UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR

Institute of Medical Science Technology

COMMUNICATION ENGLISH 2 (WED20302)

MANAGEMENT OF STRESS AMONG UNIKL MESTECH STUDENTS

Group Members:

NUR ATIKAH AMIRA BINTI RANI 12101315034

RUZIANA BT YUSRI 12101315016

YASMIN IZUREEN BINTI IBRAHIM 12101315020

NOR SYAFINAS BINTI NOR ASHAAZLIM 12101315023

Lecturer:

MISS DIYANATUL MARDHIAH BINTI ABDUL SHUKOR

Submission date: 28 / 7/ 2016

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CONTENT

NO. CONTENT PAGE

1. Abstract and keyword 2

2. Introduction 3

3. Literature Review 4-6

4. Methodology 7-8

5. Results 9-14

6. Discussion 15-16

7. Conclusion & Recommendations 17-18

8. References 19-20

9. Appendix 21-50

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ABSTRACT

Stress among students is not a rare thing nowadays. Whatever is, students must handle

their stress with the good strategies so that stress will not give a bad impact to them. This

study aimed to investigate the management of stress among the students of Universiti Kuala

Lumpur, Institute of Medical Science Technology (UniKL MESTECH). The way of stress

management consist of eating, sleep, early step, take a break, pills, counsellor, exercise,

travel, pray and entertainment. This research also conducted to identify various effects of

stress to UniKL MESTECH students. The self-administered questionnaires were distributed

to 30 students of UniKL MESTECH involving both DBLT and DEHS students. Respondents

are required to complete it by using the scale rating method, 1-5 from strongly disagree to

strongly agree. As results, students strongly agreed with taking a break and entertainment to

reduce the stress also agree with travel. Moreover, respondents strongly agreed with the

statement of ‘difficulty to relax’ as the effect of stress and agree with the point of ‘more

matured’. Besides, students were known to strongly disagree that taking pills was the correct

way to decrease stress plus disagree with excessively eating, meeting counsellor and exercise.

Students also suggested that they strongly disagreed with statement ‘gain more weight’ as the

impact of stress and disagree with ‘hypertension’ statement. The board has come to the

conclusion that suggests the components of management and effect of stress were not consist

of one aspect, they were linked to one another.

Key word:

UniKL MESTECH Universiti Kuala Lumpur Institute of Medical Science Technology

DBLT Diploma in Biomedical Laboratory Technology

DEHS Diploma in Environmental Health Sciences

GHQ General Health Questionnaire

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INTRODUCTION

Generally, stress is anything that represents a test or a risk to our prosperity. It has been

characterized as a procedure in which natural requests surpass the versatile limit of a life

form bringing about mental and organic changes that may put persons at danger for diseases.

This definition was adapted from Cohen S et al (1995). Stress among the university students

is commonly heard in this decade as they are busy struggling to get the best performance in

their studies. Abouserie (1994) claimed that students encounter academic stress when

comparing their exam results with each other. According to the National Centre for the

educational statistic (2008) shows that 25% of university students drop out after their first

year, and marginally more than half of the students attending four years institution complete

their baccalaureate degrees within six years of their first enrollment. Stevenson & Harper,

(2006) believe that stress in academic institutions can have both positive and negative

consequences if not well-managed among university students. This can affect their daily

lifestyles if they are not able to overcome their stress problem. So here, lifestyle can be

defined as behaviour, opinion, and interest of an individual, group, or culture (Lynn R. Kahle,

Angelina G Close, 2011) A student in the university has various ways managing their stress.

Based on the previous research, the student usually managed their stress by pills, sleep, eat

and entertain excessively. This behaviour can affect student lifestyles such as their health,

academic performance, and social skills. Based on the previous study there are many research

articles focused on cause, factor, and effect of stress. However, none of the research study

about the relationship between the management of stress and the effect on their lifestyle.

Generally, the aim of this study is to investigate the variance of stress among UniKL

students. This research also being conducted to identify the methods to overcome stress

among UniKL students while focusing on the effect of stress towards student’s lifestyle.

This study is to identify the relationship between the management of stress and its effects.

Students of UniKL Mestech have been chosen as our respondent for our research .The

research question of this study are, what are the methods that the students use to overcome

stress? And what are the effects of stress towards the student’s lifestyle?

