managing stress in college essay

How to Handle Stress and Anxiety in College

Practical advice beyond the all-too-commonly-prescribed meditation and exercise..

Posted July 31, 2021 | Reviewed by Tyler Woods

• What Is Stress?
• Find a therapist to overcome stress
• Stress and anxiety is a reality in college and psychology courses are no exception.
• There are a number of practical ways to handle the stress and anxiety that college can provoke.
• The solutions may not be what you expect.

With college comes anxiety . Deadlines, grades, performance pressure…if you’re not feeling it, are you even in college?

I know there is a lot out there about how unfair it is for classes to cause stress. Test time limits are stressful and unfair, due dates are anxiety-provoking and unjust, rules are oppression.

We can continue having those debates, but in the meantime, how do we deal with the reality?

Introductory psychology students, for example, are usually getting used to the expectations of college, a transition from dependent to independent learning, while learning a new formal writing style, learning how to find and understand research, practicing critical thinking skills, and studying the approximately 5 million topics that come in an introductory course.

So, what are some practical ways to handle the stress and anxiety college can invoke?

Assume Good Intent

The student is there to earn points. The professor is not there to take them away. That small shift in perspective can do wonders. Professors want students to learn and tend to do everything they can to make that happen, but understand that professors are not free agents.

I stole that line directly from my colleague, Janet Carney-Clarke. As she reminds her students, instructors are beholden to government regulations, school policies, and rules of the department. In other words, professors can’t just “do whatever they want.” There are rules we have to follow, too.

Tragically, the professor-student relationship is too often framed as one of enemy combatants. No, no, no! Students are there to learn and professors are there to facilitate learning. We are each partners in the learning process; each role has responsibilities and expectations.

Check Expectations

“I didn’t do the assignment because you didn’t remind me to do it.” –former student

“I got some questions wrong and didn’t get all of my points. I deserve all of my points!” –former student

“I can’t come to class this semester due to my schedule, so I need you to repeat your lectures in office hours.” –former student

Where do I begin? Students who do best in college understand the expectations at that level, even if they don’t agree with them. This becomes an equity issue when some students are exposed to them far in advance and some never are. In fact, I can’t tell you how many high school sophomores and juniors take my introductory psychology courses.

Learning college-level expectations, let alone taking college-level coursework, in high school is quite a privilege. Almost every college and university, however, now offers preparatory courses for students who have not had that advantage. Take them!

Take Advantage of Office Hours

I was scared of some of my professors. With courage, I got myself through that office door and into drop-in hours. Doing so was truly giving a gift to myself. Frankly, office hours are what single-handedly pulled my grade up from a D to an A in Psychology of the Law.

Professors (and teaching assistants) get paid for office hours. Trust me, they are often sitting there waiting, just waiting, for a student to come in. Be that student!

Utilize School Resources

Schools have resources to help students. There are so many! And they often go under-utilized. Student health services usually offer support to students experiencing anxiety and stress and, in my experience, students tell me that they benefitted greatly. The point is, there are free resources available to students that really help. Ask professors, search online, they’re there and they are waiting to be used.

One thing to keep in mind, especially if you’re a psychology (or related discipline) student: Your instructor is not your therapist. They can’t be. The person in charge of your grade should never provide you clinical guidance. Sure, professors can give you resources and suggestions, but students should never seek therapy from an instructor…even if that instructor is a therapist in another life.

Use Other Free Resources

In the age of, “Take care of yourself!” there are approximately one billion apps and free meditation /relaxation tools out there, beyond resources provided by schools. One I love to share with students is U.C. Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. Specifically, they have an action center that offers science-backed activities that help with relaxation, stress, happiness , optimism , and so much more. I particularly appreciate that each activity provides a study backing why it works.

In psychology, we know that a sense of accomplishment has great benefits for confidence , self-esteem , and the like. So, take that scary test. Draft that frightening paper. Do it! Experience matters. Not only will accomplishing the anxiety-provoking task literally end that anticipatory stress, but it will also tell your brain that you can do this again in the future, thus reducing your stress. You succeeded!

Not What You Expected?

Meditation, exercise, taking breaks: Those are the expected solutions in a “take care of yourself” world, and for good reason—they work. But in an environment of prolonged stress and anxiety like college, the above solutions just may help go beyond the Band-Aid and provide healing deeper into the wound.

Ashley Maier teaches psychology at Los Angeles Valley College.

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Stress Among College Students: Causes, Effects and Overcomes Essay

Introduction, causes of stress in college students, effects of stress, overcoming stress, works cited.

Stress is a considerable problem in the modern society. People often experience high levels of stress due to being overwhelmed with a wide range of duties, such as work, studying, family duties, etc. In particular, college students are one group that is rather susceptible to stress, and can feel the adverse consequences of it very often (Brougham et al. 85); however, there are certain techniques that might help these learners overcome stress.

There are a number of causes of stress among college students (Lund et al. 127-129); according to Brougham et al., some of these causes include daily hassles, financial factors, and academic factors (90). The daily hassles that students are forced to deal with in the process of studying as identified by Brougham et al. are not directly related to college life; in fact, they include such problems as being stuck in traffic congestions, awakening too late in the morning, and the inability to find a place for parking (89). The financial causes of stress that college students are faced with include such issues as the need to pay one’s bills, the dearth of financial resources, and spending too much money when one should have not done so (Brougham et al. 89). Finally, the academic causes of stress, which are clearly specific to this population, include the need to write papers, especially final papers or assignments; worrying about the possibility to obtain low grades during an exam, or regret resulting from having received such; and difficulties related to the selection of one’s major (Brougham et al. 89). It is clear that students who are challenged with a large number of such stressors at the same time are more likely to develop a larger number of symptoms of stress, which have an adverse effect on these students’ ability to function effectively.

Due to stress, college students may experience such adverse outcomes as the decreased levels of cognitive functioning, the impaired ability to study, and, consequently, lower academic performance (Abdulghani et al. 516). First of all, the fact that a student is experiencing stress might have a considerable adverse effect on their ability to perform a wide range of cognitive functions, which are necessary for both proper social functioning and for participation in learning activities. Students who are stressed might feel too tired, not be able to think clearly, or unable to focus on the task at hand. Second, as a result of this, stressed learners may find themselves incapable of concentrating on learning activities and tasks, whether listening to a lecture, reading a book or article, or writing text.

Some students might also start feeling despair or experience depression, which creates further barriers for carrying out their academic duties. Finally, the inability to properly do the tasks related to learning results in decreased academic performance, leading to grades which are lower than those of learners who do not suffer from the symptoms of stress (Abdulghani et al. 517-520). It should be pointed out that the decreased academic performance, as has already been noted above, plays the role of a stressor as well, thus further impairing the learners’ ability to study. Therefore, apart from impairing the student’s ability to function, stress also accumulates and, to a certain degree, starts being the cause of itself.

Because of the serious impact of stress on the academic performance of college students, it might be recommended that students utilize coping strategies in order to decrease the level of stress (Jimenez et al. 444-447); one such strategy includes goal regulation (Neely et al. 88-89). Some authors state that goal regulation “consists of both the ability to disengage from goals that are unattainable and reengage in the pursuit of alternative goals” (qtd. in Neely et al. 89). There are a number of effects of this technique. First, a student who practices goal regulation is able to identify goals that are not attainable, and redirect their attention to aims that can be achieved in practice, which results in a more efficacious use of the temporal resources and the energy that a student possesses; consequently, students are less overwhelmed with tasks and thus may experience lower levels of stress.

Second, pursuing more concrete goals permits a student to direct their efforts towards these goals, thus considerably increasing their chance to achieve them; such an achievement can be viewed as a certain type of reward, thus increasing the student’s level of satisfaction and demonstrating them that they can achieve aims that they set. And finally, students who can disengage from pursuing unattainable and wasteful goals may be able to start “seeing the light at the end of the tunnel”; in practice, they experience fewer intrusive thoughts and lower levels of helplessness (Neely et al. 89). Therefore, goal regulation has a considerable potential as a method for overcoming stress, for it permits students to better distribute their resources, gain certain achievements, and stop feeling helpless.

