Academic Stress Among Second-Year Students

Running head: ACADEMIC STRESS AMONG SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS 1
Qualitative research study
How psychology students feel about academic stress as second year students
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Professor’s Name
Date
[word count = 1993]
Abstract

ACADEMIC STRESS AMONG SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS 2
University and college students are prone to different stresses since coping with the
changes in university is a challenge among many students. Therefore, the research investigated
the level of academic stresses encountered by college/ university students using three participants
that were voluntarily recruited where data was collected through unstructured questions. Data
was audio recorded and analysed using a phenomenological approach. The findings revealed that
academic stress was associated with an increase in workload and different commitments between
the second years compared to the first years. The researcher concluded that poor time
management was a primary challenge in coping with the increased workload and assignments
that caused academic stress.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACADEMIC STRESS AMONG SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS 3
Introduction....................................................................................................................................4
Research rationale......................................................................................................................4
Research aim..............................................................................................................................5
Research questions.....................................................................................................................5
Methodology...................................................................................................................................5
Research Design.........................................................................................................................5
Participants.................................................................................................................................5
Interview schedule......................................................................................................................5
Procedure....................................................................................................................................6
Analytic approach......................................................................................................................6
Findings and Results......................................................................................................................7
Findings from the individual analysis......................................................................................7
Findings of group analysis.........................................................................................................9
Discussion/ conclusion.................................................................................................................10
Search Limitation.....................................................................................................................10
Directions for future research.................................................................................................11
References.....................................................................................................................................12
Appendix.......................................................................................................................................14
Supporting materials...................................................................................................................16
How psychology students feel about academic stress as second year students

ACADEMIC STRESS AMONG SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS 4
Introduction
Cultural shock is one of the challenges that is faced by students joining colleges and
universities. First-year students are known to be a vulnerable group because of the change in the
environment that is brought by differences in socio-economic backgrounds. After coping with
stressful cultural stress, the students are exposed to other forms of stresses that are caused by
different factors. For instance, the findings of Brown, Anderson-Johnson, and McPherson (2016)
on psychological stress ascertained that stress is one of the attributes that is undergone by the
college students because of lag in coping strategies. The authors defend that before college and
university, students are left to make fewer life decisions for themselves unlike in college where
they are burdened by situations that involve individual decision-making processes that include
planning, organising, and undertaking personal duties concerning social and academic lives. As
opposed to cultural stress in the first year, second year students are known for academic stresses
that are associated with many responsibilities and commitments supported by Zvauya et al.
(2017),
Research rationale
The research thus seeks to examine how the psychology students cope up with the
massive workload as well as handle stress that comes along. The second year being a transitional
stage where students work independently, it is essential to understand how management of stress
differs from one student to another who has evolved from the first year into the second year.
Concisely, the grades in the first year meant to prepare the students for coping with the second
and third year but does not account for the final grade. By understanding the individual struggle
and stress through this time, the research will help the students transitioning into college life
comfortably as well as when joining the second year from the first year.

ACADEMIC STRESS AMONG SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS 5
Research aim
The research aimed to investigate the difference in the level of academic stress by first
year and second-year students and how the experience affects individual students.
Research questions
1. How is the workload from second-year different among first-year students?
2. How do psychology students feel about the academic level of stress as second-year students?
Methodology
Research Design
A qualitative phenomenological approach would be deployed whereby unstructured
interviews were administered for investigating various ways in which effective transitions from
college to university level could be achieved among the students.
Participants
Five participants took part who were at an average age of 18 years but two participants
opted out thus data collected was from three respondents whereby three female students were
recruited at a psychology seminar group at the University of Roehampton where random
sampling was done to recruit the volunteers to participate in the study. Those who were below
sixteen years were excluded from the study.
Interview schedule
The interview was scheduled through a series of unstructured questions concerning stress
in the transition from the first year to second with a series of prompts to enable participants to
give more details. The responses were audio recorded and were later transcribed by the
researcher. The list of interview questions is shown in appendix A.

ACADEMIC STRESS AMONG SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS 6
Procedure
The participants were given a letter of consent that illustrated the importance of the study
and the purpose of collecting the data as well as the assurance of protection of their data. The
consent letter further indicated that they could opt out at any stage of the interview without
stating the reasons as a requirement of the code of ethics in research (Harriss, MacSween, &
Atkinson, 2017). A 20-minute interview was administered in a quiet uninterruptible place where
the data was collected.
Analytic approach
The phenomenological qualitative approach was used in data analysis, which entails
application of steps in two phases, in essence, individual, and group analyses as shown in the
table below as proposed Worthen & McNeill (1996).
Phase 1: Individual analysis
Steps 1, 2, and 3 Reading and identifying relevant phrases then
defining them psychologically.
Step 4 Chronological arrangement of the phrases in a
first-person narrative
Step 5 Articulating the phrases to the study topic
Step 6 Rewriting the articulated meaning phrases
into a third person narrative
Step 7 Refining experiences articulated in step 6
Phase 2: Group analysis
Step 1 Identification of individual events and for six
and seven while creating an inclusive list of