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stress_study_habits_and_students_academic_performance_in_ogun_state_senior_secondar

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STRESS, STUDY HABITS AND STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN OGUN

STATE SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS

OWOLABI-GABRIEL, M. A.

OWOYELE, JIMOH WALE

owotopbest@yahoo.com

And

OJO, OLUYEMISI FLORENCE

Department of Counselling Psychology

College of Applied Education and Vocational Technology

Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun, Ijebu-ode, Nigeria

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 Abstract

This is an investigation of stress, study habit and students’ academic performance in

senior secondary schools. The aim is to enhance an understanding of factors influencing
academic performance especially stress and study habits with a view to recommending measures
that could mediate their influences and enhance students’ academic performance. To achieve
these objectives, four research questions were raised and answered in the study. It is a
descriptive survey involving a representative sample. Two research instruments; the Perceived
Stress Scale with 0.92 co-efficient of reliability and Study Habits Inventory (SHI) with reliability
co-efficient index of 0.83 were used in the study. In addition to the two instruments, participants’
average scores in their last terminal examinations were used as measures of their academic
achievement. Findings revealed significant composite and relative contributions of each of the
two independent variables (study habit and stress) to the prediction of academic performance of
male and female students. Therefore, it is recommended that all students irrespective of their
gender and educational levels should be exposed to stress management skills and encouraged to
adopt good study habits in order to enhance their academic performance.
Keywords: stress, study habit, academic performance, secondary schools.

Se trata de una investigación sobre el estrés, los hábitos

de estudio y el rendimiento académico de los
estudiantes en las escuelas secundarias superiores. El
objetivo es mejorar la comprensión de los factores que
influyen en el rendimiento académico, especialmente el

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estrés y los hábitos de estudio, con miras a recomendar
medidas que puedan mediar sus influencias y mejorar
el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes. Para
lograr estos objetivos, en el estudio se plantearon y
respondieron cuatro preguntas de investigación. Es una
encuesta descriptiva que involucra una muestra
representativa. Dos instrumentos de investigación; En
el estudio se utilizaron la Escala de Estrés Percibido
con un coeficiente de confiabilidad de 0,92 y el
Inventario de Hábitos de Estudio (SHI) con un índice
de coeficiente de confiabilidad de 0,83. Además de los
dos instrumentos, las puntuaciones promedio de los
participantes en sus últimos exámenes terminales se
utilizaron como medidas de su rendimiento académico.
Los hallazgos revelaron contribuciones compuestas y
relativas significativas de cada una de las dos variables
independientes (hábito de estudio y estrés) a la
predicción del rendimiento académico de estudiantes
masculinos y femeninos. Por lo tanto, se recomienda
que todos los estudiantes, independientemente de su
género y nivel educativo, estén expuestos a habilidades
de manejo del estrés y se les anime a adoptar buenos
hábitos de estudio para mejorar su rendimiento
académico.
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Background to the Study

In any educational set up, students’ academic performance must be put into

consideration. It has been observed that students have many obstacles to overcome in order to

achieve the optimal academic performance. Intelligence is not the only determinant of academic

achievement; it takes a lot more than just studying to achieve a successful career. Higher-

achieving students are likely to have the following characteristics: positive feelings about their

school experiences; attribute their success in high school to such things as hard work, self-

discipline, organization, ability and high motivation; tend to watch relatively little television

during the school week; tend to associate with students who also were successful in school; and

avid readers (WAEC, 2005). Different stressors such as time management, financial problems,

transportation problem, non-conducive learning environment, social activities, tedious house

chores etc., can all pose their threat to a student’s academic performance. Much research has

been done looking at the correlation of many stress factors that students experience and the effect

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of stress on their performance. These kinds of stress factors can be referred to as “academic

situational constraints” by (Sanders & Lushington, 2002). There are so many factors that can

cause stress and influence a student’s academic performance and therefore affect his or her

overall performance.

Another study took the hour of sleep correlation with students’ academic performance to

another level by taking factors into account like amount of sleep a student gets on the weekends

versus during the week, the average time a student gets up in the morning during the week, and

waking time on the weekends. Trockel, Barnes and Egget (2000) found the variables such as

later weekday wake-up and later weekend wake-up times were associated with a lower

performance. A student may find himself or herself taking care of house chores, trying to cope

with the school daily activities. All these factors can affect the grades of the students which can

ultimately affect the rest of their lives. Moreover, a research carried out by Tsige (2001)

investigated on the relations between study habits, sleep, stress and academic performance using

51 undergraduates came out with a result that time management and strategies of learning, but

not study environments, were associated with higher academic performance. Subjective

measures of sleep (i.e. perceived amount of restorative sleep) predicted higher academic

achievement and lower stress, but objective measures of sleep (i.e. reported hours of sleep) did

not.