Thus, college students often suffer from stress, which can have profoundly adverse effects on their lives; however, certain techniques might allow these people to overcome this problem (Caldwell et al. 433-435). Numerous issues cause stress in college students; these include daily hassles, financial and academic factors. Stress can impair students’ cognitive function, the ability to learn, and decrease their academic performance. However, goal regulation might help them to overcome stress. It should also be noted that this and other techniques for stress coping might be useful not only for college students but for other populations as well.

Abdulghani, Hamza M., et al. “Stress and Its Effects on Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional Study at a College of Medicine in Saudi Arabia.” Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition , vol. 29, no. 5, 2011, pp. 516-522.

Brougham, Ruby R., et al. “Stress, Sex Differences, and Coping Strategies Among College Students.” Current Psychology , vol. 28, 2009, pp. 85-97.

Caldwell, Karen, et al. “Developing Mindfulness in College Students Through Movement Based Courses: Effects on Self-Regulatory Self-Efficacy, Mood, Stress, and Sleep Quality.” Journal of American College Health , vol. 58, no. 5, 2010, pp. 433-442.

Jimenez, Cristobal, et al. “Stress and Health in Novice and Experienced Nursing Students.” Journal of Advanced Nursing , vol. 66, no. 2, 2010, pp. 442-455.

Lund, Hannah G., et al. “Sleep Patterns and Predictors of Disturbed Sleep in a Large Population of College Students.” Journal of Adolescent Health , vol. 46, 2010, pp. 124-132.

Neely, Michelle E., et al. “Self-Kindness When Facing Stress: The Role of Self-Compassion, Goal Regulation, and Support in College Students’ Well-Being.” Motivation and Emotion Journal , vol. 33, 2009, pp. 88-97.

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Steps To Manage Student Stress

A study published in 2021 revealed that almost half of college students experienced moderate or severe stress and 1 in 4 had contemplated suicide. Research suggests that stress levels are rising. Managing stress is essential for good mental and physical health. In this guide, we’ll discuss some proactive steps to reduce risks and promote well-being. 

Regular exercise

Regular exercise is an incredibly effective natural remedy for stress and anxiety . It can make you feel better if you’re already overwhelmed or under pressure and it also has preventative benefits. Health experts recommend 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week. This covers everything from hiking, kayaking and climbing to cycling, playing team sports, dancing or working out at the gym. If you are prone to stress, use exercise as a means of channeling your emotions and expressing yourself. Activities like yoga, swimming and Pilates can be particularly beneficial if you’re feeling tired or you’re struggling to relax or switch off. High-intensity exercises like boxing, spinning and running can be cathartic if you’re feeling angry, frustrated or restless. 

Try to find time to exercise every day. Even if you only have 20 minutes to go for a walk or do some stretching before class, being active will boost your energy levels, release endorphins and make you feel good. An active lifestyle also reduces the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. 

Sleep and rest

One of the most common reasons students are susceptible to stress is a lack of high-quality sleep. Sleep is crucial because it allows our bodies to go through restorative processes to heal, repair and regenerate ready for the next day. If you’re not getting enough sleep due to your lifestyle or schedule, or stress is keeping you up until the early hours, the first thing to do is to adopt a routine. Set yourself a daily bedtime and try to stick to it as much as possible. Ideally, you should be aiming for around 7 hours of sleep per night. If you have a routine, you should start to feel tired as your bedtime looms, as your body clock will adapt. Take an hour or two before you go to bed to wind down and relax. Avoid eating too late, drinking caffeinated drinks and doing anything that stimulates you. 

Learning support

Many students go through periods at college when it’s difficult to grasp concepts or get on top of their workload. If you need support or advice, you’re struggling with specific subjects, or you’re behind with assignments, it’s important to seek help. Talk to your tutors, make use of online learning and teaching resources and get together with other students. Experiment with different learning methods and don’t be afraid to ask questions if you’re unsure about how to approach an essay or revise for exams. Ask tutors about organized study sessions or resources you can access and look for helpful articles, guides and videos from reputable education providers. Try to avoid burying your head and hoping that you’ll magically grasp theories, ideas or concepts that have eluded or baffled you. Getting help from the outset will prevent stress and provide clarity. Often, there’s a simple solution. If you’re having difficulties, your tutor may be able to offer a one-to-one session, point you in the direction of helpful resources, or break the problem down using a different explanation or method, for example. 

Going to college is a means of continuing your education, learning and developing new skills, but it’s also an experience that will shape your life and help you to broaden your horizons. It’s important to work hard, but it’s also critical to make the most of opportunities to have fun and enjoy yourself. Make time in your schedule for socializing, doing activities you enjoy and trying new things. We all need time away from our desks to recharge our batteries and have a laugh. Join clubs and societies, play sports, go to parties now and again and hang out with friends. Plan days out if you have a weekend free or explore things to do in the local area. Taking time out can help to boost well-being and energy levels, lower the risk of stress and enrich your college experience. 

Forming positive relationships

The relationships we have with other people can have a positive or negative impact on how we feel. Some people make us feel amazing, while the relationships we have with others can make us feel worthless, inadequate or drained. College can be difficult because it often involves meeting a large number of people who have different backgrounds, interests and opinions. When you meet people, take the time to get to know them and be yourself. Devote time to the friendships that lift you up and don’t feel pressure to be friends with everyone you come across. You will naturally gravitate towards people and get a sense of whether you have a special connection. It’s better to have a smaller group of close friends than a large group of acquaintances. Limit contact with people who make you feel uneasy, upset or isolated. 

If you struggle to make friends when you go to college, or you feel like you don’t really fit in, try not to panic. It can take time to form relationships . Look for groups and societies that reflect your passions and hobbies. It’s often easier to develop friendships with people who have shared interests. It’s also worth trying to make friends on your course. Simple things like asking people if they want to grab a coffee after class or study together for an assignment can break the ice. 

Stress is prevalent among college students. It’s not always possible to prevent stress, but there are ways to manage stress effectively and reduce risks. Exercise regularly, ask for help and support if you need it, make sure you get enough sleep and make time for fun. Focus on positive, strong relationships and limit exposure to people who have a negative impact on your mental health. 

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The Student’s Guide to Managing Stress in College

Stress is just one of the many hurdles college students face. Short-term stress can help learners  raise a grade , polish an essay, or pursue a coveted career opportunity. But long-term stress, if left unaddressed, can have detrimental side effects.

According to the  American Institute of Stress , 4 in 5 college students experience frequent stress. Unchecked stress can lead to physical side effects like trouble concentrating, irritability, a lack of energy, appetite changes, a weakened immune system, and trouble sleeping.

In addition to the negative side effects stress brings, more college students than ever report feeling it for extended periods. Although the majority of this stress often stems from coursework, other factors, such as family, friends, and work, can increase stress and contribute to undesirable academic and personal outcomes.

To address this issue, many colleges provide ample resources and opportunities for students to deal with stress positively. Keep reading to learn more about the different types of stress and solutions for managing it.

What Is Stress and How Does It Affect College Students?

Stress is a physical reaction to a person’s emotions. Both positive events (e.g., an upcoming wedding) and negative events (e.g., the loss of a loved one) can cause stress.

When you feel an emotion that triggers stress, your adrenal gland releases epinephrine — the hormone responsible for the flight-or-fight response — and then cortisol. In dangerous situations, this response can save your life. Too much cortisol, however, can have a long-term, negative impact on your metabolic rate, memory formation, and blood sugar regulation.

Stress can take one of three forms:

• Acute Stress:  The most common form of stress, acute stress is the result of day-to-day stressors, such as  waking up late , running to class, or receiving a bad grade. Fortunately, most acute stress fades quickly and has little mental or physical impact.
• Episodic Acute Stress:  As its name suggests, episodic acute stress develops when a student experiences acute stress multiple times over an extended period. Common symptoms include migraines and tension headaches.
• Chronic Acute Stress:  Chronic acute stress happens when someone can’t avoid a long-term stressful situation. For example, students struggling academically in a major course may develop chronic acute stress, which can lead to weight gain, sleep deprivation, and anxiety.

What Are the Symptoms of Stress in College Students?

When people are exposed to stressors or stimuli that provoke stress, they experience an array of physical, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive reactions. As such, two students might experience stress in very different ways.

