IMPACT OF FINANCIAL STRESS ON STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES
2.1 INTRODUCTION
This Chapter contains the review of related literature.
2.2 FINANCIAL STRESS
Financial stress may be defined as the inability to meet one’s financial obligations, but can also include psychological or emotional effects (Northern et al., 2010). Much of the literature on financial stress has focused on stress outcomes. Research has documented the following negative outcomes of financial stress: (a) depression (Andrews & Wilding, 2004; Clark-Lempers, Lempers, & Netusil, 1990), (b) anxiety (Andrews & Wilding, 2004), (c) poor academic performance (Andrews & Wilding, 2004; Harding, 2011), (d) poor health (Northern et al., 2010), and (e) difficulty persisting towards degree completion (Letkiewicz, in press; Joo, Durband, & Grable, 2008; Robb, Moody, & Abdel-Ghany, 2011). Other research has focused on coping behavior of financially-stressed students, such as seeking help (Britt et al., 2011; Lim, Heckman, Letkiewicz, Fox, & Montalto, 2012).
Hayhoe, Leach, Turner, Bruin, and Lawrence (2000) examined spending habit differences among college students and included financial stress as a variable in their model. Financial stress was measured by summing the number of positive responses to seven financial stressors, such as “not able to save for an emergency” and “not able to pay utilities.” Hayhoe et al. (2000) found that the number of good financial behaviors was negatively associated with number of financial stressors.
Very few studies have examined factors related to the likelihood of reporting financial stress. Brougham, Zail, Mendoza, and Miller (2009) examined different sources of stress, including academics, financial, family, social, and daily hassles, but the primary focus of their study was to identify coping behavior among students. They found that college women were more likely to report financial stress than college men (Brougham et al., 2009). Anticipated debt has also been shown to be a strong predictor of financial stress among medical students (Morra, Regehr, & Ginsburg, 2008). Archuleta, Dale, and Spann (2013) found that among college students, higher levels of financial satisfaction were significantly and negatively related to financial anxiety.
As discussed by Northern et al. (2010), some researchers have used financial data exclusively to measure financial stress. While being unable to pay bills and other financial difficulties may indeed produce stress, there are important psychological aspects of stress that may be missed when using financial data alone (Northern et al., 2010). Being unable to pay bills on time may plausibly be a stressful event for one student, but not for another student. Stress is certainly a complex construct, but the differences in measurement of financial stress are likely a result of a lack of theory-based research. Many of the studies mentioned above do not include an explanation of the theoretical framework used to investigate issues related to financial stress.
Two important concepts have been linked to stress in the college student literature: self-efficacy and optimism. Perceived self-efficacy can be described as a person’s perceived ability to handle different situations (Bandura, 1977). Bandura (1982) describes this as a complex process in which “component cognitive, social, and behavioral skills must be organized into integrated courses of action…(p. 122).” Perceived self-efficacy is distinct from concepts such as mastery and locus of control. While self-efficacy is a perception, mastery is about behavior experienced and is a source of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977; 1982). Locus of control is about orientation of control (Rotter, 1966). A person who has a high level of perceived self-efficacy is confident that he or she can be effective in bringing about the desired results for a given situation.
Research has shown that self-efficacy is associated with a reduced likelihood of stress among college students (Zajacova, Lynch, & Espenshade, 2005) and is positively related to academic performance (Chemers, Hu, & Garcia, 2001; Zajacova et al., 2005). Optimism refers to positive expectations about future outcomes (Scheier & Carver, 1987). Optimism has also been found to be an important construct among college student academic outcomes (Chemers et al., 2001) and health outcomes (Scheier & Carver, 1987). Since self-efficacy and optimism have been used to explore other student wellness outcomes, these concepts may be meaningful when exploring financial wellness, and specifically financial stress, among students.
2.3 ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
Academic achievement is the level of performance in school subjects as exhibited by an individual. It is the outcome of education, the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved their educational goals (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2011). It is generally regarded as the display of knowledge attained or skills developed in the school subjects.
Academic achievement is commonly measured by examination scores or continuous assessment scores, but there is no general agreement on how it is best tested. Usually, students’ class work are quantified on the basis of marks which could either be high or low which means that academic achievement could either be good or bad Several factors can impact on academic either positively or negatively.