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LITERATURE REVIEW

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Stress can be defined as a state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in

your life, work, etc. Hong Ji (2011) stated that stress could be defined in two fields,

namely mental stress , and physical stress. From a psychological point of view, stress

is a cognitive and behavioural experience process constituted by mental stress sources

and mental stress reactions together. Stress sources refer to factors causing stress

reactions, including biological stress sources, spiritual stress sources, and social and

environmental stress sources. Stress sources that cause mental disorders are most

comprehensive.

Rawson and other scholars agree that mental stress sources of college students mainly

include study factors, social factors, life and economic factors, and career factors

(Rawson, Harve E, Bloomer, Kimberly, Kendall, Amanda, 1994). In addition, Heins’

studies show that there are two types of stress sources among college students. One

type is about academic expectation and achievements, and the other is about social

factors, such as maintaining and developing social connections, etc. (Lin Zhang, Wenbo

Che & Bing Li, 2003 )

1.1 METHOD USE TO MANAGE STRESS

1.1.1 EATING BEHAVIOUR

Cartwright et al (2003), assumed that perceived stress may influence daily dietary practices.

While greater perceived stress might have adverse impacts on college students’ food choices

by decreasing consumption of healthy foods and increase in consumption of unhealthy foods.

This is strongly proven by Healthy Eating Choices and Fat Contents of Foods: a study

of stress and appetite and eating habits of students found that under normal

conditions, 80% of students made healthy eating choices, however only 33% ate

healthy when stressed. (Kanadiah J, Yake M, Jones J, Meyer M, 2006).

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1.1.2 SLEEP CYCLE

According to Lund et al., 2010; Vail-Smith, Felts, & Becker, 2009, cited by Catherine Coccia

et al (2014), the duration of students’ sleep has been related to health, stress and quality of

life; good health may result from longer time sleeping. In fact, changes in sleeping habits

were found to be the most frequent form of stress for college students. (Ross, Niebling, &

Heckert, 1999).

2.0 EFFECT OF STRESS

2.1.1 SOCIAL SKILLS

From Hildingh C, et al (2006), one of the highly potential of stress come from adequate self-

confidence. Gallagher IIC (2013) , Warren CS et al (2013) , Noels KA et al (1996) also

mentioned about lack of self-confidence has also been recognized as a part of stressors.

However, Ellison et al (2007) stated that by using social networking site as a medium to

communicate to each other, may play a role in which they form their social skills. This will

eventually be a stress barrier, thus increasing the life satisfaction of them. In addition,

Matsuba (2006) suggested that social networking sites may be one of the platforms for

students to develop their identity and for those who were a lack in self-concepts can explore

the Internet and also social sites. Another evidence to strengthen this finding is by Catherine

Coccia

2.1.2 HEALTH

According to McTigue et, al (2002) cited by Vanessa L Errisuriz et al claimed that

overweight during adulthood is associated with increased incidence of obesity in adulthood.

Hence, the research suggests those who are obese will more likely to remain as their age

increases. This will surely increase the risk of health outcomes. Based on Tuschen-Caffier &

Vogelle (1999), it has been stated that greater perceived stress connected with a greater

desire. While Dahlin et al reported that 5.4% of medical students in a Swedish university had

suicidal thoughts and 2.7% of students had made suicide attempts before. While Zaid Z an et

al (2007) reported that medical students with a medical history of chronic diseases had higher

GHQ scores. For the common disease were asthma and migraine.

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2.1.3 ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

In accordance with the statement by the National Center for Educational Statistics (2008) ,

cited by Catherine Coccia et al, 25% of college students dropped out after their first year, and

only slightly more than half of the students attending 4-year institutions complete their

degrees within 6 years of enrolment. While the students’ time spent studying for classes may

play a role in satisfaction with life (Catherine Coccia et al, 2014). Hirsch & Ellis (1996)

stated that the pressure to obtain good grades among students is very high. Statement by

Abouserie (1994), Misra et al (2000), supports the previous statement which claimed that

studying for exams and grade competition are the greatest sources of academic stress. In

another study have found that the amount of study time has declined over five decades with

one study finds that college students spent 51% of their time on non-academic whereas only

7% was used for studying (Arum & Roksa, 2011; Babcock & Marks, 2010) . According to

Zaid Z and et al (2007), perceived pressure due to examinations have associated with positive

General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) whereas its positive result indicates the presence of

stress among the respondent.