Below are some of the various ways stress can manifest in people.

Physical Symptoms

• Increased heart rate or blood pressure
• Shortness of breath
• Muscle tension
• Headaches and stomachaches

Emotional Symptoms

• Hostility, irritability, and other mood changes
• Increased worrying
• Helplessness

Behavioral Symptoms

• Binge or reduced eating
• Drug or alcohol misuse
• Decreased sex drive
• Erratic sleep habits

Cognitive Symptoms

• Memory loss
• Loss of concentration
• Negative outlook
• Dissociation (i.e., disconnection from your thoughts, feelings, and identity)

What Are the Causes of Stress in College Students?

College students respond to stressors in different ways, but some situations are almost always stressful. Here are some of the most common stressors for students.

Many students work while in school to afford  high tuition and housing costs . Unfortunately, part-time jobs typically pay just minimum wage. If you’re struggling economically, speak to your financial aid office to see whether you qualify for grants, loans, or  work-study .

Homesickness and New Levels of Independence

On top of classes, exams, and meeting people, many students have to deal with growing up. Out-of-state students may be living away from their homes for the first time in their lives, which can easily  become a source of constant stress .

Living Among Strangers

Students new to campus life  often feel isolated, especially if they’re in an unfamiliar city or state. Some students are naturally shy and may find it difficult to  make friends .

Cohabitating With Roommates

Many students may  not be accustomed to sharing a room  with someone else, especially if their roommate is  someone they hardly know . This situation can compound the normal stress of college life.

Coursework and Exams

Students often feel overwhelmed by the increased workload associated with college-level coursework. This realization can blindside students and contribute to stress and anxiety. In many classes, exams make up a large percentage of students’ grades, causing  midterms  and finals to be more stressful than normal.

Family Turmoil or Loss Back Home

A  2014 NPR study  found that the death of a loved one is the second-highest cause of stress amongst U.S. adults. A death in the family can be extremely traumatic for college students, especially if they live away from home and can’t afford to  take a break from classes .

Work Schedules

According to a  2013 survey by Citibank and Seventeen Magazine , 4 in 5 students work while attending college. The average student works 19 hours a week. Many learners try to find a job that can accommodate the scheduling concerns associated with full-time education.

Social Obligations

In addition to academic pressures, college introduces plenty of social pressures, such as the idea that you must make tons of friends and  party every weekend . Peer pressure and societal expectations can exacerbate stress, especially for first-year students.

Romantic Relationships

Romantic relationships take work. When you and your partner face the stresses of college life, the pressure can feel even greater. Additionally, many students may be in the process of questioning their sexuality and/or gender identity, which can impact dating and relationships.

Can College Stress Lead to Other Health Conditions?

Research shows that stress can lead to the development of many mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, and substance misuse. It can also introduce physical conditions like chronic pain.

• DepressionDepression is a complex mental health condition often caused by a combination of biological, psychological, and environmental factors. Floods of stress hormones can make people, including busy college students,  more susceptible to depression .
• AnxietySevere anxiety can signal an anxiety disorder. This condition, which is  especially common among college students , is characterized by physical symptoms, such as muscle tension and shaking, as well as by racing thoughts, feelings of impending doom, fear, excess worry, and irritability.
• Sleep DisordersSleep disturbances and anxiety often come hand in hand. According to the  Anxiety and Depression Association of America , sleep problems can cause or exacerbate anxiety, and vice versa.
• Substance MisuseSome students turn to alcohol or drugs to help manage their stress; however, these dangerous coping mechanisms can lead to substance misuse. A 2018 study by the  National Institute on Drug Abuse  found that 28% of college students had engaged in binge drinking in the two weeks before the survey was conducted.
• Chronic Muscle PainFor some students, stress can lead to ongoing physical conditions such as chronic neck aches, backaches, stomach aches, and headaches. The  National Institutes of Health  recommends  practicing yoga and meditation  to relax your body and release muscular tension.

How to Manage Stress in College: 7 Key Tips

Figuring out what situations might cause stress is only half the battle for college students. Fortunately, there are several tricks you can use to help you avoid getting stressed out, reduce how much stress you feel, and improve your ability to cope with and ultimately eliminate stress.

1. Get Enough Sleep

Getting both quality sleep and enough sleep offers a  variety of health benefits , including reducing stress and improving your mood. What’s more, students who sleep well are less likely to get sick, have better memory recall, and enjoy a clearer mind.

2. Eat Well

Make an effort to  eat nutritious meals  and avoid eating on the run so you can avoid indigestion. You may also look for  foods that are known to combat stress  and boost your mood.

3. Exercise Regularly

In addition to keeping your body healthy, regular exercise releases endorphins and improves your overall cognitive abilities. Exercise can even help you fall asleep, thereby reducing stress. Keep in mind that exercise doesn’t need to be strenuous — yoga, short walks, and stretching can all lead to immense mental health benefits and help relieve tension.

4. Don’t Rely on Stimulants

Drinking coffee and energy drinks to fuel your late-night study sessions will inevitably lead to a crash later on. These stimulants boost cortisol levels in the body, increasing the physical effects of stress.

5. Set Realistic Expectations

Consistently having too much on your plate can lead to a lot of stress. Try to manage your workload by setting realistic expectations and  picking a class schedule  that gives you plenty of time to study and relax.

Communication with professors  is key — if you’re swamped with work, you might be able to  get an extension on an assignment  by simply asking and explaining your situation.

6. Avoid Procrastinating

Procrastination might feel good in the moment, but it often leads to stress. By managing your time wisely, you can avoid spending all night catching up on coursework. Additionally, habitual procrastination may be a  sign of ADHD  or anxiety.

7. Identify a Stress Outlet

Stress can never be completely avoided; however, finding a healthy way to reduce stress can go a long way toward keeping it from overwhelming you. Common stress outlets include exercise, spending time with friends and family, and getting massages.

You can also try relaxation techniques such as deep abdominal breathing, concentrating on a soothing word (like “peace” or “calm”), doing yoga or tai chi, and visualizing tranquil scenes.

Where Can Students Go for Help With Managing Stress?

Stress can rise to dangerous levels, threatening students’ physical, emotional, and mental health. But nobody has to face stress alone. Here are some organizations and resources you can contact to receive treatment and support for managing stress in college.

On-Campus Mental Health Services

Most colleges offer on-campus (and sometimes virtual) mental health services to students. You can usually find out more about a school’s services by going online to its official website.

If you need immediate assistance, contact your school’s  student services . This department can direct you to appropriate resources, such as mental health clinics, online screening, and individual or group counseling. Taking advantage of these services can improve your mental health, allowing you to thrive academically and socially.

Off-Campus Centers and Hotlines

Schools that can’t provide appropriate stress management resources will direct students to use an outside service, such as a local counseling or therapy center.

Other external resources include 24/7 hotlines. The  National Suicide Prevention Lifeline  at  1-800-273-8255  gives students space to talk with trained professionals about suicide ideation and conditions such as severe stress, depression, and anxiety.

Similarly,  The Trevor Project  offers many support services, including a 24/7 crisis counseling center and hotline, for LGBTQ+ students experiencing stress and other mental health challenges. For help,  text START to 678678 .

Once these professionals identify the underlying issue, they connect students with a long-term solution, such as a psychiatrist or substance misuse prevention group.

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These given tips are very helpful to manage the college workload and stress for college students, and I think students can benefit from staying organized, practicing self-care, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

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Stress in College Students: What to Know

Strong social connections and positive habits can help ease high levels of stress among college-age adults.

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From socializing to working out, here's how college students can better manage stress.

From paying for school and taking exams to filling out internship applications, college students can face overwhelming pressure and demands. Some stress can be healthy and even motivating under the proper circumstances, but often stress is overwhelming and can lead to other issues.

"Stress is there for a reason. It's there to help mobilize you to meet the demands of your day, but you're also supposed to have times where you do shut down and relax and repair and restore," says Emma K. Adam, professor of human development and social policy at Northwestern University in Illinois.

Chronic and unhealthy levels of stress is at its worst among college-age students and young adults, some research shows. According to the American Psychological Association's 2022 "Stress in America" report , 46% of adults ages 18 to 35 reported that "most days they are so stressed they can't function."

