Research Paper on Stress and GPA: Relationship Investigated with 27 Students

Abstract

The study focused on determining the relationship between stress and GPA. It involved the use of participants who responded to a questionnaire. The hypothesis of the study is that low stress among students raises their overall GPA. The research involved 27 participants who were students from different races and backgrounds. The methods used include online survey also stress and coping active cognitive scales. The results showed that the subjects had a low overall GPA of 3 due to high stress level. It illustrated the presence of a relationship between stress and GPA. IntroductionAcademic performance is one of the most important considerations among learners. rners. The academic performance can be illustrated by a A grade point average (GPA) determines the academic performance of an individual. Despite living in an era where education is accessible to all, there are still some disparities in performance among the learners. Various internal and external aspects are associated with GPA. Stress is one of the elements that have an adverse effect on academic performance. A studentlearner gets stressedcan be stressed because of diverse reasons like academic, health issues, financial problem, or loss of a relative. It is the student's ability to overcome everyday challenges, which will determine if he or she will be stressed or not. Coping strategies play a central role in adaptation to a stressful life. The present study examinedseeks to examine how students' stress and their coping-emotional regulations are related to their academic performance.

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Stress, Coping, and GPA

Recently, some Sscholars need tohave sought to understand the observed connections between students' regulatory abilities and academic performance through by turning related studies on coping styles. Arsenio and Loria (2014) defined coping as conscious volitional efforts to regulate emotion, cognition, and the environment in response to stressful circumstance. CMainly, certain characteristic ways of coping become established firmly through by adolescence. The, and these coping strategies have a significant effect in subsequent adult functioning. Further, Arsenio and Loria (2014) categorized volitional coping intoro three groups namely primary and secondary engagement control coping, and disengagement coping. Primary engagement coping encompasses problem-solving and emotional regulation. Conversely, Ssecondary positive coping includes cognitive restructuring, positive thinking, acceptance, and distraction. Disengagement coping encompasses attempts to avoid or to deny.

An important aspect to consider is how to maintain a successful life in the events of stress and adversity, and over time. Regarding theis element, Brady et al, Reeves, Garcia, Purdie-Vaughns, Cook, Taborsky-Barba, and Cohen (2016) conducted a study to examine how a motivational process triggered by a social-psychological intervention. It propagates benefits over a long period and creates an enduring shift in the way students interpret subsequent adversity. They established that values such as affirmation could have long-term effects on learners' motivation and performance when it varies the way students later construe stressors and adversities (Brady et al., 2016). Further, Brady et al. (2016) opined that an affirmation strategy may initiate a process that eventually leads a learner to engage in spontaneous affirmation, which experts Arsenio and Loria (2014) referred to as primary engagement coping (Arsenio, 2014). Because of completing the affirmation, Aa student experiences less stress in the short term because of completing the affirmation. It encourages students to want to perform better in their academics. Thus, he or she feels greater agency in school, and thus perform better. The cycle continues and the learner accumulates not only academic achievements but also psychological resources such as a positive and agentic sense of self and a feeling of belonging in school. (Brady et al., 2016).

In summary, it is clear that students who have higher levels of negative general moods and adverse academically related eaffect have lower levels of academic performance. However, little is known concerning how adolescents young adults? For instance, on how to cope with stress and its relation to a student's grades. The hypothesis of the research was that coping strategies reduces the level of stress among learners hence higher GPAs. cope with stress, and whether coping is related to the students' overall. Hence, this research wasis designed to assess the hypothesis that the embracement of coping strategies by students would be associated with lower stress and higher GPAs. In general, it is anticipated that higher levels of coping would moderate the connections between stress and students' GPA. Notably, although no specific age-related differences are hypothesized, analyses will be conducted to examine possible differences in student's GPA.Method

Participants

The participants were 27 students from a research methods course, 25 of whom contributed demographic data. The 25 participants were 36% White, 48% Black, African American, 8% Biracial, and 8% other. The 2Two of them were males and 25 were females. The employment status of 32% participants are unemployed, 52% of the participants are employed part-time, and 16% of the participants are employed full-time. Age range from 19 to 33 with the mean of M = 22.