2.1.4 DAILY TASK

Catherine Coccia et al claimed that the time spent on the study was lesser than the time they

spend on other things. Plus, in the United States, the duration of study time has decreased

gradually from 24 hours in 1961 to 14 hours only per week in 2003 (Babcock & Marks,

2010) . It has been stated that students nowadays have different ways in the study by applying

multitasking and using technology to learn something in advance. In addition, this younger

generation prefers to mix between study and playing game. (Carlson, 2010)

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METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter discussed the methodology that used in this research. The first section described

the research instrument, respondent of the study, research procedure and follows by data of

the respondent. The third part described the data analysis for this research. The number of

respondents involved in this research was 30 students. This research was conducted based on

the methodology. This method plays a major role in implementing this research accordingly.

The main purpose of the research is to find out the best way to manage stress among UniKL

MESTECH students.

3.2 RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

This research used quantitative research methodology. To complete this research, the

instrument used to collect information from the public’s was a questionnaire. A set of

questionnaires, make it into copies and distributed them to a few respondents. The respondent

for this research was students from UniKL MESTECH students. A few students is chosen

that coming from different background, course and personalities.

The questionnaires were divided into three sections, which is Section A, Section B and

Section C. In section A, respondents were required to fill in some basics information about

themselves. This part is known as demographic. The basic information that required were

age, gender, course, health status and current semester result (CGPA). With this basic

information, the respondent will not felt a burden as they do not need to reveal their identity

randomly.

In section B, the question is about the management of stress. This section is actually want to

know how the respondent manages their stress. Ten questions are given, and respondent

needs to answer using the scale that given. Lastly, in section C, the questions is about the

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effect of stress. From this question, it illustrated how stress affects their lifestyle. This section

also consists of 10 questions that respondent need to answer.

3.3 RESPONDENTS OF THE STUDY

30 respondents are randomly selected among UniKL MESTECH student to involve in this

research. The respondents’ age is mean between 19 to 21 years old. Five respondents aged,

27 aged 19 years old, two aged 20 years old and 1 of them aged 21 years old.

Besides that, the respondents’ gender are in ratio male to female is 10:20. 10 of the

respondent are Male, and the other 20 are Female. For the course, the course that has is

DBLT and DEHS.23 of the respondents come from the DBLT students and the rest is DEHS

students who are 7. For the health status, most of our respondent is in good health were 29

and only 1 in a bad health condition.

3.4 RESEARCH PROCEDURE

During the study, the questionnaire was distributed at various locations on campus such as

the library, computer lab, and lecture hall. Respondents were approached to fill up the

questionnaire that is given. 15 students are seen at the library and ten students at the lecture

hall and five students in the computer lab.2 days were taken to distribute the questionnaire.

3.5 DATA ANALYSIS

For this research, to analyse the data, there are three parts are analyze based on the

questionnaire which is the demographic, management of stress and effect of stress. The data

were entered into the computer using Microsoft Excel 2013. The result of the data was

present using frequency and toe descriptive statistic.

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RESULTS

Figure 1 shows frequency of UniKL MESTECH students among genders

Figure 1 shows that more females UniKL MESTECH students are involved in this study than

males. It represented sixty-seven percents of females and thirty-three percents of males.

Figure 2 shows frequency of UniKL MESTECH students according to course

Figure 2 indicates both DBLT’s and DEHS’s students involve in this study. The involvement

of students showed higher in DBLT’s students which are seventy-seven percents than

DEHS’s students which are twenty-three percents.

MALE33%

FEMALE67%

GENDER

MALE FEMALE

DBLT77%

DEHS23%

COURSE

DBLT DEHS

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Figure 3 shows frequency of UniKL MESTECH students’ age

Figure 3 revealed the distributions of studied students who have shared in the study. The total

number of students involved UniKL MESTECH was thirty students. They consist of three

age groups, which are 19, 20 and 21. 19 years old students own the percentages of thirty-five

percents. 20 years old students have the percentages of thirty-three percents. Meanwhile, 21

years old students own the percentages of thirty-two percents.