In a Gallup poll that surveyed more than 2,400 college students in March 2023, 66% of reported experiencing stress and 51% reported feelings of worry "during a lot of the day." And emotional stress was among the top reasons students considered dropping out of college in the fall 2022 semester, according to findings in the State of Higher Education 2023 report, based on a study conducted in 2022 by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation.

As students are navigating a new environment and often living independently for the first time, they encounter numerous opportunities, responsibilities and life changes on top of academic responsibilities. It can be sensory overload for some, experts say.

“Going to college has always been a significant time of transition developmentally with adulthood, but you add to it everything that comes along with that transition and then you put onto it a youth mental health crisis, it’s just compounded in a very different way," says Jessica Gomez, a clinical psychologist and executive director of Momentous Institute, a researched-based organization that provides mental health services and educational programming to children and families.

Experts say college students have experienced heightened stress since the COVID-19 pandemic, a trend likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

“What some of our research at Gallup has shown is that we had a rising tide of negative emotions, not just in the U.S. but globally, in the eight to 10 years leading up to the pandemic, and of course it got worse during the pandemic," says Stephanie Marken, senior partner of the education research division at Gallup who conducted the 2023 study. “For currently enrolled college students, there’s so many contributing factors.”

Adam notes that multiple factors combine to contribute to heightened stress among younger adults, including the nation’s racial and political controversies, as well as anxiety regarding their futures fueled by climate change, global unrest and economic uncertainty. Female students reported higher levels of stress than males in the Gallup poll, which Marken says could be attributed to several factors like increased internal academic pressure, caregiving responsibilities and the recent uncertainty regarding abortion rights following the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

All of this, plus the residual effects of pandemic learning, has contributed to rising stress for college students, Marken says.

"We need to give them a lot of credit," she says. "They had the most challenge in remote learning of all the learners that have come before them. Many of them had to graduate high school and study remotely, or were a first-year college student during the pandemic, and that was incredibly difficult."

The challenges that came with that learning environment will likely affect students throughout college, she says, as well as typical stressors like discrimination, harassment and academic challenges.

"Those will always be present on college campuses," she says. "The question is, how do we create a student who overcomes those challenges effectively?"

Experts suggest a range of specific actions and positive shifts that can help ease stress in college students:

• Notice the symptoms of heightened stress.
• Build and maintain social connections.
• Sleep, eat well and exercise.

Notice the Symptoms of Heightened Stress

College students can start by learning to identify when normal stress increases to become unhealthy. Stress will appear differently in each student, says Lindsey Giller, a clinical psychologist with the Child Mind Institute, a nonprofit focused on helping children and young adults with mental health and learning disorders.

"Students prone to anxiety may avoid assignments as well as skip classes due to experiencing shame for being behind or missing things," she says. "For some, they may also start sleeping in more, eating at more random times, foregoing self-care, or look to distraction or escape mechanisms, like substances, to fill time and further avoid the reality of workload assignments."

Changes in diet and sleeping are also telling, as well as increased social isolation and pulling away from activities that once brought you pleasure is also a red flag, Gomez says.

She warns students to watch for signs of irritability, a classic indicator of increased stress that can often compound issues, especially within interpersonal relationships.

"Your body speaks to you, so be in tune with your body," she says.

Build and Maintain Social Connections

Socializing can help humans release stress. Experts say having fun and finding joy in life keep stress levels manageable, and socializing is particularly important developmentally for young adults. In the 2023 Gallup poll, 76% of students reported feeling enjoyment the previous day, which Marken says was an encouraging sign.

But 39% reported experiencing feelings of loneliness and 36% reported feeling sad. “We are in the midst of an epidemic of loneliness in our country, where we are noticing people don’t have the skills to build friendships,” Gomez says.

Discover six

Talking about feelings of stress can help college students cope, which is why the amount of students feeling lonely is concerning, Marken says. If students don't feel like they belong or have a social network to call on when feeling stressed, negative emotions are compounded.

“I think we’re more connected, and yet we’re more isolated than ever," she says. "It feels counterintuitive. How can you be more connected to your network and campus than ever, yet feel this lonely? Just because they have a device to connect with each other in a transactional way doesn’t mean it’s a meaningful relationship. I think that’s what we’re missing on a lot of college campuses is students creating meaningful connections about a shared experience."

Setting boundaries on social media use is crucial, Gomez says, as is getting plugged in with people and organizations that will be enriching. For example, Gomez says she joined a Latina sorority to be in community with others who shared some of her life experiences and interests.

Sleep, Eat Well and Exercise

Maintaining healthy habits can help college students better manage stressors that arise.

"Prioritizing sleep, moving your body, getting organized, and leaning on your support network all help college students prevent or manage stress," John MacPhee, CEO of The Jed Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to protect emotional health and prevent suicide among teens and young adults, wrote in an email. "In the inevitable moments of high stress, mindful breathing, short brain breaks, and relaxation techniques can really help."

Experts suggest creating a routine and sticking to it. That includes getting between eight and 10 hours of sleep each night and avoiding staying up late, Gomez says. A nutrient-rich diet can also go a long way in maintaining good physical and mental health, she says.

Getting outdoors and being active can also help students limit their screen time and use of social media.

“Walking to campus, maybe taking that longer walk, because your body needs that to heal," Gomez says. "It’s going to help buffer you. So if that’s the only thing you do, try to do that."

Colleges typically offer mental health resources such as counseling and support groups for struggling students.

Students dealing with chronic and unhealthy stress should contact their college and reach out to friends and family for support. Reaching out to parents, friends or mentors can be beneficial for students when feelings of stress come up, especially in heightened states around midterm and final exams .

Accessing student supports and counseling early can prevent a cascading effect that results in serious mental health challenges or unhealthy coping mechanisms like problem drinking and drug abuse , experts say.

"Know there are lots of resources on campus from academic services to counseling centers to get structured, professional support to lower your workload, improve coping skills, and have a safe space to process anxiety, worry, and stress," MacPhee says.

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College Stress

Almost everyone experiences stress to some extent, and college students are certainly no exception. Many college students report dealing with varying levels of stress throughout college for a number of different reasons. Stress affects everyone differently and for different reasons, and people respond to stress in many different ways, but it doesn’t have to cripple you or prevent you from reaching your goals. Below you’ll find strategies to reduce and manage stress in college.

Why are you stressed?

College students commonly experience stress because of increased responsibilities, a lack of good time management, changes in eating and sleeping habits, and not taking enough breaks for self-care. Transitioning to college can be a source of stress for most first-year students. Some predictable stressful times include studying for exams, competing for admissions or internships, and trying to master large amounts of content in small amounts of time. Sudden changes, unexpected challenges, or traumatic events can be unpredictable sources of stress. Students are expected to make decisions about their careers and academic life and foster new meaningful relationships in their time in college. Take a moment to think about the things in your life that may be causing you stress so that you can better address it effectively.

How does stress affect you?

Small amounts of stress for short periods of time can be healthy, as good stress can help us motivate ourselves to prepare for exams or make positive changes in our lives. However, stress becomes harmful when it occurs for too long or is chronic—when our bodies don’t have a clear indication of when to return to normal functioning. Chronic high stress has several negative affects on our bodies and brains. It can:

• interfere with studying or class attendance
• interfere with cognitive processes such as attention and concentration
• contribute to major health issues such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, and anxiety.

Tips to reduce and manage stress

Knowing how to properly and healthily manage stress is a crucial tool for college students. Using effective stress management techniques can help you moderate and calm yourself during stressful times and help your academic, social, and emotional experiences in college be more positive and successful. While there is no perfect way to completely eliminate stress, here are a few tips to try to help manage and reduce it:

Manage your time

Research shows that students who manage their time are less likely to feel stressed. Time management can be especially difficult when living away from home for the first time, when studying from home, or when juggling many roles and responsibilities at the same time. Use a weekly planner, priorities chart, or semester-at-a-glance calendar from the UNC Learning Center’s Tips and Tools page to better help manage your time.

