0
Table 4.4 : Frequency on hometown There are two category for respondents hometown which consist of either rural or urban area. Fom our research, most of the students are from rural area which consists of 51% from the total sample. The remaining 48% are from urban background.
Monthly family income Frequenc y Valid < RM1000 RM1000RM2000 RM2000RM3000 > RM3000 Total 32 41 18 9 100 Percent 32.0 41.0 18.0 9.0 100.0 Valid Percent 32.0 41.0 18.0 9.0 100.0 Cumulative Percent 32.0 73.0 91.0 100.0
Table 4.5: Frequency on monthly family income From the table above, we can describe that most our respondents are from middle class family with monthly family income of RM 1000-RM2000 (41%). Next followed by family income of less than RM 1000 (32%), monthly income of RM2000-RM3000 (18%), and 9% of more than RM3000.
Variable Academic
Item Deleted 1 item is deleted: A2:What did you felt for your current midsemester results? examination
Item Used 11
4 items are deleted: D3:I prefer doing assignment with my friends rather than new people D4: My parents often control me in all aspect D5: I do have financial problem
5 4 3
Table 4.6: Reliability Analysis The table above showed the reliability analysis research variable (Academic, Physical Factor, Office Relationship and Social Factors). For Academic variable, the Cronbachs Alpha is 0.621 which shows that is variable is reliable and can be accepted. One item has been deleted for Academic variable; A2: What did you felt for your current mid-semester examination results?. Physical Factor and Office Relationship with Cronbachs Alpha of 0.738 show that both of these variables are reliable enough for this research. Finally, the Social Factors variable is not reliable enough as its Cronbachs Alpha is only 0.529 which is less than 0.6 and 4 items have been deleted for this variable which are: D3: I prefer doing assignment with my friends rather than new people D4: My parents often control me in all aspects D5: I do have financial problem D6: I can adopt with the new university lifestyle Correlation Analysis 4.2.1 H1: There is a significant relationship between the academic factors and stress in University Correlations stress in academi c academic Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson 1 100 universit y -.161 .110 100
-.161 1 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .110 N 100 100 Table 4.7: Correlation between academic and stress in university university
stress in
-.139 1 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .168 N 100 100 Table 4.7 : Correlation between stress in university and social factors Table shows the correlation between stress in university and social factors. Since r = -0.139, there is negative negligible relation between the two variables. It also can be see here that p = 0.168 is more than 0.05 which means that the relationship between stress in university and social factors is not significant.
4.2.3 H3: There is a significant relationship between social factors and physical factor Correlations
-.081 1 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .423 N 100 100 Table 4.8 : Correlation between social factors and physical factor The table above shows the correlation between social factors and physical factor. Pearson Correlation, r = -0.081 showed that there is little negative relation between social factors and physical factor. There is no significant relationship between social factors and physical factor since p = 0.423 which is more than 0.05.
4.2.4
H4: There is significant relationship between social factors and office relationship Correlations mean social mean office factors
Pearson
relationship -.138
100
-.138 1 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .170 N 100 100 Table 4.9 : Correlation between social factors and office relationship relationship The table above shows the relationship between social factors and office relationship. Pearson Correlation, r = -0.138 showed that there is little negative relation between social factors and office relationship. The value of p = 0.170 which is more than 0.05 describe that there is no significant relationship between social factors and office relationship.
