Jena Mitchell, an accounting junior, has a busy schedule with her sorority, school and social life. She is one of many students who might be stressing during this time of year to complete schoolwork and fulfill other obligations.
More than half of Americans concerned about stress
On a late Wednesday night, a college student sits at her desk and stares at a stack of papers she needs to have memorized by tomorrow. She can hear the distant voices of her sorority sisters, TVs blaring from the rooms down the hall and the pitter-patter of footsteps from people walking down the halls.
She could lug her study material to the library for peace and quiet, but she knows she will be just as distracted sitting there. Jena Mitchell, a finance and accounting junior, decides to stick it out.
Stress levels have increased rapidly among the college population in recent years: more than 30 percent of college freshmen report feeling overwhelmed a great deal of the time, according to a University of California, Los Angeles survey.
Fifty-four percent of Americans are concerned about the levels of stress in their everyday lives and two-thirds say they are likely to seek help for stress, according to the American Psychological Association.
Studies in the past years produced results that help people cope with different types of stress, but researches continue to search to improve these stress management tactics.
Stress is categorized by what is good or bad for each person; traumatic accidents, deaths, emergency situations, serious illness or diseases are known to cause stress, according to the National Women’s Health Information Center.
Stress is also associated with daily life, the workplace and family responsibilities. Some early signs of stress include, headache, sleep disorders, difficulty concentrating, short temper, upset stomach, job dissatisfaction, low morale, depression and anxiety.
In addition to studying as a full-time student, Mitchell is active on campus. She is active in her social sorority, was one of the directors for 2008 Homecoming, is a member of the Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity, has participated in Relay for Life and interns at the Stillwater Community Center on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Even though Mitchell juggles all of this, she said she handles her stress well.
“My stress levels are fairly low right now, somewhere around a three or four, but if you would have asked me a few weeks ago during Homecoming, I would have told you around a 10,” Mitchell said. “Being one of the directors of Homecoming was very stressful. Whenever I started to feel overwhelmed, I turned to my friends and other directors for help.”
The No. 1 factor of stress is time, and the reason stress is high among college students is because they are trying to figure out what type of time management works for them. This is especially difficult for freshmen because they have to deal with leaving home for the first time and balancing school and social priorities.
Max Kelton, a visiting professor in the political science department, said he can tell when a student is under a great deal of stress.
“I can tell, especially in upper division courses and when the class size is small,” Kelton said. “Bigger classes are harder to gauge, and so are freshmen because they are so new to college work.”
Kelton said when a student gets behind, it’s easier to straiten things out if the student cares; students who don’t care or put forth much effort are harder to work with.
“Students need to build relationships with their professors,” Kelton said. “Teachers want to help students but cannot do so if they do not build a relationship with us.”
OSU realizes how much stress is put on college students, especially freshmen, and developed resources for the students to access when their stress levels are at a high.
Bill Gentry, OSU Seretean Wellness Center coordinator, puts on stress management workshops for students throughout the year. OSU also offers an online safety library, where many articles can be found on how to manage stress and college life. Many of the stress management workshops and articles OSU provide, teach students ways to manage time efficiently and prioritize their responsibilities.
Forrest Hunt, a landscape architecture freshman, said he is under a great deal of stress but handles it fairly well.
“I think things have been more stressful for me because I am so far away from home,” Hunt said. “I am from Pennsylvania and sometimes I can get really home sick. My classes seem to take up a good majority of my time, and I struggle a lot in my biology class. I feel like that class causes a lot of my stress because it requires so much time and energy.”
Hunt says instead of dealing with stress he just ignore it until it goes away. He admits that this is probably a bad way to deal with his stress.
College students need to be careful and seek help if their stress levels get to an extreme high; Dr. Karen Holland, a pediatrician at the Medical Surgical Clinic in Irving, said stress is common for college students. She said students need to realize how important it is to manage their stress levels and use the resources the school provides to them.
Loading ...
All Articles