These factors could either be intellective or non-intellective. Intellective factors refer to intelligent quotient or ability of the individual. Some of the non-intellective factors include level of mastery of foundational learning skills. Such as ability to concentrate, remember, think logically (Edublox, 2011) amount of time spent on watching television (Khamsi, 2007) vision, organizational skills, study habits, peer pressure, passion (Wiki. Answers, 2011) exercise, nutritional skills (Hammer, Grigsby and woods, 1998). Stress has also been identified as a factor that can have an impact on a student’s academic performance.
Stress is a common element in the life of every individual, regardless of race or cultural background (Garret, 2001). Stress is a part of human nature. Weinberg and Gould (2003) defined stress as a physical, mental or emotional tension. It can be caused by both good and bad experiences.
Stress is an ineffective and unhealthy reaction to change. Stress describes a force which affects human beings physically, mentally, emotionally, socially and spiritually. (Akinboye, Akinboye and Adeyemo, 2002), it is the body’s response to any undesirable demand. Stress describes physical trauma, strenuous exercise, metabolic disturbances and anxiety, which challenges the body’s is homeostasis (well-being). Stress describes the wear and tear that stressors cause in the human body including the distortion of mental and behavioural patterns. Stress also describes how people react to the demands placed on them to causing them worry and also incapacitating their ability to cope. Stress describes the perturbation of the body’s homeostasis generating biochemical parameters such as ephinephrine and adrenal cortisols, physiological parameters such as elevated heart rate and blood pressure, behaviuoral characteristics such as anxiety, depression, worry, fear, tension etc. (Akinboye, et al, 2002).
When people feel stressed by something going on around them, their bodies react by releasing adrenaline into the blood. Adrenaline gives people more energy and strength which can be a good thing if their stress is caused by physical danger. But this can also be a bad thing if their stress is in response to something emotional and there is no outlet for this extra energy and strength. The body doesn’t distinguish between physical and psychological threats. When an individual is stressed over a busy schedule, an argument with a friend, a traffic jam or mounting bills, the body reacts just as strongly as if the individual was facing a life or death situation. If an individual has a lot of responsibilities and worries, his emergency stress response may be “on” most of the time (Marcos and Tillema, 2006). Long term exposure to stress can lead to serious health problems. Chronic stress disrupts nearly every system in the body (Changing minds.org, 2011).
It can raise blood pressure, suppress the immune system, increase the risk of heart attack and stroke; contribute to infertility and speed up the aging process. Long term stress can even rewire the brain leaving an individual more vulnerable to anxiety and depression (Tepas and Price, 2001). Kaplan and Sadock (2000) opined that learning and memory can be affected by stress.
Stress is the process by which an individual or a person reacts when opened to external or internal problems and challenges. "the organism processes numerous systems to coordinate such adaptive responses both at systematic and cellular levels "by this, stress has direct effect on the brain and the whole anatomy of the body as such failure to adapt to a stressful condition can result in brain malfunction, physiological problem and also many areas of psychological challenge's in the form of depression, anxiety, pain and burnout. Physiologically, stress-related diseases in the form reproduction, cardiovascular, etabolism and gastrointestinal diseases are determined by great areas of genetic and developmental factors which are different from a person to a person but also symptoms of this disease may be similar sometimes among individuals (Hell hammer & Hellhammer 2008. vii).
According to (Wheeler 2007,2), stress is physics word which refers to the amount of force used on an object and it relates in real life as to how certain issues that carry force applied to human life. Examples financial difficulties, health challenge issues, conflicts with friends, all carry force or pressure on person's body -mind and spirit. Some of the pressure or force originate from the environment but most often comes from within a person's head in the form of worry, anxiousness, regret, discouragement and low confidence.
Therefore, stress is basically force applied to a person and may result in a strain which is as a result of an unmanaged stress that is when a person is not able to handle a challenge or problem encountered strain result. To some people, the effect is minimal which means they are able to endure pressure whiles in others the effect is enormous and have an adverse effect.
Stress is explained by (Pargman 2006, 5) as "An uncertain reaction to external and internal factors" that means a negative or positive reaction to environmental stimuli. 16 In this regard, it is how the totality of your body relate to changes and unfamiliar situations that present itself in the course of time. During such a period, vital organs such as sexual organs, heart rate, blood pressure, stroke volume, respiratory rate in the body react speedily. Many hormonal responses are at peak.