Engage in mindful leisurely activities

We all have personal needs that need to be met and leisurely activities that we enjoy (eating, sleeping, relaxing, reading, socializing). Taking a break can be as simple as grabbing a snack, going for a walk around campus or around your neighborhood, meeting a friend for lunch, or catching up with a friend on a video call. When we are mindful of these needs and take time to enjoy them, we are less likely to be stressed.

Plan for the worst case scenario

Planning out the worst case scenario can seem like an overwhelming task, and in some cases that may be true. However, when you are able to predict what will happen in the future, you are better able to put in supports to help you manage when the ‘worst case’ scenario happens. For example, if you feel as though you might be failing a class (worst case scenario), you can talk to your professor about receiving an incomplete, talk to academic advising to see how that affects your grade, create a study schedule to help yourself catch up, and see a peer tutor to support you with the material. If you are dealing with a sudden change or difficult situation that is impacting your learning, consider reaching out to your professor, reaching out to your friends and family, or making an appointment with an Academic Coach at the Learning Center.

Engage in self-care and self-compassion

We are often harder on ourselves when we are unsuccessful or when things get challenging. One way to combat stress is to engage in self-compassion. Extend the same kindness you would to a friend to yourself. Know that you do deserve to take care of yourself. Be aware of when you are distressed and create a self-care plan for when you are. Integrating leisure and social activities is a great way to take care of yourself. You can also do simple relaxation exercises—such as deep breathing—multiple times during the day to help alleviate some stress.

When in doubt, write it out!

Research suggests that when you are feeling stressed, rather than avoid the uncomfortable feeling, it is better for you to address it by writing about it. Studies show that individuals who write out the causes of their stress, thoughts, and emotions tend to do better academically. To do this activity effectively it is recommended that you write everything you are feeling with no hesitation or worry.

Improve your health

Healthy eating. The majority of the time, try to choose fresh whole foods, and limit your intake of fried, processed, and fast foods. The federal government has made it easier to determine how to eat healthier by creating the ‘my plate’ diagram. You can access more information about ‘my plate’ here. If you think you can improve your health by making changes to what, when, how, or how much you eat, consider meeting with a registered dietician at Campus Health to come up with a plan.

Hydration. Drink plenty of water, and be careful not to overdo it with caffeine.

Physical activity. Knowing how to properly work out and making time for it can be challenging. However, there are many ways to engage in physical activity—going to the gym, attending fitness classes, swimming laps, jogging, playing basketball or another sport you enjoy, or doing yoga. You can also add in some simple modifications to your day to increase physical activity without having to go to the gym or play a sport. Try walking rather than taking the bus, getting off a bus early and walking the rest of the way, using stairs rather than elevators, biking, parking farther in a parking lot, etc. There are also fun recreational activities such as gardening, dancing, hiking, etc that you can engage in. UNC Campus Recreation offers group fitness classes that are FREE to UNC students. More information and schedule about the fitness classes can be accessed here. If you’re off campus, look into free, no-equipment home workout videos, and explore whether there are parks, greenways, and walking trails could serve as a relaxing way to get active and take a break outside.

Restful sleep. Sleep is often the first habit that is compromised when students enter college. However, time and time again research supports the importance of sleep—for memory consolidation and recall, increasing learning abilities, energy conservation, muscle growth, and tissue repair, just to name a few. Long-term sleep deprivation is associated with many illnesses and overall poor health and mental health. To work and live at your optimal level each day, build enough time into your schedule for 7-9 hours of sleep every night and protect and prioritize that time. Check out this handout on sleep for more tips to improve your sleep habits.

Create SMART goals

Often, students create grandiose goals that are unattainable. Use the classic SMART goals mnemonic when framing your goals: make sure they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound to maximize the possibility that you’ll complete them. If you are struggling, make an appointment with an academic coach to help guide you through creating SMART goals and staying accountable to meet them.

Use problem-solving techniques

Often, students find themselves in situations where they feel stuck. When a problem arises, they have a difficult time solving it. Students often ruminate about problems, which causes more stress and anxiety. Rather than engaging in negative thinking patterns, it is more helpful to strategically approach problems. This worksheet can help guide you through solving problems. While problem solving, focus on what you can and cannot control. Creating goals around things you can control will allow you accomplish more, while thinking or worrying about things you cannot control takes away energy you need.

Try relaxation techniques

While in the previous tips we talk more about preventing stress, using relaxation techniques will help calm you when you are actively stressed. Studies show that engaging in mindfulness significantly helps reduce stress. The following two are examples of mindfulness relaxation techniques that can help calm you when you are stressed:

• Diaphragmatic Breathing
• Love and Kindness Meditation

These techniques are especially helpful during exam times .

Make connections

Creating meaningful connections with other people fosters overall wellbeing. Two ways to do this is by providing service to others and creating a supportive network. Humans are inherently social; we need connectedness to survive and thrive. For this particular reason, peer support and self-help are often effective. There is great power in knowing that you are not alone. Everyone needs a supportive person with whom they can reach out to during the good and bad times. There are many ways to connect with your peers, whether you choose to meet in person, make time to schedule a video chat, or play online games together. Belonging to a community is essential to handling stress. One way to engage with your UNC community is to join clubs and organizations. There are over 900 organizations on campus that you can be part of.

CAPs refers to Counseling and Psychological services, which is an on-campus services for students. They provide a variety of mental health services, and they specialize in helping college students. If you feel like you are unable to manage your stress effectively, visit CAPs. You do not need an appointment for your first visit, you can just walk in. CAPS also offers phone-based services, and they can help you find a therapist in your community who can help you.

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Check out what other students and writers have tried!

Getting Back to It : An Academic Coach uses writing and yoga to maintain her routine. The Important Things : A Learning Center Peer Tutor offers some reminders to keep the important things in mind. Wellness in the Time of Corona : A Learning Center Coach shares tips for staying healthy and mindful during stressful times.

Works consulted

Macan, T. H., Shahani, C., Dipboye, R. L., & Phillips, A. P. (1990). College students’ time management: Correlations with academic performance and stress. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82 (4), 760-768.

Misra, R., & McKean, M. (2000). College students’ academic stress and its relation to their anxiety, time management, and leisure satisfaction. American Journal of Health Studies, 16 (1), 41-51.

Neely, M., Schallert, D., Mohammed, S., Roberts, R., & Chen, Y. (2009). Self-kindness when facing stress: The role of self-compassion, goal regulation, and support in college students’ wellbeing. Motivation and Emotion, 33 (1), 88-97.

Lumley, M., & Provenzano, K. (2003). Stress management through written emotional disclosure improves academic performance among college students with physical symptoms. American Psychological Association, 95 (3), 641-649.

Oman, D., Shapiro, S., Thoresen, C., & Plante, T., & Flinders, T. (2008). Meditation lowers stress and supports forgiveness among college students: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of American College Health, 56 (5):569-78

Ross, S., Niebling, B., & Heckert, T. (1999). Sources of stress among college students. College Student Journal, 33 (2), 321-327.

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5 Essential Tips for Managing Stress in College

Sure, college is fun and exciting, but it can also be stressful. You’re on your own for the first time, and your new lifestyle is a challenging adjustment. You may struggle with time management, leaving you with too little time for adequate sleep or self-care.

Many college students especially experience stress around final exams, competing for internships or jobs, and meeting degree requirements. You’ll be making important decisions about your future and career, which can naturally lead to some anxiety.

Luckily, there are steps you can take to proactively manage your stress and maximize your ability to learn, focus, and achieve your goals . Here are five top tips for stress management in college.

1. Get organized

One of the best ways to manage stress is to manage your time. Print your schedule and pin it to a bulletin board or put it somewhere prominent.

Buy a planner or calendar that will help you stay organized, or dedicate a calendar on your phone to organizing your school life. List important test dates and deadlines, and block out chunks of time for studying.

For instance, if you have a big test coming up, schedule an hour or two of studying over the course of several days. Don’t force yourself to have an all-night cram session. These are not only stressful, they’re also ineffective. If you plan ahead and stay organized, you’ll be far less likely to feel overwhelmed.

In addition, do your best to avoid procrastinating. Putting tasks off until later only creates more stress. Use checklists with items listed in order of priority, then tackle one item at a time. If you get distracted easily, download apps like Forest or Freedom to help you focus.