Figure 4 shows the frequency of health among UniKL MESTECH students

132%

233%

335%

AGE

1 2 3

GOOD97%

BAD3%

HEALTH STATUS

GOOD BAD

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Overall, the total number of UniKL MESTECH students involved in this investigation are

thirty students. Ninety- seven percents of them are in the good health status while three

percents of them are in the bad health status.

Figure 4 shows the distribution of UniKL MESTECH students’ CGPA

Most of the UniKL MESTECH students own the CGPA 0f 3.00-4.00. It represented fifty-

seven percents of the thirty students. Forty-three percents of them are having CGPA'S of

2.00-3.00 while zero percent of students scored CGPA’s of 1.00-2.00.

1.00-2.000%

2.00-3.0043%3.00-4.00

57%

CGPA

1.00-2.00 2.00-3.00 3.00-4.00

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

PER

CE

NTA

GE

(%)

TYPE OF QUESTIONS

MANAGEMENT OF STRESS

Strongly Agree

Agree

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Figure 5 shows the management of stress among UniKL MESTECH students

Based on Figure 5, the most popular ways for the students use to release stress are by taking a

break and use the source of entertainment. The graph above portrays that students strongly

agree with those two methods in order to manage stress. However, respondents seemed to

agree that travel also may be the other rational for respondent as to reduce stress.

Figure 6 shows the effect of stress among UniKL MESTECH students

The majority of respondents thought that the effect of stress is the difficulty to relax. The

figure above points that the percentage of difficult to relax rated as strongly agree with the

highest vote, forty percent of the students. Respondents likely agree with the statement ‘more

matured’ as the impact of stress and highly rated among the respondents as shown in the

figure above.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

PER

CEN

TAG

E (%

)

TYPE OF QUESTIONS

EFFECT OF STRESS

Strongly Agree

Agree

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Figure 7 shows the management of stress among UniKL MESTECH students

From the bar chart, the main method that students strongly disagree on using in managing

stress is by taking pills. The diagram above shows that pills recorded as the most voted with

eighty-three percent of the respondents. In the other hands, students consider that excessively

eating, meeting counsellor and exercise as not the effective ways in dealing with the stress.

The most important finding to appear from the data is that there is a similarity in the amount

of disagreeing rating between excessively eating, meeting counsellor and exercise question.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

PER

CE

NTA

GE

(%)

TYPE OF QUESTIONS

MANAGEMENT OF STRESS

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

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Figure 8 shows the effect of stress among UniKL MESTECH students

What is interesting in this findings from Figure 8 is that students are claiming that gain more

weight is the effect of stress. From the figure above clearly, shows that twenty-three percent

of students rate on strongly agree with the ‘gain more weight’ statement. Further analysis of

data revealed that most of the respondents seem to disagree with the issue, ‘hypertension may

result from the stress feeling’. Strong evidence on it was found when thirty percent of the

students vote for the disagree scale.

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

PER

CE

NTA

GE

(%)

TYPE OF QUESTIONS

EFFECT OF STRESS

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

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DISCUSSION

The findings of the research showed that the management of stress has a great linkage

between itself and the effect of having stress to the UniKL MESTECH students. Methods to

manage the stress here consist of ten components based on the questionnaire which is eating

behaviour, sleep, early step, take a break, pills, counsellor, exercise, travel, pray and

entertainment. The correct ways of managing stress will affect the students’ health, academic

performance, and social skills.

The study was conducted for students of ages 19 years to 21 years including both male and

female students. The students own various opinion about the management of stress and the

effects.

As what has been observed, students are likely to manage their stress by taking a break and

get contact with the entertainment. The presence of stress may disrupt the students’ daily

activities therefore they need to take a break after doing the tasks in order to calm. Break time

is the moment where students will taking the chance to make themselves comfort, relax and

more peaceful. Rest will help students to decrease the feeling of stress itself. In the other

hands, entertainment is more user-friendly and so easy to get in along for the students to

manage the stress. Entertainment can be an example by watching movies, hear to the songs of

a variety of genres, surfing the internet and social media plus more. However, the findings of

the current study do not support the study conducted by Oliver et al (2000). Oliver suggests

that by changing the eating behaviour, stress will be reduced as students will consume more

foods according to the students’ emotion.