2.4 Major Sources of Stress on Students
Indeed, students have a unique cluster of stressful experiences. Student's academic performances can be affected by many factors. Bernstein et al. (2008) define the sources of stress as every circumstance or event that threatens to disrupt people's daily functioning and causes them to make adjustments. Similarly, Phinney and Haas (2003) stressed out sources of stress more specifically as a unique set of stressful encounters among student which includes: difficult financial challenges, domestic responsibilities, responsibilities related to holding a job while in school, and a heavy academic load.
2.4.1 Relationships as a source of stress
Relationship or Relations on its own is a broad topic that can be discussed and it has had a lot of effect on most aspects of a life of individuals. The term relationship talks about how people are connected and the connection can be through blood, marriage, adoption and other legal ways like neutralisation for a country and registration. This bond that is created between people can at times turn to be a burden on them and others to turn out to be victims of relationship abuse. Relationship abuse is an example of oppressive and coercive practices used to keep up force and control over a previous or current cosy accomplice. Abuse can be enthusiastic, money related, sexual or physical and can incorporate dangers, seclusion, and terrorising.
Abuse has a tendency to raise after some time. All these relationship issues can be in the form of change in a relationship, conflicts with a roommate, working with people you don't know, contact with strangers and family problems. The student turns to stress up to about these issues and begins to think a lot about ways to solve them which leads to them being distracted or having divided attention from academic work. In view of this relationships might look very simple and easy but at the long run, they really cause so much stress than one can imagine especially in the life of students.
2.4.2 Personal factors as a source of stress
Personal factors happen to really cause so much stress than we can imagine and they also playa very important role in the various aspect of the life of a student. These factors vary from person to person that results in a different set of perceptions, attitudes and behaviours. Personal factors can take a form of so many ways which one way or the other affect student performance and stress them up. Some of these factors are
Change in Living Environment
The reality that stress occurs when an event or stimulus requires us to change in some way makes a change in living environment a stressful experience. Apart from moving from home to school, our daily bumping into new faces on campus, disorders from roommates, etc. is tensed experience.
Change in Sleeping Habits
The somewhat burdensome nature of student-life causes a drastic change in sleep pattern. More to the point, this newly adopted pattern is unstable, as it is often tied to academic workloads and/or tasks at hand.
New responsibilities
Responsibilities related to holding a job while in school will certainly compound to a heavy academic load which is bound to result in stress. This is really challenging, as one has to financially rely on a job for sustenance.
Financial Difficulties
It is definitely not a conducive experience when a student has to handle dual challenges of academics and financial constraints. Life becomes very challenging when a student is behind on bills payment; for when deadlines are not met and bills stares at you, it is enough to get a student tensed and depressed.
Combining Job with studies
Many take part -time job or short term job during their period of studies. Some of them do this to gain experience for the future and also other to support their studies and themselves financially. Although working while in school is very beneficial to a student it also causes a lot of stress for them which might be too difficult to handle. Students will not have much time to study for their quizzes or exams and some even miss a lot of classes because they will be worn out or tired by the time they come back from their workplace. Students turn to face a lot of challenges when they combine work with studies
Health Problems
Health issues are a concern to everyone because bad health causes a lot of damage to the life of a person. In the life of a student, health problems cause a lot of stress and these stress turn out to even make the conditions worst by adding insult to injury. Stress can lead to physical symptoms including headaches, upset stomach, elevated blood pressure, chest pain, and problems sleeping. Research suggests that stress also can bring on or worsen certain symptoms or diseases.
Poor Eating Habit
Poor nutrition and unhealthy eating habits can increase a student's stress level, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Diets that can build stress levels in understudies incorporate those that are high in fat, caffeine, sugar and refined starches Examples of stress-inducing foods are sodas, energy drinks, doughnuts, candy bars, processed snack foods, white bread, and French fries. A healthy diet that helps to reduce stress includes foods that are low in fat and high in fibre and complex carbohydrates. Such foods include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and lean proteins.
2.5.3 Academic factors as a source of stress
There are some factors that happen in the academic curriculum that causes so much stress to students. So many things take place in the day to day activities of the academic processes that make students stress up.
