PERCEIVED CAUSES OF STRESS AND MANAGEMENT APPROACH AMONG STUDENTS

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the perceived causes of stress and management approach among students in the University of Benin. Five research questions were raised and formulated and four was tested. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisted of 44,140 students and the sample size was 100 respondents which was drawn through the simple random sampling technique. A self-structured questionnaire was used for the study, it was content validated by three experts and a reliability of 0.75 was established using the split half method. Data were analyzed using the descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentages for the research questions. The findings of this study revealed that the perception of students in the University of Benin concerning what causes stress is high and that poor learning environment, unrealistic deadlines for projects, assignments and group works, academic workload, lack of financial resources, and challenge of adjusting properly to campus life are the major causes of stress. Also, it indicated that most students practice unhealthy ways to cope with stress while a substantial amount of students adopt good approaches to manage stress effectively. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that adequate lecture theatres should be constructed and equipped with good furniture and sound system, At the beginning of every semester and before examination periods, there should be an orientation on effective stress management across all faculties and departments: which should be duly enforced by the school management and unrealistic deadlines for projects, assignments and group works should be stopped so as end mounting unnecessary pressure on students.