In 2015, the American College Health Association found through a survey that stress is one of the leading issues for students when it comes to academics. This survey spanned over a hundred colleges and universities in the U.S., with the top universities subsequently facing stress even before becoming enrolled in the college due to the elite acceptance rates. The same survey found that “45% of American college students claimed to undergo ‘more than average stress,’ while 33% of students reported ‘average stress’ and 12.7% saying it is  ‘tremendous stress’” (research.com). It’s clear that this is an issue for students nationwide, and this causes more issues than just a hindrance to academic success. 

The effects of stress in the short term already causes a multitude of issues for students. Among these are mental and physical, with stress often being linked to procrastination and depression, as well as a lack of sleep and heart disease. In the survey mentioned prior, 40% of US college students feel inadequately rested five out of seven days in the week, which leads to negative academic performance, lower self-esteem, and unfortunately, even more stress. It quickly becomes that students get trapped within the cycle of stress. Long-term, stress can do major damage to the body. According to the American Psychological Association, stress can affect all areas of the body. 

Beginning in the musculoskeletal system, damages include pain in the low back, tension-type headache and migraine headache, and overall muscle tension. Chronic stress causes muscles in the body to constantly be in a period where they are tensed, which can lead to other reactions in the body. Each damage specific correlates with a different muscle tension. The headaches and migraines can be attributed to shoulder, neck, and head tenseness.

Moving onto the respiratory system, issues can be shortness of breath, rapid breathing, as well as asthma attacks. For people without pre-existing respiratory issues, they usually do not have as much of a problem as those with asthma or COPD. However, they can still be affected by stress that causes problems mentally, as rapid breathing can lead to hyperventilation and panic attacks. 

The third area that is affected by stress is the Cardiovascular system. Stress can elevate heart rate, stress hormones, and blood pressure. These increases do immense damage, creating risk for hypertension, heart attacks, and stroke. Repeated stress may also cause inflammation in the circulatory system, especially the coronary arteries, which may be tied to heart attacks. 

Not to mention, stress also widely affects the immune system. Hormones, including the stress hormone cortisol, are important to regulate the immune system. The presence of chronic stress may impair the effectiveness of fighting against diseases, and can be linked to fatigue, metabolic disorders (diabetes, obesity), depression, and other immune disorders. 

This is only a few of the issues relating to stress physically. In the perspective of college students, being exposed to new environments and people can already weaken the body with illness. Place a large amount of stress on them, this will more than affect not just their grades, but recovery as well. In regards to Penn State, stress is one of the leading issues that affect academics. In the Penn State Student Health Assessment for the Spring of 2020, stress was marked as the 2nd leading issue that affects academics, with 33% of students saying stress had affected their performance in the last 12 months. In fact, 62% of Penn State students rated their level of stress as moderate or high. 

Aside from the students, other stakeholders within this issue include parents of students, counselors/therapists, health workers (nurses, doctors, etc.), Penn State administration, and professors and TAs of the university. For parents, their childrens’ well being is always at the forefront of their mind. In the issue of stress, many parents worry for their child on what to do or how to make them feel better. They may pressure the school to promote more access to mental health services or stress management programs. As for the counselors/therapists, an increase in stress on campus means more students that need helping. This may be overwhelming, or in the opposite case may be concerning that not enough students are taking these resources. They may feel responsible for ensuring the student does not become worse and is indeed taking their advice and making positive improvements. Then comes the area of health workers. In the case of stress taking a toll on students physically, health workers will have to write prescriptions for students suffering from chronic pains or insomnia. Paired with any medication already taken for mental health issues, the combination of all of these things may become overwhelming for the student, and complicated for the workers. To continue, Penn State administrators may start to see the grades decline and rise in stress as a result of a lack of responsibility among students or even take it upon themselves to become more active. The increased usage of mental and physical health services would become apparent and may cause an increase in budget toward that area. Not to mention, administration would be at the front of any criticism brought by parents and family members. Finally, professors and TAs would be affected by this issue due to the performance of the students. While not all professors can be applied to this, I believe that a good majority care about the well being of their students, as well as their class performance as a whole. The major academic hindrance would become apparent to them, and would cause not only them to stress and worry as well, but to feel pressure from administrators to have the class perform better. 

Overall, one can see how stress plays a role in many areas, such as nationally, locally, physically, and mentally. It is clear that something must be done to not only ensure the well-being of students, but the well being of families, workers, and administrators. Next civic issues post, I will cover the steps that other colleges and universities have done, recommendations from health care workers, as well as current systems implemented here at Penn State. Stress in its current state is so prevalent that it has almost become normalized. People expect for students to be stressed and to deal with stress, and see it as a natural part of growing up. However, I argue that stress doesn’t have to be part of progressing through schooling and through life. As mentioned, it does more harm than good, therefore the elimination of stress as much as possible is a glaring issue that needs to be resolved.

Cites:

• https://www.apa.org/topics/stress/body
• https://studentaffairs.psu.edu/sites/default/files/Student%20Health%20Assessment%202020_Final.pdf
• https://research.com/education/student-stress-statistics#:~:text=45%25%20of%20American%20college%20students,%22%20combined%20for%209%25%20total
• https://www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/stress-disorder#:~:text=Chronic%20stress%20is%20linked%20to,Type%20II%20diabetes%2C%20and%20arthritis