Also, students’ study behaviours have effect on their academic performance. Students

study behaviours may have been investigated extensively in general educational research. Such

behaviours have been conceptualized and measured in various ways. However, most of the

measures of study behaviour found in the general education literature are captured by one of the

following three construct: learning tendencies, learning approaches, or learning habits (Chou,

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Taylor & Su, 1999; Owoyele, 2008). The learning approaches view of study habit is that students

display a differential property depending on how they perceive the surrounding, which is

learning environment. Learning approaches are also known in the general education literature as

learning orientations, preferences, orchestrations, and processes (Chineka and Watkins, 2006;

Entwistle and Waterson, 1998; Meyer, Parsons, and Dunne 1990; Richardson, 1994). The

analysis of the learning tendencies has been researched on by some scholars (Anderson,

Benjamin and Fuss, 1994; Hutchinson and Gul, 1997; Ojekunle, 2003; Wolk and Nikolai, 1997)

which reveals the effect on students’ performance. Learning habits on the other hand is also a

construct which describes how an individual’s learning habitually takes place environmentally,

emotionally, sociologically, and physiologically. In the general education literature, a substantial

amount of research has focused on the ways teaching methods can cater for students’ specific

learning habits in order to produce favourable learning outcomes across a wide range of

disciplines (Trockel, Barnes, & Egget, 2002). A new study attributes the differences in academic

performance and study habits of students to age, gender as well as parental expectations

(Ojekunle, 2003; Wolk and Nikolai, 1997). Gender difference in students’ study habit has also

been reported by Chineka and Watkins, (2006) and Entwistle and Waterson, (1998).

Study behaviour may determine the level of students’ academic performance. Poor study

habit as a behaviour deficit may therefore lead to poor academic performance. However, stress

faced by students and their study styles may have effect on their academic performance. The

research therefore investigated stress, study habit and students’ academic performance in senior

secondary schools.

Statement of Problem

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It has been noticed that students are faced with lots of stress which may pose some difficulties to

their academic performance (Ipem, 2005; Jimoh & Adesina, 2005). This may indicate the fact

that they could not cope with too much stress factors encountered during their daily lives. Stress

refers to a condition of exhaustion such that the individual feels completely bored and unease as

a result of a challenging situation. Stress is normal and useful when it is moderate but it is

harmful and dangerous when it is too much and the individual finds it difficult to maintain a state

of homeostasis (Ipem, 2005). Study habit describes individual’s disposition to studying. While

some students have good study habits, some have poor study habits resulting in high and low

performance respectively (Ikegbunam, 1998). Therefore, this study investigates stress and study

habits as predictors of students’ academic performance.

Research Questions

1. What is the joint contribution of stress and study habits to the prediction of academic

performance among senior secondary school students?

2. What is the relative contribution of stress and study habits to the prediction of academic

performance among senior secondary school students?

3. Is there any significant gender difference in stress among students?

4. Is there any significant gender difference in students’ study habits?

Significance of the Study

The reason for any research is to gather information in respect of phenomenon that poses

problems to people, organization, group and the likes with the resolve to finding a solution to

such problem or even look for a way of making the situation better. This research will be of great

importance in the sense that it will enable students to know some stress factors and how to cope

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with the stressors. Also, individuals will be able to understand the best study habit that can aid

his or her academic performance.

More so, it will be of assistance to psychologists, having gone through the research to

know the correlation between a student’s amount of perceived stress and study habit and

academic performance. The agents of education which are the government, the parents, guidance

and other stakeholders even the school management can benefit from this study, considering the

fact that stress could affect students’ performance either positively or negatively.

Methodology

Research Design

For the purpose of this study, a descriptive survey was employed. The design was

considered appropriate for the study because the study investigated the contributions of study

habit and stress to students’ academic performance based on a representative sample.

Research Population

The target population for this research consists of students in senior secondary schools in

Ijebu-Ode Local Government Area of Ogun State, Nigeria.

Sample and Sampling Technique

A total of 160 senior secondary school students were randomly selected using the simple

random sampling technique. The sample comprised 80 female and 80 male students; 59 of them

were in S.S. 1, 70 students from S.S. 2 and 31 students from S.S. 3.

Instrumentation

Two research instruments were administered on the participants in their respective

schools. In order to evaluate the amount of stress that students perceived, the Perceived Stress

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Scale, developed by Cohen and Mermeistein (1983) was adopted. It is a 10 item scale in form of

a 4 point Likert scale format with responses ranging from never (1) to very often (4). The scale

yields a single score and a high score (20 and above) is indicative of greater levels of perceived

stress, while low score (less than 20) indicating low stress level. Each item is scored using the 4

point scale. However, items 4, 5, 6, 9 are scored in reversed order. The instrument has 0.92 co-

efficient of reliability. The second instrument consists of ten items adopted from the Study

Habits Inventory (SHI) developed by Bakare (1977). It is also a 4 point Likert scale format

ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (4). The instrument has high reliability co-

efficient index of 0.83, (Bakare, 1977). In addition to the two instruments, participants’ average

score in their last terminal examinations was used as measures of their academic achievement.

Method of Data Analysis

The data collected were tested using Linear Regression analysis and the results are

presented in summary tables below;

Results

The results of the data analysis are presented here as answers to the research questions

raised earlier in the study.