Increased class workload
An increase in class workload stresses up students in the sense that when students have to do more than they can handle, they turn to get frustrated and are unable to focus and think straight. Students will overschedule their plans to meet up with the class workload in other to get good grades but eventually because these tasks are too much for them, they end up messing everything up.
Especially in situations where there are a lot of assignments to do after having a very long day at work makes students more confused. Also Too much workload can also make student to be stressed in the sense that, when a student is undergoing so many courses in school and each of these courses are also demanding it make the student not have enough time to handle all these courses to his or her perfection and ones that happen the student turns to think so much and as a result will be stressed up and this will have a great effect on the academic performance of the student.
Lower grade
It is the desire of every student to excel in their field studies as such high grades mean a lot to students. In situations where students believe they expect a higher grade but at the end get a lower grade than they expected it weighs them down and kills the motivation they have. Once this happens students start to think a lot about what they didn't do, where they went and most times are not able to find answers to those questions. At the long run, they become stressed up with that and are not able to do everything right again.
Many hours of studies
Every student has a life outside the academic curriculum and environment. When a student has to compromise and use their personal time for other activities for studies, they turn to get bored and lose interest in studies. At the long run, this situation stresses them up which causes them to lose focus on academic work. As the saying goes "all work and no play make jack a dull boy", it also applies to students since they will become dull if all they do is to use their private time for studies and not have time for themselves.
Language difficulties
Language proficiency may have a profound effect on an individual's ability to learn and develop, due to its key role in the transmission of information and regulation of cognitive processes (Binder & Smith 2013). Language is one factor that has so much influence on the life of a student. Language is the only means to communicate freely, so if students are having issues understanding the language been used in the academic process it becomes a big challenge to them and they will eventually start thinking about it. Once this happens they become frustrated and stressed up when even they have communicated and at the long run affects their performance.
Procrastination
Procrastination, as they say, is the thieve of time, one attitude that is very common among a lot of students is procrastination. Procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task which needs to be accomplished. It is the act of accomplishing more pleasurable things set up of less pleasurable ones or completing less critical errands rather than more pressing ones, in this manner putting off approaching assignments to a later time. When student keeps doing this they lose interest in doing that particular task or assignment and once the loss of interest sets in stress follows up since they will be thinking how to meet up with the deadline for the assignment or task.
Examinations
Periods for examinations causes so much stress in students than one can imagine. Examination is the only means for a student to prove that he deserves a better grade for a course and due to these students think a lot and also revise everything they have learnt during the whole period of the cause, in doing so, some students get confused about some topics they treated and others also don't know where to begin their studies from. The thought of these stuff makes them frustrated and confused which at the long run stress them up.
Missing Lectures
It is the desire of students to miss lectures or skip school. Although some students wake up and decide to miss lectures or school, others also have to do that due to circumstances beyond their control. When some students miss class or lectures they become disturbed and worried especially of the course is on they have difficulties in understanding. When this happens they start to wonder how they will make up for the lessons they lost so as they will be on the same pace with their fellow colleague in school. The thought of finding ways to make up with lessons which they have issues in becomes a burden and stress them up beyond imagination.
Frustration due to misunderstandings
A lot of students get frustrated when they don't understand what is being taught by the teachers in class. Some also misinterpret what the teacher said in a different way or meaning. This frustration leads to students being stressed up because they wonder how they will pass the course because they hardly get what the teachers say in class.
2.6 Environmental factors
The environments students leave in plays a major role in how their life will be in school. Some students turn to adapt to new environment whiles others also feel discomfort being in a new environment. The environment student finds themselves in can stress them up which may cause them not focus on their studies or other academic issues and work.
Lack of vacations or Breaks
The human body is in such a way that it needs some rest and break from time to time. In a situation where students have to be in the learning and teaching environments for long period of times affects the cognitive thinking of the students. They became tired and lazy to continue the studies. These feelings, in the long run, makes the students stressed up since the body does not have enough energy and zeal to continue with the teaching and learning process.
Computer problems
We are in the era of technological world and as a result of that most aspect of the human life is adapting to changes to suit the environment to avoid difficulty, these changes do not only affect humans but also institutions. The introduction of information technology and also computers have done a lot of good to schools and students especially but on the other hand, has also created problems for certain students. Most students lack the skills of using the computer for academic purpose and unfortunately for most of the curriculum in our modern schools makes so much use of the computer and this creates so many challenges and discomfort for the student which cause them to start thinking and become stressed up eventually.
