Anxiety among College Students: Causes and Effects

Everyone has experienced anxiety at some point. It happens often, which makes us worry and fret over the things that are occurring to us. A person’s level of anxiety may be significantly impacted by their busy schedule or heavy task. College students are required to manage their time well in order to complete responsibilities like meeting class deadlines or making time for studying. The goal of this research is to look for any connections between college students’ anxiety levels and various variables that may have an influence on it, such as their year of enrollment, gender, and the number of credits they are taking.

The length of time a student has spent in college may have a significant impact on how stressed they feel. I expect that first-year students will report feeling more stressed than previous years of students because they may feel particularly nervous about leaving home for the first time. According to a recent survey, 21% of college students suffer from separation anxiety (Seligman & Wuyek, 2010). This study doesn’t look at or compare students from previous years, but it does provide a figure that suggests that first-year students have significant levels of anxiousness. This theory is supported by another research study that discovered a negative relationship between anxiety and age, with younger pupils reporting greater levels of anxiety (Balolu et al., 2007). I couldn’t locate much earlier data on how a student’s first year of college affects their stress levels, but the two studies I have cited suggest that first-year students have a tendency to be more anxious.

Another element that could affect how much anxiety a kid reports feeling is their gender. There was no discernible relationship between gender and anxiety in a prior research that compared the levels of anxiety felt by male and female students of various ages (Balolu, 2003). According to a similar research, women often suffer greater levels of stress than males when it comes to taking examinations and being in social settings. The study also looked at correlations between anxiety and self-consciousness in public (Sowa & LaFleur, 1986). Another study sought to determine if college students’ financial struggles and anxiety levels were related. For female individuals, the researchers discovered a link between financial stress and anxiety, but male participants reported less worry. Only men who reported poor levels of familial support in addition to their financial distress showed statistically significant increases in their anxiety levels (Tran et al., 2018). According to this research, there is a connection between a student’s reported degree of anxiety and their financial position, with females being more affected than men. The results of these research led me to believe that a student’s gender does have an impact on the anxiety they report experiencing.

Another element that could have an impact on a student’s stated degree of anxiety is their course load. A student that enrolls in more credits will have a busier schedule, less free time, and spend more time in class. Additional homework or projects will be given as a result of more courses, and studying for tests will take longer. Students who are struggling to do well and meet deadlines may experience increases in stress and anxiety as a result of the excess of coursework. The effects of stress on a student’s academic performance were identified in a study of Pakistani pupils. According to the research, there is a connection between a student’s workload and their stated levels of stress (Talib & Sansgiry, 2011). The level of stress that students feel has increased as a result of the increased workload. According to the study’s results, I would anticipate that students who take more credits would report feeling more anxious.