College Students' Academic Stress And Its Relation To Their Anxiety, Time Management, And Leisure Satisfaction

American Journal of Health Studies, Wntr, 2000 by Ranjita Misra, Michelle McKean

Abstract: This paper investigated the interrelationship among academic stress, anxiety, time management, and leisure satisfaction among 249 university undergraduates by age and gender. Time management behaviors had a greater buffering effect on academic stress than leisure satisfaction activities. Significant gender differences existed among all the measures. Females had more effective time management behaviors than males, but also experienced higher academic stress and anxiety. Males benefited more than females from leisure activities. Freshmen and sophomore students had higher reactions to stress than juniors and seniors. Anxiety, time management, and leisure satisfaction were all predictors of academic stress in the multivariate analysis. Anxiety reduction and time management in conjunction with leisure activities may be an effective strategy for reducing academic stress in college students.

A disturbing trend in college student health is the reported increase in student stress nationwide (Sax, 1997). Stressors affecting students can be categorized as academic, financial, time or health related, and self-imposed (Goodman, 1993; LeRoy, 1988). Academic stressors include the student's perception of the extensive knowledge base required and the perception of an inadequate time to develop it (Carveth, Gesse, & Moss, 1996). Students report experiencing academic stress at predictable times each semester with the greatest sources of academic stress resulting from taking and studying for exams, grade competition, and the large amount of content to master in a small amount of time (Abouserie, 1994; Archer & Lamnin, 1985; Britton & Tesser, 1991; Kohn & Frazer, 1986).

When stress is perceived negatively or becomes excessive, students experience physical and psychological impairment (Murphy & Archer, 1996). Methods to reduce stress by students often include effective time management, social support, positive reappraisal, and engagement in leisure pursuits (Blake & Vandiver, 1988; Mattlin, Wethington, & Kessler, 1990). Leisure satisfaction is defined as the positive feeling of contentment one perceives as a result of meeting personal needs through leisure activities (Seigenthaler, 1997). Although relationships among some leisure domains and perceived stress have been studied in a variety of settings involving retirees to school-related settings (Kabanoff & O'Brian, 1986; Kaufman, 1988; Pickens & Kiess, 1988; Ragheb & McKinney, 1993; Tice & Baumeister, 1997), relationships between leisure satisfaction and academic stress of college students have not been addressed directly. The only scientific research that specifically related leisure satisfaction to academic stress was that of Ragheb and McKinney (1993), who established a negative association between academic stress and leisure satisfaction. A limitation of this study, however, was that it measured academic stress using seven items that were extracted inclusively from occupational stress inventories.

The concept of time management is generally defined in terms of clusters of behavior that are deemed to facilitate productivity and alleviate stress (Lay & Schouwenburg, 1993). Effective time management strategies increase academic performance (Campbell & Svenson, 1992) and are frequently suggested by academic assistance personnel as aids to enhance achievement for college students. Productive study methods are characterized by "time management" and "strategic studying" (Entwistle & Ramsden, 1983; Kirschenbaum & Perri, 1982). Although programs emphasize starting large tasks well before due dates, breaking down large tasks into small ones, and doing small tasks on a regular schedule, students regularly ignore these techniques and find themselves in great distress before exams (Brown, 1991).

Research has reported evidence for the multidimentional nature of the time management construct (Britton & Tesser, 1991; Macan, Shahani, Dipboye & Phillips, 1990). In the present paper, time management was conceptualized in terms of setting goals and priorities, the use of mechanics (like listing priorities), preference of an organized workplace, and the perceived control of time. These components of time management were taken from Macan, et al. (1990).

The above literature suggests that the tendency to structure one's time and leisure satisfaction may be an important factor in reducing academic stress. The purpose of this study was to examine the interrelationship (and predictors) of college students' academic stress with anxiety, time management, and leisure satisfaction. It was hypothesized that academic stress would show a significant positive correlation with anxiety, and a significant negative correlation with self-reported time management behaviors and leisure satisfaction of college students. A person engaging more frequently in time management behaviors will report fewer physical and psychological symptoms of stress. The greater satisfaction with leisure that students indicate, the lower their perceived academic stress will be. A secondary purpose of this research was to examine the differences in the study variables by gender and age. Since college women and older students report better time management skills than college men and younger students (Trueman & Hartley, 1996), we hypothesized that females and older students would have effective time management behaviors and consequently less academic stress and anxiety.