INTRODUCTION:

Stress is the emotional and physical strain caused by our response to pressure from the outside world.¹ It is almost impossible to live without some stress, but if stress gets out of control, it may harm health, your relationship and your enjoyment of life. Students are subjected to different kinds of stressors such as the pressure of academics with an obligation to succeed, an uncertain future and difficulties of integrating into the system.

The students also face social, emotional, physical and family problems which may affect their learning ability and academic performance. In recent years there is growing appreciation of stressors involved in Medical and nursing training College students, especially freshmen, are a group particularly prone to stress due to the transitional nature of college life.Too much stress can cause physical and mental health problems, reduce self-esteem and may affect students’ academic achievement.²

A number of studies have been conducted in various settings regarding the stress among new nursing students and that shows unfavorable outcomes. A study was conducted to determine the perceived level of stress and coping behavior among B.Sc nursing students in selected colleges at Mangaluru. It was found that 50% of the samples experienced severe stress, 12.5% of the samples experienced moderate level of stress and 32.5% of the samples experienced mild level of the stress. It concluded that stress may arise from their work, contact with patients and demands of organization.³ In a study that was conducted on analysis of stress among higher secondary school students in Tamil Nadu revealed that the average stress level among boys was 76.48% and among girls 85.53%. It was further supported by a low Coefficient of variation of stress among girls [15.21%] than the boys [23.47%].⁴

Nursing students are likely to experience “more stress” than their friends and colleagues enrolled in other programmes.Obviously stress is a major problem for college students throughout the world. From the above studies, it is evidenced that the stress is common among first year B.Sc nursing students who have just joined the course. Hence the need was felt for conducting the study to assess the level of teenage stress among the first year B.Sc nursing students.

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

Design: An univariant descriptive survey design

Setting: The study was carried out in Laxmi Memorial College Nursing in Mangaluru.

Population: First year B.Sc Nursing students, who come under the age of 17 -19 years.

Sample size: 80

Sampling technique: Purposive sampling technique

Instruments used:

· Demographic proforma.

· Structured rating scale to assess teenage stress.

Description of the instrument:

Demographic data which consisted of 6 items for obtaining the demographic data from the study participants. Structured rating scale to assess teenage stress consisted of 24 statements to assess the level of teenage stress among first year B.Sc Nursing students. Items were rated as extremely stressful (score 3), moderately stressful (score 2) and not at all stressful (score 1). Stress scores were arbitrarily divided as mild (1-24), moderate (25-48) and severe (49-72). Content validity of the tool was obtained. Pre-testing of the tool was done to check the clarity of items, ambiguity of the language and feasibility of the tool. The reliability of the tool was established using Cronbach's alpha. The reliability coefficient was found to be 0.87.

Data collection method:

Prior to data collection permission was obtained from the concerned authority. The purpose of the study was explained to the students. The confidentiality of their identity and responses were assured in order to ensure their cooperation and prompt response. After obtaining the consent for the study the tool was administered to the group. The average time taken to collect the data was 30 minutes.

RESULTS:

Section A: Description of the demographic variables of the sample:

· Majority (63.75%) of samples were 18 years of age and least percentage (7.5%) were 17 years old.

· Most of the samples (98.75%) were females and least percentage (1.25%) was males.

· Most of the samples (86.25%) were Christians, (12.5%) were Hindus and least percentage (1.25%) were Muslims.

· Majority of the samples (41.25%) had family income between Rs.10, 000-20,000/- and least (27.5%) percentage had less than Rs.10, 000/-.

· Majority of the samples (86.25%) belonged to nuclear family and 12.5% of samples belonged to joint family, least percentage (1.25%) belonged to single parent family.

· Highest percentage (45%) of samples were first and second born children in the family and lowest percentage (10%) were third born or higher.

Section B: Description of level of teenage stress of first year B.Sc Nursing students:

The data presented in figure 1 displays the frequency and percentage distribution of teenage stress

Figure 1: The cylindrical diagram representing level of teenage stress among first year B.Sc nursing students

Data in the figure 1 shows that majority (63.75%) of the students had severe teenage stress and least (36.25%) of them had moderate teenage stress.

Table 1: Range, Mean, Median and Standard Deviation of level of teenage stress among first year B.Sc Nursing students.

Variable	Range	Mean	Median	Standard deviation
Level of teenage stress	29-68	51.5	54	8.22

Data presented in the table 1 shows that the teenage stress scores ranged from 29-68, the mean score being 51.5, median being 54 and standard deviation 8.22.

Section C: Association of levels of teenage stress of first year B.Sc nursing students with selected demographic variables.

In order to determine the significant association of level of teenage stress with selected demographic variable, Chi-square tests were computed for the available data.

Table 2: Association of level of teenage stress of first year B.Sc Nursing students with selected demographic variables N=80

Variables

χ²Value

Table value

Inference

Age

Gender

Religion

Type of family

79.99

80.01

1.39

0.46

1.39

Not Significant

Significant

p=<0.05 level of significance

Data in table 2 shows that there is a significant association between level of teenage stress and gender, religion and type of family.

DISCUSSION:

The present study found that majority (63.75%) of the samples exhibited severe level of teenage stress. Meanwhile, least percentage (36.25%) exhibited moderate level of teenage stress.

Contrary to the study findings, in a study to assess the level of stress and coping mechanism adopted by I Year B.Sc. nursing students in Yenepoya Nursing College, Mangaluru, it was found that only one student (1.7%) has severe stress, 46.7% has moderate stress, and remaining 51.6% has mild stress.⁵

The present study found that there was no significant association between age, monthly income, and order of birth to teenage stress and there was a significant association between gender, type of family, religion to teenage stress.

An explorative study was conducted to assess the perceived stress and coping behavior among 40 B.Sc Nursing students in selected college in Mangalore by perceived stress scale. Out of 40 students, 32.5% had mild stress, 12.5% had moderate stress and 55% percentage had severe stress. There was no significant association between perceived stress and selected variables (age).³

RECOMMENDATIONS:

· A similar study can be conducted on a larger sample.

· A similar study can be conducted on other aspects such as assessing the coping strategy, role of relaxation techniques in limiting stress.

CONCLUSION:

Stress is simply a reaction to a stimulus that disturbs our physical or mental equilibrium. Too much stress can cause physical and mental health problems, reduce self-esteem and may affect students’ academic achievement. So the current study helped to assess the level of teenage stress among first year nursing students. The findings of the study concluded that majority of the students exhibited severe level of teenage stress.

REFERENCES:

1. Qiu P, Zhu W. Tai Chi illustrated. Versa publications, USA. 2013.

2. Romano J L. Psycho educational interventions for stress management and well-being. Journal of Counseling and Development 1992; 71: 199-202

3. Binu U, Jose S, Joseph S. A study of perceived stress and coping behaviour among B. Sc. nursing students in selected colleges in Mangalore. Nightingale Nursing Times 2007 Aug; 57-9.

4. Kumar NS, Sujatha S and Parveen J. Analysis of stress among higher secondary school students. IJEMR. 1 (6); 2011

5. Prasad et al. The level of stress and coping mechanism adopted by I Year B.Sc. nursing students. Arch Med Health Sci 2013;1:19-23

Received on 16.01.2017 Modified on 25.01.2017

Int. J. Nur. Edu. and Research. 2017; 5(3): 279-281.

DOI: 10.5958/2454-2660.2017.00057.6