Linear Regression analysis of the composite contribution of stress and study habit to the

prediction of students’ academic performance

R = 0.3701a
R2 = -0.1369
Std. Error = 0.5060
Mode Sum of squares Df Mean square F Sig
Regression 5.566E-02 3 1.855E-02

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Residual 39.944 156 0.256 8.072 0.005a
Total 40.000 159

Table 1 revealed that the independent variables (Study habits and stress) made significant

composite contribution to the prediction of students’ academic performance (F = 8.072; p <

0.05). This means that the amount of perceived stress and quality of students’ study habit could

influence their academic performance. The results also revealed regression co-efficient R =

0.3701 and R2 = 0.1369 suggesting that stress and study habit jointly accounted for 13.69 percent

of the variance in students’ academic performance.

Linear Regression analysis of the relative contribution of stress and study habit to the

prediction of students’ academic performance

Unstandardized Std. 95% Confidence

coefficients Coef Interval for B
Model B Std. Beta t Sig. Lower Upper
Error Bound Bound
(Constant) 1.502 0.437 3.437 0.001 0.639 2.365
Study Habits 2.04203 0.009 1.010 3.119 0.005 -0.016 0.018
Stress 1.12103 0.013 1.007 2.088 0.007 -0.024 0.026
Academic 1.0423 0.002 -0.034 -0.422 0.674 -0.006 0.004
Performance

Table 2 revealed the relative contribution of each of the two independent variables (study

habit and stress to the prediction of academic performance. Study habit was the most potent

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predictor of academic performance (B = 2.04203; t = 3.119; p < 0.05); followed by stress which

is also a significant predictor of academic performance (B = 1.12103; t = 2. 088; p < 0.05).

Table 3: t-test analysis of gender difference in stress among students

Group N MEAN SD df t p
Male 80 22.3215 2.4323
158 1.064 .215
Female
80 21.5782 2.3253

Table 3 above revealed no significant difference in the stress level of male and female

students (t = 1.064; p > .05). This means that stress is not gender sensitive. Both male and female

students are prone to stress.

Table 4: t-test Analysis of Gender Difference in students’ study habits

Group N MEAN SD Df t p
Male 80 19.3312 3.4211
158 1.102 .201
Female
80 19.3135 3.3235

Table 4 above revealed no significant difference in the study habits of male and female students

(t = 1.102; p > .05). This means that study habit is not gender sensitive. Male and female

students have similar study habits.

Discussion

The findings of this study revealed that stress and study habits jointly and independently

predicted students’ academic achievement in senior secondary schools. This suggests that the

amount of stress students experience and their study habit could influence their academic

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performance. This finding is plausible considering the nature of stress which has the tendency to

propel one to work harder when the stress is moderate and which also has the tendency to lower

one’s energy when it is excessive. Thus, stress could make students to work harder and perform

well in examinations especially when the stress is moderate. It can also lead to poor performance

when the level of stress is excessive and obstructive to effective functioning. Similarly, study

habit could be good or bad. It is good when one is positively disposed towards studying and

adopts effective study techniques. This could lead to effective learning and enhance academic

performance. Study habit is bad when one is unwilling to study and could not devote the required

time and energy to it. This could impede learning and lead to poor academic performance. These

findings corroborate Trockel, Barnes and Egget (2000) who have earlier found that stress is

inimical to learning. It also lends credence to (Baker, Simon and Bazeli 1986, 1987; Baldwin and

Reckers, 1984; Hutchinson and Gul, 1997; Desai and Taylor, 1998; Wolk and Nikolai, 1997)

who reported that study habits are influential in students’ academic performance. The results

however negate Eileen, Han and Rivkin (1998) who opined that stress does not affect academic

performance. Although, moderate dose of stress is normal in accomplishing various human

activities including academic performance, too much stress may incapacitate individuals, reduce

performance and even lead to poor academic performance.

Conclusion

The findings of this study led to the conclusion that the amount of stress students experience and

their study habit could influence their academic performance. Stress and study habits are not

gender sensitive. All students, irrespective of their gender, are prone to stress and manifest either

good or bad study habits.

Recommendations

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All students, irrespective of their gender, should be exposed to stress management skills and

encouraged to adopt good study habits in order to enhance their academic performance. School

counsellors should organize periodic seminars and training workshops where students could be

trained on how to cope with stress and use effective study techniques. Training in stress

management and study techniques should be included in the curriculum of senior secondary

schools. Students should be provided ample opportunities for recreation at school through

provision of recreational facilities so that students could relieve stress by engaging in

recreational activities. It is hoped that a careful consideration and implementation of these

recommendations could free students from stress and improve their study habits so that they can

perform better academically.

Suggestions for further studies

Further research work can be carried out using the Junior Secondary School in order to

enhance understanding of the topic. Research work can also be carried out in the area of coping

strategies and management of stress that can be employed in helping students concerning their

academic performance. Also, further study can be carried out on the aspect of study techniques

which are suitable for students in order to aid their academic performance.

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