You can also try the Pomodoro Technique. Set a timer for 25 minutes, and work with extreme focus until the timer goes off. Then, take a short five-minute break before setting your timer again. If your phone is a major distraction, silence it and check it only during these breaks.

2. Find hobbies you enjoy

Break up your busy schedule with leisure activities that help you relax and have fun. Hobbies give you an outlet from the stress and worry of your everyday life.

When you think you don’t have time for a break, that’s when you need a break the most.

Paint, hike, swim, play an instrument, or join a sports team. Take a dance class or go cheer on your school’s athletic teams. Cook with your roommate, join a surfing or gardening club, or take up Quidditch.

If you’re looking for a quiet activity to rest and rejuvenate, try journaling or meditating. Meditating can feel a bit strange at first, so download an app like Headspace to guide you through it.

When you think you don’t have time for a break, that’s when you need a break the most. It doesn’t matter what the activity is; the point is that you make time for enjoyment and relaxation.

3. Build a support system

In times of stress, it’s important to have friends and family to turn to for support. Surround yourself with positive, encouraging people who will motivate you and raise your spirits.

Call your parents when you need to vent, create a study group with some friendly classmates, or ask a trusted friend to keep you accountable and focused on your goals. Talk to people who share your struggles, but remember not to dwell too much on the negative. Discuss what you’re grateful for, too.

Don’t give in to the temptation to isolate yourself — it’ll only make you more stressed. It’s always helpful to have friends who make you laugh, put you at ease, and remind you that college isn’t all bad.

4. Practice self-care

When you’re stressed, you may neglect sleep, exercise, and healthy eating. But practicing self-care and maintaining your health are some of the most important factors in feeling good and limiting stress.

Be sure to:

• Get plenty of rest. If you follow the first tip and get organized, you can create a schedule that allows time for adequate sleep (7-9 hours nightly). It’s also best to follow “normal resting hours,” meaning that you shouldn’t stay up all night and then sleep until mid-afternoon.
• Eat a balanced diet. Avoid living on a diet of pizza, Ramen, and soda. Treat yourself from time to time, but eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Your school’s dining hall should have a variety of healthy options , or you can learn to cook a few nutritious and delicious meals.
• Get moving . Exercise is an excellent mood booster and stress reducer. Find a running buddy, take cycling or Zumba classes at the campus gym, or join a sports team.
• Limit alcohol and caffeine. Too much caffeine can lead to energy crashes that make you more susceptible to stress, and too much alcohol prevents you from feeling your best. Whenever possible, be sure to drink plenty of water!

In addition, avoid overloading yourself. Understand your limits and don’t force yourself to push past them.

When you find yourself feeling overwhelmed and frazzled, calm yourself with deep breathing exercises or take a break to do a relaxing activity that you enjoy. The more you take care of yourself, the better you’ll be able to manage your responsibilities and perform at your fullest potential.

5. Ask for help

Whatever the source of your stress, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

If you’re struggling to understand course material, visit your professor’s office hours and ask clarifying questions. Find a student who’s doing well in the class and is willing to tutor you or study with you.

Ask older students for advice on how they handle the stress of college. Your school may even offer resources or classes on time management, adjusting to college life , and/or navigating stress. Search your school’s website or ask around to see what resources are available.

Finally, if your stress levels are affecting your quality of life, seek counseling services at your college or university. There’s no shame in getting help from a professional if you get too overwhelmed.

You want to enjoy your college experience, perform to the best of your ability, and retain information. If you’re too stressed, none of these goals are achievable. If the stress is too much, talk to someone who can give you personalized strategies to manage it.

Final Thoughts: Tips for Managing Stress in College

Life in general can be stressful, and college is no exception. While there’s no way to completely eliminate stress, there are plenty of tools you can use to effectively reduce and manage it.

Organize, prioritize, and avoid procrastination. By managing your time wisely, you’ll avoid the panic of last-minute studying or writing an essay 30 minutes before it’s due.

Build and lean on a support system, make time for relaxing hobbies that you enjoy, and take care of yourself by sleeping, exercising, eating right, and limiting your intake of caffeine and alcohol. Know your limits, and don’t take on more classes or obligations than you can handle.

If you follow these tips and still find that the stress is too much, don’t hesitate to ask for help from professors, tutors, mentors, or counseling services at your school.

By following these tips, you’ll effectively manage your stress, ensuring that your college experience is both enjoyable and successful.

Author: Jason Patel

Jason Patel is the founder of Transizion, a college counseling and career services company that provides mentorship and consulting on college applications, college essays, resumes, cover letters, interviews, and finding jobs and internships. Jason’s work has been cited in The Washington Post, BBC, NBC News, Forbes, Fast Company, Bustle, Inc., Fox Business, and other great outlets. Transizion donates a portion of profits to underserved students and veterans in of college prep and career development assistance.

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Essay on Stress Management

500 words essay on stress management.

Stress is a very complex phenomenon that we can define in several ways. However, if you put them together, it is basically the wear and tear of daily life. Stress management refers to a wide spectrum of techniques and psychotherapies for controlling a person’s stress level, especially chronic stress . If there is effective stress management, we can help one another break the hold of stress on our lives. The essay on stress management will throw light on the very same thing.

Identifying the Source of Stress

The first step of stress management is identifying the source of stress in your life. It is not as easy as that but it is essential. The true source of stress may not always be evident as we tend to overlook our own stress-inducing thoughts and feelings.

For instance, you might constantly worry about meeting your deadline. But, in reality, maybe your procrastination is what leads to this stress than the actual deadline. In order to identify the source of stress, we must look closely within ourselves.

If you explain away stress as temporary, then it may be a problem. Like if you yourself don’t take a breather from time to time, what is the point? On the other hand, is stress an integral part of your work and you acknowledging it like that?

If you make it a part of your personality, like you label things as crazy or nervous energy, you need to look further. Most importantly, do you blame the stress on people around you or the events surrounding you?

It is essential to take responsibility for the role one plays in creating or maintaining stress. Your stress will remain outside your control if you do not do it.

Strategies for Stress Management

It is obvious that we cannot avoid all kinds of stress but there are many stressors in your life which you can definitely eliminate. It is important to learn how to say no and stick to them.  Try to avoid people who stress you out.

Further, if you cannot avoid a stressful situation, try altering it. Express your feelings don’t bottle them up and manage your time better. Moreover, you can also adapt to the stressor if you can’t change it.

Reframe problems and look at the big picture. Similarly, adjust your standards and focus on the positive side. Never try to control the uncontrollable. Most importantly, make time for having fun and relaxing.

Spend some time with nature, go for a walk or call a friend, whatever pleases you.  You can also try working out, listening to music and more. As long as it makes you happy, never give up.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of the Essay on Stress Management

All in all, we can control our stress levels with relaxation techniques that evoke the relaxation response of our body. It is the state of restfulness that is the opposite of the stress response. Thus, when you practice these techniques regularly, you can build your resilience and heal yourself.

FAQ of Essay on Stress Management

Question 1: What is the importance of stress management?

Answer 1: Stress management is very efficient as it helps in breaking the hold which stress has on our lives. Moreover, you can also become happy, healthy and more productive because of it. The ultimate goal should be to live a balanced life and have the resilience to hold up under pressure.

Question 2: Give some stress management techniques.

Answer 2: There are many stress management techniques through which one can reduce stress in their lives. One can change their situation or their reaction to it. We can try by altering the situation. If not, we can change our attitudes towards it. Remember, accept things that you cannot change.

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Review article, stress in academic and athletic performance in collegiate athletes: a narrative review of sources and monitoring strategies.

• 1 School of Kinesiology, Applied Health and Recreation, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, United States
• 2 Department of Kinesiology, California State University, Fullerton, CA, United States
• 3 Department of Kinesiology, Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego, CA, United States
• 4 Department of Kinesiology and Sport Sciences, University of Miami, Miami, FL, United States

College students are required to manage a variety of stressors related to academic, social, and financial commitments. In addition to the burdens facing most college students, collegiate athletes must devote a substantial amount of time to improving their sporting abilities. The strength and conditioning professional sees the athlete on nearly a daily basis and is able to recognize the changes in performance and behavior an athlete may exhibit as a result of these stressors. As such, the strength and conditioning professional may serve an integral role in the monitoring of these stressors and may be able to alter training programs to improve both performance and wellness. The purpose of this paper is to discuss stressors experienced by collegiate athletes, developing an early detection system through monitoring techniques that identify the detrimental effects of stress, and discuss appropriate stress management strategies for this population.