Bad living conditions
Living conditions of people place a major role in the feeling and thinking of students. When students live in a condition which is difficult to afford some basic amenities of life they really live unhappily and this affects almost all the aspect of their life. Therefore, when they start to ponder about these issues they get stressed up and lose focus.
Divorce between parents
Major life changing events or happens can be very stressful to everyone, especially students. Unpleasant events like the divorce of parents make the student not be themselves because they become victims of broken homes. Divorce takes away the happiness students have and once that happiness they lose themselves and reflect on the past which stresses them up at the long run.
Placed in unfamiliar situations
There are a lot of situations that when someone finds themselves in they become frustrated and try to find ways and means out of that situations. Students are also victims of some of these situations. Some kind stuff or issues take places in school which might involve a student and he or she knows nothing about that situation and most often they are unpleasant ones. Students become disturbed and worried when they find themselves in such situations and thinking about that stress them up a lot.
Fear
Fear is one of the biggest problem student faces each day in and out in their academic life. Fear in a student can be about failure or talking in public. When a student has the fear of failure they are always scared to undertake any initiative even when they know it's the right thing to do due to this they always stress up when they are confronted with such situations. It's the same with fear of talking in public. They always try to escape public so as not to talk.
Future worries
The thought of how the future will turn out is a burden for most students, especially if the field of their studies is one that has difficulties in finding a job. Students get stress up when they think of what they will do in the future and most of these thoughts is about whether they will be a burden to the society or they will be an impact of it.
Unrealistic expectations
There so expectations of students which in the real life seems impossible and most often their colleagues or friends make fun of them whenever they talk about it. However, these expectations at times can be attainable but because of how unrealistic they sound it makes them wonder what they have to do to achieve them and get stressed up finding ways to do that.
2.7 Adverse Effects of Stress on Students
Students today experience high levels of stress in many areas of life. This is an important domain for further research and an effective channel of intervention for university mental health professionals. Study schedules, especially in universities, are very challenging. The act of combining a busy life along with education causes stress and depression. Limited stress is beneficial and can lead to excellent performance. However, uncontrolled stress can lead to exhaustion, depression and several other sicknesses. In fact, college students are prone to episodic stress. This happens when exams are around the corner. Stress and depression also occur when getting ready for a presentation or an interview. Several students contemplate or commit suicide.
Student life is a changeover period. They do a course supposing it will empower them to do or have something that they need, for example, expanded openings for work or upgraded delight in life. Concentrating on is a piece of a procedure of progress and, here and there, change can bring about a considerable measure of nervousness. Students in school especially universities experience an intense stage taking care of anxiety and misery.
Firstly, their hormones are in overdrive, which causes stress. Furthermore, the weight to do well adds to their anxiety levels. Homework, issues at home, connections at school and associate weight all add to stress and depression. The stress students experience may test their ability to cope and adapt to the environment they find themselves in. The impact of stress on students can be looked at from various angles. According to (Centre 2010, 10-12) Stress affects students academically, socially, physically and emotionally
2.8 Effect of stress on student Academically
Stress affecting students academically leads them to have bad performance in school work. Students experience a lack of concentration. Stress in college students can affect the ability to concentrate, and there have been studies conducted that prove that stress interferes with a student's ability to concentrate, Stress in students is not something we can take likely. Ironically stress Improves concentration for a short term because when students are little stressed up they then to focus to try to get the issue in question which stresses them away but these concentrations doesn't last for long since they will have more school work or others assignments to do which demand long-term concentrations rather than the short term.
Furthermore, stress affect the productivity or the output students make. When students are stressed up they turn not to give their maximum best when doing school work and as a result, it manifests in the outputs the bring which are clearly seen in the grades. Stress makes students spend fewer hours trying to get some school work done and they also do it in a shabby manner not following the instructions giving the assignments in question. They also don't make adequate preparation for examinations. In the long term, it can even affect their plans for the future.
Also, stress affects the initiative skills of students. Most students when stressed upturn to lack the ability to bring up new ideas to solve problems or issues, thus when students are faced with some challenges which might be even so easy to solve because they are stressed up to refuse or are unable to rack their brains to find solutions to that problem.
