STRESS AND COPING MECHANISM OF SELECTED SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

STUDENTS OF SAINT AUGUSTINE SCHOOL

An Undergraduate Thesis
Presented to
Senior High School Department
Saint Augustine School
Mendez, Cavite

In partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the strand
Accountancy, Business and Management,
Investigative, Inquiring, and Immersion

Marilag I. Chavez
Liane Jeofrein H. Ferma
Jan Ronnie A. Sidamon

March 2018
 Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

This chapter includes the background of the study, conceptual framework,

statement of the problem, significance of the study and scope and limitations.

Background of the Study

Poor performance of the students leads to the low efficacy and changes of

behavior. There are lots of reason why students underachieve at school and one

of these is stress.

Stress is the feeling of being under a lot of mental or emotional pressure.

Stress affects every people regardless of age, gender, economic status or even

professions. Besides, it affects the decision-maker such as parents, students,

government officials, and lots more who make decision.

Furthermore, stress is everywhere. It can be found at home, with

companions, in school, in workplace, and also in the classroom. It basically

cannot be avoided because it is part of being human. Every day, many people

experience stress. No person is free from stress, regardless of who he is.

In fact, school is one place where a lot of people converge on a regular

basis. Stress is bound to happen when people come together. Senior high school

students are one of those who are experiencing severe stress. (Retrieved from

https://media.neliti.com/media/publications/71952-EN-causes-effects-of-stress-

and-the-coping.pdf)
 According to Blona (2005), students are experiencing stress because

some are trying to cope up with different demands such as adapting to the new

environment, new peers, and academic pressure. Being a senior high school

student can put financial stress to the students and their families.

Stressors affecting students can be as academic, financial, time, or health

related and self-imposed stress (Goodman, 1993; Leroy, 1998). Academic stress

is stress coming from the school or education. The common cause of their stress

includes the academic subjects, projects and school requirements, announced or

unannounced quizzes, graded recitations, and even their teachers or professors.

Fear of academic failure is a definite stressor (Koloko, 1980). That is why it is

important to the school to maintain the well-balance academic environment for

the better learnings of every student.

Stressors are request made by internal or external environment that

distress the balance of a person resulting to the impact of the physical and

psychological well-being of the person. Nevertheless, an excess of stress can

prompt physical, emotional, and mental health risks for problems such as

migraine headaches, relationship issues, or substance use disorders. Thus,

stress cannot be neglected or ignored. Giving much attention to it at the very

start can avoid its worst effects.

According to Blona (2005), to understand one’s stress, one needs to know

what it is and its causes, in order to cope with it well.

This study is conducted to determine the stress that the selected senior

high school of Saint Augustine School are experiencing, the effects of it to them,
and how they cope up with this. This study enables the students to know the

impacts of stress not just in their academic performance but also to themselves.

It also helps the parents on how they going to guide and support their children

that is suffering from stress. It may help to the school teachers or counselor to

better understand the behavior of their students and help them to coping up the

different stressors. This study gives further information to the future researchers

who will be conducting the same study.

Statement of the Problem

Generally, this study aims to determine the stress and the coping

mechanism of selected senior high school students of Saint Augustine School.

Specifically, this study sought to answer the following questions:

1. What is the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of:

1.1 Age

1.2 Gender

1.3 Grade level

1.4 Strand

2. What are the causes of stress to selected senior high school students of

Saint Augustine School?

3. Does stress have great impact to their learning in school?

4. What are the coping mechanism to deal with the stress?

Based on the void hypothesis, “The cause of stress is mostly about

academics and family. It has great impacts to the learning of selected senior high

school students of Saint Augustine School. By going out with friends, asking

advice from friends/classmates, keeping one’s self busy, facing and solving the

problem at once, and praying to God may help the students to cope up with their

stresses in life”.

Significance of the Study

The results of this study may be beneficial to the following:

Students – the findings will provide student proper awareness on the different

stressors they are facing. This will help them on how they cope those stressors.

Parents – This study will help the parents on how they going to support their

children that will be helpful in improving the academic performance of their child.

School Administrators - by knowing the different stressors of these students,

the school can provide well-balanced environment that would be a big help in

learning of their students.

Future Researchers – This study serves as a basis or guide for their own study

in connected to the said topic. It can provide useful information that can be used

to their study.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

senior high school students of Saint Augustine School. The respondents of this

study will be the 50 randomly chosen senior high students of Saint Augustine

School, for the reason that they are more accessible and reliable to answer the

survey questionnaire that the researcher prepared compared to others. They are

also capable to answer the sensitive questions about the problems that they are

encountering because of their maturity. Due to the fact that Saint Augustine

School is the closest school that has been offering the senior high, the

researchers have chosen this to conduct a study.

The researchers used the quantitative and descriptive research. Data can

gather through the use of adopted survey questionnaire that will be conducted

from January 22-26, 2017.

Conceptual Framework

Figure 1 showed the diagram representing the research paradigm in

conducting the study. The researchers utilized the input-process-output (IPO)

model.

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

 Causes of  Survey
Stress Question Cause and Effects
 Effects of naire of Stress and its
Stress  Analysis Coping Mechanism
 Coping  Interpret
Mechanis ation
m
 Figure 1: Research Paradigm

The researchers sought to determine the stress and the coping

mechanism of selected senior high school students of Saint Augustine School by

administering survey questionnaire. After which, the researchers are going to

analyze and interpret the data they gathered. Finally, the researchers draw out

the cause and effects of stress and the coping mechanism of selected senior

high school students of Saint Augustine School.

Definition of Terms

Coping mechanism- Coping mechanisms are ways to which external or internal

stress is managed, adapted to or acted upon. Susan Folkman and Richard

Lazarus define coping as "constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to

manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing".

Education- The process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially

at a school or university and an enlightening experience.

Efficacy- The ability to produce a desired or intended result.

Stress- Is a pressure or tension exerted on a material object and a state of

mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding

circumstances.
Stressors- A stressor is a chemical or biological agent, environmental condition,

external stimulus or an event that causes stress to an organism. An event that

triggers the stress response may include: environmental stressors (hypo or

hyper-thermic temperatures, elevated sound levels, over-illumination,

overcrowding)