University Social Health Research Essay: Stress, Finances, and Life

This essay, titled "Social Health Research," analyzes four interviews to identify key themes impacting students' social health, focusing on stress, financial situations, and life satisfaction. The research highlights that stress arises from factors like time management issues, balancing work and studies, and financial constraints, particularly for international students. Financial stress is a significant factor, often forcing students to compromise between work and studies. Furthermore, the analysis reveals varying levels of life satisfaction, with some students expressing dissatisfaction due to an inability to manage stressors, while others feel content due to personal coping strategies. The essay concludes that these factors can adversely affect health, emphasizing the need for effective coping mechanisms to mitigate the negative impacts on students' social and mental well-being. The analysis also mentions the impact of family support, time management, and the trade-offs students make to balance their academic and personal lives.

Running head: SOCIAL HEALTH RESEARCH
HLTH 3102
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SOCIAL HEALTH RESEARCH
Social health refers to the ability of an individual to establish appropriate interpersonal
relationships with other people and also relates to the capability of comfortably adapting to a
range of social situations by acting appropriately. This essay will analyse four interviews and
will identify three themes, namely stress, financial situation and satisfaction.
Stress- It refers to the ability of the body to respond to any threats or demanding
situations, upon sensing danger, whether imaginary or real. This results in a fight or flight
response of the body, which in turn results in the manifestation of behaviour that directly affect
the coping mechanisms. Stress has been identified in all participants, following their interview.
While A (pseudonym) experienced stressful events while managing his work and placement, due
to lack of time management skills, L (pseudonym) also faced similar stressful events in the
process of creating a balance between the work and play activities such as, cricket and soccer. A
said “Most of the time it’s hard to manage all the stuff … end up with mental breakdown things
and gives me lot of stress and worry about future”. On the other hand, T said “I go to the gym
regularly as well because as an international student there is lot of stress of finding balance
between and work….”
Failure to strike a balance between family and study life was also identified as a
significant stressor from R’s (pseudonym) responses. R said “…but as there is lot happening at
same time and builds up and stresses me up a lot.” However, the fact that time management
skills help in prioritizing work and reduce stress levels was supported by Y’s (pseudonym)
responses. Y responded “I would say just having a timetable and to do list every single day helps
a lot…..”

2SOCIAL HEALTH RESEARCH
Finances- Financial stress acts as one of the major stressors on all kinds of social
relationship and can also create major effects on health and wellbeing of an individual. Lack of
working time due to the current status of being a student contributed to financial stress in A and
L, owing to the fact that their studentship imposes restrictions on the time that they can devote to
working in Australia. A said that “… because I am an international student and not being able to
work more than those hours does cause stress and anxiety because I do get financial issues as
well” In addition, T said, “I can’t work more than 20 hours every week …. this does make things
hard for me financially ….”
This often contributes to compromising their studies over work. However, it can be
deduced from R’s responses that studies have gained a priority over work, owing to the fact that
adequate financial help is provided by the family. According to R, “When it comes to choosing
between studies and work, I would definitely compromise work over studies…” Furthermore, an
analysis of the responses suggest lack of any financial pressure on Y due to the fact that the
student lives with parents, who provide the necessary support to combat stressful situations. Y
said, “…so living with parents obviously helps me in everything like studying and also
financially, emotionally …..”
Satisfaction- Life satisfaction acts an overall assessment on the attitudes and feelings of
an individual’s life at a particular point of time. An overview of the interview responses suggest
that there is lack of life satisfaction in A, and L due to their perceived failure in balancing their
personal and professional lives. According to A, “I am not satisfied at all with portion of time I
give to each activity … I feel like I lack or collapse somewhere in between….” T also stated, “I
am not extremely satisfied with the way I live my life as I believe I can have better time
management skills….”

3SOCIAL HEALTH RESEARCH
Y also provided responses that suggested lack of life satisfaction due to continuous
procrastination that led to distress. Y stated “…procrastination was the first thing that I had to
face your first year...” Reduced satisfaction can be attributed to the fact that the students were
unable to cope with the stressful situations, prevailing in their surroundings that added to their
woes. However, R was quite satisfied with the way the life had shaped up due to the personal
approaches and attitudes that were adopted to cope with stressful events. According to R, “Yes I
am, it's about attitude and the way you look at and approach everything in your life….”
Thus, it can be deduced from the responses that stress, financial burden and
dissatisfaction with life can create an adverse impact on the life, by resulting the onset of panic
and anxiety that would directly lead to poor health outcomes. There is a need to identify and
adopt appropriate coping strategies to eliminate the significant stressful events that threaten a
healthy social life.

4SOCIAL HEALTH RESEARCH
Methods
comments
Transcript Preliminary analysis
Interviewer: What do you study?
I study Bachelor of nursing.
Interviewer: Why did you choose this topic?
I choose the topic because both my father and
my mother are doctor, so since childhood I am
very much into health studies as I get inspired
from my family and I choose nursing over
medicine because my grandmother died due to
dementia and her nurse was so caring therefore
those experience was really overwhelming for
me that’s why I choose this topic and help put
patients when they need most which makes me
feel better about my future.
Suggests parents had an
influence on the career
decision of this student.
Care exhibited by a
nursing professional also
created an effect. Does it
occur in all instances?
Are you a local student or international student?

