CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Stress arises when there are burden on the person which exceed his available assets. If stress is harsh and extended, it can lessen academic performance, hinder with a student’s capability to involve in and add to campus life, and raise the probability of substance abuse and other potentially destructive behaviors (Richlin-Klonsky & Hoe, 2003). Researchers (Vermunt & Steensman, 2005; Topper, 2007; Malach-Pines & Keinan, 2007) have defined stress as the insight of incongruity between environmental burden (stressors) and person’s ability to fulfill these demands. Researchers usually define stress as the undesirable response people have to extreme strain or other sort of burden placed on them. Stress occurs when a person deal with a situation that they recognize as irresistible and cannot manage. In an advanced educational organization such as University (Smith, Johal, Wadsworth, Smith & Peters, 2000) where the load placed on students is based on time limit and difficulty to stand out in tests or examination, students are prone to experience stress. Researchers (Malach-Pines & Keinan, 2007; Ongori, 2007; Agolla & Ongori, 2009.; Agolla, 2009) have long recognized stress symptoms as loss of energy, elevated blood pressure, depressed mood , increase in craving, difficulty in concentrating, impatience, nervousness and strain.

One model that is valuable for understanding stress among university students is the Person-Environment Model (Misra & McKean, 2000). This model suggests that individuals can consider stressful events as demanding or frightening. Perception of educational goals as a challenge brings stress and in turn this stress creates a sense of competence and enhanced learning capability. However, perception of education as a threat brings such stress which brings forth hopeless and a foreboding sense of loss, thus leading to lower academic achievement.

Stress is considered to be a part of students’ life and can impact the students coping strategies in accordance with the demands of academic life. This is so because academic work is always accomplished with stressful activities (Agolla & Ongori, 2009). Students reported their experience of high academic stress at predictable times in each semester which results from preparing and taking exams, class ranking competition, and mastering huge amount of syllabus ina comparatively very small amount of time (Rawson, Bloomer, & Kendall, 1999).

Among college students, a strong relationship is found between stressful life events and reduced academic performance as well as there is a link between health related quality of life and stress (Dusselier, Dunn, Wang, Shelley & Whalen, 2005; Misra & McKean, 2000). Undergraduate students stated that stress was the most common factor among all health factors which impact their academic performance, as stress harmfully affects physical and psychological health (Dwyer & Cummings, 2001). Wintre and Yaffe (2000) concluded that high level of stress during the first year of college forecasst lower level of overall adjustment and can make the students more susceptible to many social and psychological problems, thus leading to a lower grade point average (GPA) in the final year.

On the other hand stress might affect student performance in word processing. Word processing is not too new and not too old. Word processing can seem to be outdated in terms of instructional technology and thus of little use in research. The most recent popular topics of research in this field include “new media” or “multimodal” writing, as can be seen in the special issue of Computers and Composition published in 2014 called “Multimodal Assessment” (Whithause, 2014). A closer look, however, reveals that the purposes of much of the research into these newer topics are very different from those of this research involving word processors.

Research into multimodal composition is important to the future of writing instruction and the use of instructional technology, but the current research questions involve the development of assessments (Yancey, 2004). Because these new technologies break or dramatically change the traditional writing process, it is difficult to use the assessments based on the traditional writing process (Sorapure, 2004). New assessments need to be developed in order to better study these new media. Conversely, there is significant agreement on how to assess word processingbased composition (Applebee, 2005). Where new media-based writing is struggling to be integrated into an assessment framework, word-processing has been successfully integrated already, as it was in the Writing Framework developed for the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (National Assessment Governing Board, 2010b).

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The academic performance of students in word processing in most public Universities in Lagos state has become worrisome. Many studies have addressed this issue and it was found that many psychological problems, such as depression, anxiety, and stress have an impact on the students’ academic achievement. Williamson, Birmaher, Ryan, and Dahl (2005) reported that in anxious and depressed youth, stressful life events are considerably elevated which in turn lead to low performance in academics.

Academic stress among students has long been a topic of research study and researchers have recognized different important stressors which include excessive assignments, unhealthy competition among class students, fear of failure in educational achievement and lack of pocket money (Fairbrother & Warn, 2003), poor interpersonal relationships in class or with lecturers, and family problems. Among Institutional level stressors are overcrowded lecture halls, (Ongori, 2007; Awino & Agolla, 2008), the semester system, and insufficient resources to perform academic work. Kumar and Jejurkar (2005) concluded in their studies that academic factors were mainly responsible for a higher level of stress among undergraduate students. Students experience stress due to different many factors including issues of time management, financial matters, interaction with lecturers, personal subjective goals, social behavior, adjustment in the academic culture lack of support system (Wilks, 2008), admission process, high expectation of parents, curriculum comprised of complex concepts, unsuitable school timings, unbalanced student-teacher ratio, physical environment of classroom, unhealthy student teacher interaction, hard and fast rules of discipline, too many or complex assignments, teaching methodology, unconcerned teacher’s attitude and overemphasis on weaknesses rather than acknowledging strengths (Masih & Gulrez, 2006). It is to this regard that the study is based on the influence of stress on students’ academic performance in word processing in public universities in Lagos State.

1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main aim of the research work is to determine the influence of stress on students’ academic performance in word processing in public universities in Lagos State. The specific objectives of the study are:

1. to determine the relationship between stress and students’ academic performance in word processing in public universities in Lagos State
2. to determine the extent to which stress affects the students’ academic performance in word processing in public universities in Lagos State
3. to determine the causes of stress among students in public universities in Lagos State
4. to recommend ways to reduce stress and improve students’ academic performance in word processing in public universities in Lagos State

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The study came up with research questions so as to ascertain the above stated objectives of the study. The following research questions guide the objectives of the study:

1. What is the relationship between stress and students’ academic performance in word processing in public universities in Lagos State?
2. To what extent to have stress affects the students’ academic performance in word processing in public universities in Lagos State?
3. What are the causes of stress among students in public universities in Lagos State?
4. What are the ways to reduce stress and improve students’ academic performance in word processing in public universities in Lagos State?

1.5 STATEMENT OF THE HYPOTHESIS

H0: there is no significant relationship between stress and students’ academic performance in word processing in public universities in Lagos State

H1: there is significant relationship between stress and students’ academic performance in word processing in public universities in Lagos State

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study on the influence of stress on students’ academic performance in word processing will be of immense benefit to the entire in public universities in Lagos State. The study will explore stress, the causes of stress and how they affect students’ performance in word processing. The study will serve as guide to teachers in the management of the stressed students so as to improve their performance in word processing. The study will also serve as a repository of information to other students and researchers that desire to carry out similar research on the above topic. Finally the study will contribute to the body of the existing literature on the influence of stress on students’ academic performance in word processing.

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study covers on the influence of stress on students’ academic performance in word processing with focus on students in public universities in Lagos State.

1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work

1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS

STRESS: Stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension. It can come from any event or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry, or nervous. Stress is your body's reaction to a challenge or demand. In short bursts, stress can be positive, such as when it helps you avoid danger or meet a deadline

WORD PROCESSING: the production, storage, and manipulation of text on a computer or word processor.