Lastly, stress cause students to be confused and also suffer from amnesia. All people when stressed upturn to be sixes and sevens with the little- complicated issues. In the academic life of students, they easily have misunderstandings with what is been taught in school and don't know what to do. On the other hand, many of them also forget easily what have they know or have been taught because their minds are burdened with the issues that are stressing them up. All these points impact of stress on students, in the long run, cause them to perform poorly in school.
2.9 Effect of Stress on student Socially
Students are social beings by nature, as they characteristically have an essential need and wish to uphold helpful social relations. Thus, they typically treasure keeping encouraging social bonds to be beneficial. Social relationships can offer nurturance, foster feelings of social inclusion, and lead to reproductive success. Anything that disrupts or threatens to disrupt their relationships with others can result in social stress.
To start isolations is one major impacts stress has on the social life of students. Mostly when students are tensed and have a lot of issues thinking about, they prefer to be away from their friends and be alone to ponder about those issues, of course being alone at times helps to resolve out stressful issues but doing so on a regular basis or frequently also means risking to lose your friends since you are mostly not with them. Students also losing their friends in the long causes more harm than good.
Secondly, stress also causes students to have resentments in whatever they do. When students are tensed up, they easily have anger issues that are easily get irritated with the little things people do. This pushes away people and at times even their closest friends leaving them to be lonely, and loneliness can cause them to do unpleasant things to themselves and even innocent people.
Elaborating further, stress causes lower sex drive in students. A student who happens to be married or is in serious relationship turn have issues with their pattern because of low sex drive. This is because their minds are tuned up to solving problems that are stressing them and so doing kills the desire of sex and this affects their marriages and relations because sex is a vital factor in one's life.
To end with, stress can also make students to always nag and complain. Students will always see something wrong with what their fellow mates will do because they are in a situation whereby their critical annalistic instinct and drive are fully not functions as they are supposed to. They do not have the zeal or interest to look at what their mate has done and give critical analysis. All these social effects, in the long run, give bad names and status to students who exhibit these behaviours which will have an adverse effect on their academic life.
2.10 Effect of Stress on student Physically
Stress that continues without break can lead to a state called distress, a negative stress reaction. Distress can lead to physical problems. The Physical impact of stress basically reflects on the health of the student. Stress can make you breathe tougher. That's not a problem for most people, but for those with asthma or a lung disease such as emphysema, getting the oxygen you need to breathe easier can be difficult. In addition, stress can cause the swift breathing or hyperventilation that can cause a panic attack in someone prone to panic attacks. Also, stress can cause the muscles to tense up. By sudden onset stress, the muscles tense up all at once and then release their tension when the stress passes. Chronic stress causes the muscles in the body to be in a more or less constant state of guardedness.
Furthermore, stress also causes restlessness in a student. Students who happen to be in situations that stress them up are unable to sit at one place but rather will just be walking to and fro to find solutions to their worries. This makes them always busy and tired causing them no to be able to have proper sleep and rest during the night which is not good for the body system.
Also, stress cause the increase of alcohol, drugs and tobacco use among students. Some student has the habit of taking alcohol, drugs and smoking tobacco when they feel under pressure to calm them down. Stress worsen this because it increases the intake of whatever thing the student use and at the long run causes health implications for them. Some might even contact severe diseases which may be incurable.
Lastly, stress causes fatigue on students. When students are stressed up, they are always tired because the use the energy they have in just thinking about whatever issue that's making them stressed. When this happens they have no energy left in them for academic purposes or to even do other this for them self. Being fatigue can make students mess up a whole lot of things which are supposed to help them in life.
2.11 Stress Management Techniques
Ability to manage stress is really an important issue when it comes to the topic if stress. Due to this, the Klinic community health centre has laid down some stress relieving techniques which help a lot especially students to enable them to manage their stress issues (Centre 2010,15-30; Hiriyappa 2012,61-114). There are some techniques and ways that can help reduce stress and stop you being stressed up.
Meditations
The first technique that can help with the management of stress is meditation. Meditation that cultivates mindfulness can be particularly effective at reducing stress, anxiety, depression, and other negative emotions. Mindfulness is the quality of being fully engaged in the present moment, without over-thinking or analysing the experience. Rather than worrying about the future or dwelling on the past, mindfulness meditation switches the focus on what is happening right now. Mindfulness meditation is not equal to zoning out.