Most of the respondents surveyed suggested that travel is the best method to deal with the

stress. It might because of the students thought that by visiting the dream places, can vanish

the stress feeling away. The present findings did not seem to be consistent with other research

which believes that sleep may be one of the step students take to overcome stress. It is likely

to be true that,all stress feelings that conquering us will be ease when sleeping. Moreover, the

sleep cycle is very important for the university students. Those with enough sleep will result

in a better quality of health (Lund et al., 2010; Vail-Smith, Felts, & Becker, 2009).

Further analysis of data showed that most of the students are justifying that difficult to relax

is the common effect of stress. It might be impacting more on the respondents when

respondents are in a panic or hard situations. This study has been unable to demonstrate that

stress will affect students to not performing well. It is supported by Hirsch & Ellis (1996) that

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claimed the pressure among the students to earn a good grade are very high. ‘Most matured’

is also resulting as a usually chosen answer in respondents regarding it as the implication of

stress. It could be proposed that students who often facing difficulties in life will become

stronger and rational in handling problems than before.

In response to question ‘taking pills’ as the best way to manage stress, a majority of the

respondents revealed that they disagree with the statement. Respondents might be thinking

that by consuming pills, it may contribute the bad effects to the health. These findings of this

research are consistent with those of Ersche et al. (2010) and Everitt (2014) who found that

overuse of drugs can lead to drug addiction and related neuropsychiatric disorders. Most of

the students are taking stress matter not seriously. The excessiveness of stress will affect

many bad impacts to health. However, respondents are seemed to disagree with statement

‘eating, meeting counsellor and exercise’ to control stress. It might be that those are less

important matters to look for.

From the figure 8, the percentage of respondents that strongly disagree with statement ‘gain

more weight’ as one of the effects of stress. It may be suggested that weight is a not closely-

related with stress and if it so, it just a part of it. Students also not considering that

hypertension is one of the impacts from stress. Hypertension may lead to various type of

disease. These findings agree with Moffat et al. (2004) findings which showed that stress

would result in a different rate of psychological illness.

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CONCLUSION

This study has investigated about the management of stress among UniKL MESTECH

students. This study has been conducted at UniKL MESTECH by distributed the

questionnaire to the respondents. From the questionnaire, it can know how UniKL

MESTECH students manage their stress. This research has an objective that needs to be

achieved. As mentioned earlier in the introduction, the purpose of the study is to investigate

the deviation of stress among UniKL MESTECH students. Apparently, the objective has been

achieved. The ways to manage stress and the effect of stress has already being identified by

conducting this research. The major findings of the research are students found to strongly

agree with taking a break and entertainment to reduce the stress also agree with travel.

Furthermore, respondents strongly agreed with the statement of ‘difficulty to relax’ as the

effect of stress. The results of this study support the idea that the previous study and the

current study both must be referred and related each other so that we are not depending the

result on one side only. The research was limited in several ways that the sample size is very

small inclusive only 30 students of UniKL MESTECH. Besides, this study is conducted

under a very limited time and everything needs to be a rush.

5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS

There are several ways that we thought could improve the management of stress among

students and other suggestions to boost up the process for getting more precise and specific

results of the research. In this section, we divided into two main suggestions. Firstly, in

5.2.1, we discussed on recommendations for future research. Secondly, in 5.2.2 we discussed

recommendations to students.

5.2.1 Recommendations for future research

We believed the results we got from this research are not precise and specific enough to

achieve the objectives of this study. We suggest for the future study, we have to increase the

numbers of the respondent who participate in this research. In this study, we only make a

survey to thirty respondents among the UniKL MESTECH students. However, the answered

questionnaire did not represent the majority of thousands UniKL MESTECH students.

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Other than that, we have to change the methodology in the questionnaire. We recommend

adding an “Autonomic Measures” such as blood pressure for every respondent for

participating in this research. This will give us the practical answers via the respondents

autonomic measures, not by their opinion only.

5.2.2 Recommendations to students

There are many ways to manage a stress among students. However, we need to choose the

best ways to manage stress that suitable to our current situations in order to achieve a better

life. There are few suggestions that can improve this study:

1. To create awareness among students about how to manage their stress in positive

ways.

2. To ensure students to have the proper guidance on identifying the early symptoms of

stress.

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