A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW STUDY ON STRESS AMONG STUDENTS: GAPS IN THE EXISTING LITERATURE

Rajwinder Kaur¹

¹Research Scholar, University School of Business, Chandigarh University, Gharuan, Mohali,Punjab. bimbrarajwinder@gmail.com

Abstract

In today’s time, stress plays a vital role in exploiting human life. Almost every person is has suffered from this; at least once in their life. So, this study is basically done with the objective to do the systematic literature review on this particular topic. Various research gaps are identified with this systematic review of the literature. For this, web of science, database is used. Various papers are used to carry out the review-based study. Some of the papers are rejected which were not related to this field. The results are obtained by dividing the various categories of different variables and based on those results are obtained. Through this study, numerous research gaps are identified by the researcher for future in depth research onto this particular subject area.

Keywords: Causes of Stress, Internet usage, Research Gaps, Stress, Systematic Review.

Introduction

School life or College life is a memorable life in everyone’s life. In the phase of life, a person studies and enjoys a lot because when a student goes to school or college then somehow, he feels free to live and do whatever they wanted to do (Hadd et al., 2000). And another person meets different - different people who are of their age. Same age group people with similar habits and similar likings and disliking like each other and becomes friends. They take participate together in various activities and study together. So somewhere in their lives also they experience stress in their lives due to physical or mental changes.

Stress is something in which a person feels mental pressure and takes too much tension about the particular thing. Stress is generally an emotional misbalance in a student’s or a person’s life (Bexelius et. el., 2019). It is an unavoidable phenomenon which can arise due to any reason in student’s life like examination pressure, projects and assignment tension and career tension, etc.

A.     Various symptoms of Stress

Felling of sadness, depression, headaches, change in behavior, frustration, problem in sleeping and eating, unexpected behavior and concentration misbalance, etc.

B.     Stress by Numbers

10% of college students have thoughts of suicide.

13% of college students are diagnosed with stress, anxiety, and stress-related diseases.

20% of college students most of the time feels stress.

34% of college students feel stress one time within the previous 90 days.

(Source: ADAA and AP)

Objectives of Research

This particular section puts light on various objectives of the research. These are given below:

1.      To study the existing literature to find out the gaps.

2.      To study the various research papers to get knowledge.

3.      To identify the future area of research.

Methodology

The study is basically a systematic literature review of stress among students. Various databases are studied to do the research which is specially related to the stress among students. The main motive of doing systematic review of literature is to identify the gaps and in existing literature and exploring the future area of research.

This research is divided into the following activities:

·         Study and analyze the various articles published in the database Web of Sciences.

·         Study the brief summary provided on this particular area made by various researches.

·         Classifying and tabulating the various features of the different studies made by different researches.

·         Identify the various positives and negatives of the studies based on the available literature.

·         Preparing a research agenda for the research gaps in the existing literature of stress among students.

C.     Process of screening of the Research Papers

Records Screened = 70

Records Rejected = 26

Records Accepted = 44

Records Identified through Database Search = 70

 

 

 

 

 

 

Through the database, Web of Sciences totals 70 papers were identified for the systematic review but after the screening and proper analysis 26 papers were rejected which are not related to the study, or they formulate no meaning with this particular study. Rest 44 papers are taken for the purpose of doing a systematic review and these papers are closely related to this particular topic. So with these papers, the study further proceeds for the analysis and results.

D.    Coding and Tabulation

Under this section, various categories are formulated to identify the various characteristics of particular categories. For the particular category, various codes or options are given and according to the study, these options are assigned as per different-different papers. 

Table1. Coding and Categories Used

 

First Classification is done on the basis of the Geographical region. In this, Code A is given to India, Code B is given to Saudi Arabia, Code C is given to others and Code D is given to Not Applicable Category.

The second Classification is done on the basis of the objective of the research done. In this, Code A is given to the research paper, Code B is given to the Cross-Sectional Study, Code C is given to the Review Paper and Code C is given to the Theory-based/Survey Study.

The third Classification is done on the basis of the Main Cause of Stress. In this, Code A is given to Heath, Code B is given to Academics, Code C is given to Future Career/Finance, Code D is given to Internet and Code E is given to Others/NA

The fourth Classification is done on the basis of the Method of the study done previously. In this, Code A is given to the Qualitative research; Code B is given to the Quantitative research; Code C is given to Survey and Code D is given to Not Applicable Category.

Fifth Classification is done on the basis of Results given by previous researches. In this, Code A is given to the New Perspective, Code B is given to Comparative Study, Code C is given to Constant with Previous Literature and Code D is given to Not Applicable category.

The sixth Classification is done on the basis of the Investigation Period of the previous researches. In this, Code A is given to 0-60 Days, Code B is given to less than 1 year, Code C is given to the More than 1 year and Code D is given to Not Applicable Category.

Analysis and Interpretation

Table 2. Category wise tabulation of each Paper

E.     Geographical Region

This classification involves geographical classification. The above graph shows that most of the studies are conducted in other different-different countries it includes the US, UK, and other developed countries. However few studies are conducted in India and then few studies are conducted in Saudi Arabia.

Research Gap₁: More studies can be done in India and Saudi Arabia on the stress among students. Because in developed countries more research is done on this subject.

F.     Objective

This classification is based on the objective of the research. The above graph shows that 70% of the studies are research paper-based studies and 18% of studies are cross-sectional studies and 7% and 5% of studies are theory-based or review paper respectively.

Research Gap_2: More research can be done by doing systematic review and theory base research on this particular topic.

G.    Main Cause

This classification is based on the main cause of stress among students. 64% of the research shows that due to academics and 23% of the stress occurs due to Health or related problems. Rest others are also being the cause of stress like the internet, future career tension or other causes.

Research Gap₃: Nowadays due to the more usage of the internet among the students the research on students who are extremelyusing the internet.

H.    Method

This classification is based on the method used in various previous researches. Most of the previous researches (52%) are quantitative in nature and then 30% of the researches are qualitative in nature. There are very fewer studies that are survey-based.

Research Gap₄: More survey-based studies can be done on this particular topic.

I.       Results

This classification is based on the results produced by the various researches. 66% of the researches show that studies are constant with the previous literature and 18% of studies are comparative studies.

Research Gapt₅: More studies can be done by taking the new perspective of the research which is not related wholly with the existing studies.

J.      Investigation Period

This classification is based on the period of investigation. 48% of the studies show that they are considering a period of less than 1 year. 45% of studies considering 0-60 days of research period. Only 2% of the studies are conducted more than 1 year period.

Conclusion

This study is based on stress among students. Various available research papers are studied for doing this systematic review. The results have shown that students are also stressed by various causes in their lives. Mostof the students take academic stress. It is very harmful to them. This study analyzes the other various causes of stress. This study also finds out the various research gaps, by taking them future research can be done. Various research gaps are found out through the study which is already given in the analysis part.  This study has various limitations attached to it. The study can be done by taking more than one database and by taking more variables into the study.

Future Scope of Research

Under this subject future research can be done on the various research gaps that find out by the researcher. Basically, in this subject matter, the more research can be done in developing countries or underdeveloped countries. And for the better results the time period for study more than 1 year can be taken which is very less taken in the other already done studies.

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