It takes an effort to maintain your concentration and to bring it back to the present moment when your mind wanders or you start to drift off. But with regular practice, mindfulness strengthens the areas of the brain associated with joy and relaxation. Mindfulness provides a potentially powerful antidote to the common causes of daily stress such as time pressure, distraction, agitation, and interpersonal conflicts. (Clinic Community Health Centre, January 2010)
Body Scanning
Furthermore, body scanning is also another good way of managing stress. Body scanning promotes mindfulness by focusing your attention on various parts of your body. Like progressive muscle relaxation, you can start with your feet and work your way up. However, instead of tensing and relaxing your muscles, you simply focus on the way each part of your body feels, noticing any sensations without labelling then as "good or bad". (Clinic Community Health Centre, January 2010)
Deep Breathing
Another way which is easy to practice and do is deep breathing. Deep breathing releases tension from the body and clears the mind, improving both physical and mental wellness. We tend to breathe shallowly or even hold our breath when we are feeling anxious. Sometimes we are not even aware of it. Shallow breathing limits your oxygen intake and adds further stress to your body. Breathing exercises can help to reduce this stress.
The key to deep breathing is to breathe deeply from the abdomen, getting as much air as possible into your lungs. When you take deep breaths from the abdomen, rather than shallow breaths from your upper chest, you inhale more oxygen. The more oxygen you get, the less tense, short of breath, and anxious you feel. This kind of breathing is called diaphragmatic breathing. It means to breathe from the depths of your belly, rather than from your chest and nose. (Clinic Community Health Centre, January 2010)
Guided Imagery
Guided imagery is also a convenient and simple relaxation technique that can help you quickly and easily manage stress and reduce tension in your body. It is virtually as easy as indulging in a vivid daydream and, with practice, this technique can help you to ease the tension and stress that you feel. When used as a relaxation technique, guided imagery involves imagining a scene in which you feel at peace, free to let go of all tension and anxiety. Choose whatever setting is most calming to you, whether a tropical beach, a favourite childhood spot, a therapist's chair, or a quiet place in the woods. (Clinic Community Health Centre, January 2010)
Self-Massage
Lastly, self-massage helps so much in managing stress much more than we think. Getting a massage provides deep relaxation, and as the muscles in your body relax, so does your overstressed mind. There are many simple self-massage techniques you can use to relax and release stress. (Clinic Community Health Centre, January 2010)
2.12 Financial Status and Academic Performance
The financial status or the social economic status is most commonly determine by combining parent’s educational level, occupational status and the income level (Jeynes, 2002; McMillan & Western, 200). In most of the studies done on academic performance of students, it is not surprising that financial status is one of the major factor studied while predicting academic performance. It is believe that low financial status negatively affects academic achievement because lesser financial status prevents access to vital resources and creates additional stress at home (Eamon 2005; Jeynes, 2002). Graetz (1995) carried out a study on economic status in education research and policy found that social economic background remains one of the major sources of educational inequality and adds that one’s educational success depends very strongly on the financial status of the parents.
2.13 Theoretical Review
This theory is anchored based on System’s Theory Input-Output Model (1956) by Ludwig VonBertalanffy which states that finance is a broad term that describes two related activities: the study how money is managed and the actual process of acquiring needed funds.It relates the interaction of individual components of the structure to the functioning of the structure as a whole.
The theory adapted for this study was derived from the System’s theory input-output model developed by Ludwig Von Bertalanffy in 1956. The theory, according to Koontz and Weihrich, (1988) postulates that an organized enterprise does not exist in a vacuum; it is dependent on its environment in which it is established. They add that the inputs from the environment are received by the organization, which then transforms them into outputs. As adapted in this study, the students (Inputs) are admitted into the university, with different admission points, from different social economic backgrounds and are from various school backgrounds, when they get into the university system, the management of the university transforms them through the process of teaching and learning and the students output is seen through their academic performance.
According to the input-output model, it is assumed that the students with high admission points, high social economic background and good school background will perform well if the university facilities are good, the lecturers and the management of the university is good which may not always be the case and this is the shortcoming of this theory. According to Oso and Onen (2005), the interrelationships among parts of a system have to be understood by all parties involved. This theory requires a shared vision so that all people in the university have an idea of what they are trying to achieve from all parties involved, a task that is not easy to achieve.