Introduction

The college years are a period of time when young adults experience a significant amount of change and a variety of novel challenges. Academic performance, social demands, adjusting to life away from home, and financial challenges are just a few of the burdens college students must confront ( Humphrey et al., 2000 ; Paule and Gilson, 2010 ; Aquilina, 2013 ). In addition to these stressors, collegiate athletes are required to spend a substantial amount of time participating in activities related to their sport, such as attending practices and training sessions, team meetings, travel, and competitions ( Humphrey et al., 2000 ; López de Subijana et al., 2015 ; Davis et al., 2019 ; Hyatt and Kavazis, 2019 ). These commitments, in addition to the normal stress associated with college life, may increase a collegiate-athlete's risk of experiencing both physical and mental issues ( Li et al., 2017 ; Moreland et al., 2018 ) that may affect their overall health and wellness. For these reasons, it is essential that coaches understand the types of stressors collegiate athletes face in order to help them manage the potentially deleterious effects stress may have on athletic and academic performance.

Strength and conditioning coaches are allied health care professionals whose primary job is to enhance fitness of individuals for the purpose of improving athletic performance ( Massey et al., 2002 , 2004 , 2009 ). As such, many universities and colleges hire strength and conditioning coaches as part of their athletic staff to help athletes maximize their physical potential ( Massey et al., 2002 , 2004 , 2009 ). Strength and conditioning coaches strive to increase athletic performance by the systematic application of physical stress to the body via resistance training, and other forms of exercise, to yield a positive adaptation response ( Massey et al., 2002 , 2004 , 2009 ). For this reason, they need to understand and to learn how to manage athletes' stress. Additionally, based on the cumulative nature of stress, it is important that both mental and emotional stressors are also considered in programming. It is imperative that strength and conditioning coaches are aware of the multitude of stressors collegiate athletes encounter, in order to incorporate illness and injury risk management education into their training programs ( Radcliffe et al., 2015 ; Ivarsson et al., 2017 ).

Based on the large number of contact hours strength and conditioning coaches spend with their athletes, they are in an optimal position to assist athletes with developing effective coping strategies to manage stress. By doing so, strength and conditioning coaches may be able to help reach the overarching goal of improving the health, wellness, fitness, and performance of the athletes they coach. The purpose of this review article is to provide the strength and conditioning professional with a foundational understanding of the types of stressors collegiate athletes may experience, and how these stressors may impact mental health and athletic performance. Suggestions for assisting athletes with developing effective coping strategies to reduce potential physiological and psychological impacts of stress will also be provided.

Stress and the Stress Response

In its most simplistic definition, stress can be described as a state of physical and psychological activation in response to external demands that exceed one's ability to cope and requires a person to adapt or change behavior. As such, both cognitive or environmental events that trigger stress are called stressors ( Statler and DuBois, 2016 ). Stressors can be acute or chronic based on the duration of activation. Acute stressors may be defined as a stressful situation that occurs suddenly and results in physiological arousal (e.g., increase in hormonal levels, blood flow, cardiac output, blood sugar levels, pupil and airway dilation, etc.) ( Selye, 1976 ). Once the situation is normalized, a cascade of hormonal reactions occurs to help the body return to a resting state (i.e., homeostasis). However, when acute stressors become chronic in nature, they may increase an individual's risk of developing anxiety, depression, or metabolic disorders ( Selye, 1976 ). Moreover, the literature has shown that cumulative stress is correlated with an increased susceptibility to illness and injury ( Szivak and Kraemer, 2015 ; Mann et al., 2016 ; Hamlin et al., 2019 ). The impact of stress is individualistic and subjective by nature ( Williams and Andersen, 1998 ; Ivarsson et al., 2017 ). Additionally, the manner in which athletes respond to a situational or environmental stressor is often determined by their individual perception of the event ( Gould and Udry, 1994 ; Williams and Andersen, 1998 ; Ivarsson et al., 2017 ). In this regard, the athlete's perception can either be positive (eustress) or negative (distress). Even though they both cause physiological arousal, eustress also generates positive mental energy whereas distress generates anxiety ( Statler and DuBois, 2016 ). Therefore, it is essential that an athlete has the tools and ability to cope with these stressors in order to have the capacity to manage both acute and chronic stress. As such, it is important to understand the types of stressors collegiate athletes are confronted with and how these stressors impact an athlete's performance, both athletically and academically.

Literature Search/Data Collection

The articles included in this review were identified via online databases PubMed, MEDLINE, and ISI Web of Knowledge from October 15th 2019 through January 15th 2020. The search strategy combined the keywords “academic stress,” “athletic stress,” “stress,” “stressor,” “college athletes,” “student athletes,” “collegiate athletes,” “injury,” “training,” “monitoring.” Duplicated articles were then removed. After reading the titles and abstracts, all articles that met the inclusion criteria were considered eligible for inclusion in the review. Subsequently, all eligible articles were read in their entirety and were either included or removed from the present review.

Inclusion Criteria

The studies included met all the following criteria: (i) published in English-language journals; (ii) targeted college athletes; (iii) publication was either an original research paper or a literature review; (iv) allowed the extraction of data for analysis.

Data Analysis

Relevant data regarding participant characteristics (i.e., gender, academic status, sports) and study characteristics were extracted. Articles were analyzed and divided into two separate sections based on their specific topics: Academic Stress and Athletic Stress. Then, strategies for monitoring and workload management are discussed in the final section.

Academic Stress

Fundamentally, collegiate athletes have two major roles they must balance as part of their commitment to a university: being a college student and an athlete. Academic performance is a significant source of stress for most college students ( Aquilina, 2013 ; López de Subijana et al., 2015 ; de Brandt et al., 2018 ; Davis et al., 2019 ). This stress may be further compounded among collegiate athletes based on their need to be successful in the classroom, while simultaneously excelling in their respective sport ( Aquilina, 2013 ; López de Subijana et al., 2015 ; Huml et al., 2016 ; Hamlin et al., 2019 ). Davis et al. (2019) conducted surveys on 173 elite junior alpine skiers and reported significant moderate to strong correlations between perceived stress and several variables including depressed mood ( r = 0.591), sleep disturbance ( r = 0.459), fatigue ( r = 0.457), performance demands ( r = 0.523), and goals and development ( r = 0.544). Academic requirements were the highest scoring source of stress of all variables and was most strongly correlated with perceived stress ( r = 0.467). Interestingly, it was not academic rigor that was viewed by the athletes as the largest source of direct stress; rather, the athletes surveyed reported time management as being their biggest challenge related to academic performance ( Davis et al., 2019 ). This further corroborates the findings of Hamlin et al. (2019) . The investigators reported that during periods of the academic year in which levels of perceived academic stress were at their highest, students had trouble managing sport practices and studying. These stressors were also associated with a decrease in energy levels and overall sleep quality. These factors may significantly increase the collegiate athlete's susceptibility to illness and injury ( Hamlin et al., 2019 ). For this reason, coaches should be aware of and sensitive to the stressors athletes experience as part of the cyclical nature of the academic year and attempt to help athletes find solutions to balancing athletic and academic demands.

According to Aquilina (2013) , collegiate athletes tend to be more committed to sports development and may view their academic career as a contingency plan to their athletic career, rather than a source of personal development. As a result, collegiate athletes often, but certainly not always, prioritize athletic participation over their academic responsibilities ( Miller and Kerr, 2002 ; Cosh and Tully, 2014 , 2015 ). Nonetheless, scholarships are usually predicated on both athletic and academic performance. For instance, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) requires collegiate athletes to achieve and maintain a certain grade point average (GPA). Furthermore, they are also often required to also uphold a certain GPA to maintain an athletic scholarship. The pressure to maintain both high levels of academic and athletic performance may increase the likelihood of triggering mental health issues (i.e., anxiety and depression) ( Li et al., 2017 ; Moreland et al., 2018 ).