Measures

Stress and coping active cognitive scales determined a participant's GPA on a scale of 0-4 (Cohen, 1983). Use of an online survey helped the study to gather information about an individual's stress level. The method provided insights on how an individual can deal with stress. The questionnaire allowed the subjects to mention their emotion patterns during the last month. The subjects responded within the scale of 0 to 4, 0 represented never while 4 symbolized often. The Cronbach's alpha for the scale is a = 0.872 while for active cognitive is a = 0.63 (Low, 2018). The The participant's GPA was self-reported on a scale of 0-4 the perceived stress scale and the coping scales active cognitive) (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983) questionnaire were used to measure a person's stress level and also how well they cope with the stress. It rated how feelings and thoughts was experienced during the past month from 0 (never) to 4 (very often). The cronbach's alpha for the scale is a = 0.872, the cronbach's alpha for active cognitive is a = 0.63, cronbach'sCronbach's alpha for avoiding is a = 0.63 while , cronbach's alpha for active behavioral is a = 0.67.ProcedureParticipants were given an informed consent form which gave a description of the study and the purpose of the study. The students signed an ProcedureThe first step is to provide the pParticipants with were given an informed consent form before participating in the online survey. which gave a description of the study informed consent before they were assigned to take an online survey. The participants answered the questions via qQualtrics which consisted of demographic questions, perceived stress, coping with stress, and providing GPA.

Data Analysis

The researchers exported the data was exported to statistical package for the social sciences software (SPSS) and the correlational analysis was also conducted using SPSS. To examine for moderation, moderation, one needs to conduct a multiple linear regression was conducted. The independent variables were stress, coping, and the interaction between stress and coping. The creation of the interaction involves interaction was created by multiplying stress and coping after mean centering. The dependent variable was GPA.

Results

The mean GPA of the participants was 3.01 with a standard deviation of 0.39. The mean scores for the PSS and Avoidant Coping scale were 20.74 (SD = 5.62) and 31.7 (SD = 4.5), respectively. There were no correlations between perceived stress, GPA, and avoidant coping. A hierarchical multiple regression was conducted to test whether stress predicted GPA and whether avoidant coping would moderate the association. TNone of the variables (stress, avoidant coping, and the interaction between stress and avoidant coping) were significant predictors of GPA.

Discussion

The results didn't displayyed significant differences between stress and coping affecting GPA. It illustrated that a high stress level led to a low GPA. The limitations whichthat affected the results include were that some of the students reported their overall GPA instead of cumulative GPA or transfer GPA. Another limitation would bewas the he time taken to conduct the online survey. Some students were in bad mood while the others were in a good mood. that it took the students took theto complete the survey, some of them might have been in a bad mood and some might have been in a good mood during the time they were assigned to take the survey. It is important to note that tThe students' mood could have impacted the results. ; however, the results could have been better if the students took the survey on their own time instead of in class. In the future, e the method of selecting students should follow the random technique which will increase accuracy in the results. students should be selected according to their major by random selection for a better result.

References

Arsenio, W. F., & Loria, S. (2014). Coping with negative emotions: Connections with adolescents' academic performance and stress. The Journal of gGenetic pPsychology, 175(1), 76-90. DOI: 10.1080/00221325.2013.806293

Brady, S. T., Reeves, S. L., Garcia, J., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Cook, J. E., Taborsky-Barba, S., ... & Cohen, G. L. (2016). The psychology of the affirmed learner: Spontaneous self-affirmation in the face of stress. Journal of Educational Psychology, 108(3), 353. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000091Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., and Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress.Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 386-396.

Vitorino, L. M., Low, G., & Vianna, L. A. C. (2018). Assessing the BRIEF spiritual/religious coping scale among older Brazilians. Journal of Religion, Spirituality & Aging, 30(4), 354-370.Augusta University