Perceived Academic Stress among Undergraduate Students in a Nigerian University

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the levels of perceived academic stress among undergraduate students in a University in Nigeria. Purposive sampling was used to select three Faculties from the fourteen Faculties in the University. Simple random sampling was used to select 427 undergraduate students from the three Faculties to participate in the study. Data on perceived academic stress were collected with the aid of the Perceived Academic Stress Scale (PASS) which was adapted from Bedewy and Gabriel (2015) and re-validated for the study. Data collected for the study were analysed with descriptive and inferential statistics. The perceived academic stress levels of the respondents were compared on the basis of sex, age, level /year of study and Faculty /course of study. The hypotheses formulated for the study were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that male undergraduate students reported higher academic stress level than the females. Undergraduate students in the Faculty of Physical Sciences reported significantly higher academic stress levels than students in the Faculties of Education and Social Sciences. Final year students also reported higher academic stress than students in the first and middle years of study. There was no difference in perceived academic stress levels based on the age of the students. It was concluded that sex of student, level of study and course of study influence perception of academic stress among undergraduate students. Implications for Students’ counselling were discussed.