mean office
4.2.5 H5: There is significant relationship between academic and physical factor Correlations mean academi c academic Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson 1 100 -.069 physical factor -.069 .498 100 1
mean physical
4.2.6 H6: There is a significant relationship between academic and office relationship Correlations academi c Academic Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Pearson 1 100 mean office relationship -.182 .070 100
-.182 1 Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) .070 N 100 100 Table 4.11 : Correlation between academic and office relationship relationship
mean office
T-Test Analysis 4.2.7 H7: There is significant differences of stress level in university between gender Group Statistics Std. Std. stress in university Gender Male Female N 26 74 Mean 2.8413 3.0466 Deviation .47963 .56927 Error Mean .09406 .06618
1.785
51.54 7
.080
-.20528
.11501
-.4361 1
. 02556
Table 4.12: T-test analysis among stress level in university between gender From the table above, equal variances are assumed since F = 0.544 0.05. The significant value of 0.103 which is more than 0.05 showed that there is no significant differences of stress level in university between gender. 4.2.8 H8 : There is significant differences of stress level in university between hometown Group Statistics Std. Hometow stress in university n Rural Urban N 51 48 Mean 3.0328 2.9432 Std. Deviation .39995 .68222 Error Mean .05600 .09847
.11160 -.13188
Table 4.13: T-test between stress in university and students hometown Table above shows the Independent Sample Test between stress in university and students hometown. We can see here that equal variances are assumed as F = 14.279 0.05. Therefore, the significant value for this independent samples test is 0.424 which is larger than 0.05. As a conclusion, there is no significant differences of stress level in university between students hometown. Analysis on One-Way ANOVA 4.2.9 H9: There is a significant differences of stress level in university among family background Descriptives stress in university
95% Confidence Std. Deviatio N < RM1000 RM1000-RM2000 RM2000-RM3000 > RM3000 Total Model Fixed Effects Random Effects 32 41 18 9 10 0 Mean 3.099 2 2.902 4 3.056 9 2.902 8 2.993 3 n .45982 .49996 .73333 .67817 .55248 .55316 Std. Error .08128 .07808 .17285 .22606 .05525 .05532 . 05532(a) Interval for Mean Lower Upper Bound 2.9334 2.7446 2.6923 2.3815 2.8836 2.8834 2.8172(a ) Bound 3.2650 3.0602 3.4216 3.4241 3.1029 3.1031 3.1693(a ) -.00107 BetweenMinimu m 1.58 1.70 1.20 1.78 1.20 Maximu m 4.03 4.08 4.05 3.60 4.08 Componen t Variance
a Warning: Between-component variance is negative. It was replaced by 0.0 in computing this random effects measure. ANOVA stress in university
.844 3 .281 .920 .434 Groups Within Groups 29.374 96 .306 Total 30.219 99 Table 4.14: One-way anova between stress level in university and family background. From the table above, low F value (F= 0.92) indicate high in p value. Therefore, p = 0.434 = 0.05 showed that there is no significant differences of stress level in university among family background. 4.2.10 H10 : There is a significant differences of stress level in university among academic background Descriptive stress in university
95% Confidence Interval for Std. Deviatio N STPM MATRICULATION DIPLOMA Total Model Fixed Effects Random Effects 83 7 10 100 Mean 3.034 0 2.878 6 2.735 0 2.993 3 n .54081 .74224 .47525 .55248 .54980 Std. Error . 05936 . 28054 . 15029 . 05525 . 05498 . 09986 Mean Lower Upper Bound 2.915 9 2.192 1 2.395 0 2.883 6 2.884 1 2.563 6 Bound 3.1521 3.5650 3.0750 3.1029 3.1024 3.4229 .00987 BetweenMinimu m 1.20 1.78 2.13 1.20 Maximu m 4.08 3.68 3.65 4.08 Componen t Variance
ANOVA stress in university Sum of Squares Between Groups Within Groups Total .897 29.322 30.219 df 2 97 99 Mean Square .449 .302 F 1.484 Sig. .232
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 5.1 CONCLUSION Based on the research done it could be concluded that none of the hypothesis is significant and none of the investigated variables are correlated to each other. The result has been such as a result from several constraints and limitations that has been set in the making of this report. The limitation that has mainly inverted the result will be the target respondent chosen. The target respondent that had been selected for this study consists of a sample from the total population of first semester students in Northern University of Malaysia. This target of respondents are not accurate for this study as first semester students rarely experience any stress or stress causing situation . In comparison to the result obtain by Shah.C, Trivedi.R.S. Diwan.J, Dixit.R, & Anand.A.K. (2009), in which they have proved the significant in their hypothesis testing for similar research, a contradiction of result could be observed. The reason behind the contradiction of the result obtained from this study and the result from the previous research mentioned is the differences in the chosen target respondent. Despite that, unlike the environment in which the previous research was conducted, the environment in Northern University is better and more conducive. As a conclusion, we could learn that the result obtained from this research is acceptable and the contradiction with the previous studies should not be questioned as the study was conducted in a different environment with the different set of target respondents.
5.2
RECOMMENDATION The guiding principle of stress reduction is "stress inoculation," suggesting a preventive approach so that the negative aspects of stress can be avoided. Stress inoculation involves giving people realistic warnings, recommendations, and reassurances. Hence, this report has focused on the value of feedback, faculty-student relationships, and stress awareness. Stress inoculation is associated with giving people information. Yet little research in the field of higher education describes how best to inform students about the challenges of higher learning. Research in the fields of combat and health care demonstrates mixed results regarding the value of information. Thus, a need exists to identify the factors that influence the helpfulness of information in reducing stress. More research is needed to identify the constructive side of professional intimacy, self-disclosure, and mentoring. Further research could determine why and how lecturer-student relationships deteriorate and help faculty construct more successful relationships. Further research is needed to describe the stress that occurs when one teaches another. Research at lower levels suggests that "to teach is to learn twice." Better understanding of this phenomenon at the level of higher education could lead to new teaching strategies. And more research is clearly needed to understand stress among learning process involving students.