5SOCIAL HEALTH RESEARCH
I am exchange(international) student.
How many hours do you study each week, and
does it vary each week?
I don’t know exact figure, that how many hours I
study in a week because it does vary each week
because of my work and sometimes my social
life also effects my study. And yeah it does vary
because of work and social life, sometimes I do
two work shifts and sometimes three so it’s hard
to go with timetable as sometimes uncertainties
take place. Even though I am international
student and I must pay my rents and other
expenses as well, so I can’t corporate with my
work and there is so much need to balance my
finances which sometimes takes better of me as
well.
Suggests, the student’s
study hours are getting
affected by social life.
How many subjects are you studying?

6SOCIAL HEALTH RESEARCH
I study four topics in this semester, So I am a
full-time student.
What year student are you?
2nd year.
The student
might think I
consider him
incompetent of
balancing
between work
As a health student how do you manage balance
of working and doing placements?
It’s too hard to manage both work and
placements on same time, as a student you
should do your assignments but on other hand
you should pay your rent as well. Its challenging
face of my life and I make some plan to face that
challenge. As assignments only take place on
week days so I mostly prefer to do work on
weekends and placements on weekdays and if I
need to do job on weekdays I do night shift so I
will overcome both placement and work on same
time and do pending work and assignments on
There is difficulty in
striking a balance
between work, study and
expenses

7SOCIAL HEALTH RESEARCH
weekends. Most of the time it’s hard to manage
all the stuff because each day seems very full as
you just can’t give time to yourself and its end
up with mental breakdown things and gives me
lot of stress and worry about future As I
sometimes think if government laws will allow
me to live or work here.
The question
might show
my biasness
What are your strategies for coping stress?
Sometimes I find it difficult to go through this as
I have no other option than just taking stress
because being an international student If I don’t
have time to catch up woth friends there is
simply no room for it and have to keep working
and studying to manage my finances so basically
there is not much time to overcome stress and
relax.
Suggests, enough coping
strategies are not being
used
How many hours do you work each week?

8SOCIAL HEALTH RESEARCH
I do 20 hours in a week. Therefore, one big shift
and two small shift as I have an restriction of
working because I am an international student
and not being able to work more than those
hours does cause stress and anxiety because I do
get financial issues as well.
Suggests, international
students face several
restrictions while
working part-time that
leads to financial
problems
Do you play any social sport or do any other
social event or participate in cultural events?
Yes, I do play cricket and indoor soccer
sometimes. Most of the time I try to avoid social
event or cultural events because it’s hard for me
to carry everything on same time as I need to do
study, placements and work, but I do participate
in social sports when I get chance because it is
one strategy help me in coping with stress and
sometime of worrying and thinking about study
and work.
Suggests, the student has
an interest in outdoor
activities
How do you manage time for family and other
life while working and studying?

9SOCIAL HEALTH RESEARCH
It’s hard to manage time for family while study
or working because whenever you find free time
you try to spend on assignments so you get good
grades from assignments. As I am an
international student so all I need to try to find
time for video call to my parents and I try to do
that at night because in my home country time is
different from Australia. I basically try to divide
time in portion so I get idea when I am free for
study or call back to my country but at the end I
mix up everything and won’t be able to talk with
my parents for week or couple of week. Working
sometimes also become priority as I have to pay
all the fees on my own before spending time
with family or friends or talking to family over
phone and same with studying as well.
Suggests, study pressure
creates an impact on
social and family
relationships
It might
indicate I am
considering
the student not
worthy of
What about if you compromise study over work
or do u compromise your work (financially) over
study? If you choose one of them why and how
do you choose or make decision about your

10SOCIAL HEALTH RESEARCH
balancing
work and
study
simultaneously
priorities?
That’s the most difficult scenario I face now
because as an International student I do need to
do work for my rents and other expenses but on
other hand study is much important for me
because my whole future is depend on study. In
most of the occasions I compromise my work
over study because when placements take place
its getting hard to take everything together like
study and work. In that case, I choose night or
weekend shifts so I will able to take my work
with me as well. Basically, I compromise myself
and my social life over study and work, I only
sleep 4 to 5 hours in a day so I will cover
everything study and work. If situation is coming
that I need to choose I choose study over work
because my future is fully depending on my
studies so I just can’t compromise with my
studies because I just can’t put my future on fire
or danger so in that situation my family help me
Suggests, the student
finds it difficult to
balance between study,
work and social life

11SOCIAL HEALTH RESEARCH
with my expenses so I give my 100% on my
studies.
What have you changed from 1st to 2nd to 3rd year
which helped you managing better and what
were your learning experiences?
I am 2nd year student, basically 1st year is hard for
me because I was new in Australia and study
pattern is totally different from my home country
that’s why it took too long to me to catch up
everything. I find difficulties in assignments and
topic guides even though sometimes I was miss
my lecture or tute due to bus service because I
was live in opposite part of city and it took too
long to me to reach university. In 2nd year yes, I
overcome this failure but life is getting harder
because placements takes place as well I find job
as well so I again mix everything and its end up
with mental breakdown. I wish I overcome
everything in yarer 3 so I will aware about time
managing before completing my degree.
International students
take a lot of time to
acclimatise to foreign
lands