Mental health issues are a significant concern among college students. There has been an increased emphasis placed on the mental health of collegiate athletes in recent years ( Petrie et al., 2014 ; Li et al., 2017 , 2019 ; Reardon et al., 2019 ). Based on the 2019 National College Health Assessment survey from the American College Health Association (ACHA) consisting of 67,972 participants, 27.8% of college students reported anxiety, and 20.2% reported experiencing depression which negatively affected their academic performance ( American College Health Association American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment II, 2019 ). Approximately 65.7% (50.7% males and 71.8% females) reported feeling overwhelming anxiety in the past 12 months, and 45.1% (37.1% males and 47.6% females) reported feeling so depressed that it was difficult for them to function. However, only 24.3% (13% males and 28.4% females) reported being diagnosed and treated by a professional in the past 12 months. Collegiate athletes are not immune to these types of issues. According to information presented by the NCAA, many certified athletic trainers anecdotally state that anxiety is an issue affecting the collegiate-athlete population ( NCAA, 2014 ). However, despite the fact that collegiate athletes are exposed to numerous stressors, they are less likely to seek help at a university counseling center than non-athletes ( NCAA, 2014 ), which could be related to stigmas that surround mental health services ( NCAA, 2014 ; Kaier et al., 2015 ; Egan, 2019 ). This not only has significant implications related to their psychological well-being, but also their physiological health, and consequently their performance. For instance, in a study by Li et al. (2017) it was found that NCAA Division I athletes who reported preseason anxiety symptoms had a 2.3 times greater injury incidence rate compared to athletes who did not report. This same study discovered that male athletes who reported preseason anxiety and depression had a 2.1 times greater injury incidence, compared to male athletes who did not report symptoms of anxiety and depression. ( Lavallée and Flint, 1996 ) also reported a correlation between anxiety and both injury frequency and severity among college football players ( r = 0.43 and r = 0.44, respectively). In their study, athletes reporting high tension/anxiety had a higher rate of injury. It has been suggested that the occurrence of stress and anxiety may cause physiological responses, such as an increase in muscle tension, physical fatigue, and a decrease in neurocognitive and perception processes that can lead to physical injuries ( Ivarsson et al., 2017 ). For this reason, it is reasonable to consider that academic stressors may potentiate effects of stress and result in injury and illness in collegiate athletes.

Periods of more intense academic stress increase the susceptibility to illness or injury ( Mann et al., 2016 ; Hamlin et al., 2019 ; Li et al., 2019 ). For example, Hamlin et al. (2019) investigated levels of perceived stress, training loads, injury, and illness incidence in 182 collegiate athletes for the period of one academic year. The highest levels of stress and incidence of illness arise during the examination weeks occurring within the competitive season. In addition, the authors also reported the odds ratio, which is the occurrence of the outcome of interest (i.e., injury), based off the given exposure to the variables of interest (i.e., perceived mood, sleep duration, increased academic stress, and energy levels). Based on a logistic regression, they found that each of the four variables (i.e., mood, energy, sleep duration, and academic stress) was related to the collegiate athletes' likelihood to incur injuries. In summary, decreased levels of perceived mood (odds ratio of 0.89, 0.85–0.0.94 CI) and sleep duration (odds ratio of 0.94, 0.91–0.97 CI), and increased academic stress (odds ratio of 0.91, 0.88–0.94 CI) and energy levels (odds ratio of 1.07, 1.01–1.14 CI), were able to predict injury in these athletes. This corroborates Mann et al. (2016) who found NCAA Division I football athletes at a Bowl Championship Subdivision university were more likely to become ill or injured during an academically stressful period (i.e., midterm exams or other common test weeks) than during a non-testing week (odds ratio of 1.78 for high academic stress). The athletes were also less likely to get injured during training camp (odds ratio of 3.65 for training camp). Freshmen collegiate athletes may be especially more susceptible to mental health issues than older students. Their transition includes not only the academic environment with its requirements and expectations, but also the adaptation to working with a new coach and teammates. In this regard, Yang et al. (2007) found an increase in the likelihood of depression that freshmen athletes experienced, as these freshmen were 3.27 times more likely to experience depression than their older teammates. While some stressors are recurrent and inherent in academic life (e.g., attending classes, homework, etc.), others are more situational (e.g., exams, midterms, projects) and may be anticipated by the strength and conditioning coach.

Athletic Stress

The domain of athletics can expose collegiate athletes to additional stressors that are specific to their cohort (e.g., sport-specific, team vs. individual sport) ( Aquilina, 2013 ). Time spent training (e.g., physical conditioning and sports practice), competition schedules (e.g., travel time, missing class), dealing with injuries (e.g., physical therapy/rehabilitation, etc.), sport-specific social support (e.g., teammates, coaches) and playing status (e.g., starting, non-starter, being benched, etc.) are just a few of the additional challenges collegiate athletes must confront relative to their dual role of being a student and an athlete ( Maloney and McCormick, 1993 ; Scott et al., 2008 ; Etzel, 2009 ; Fogaca, 2019 ). Collegiate athletes who view the demands of stressors from academics and sports as a positive challenge (i.e., an individual's self-confidence or belief in oneself to accomplish the task outweighs any anxiety or emotional worry that is felt) may potentially increase learning capacity and competency ( NCAA, 2014 ). However, when these demands are perceived as exceeding the athlete's capacity, this stress can be detrimental to the student's mental and physical health as well as to sport performance ( Ivarsson et al., 2017 ; Li et al., 2017 ).

As previously stated, time management has been shown to be a challenge to collegiate athletes. The NCAA rules state that collegiate athletes may only engage in required athletic activities for 4 h per day and 20 h/week during in-season and 8 h/week during off-season throughout the academic year. Although these rules have been clearly outlined, the most recent NCAA GOALS (2016) study reported alarming numbers regarding time commitment to athletic-related activities. Data from over 21,000 collegiate athletes from 600 schools across Divisions I, II, and III were included in this study. Although a breakdown of time commitments was not provided, collegiate athletes reported dedicating up to 34 h per week to athletics (e.g., practices, weight training, meetings with coaches, tactical training, competitions, etc.), in addition to spending between 38.5 and 40 h per week working on academic-related tasks. This report also showed a notable trend related to athletes spending an increase of ~2 more athletics-related hours per week compared to the 2010 GOALS study, along with a decrease of 2 h of personal time (from 19.5 h per week in 2010 to 17.1 in 2015). Furthermore, ~66% of Division I and II and 50% of Division III athletes reported spending as much or more time in their practices during the off-season as during the competitive season ( DTHOMAS, 2013 ). These numbers show how important it is for collegiate athletes to develop time management skills to be successful in both academics and athletics. Overall, most collegiate athletes have expressed a need to find time to enjoy their college experience outside of athletic obligations ( Paule and Gilson, 2010 ). Despite that, because of the increasing demand for excellence in academics and athletics, collegiate athletes' free time with family and friends is often scarce ( Paule and Gilson, 2010 ). Consequently, trainers, coaches, and teammates will likely be the primary source of their weekly social interactivity.

Social interactions within their sport have also been found to relate to factors that may impact an athlete's perceived stress. Interactions with coaches and trainers can be effective or deleterious to an athlete. Effective coaching includes a coaching style that allows for a boost of the athlete's motivation, self-esteem, and efficacy in addition to mitigating the effects of anxiety. On the other hand, poor coaching (i.e., the opposite of effective coaching) can have detrimental psychological effects on an athlete ( Gearity and Murray, 2011 ). In a closer examination of the concept of poor coaching practices, Gearity and Murray (2011) interviewed athletes about their experiences of receiving poor coaching. Following analysis of the interviews, the authors identified the main themes of the “coach being uncaring and unfair,” “practicing poor teaching inhibiting athlete's mental skills,” and “athlete coping.” They stated that inhibition of an athlete's mental skills and coping are associated with the psychological well-being of an athlete. Also, poor coaching may result in mental skills inhibition, distraction, insecurity, and ultimately team division ( Gearity and Murray, 2011 ). This combination of factors may compound the negative impacts of stress in athletes and might be especially important for in injured athletes.

Injured athletes have previously been reported to have elevated stress as a result of heightened worry about returning to pre-competition status ( Crossman, 1997 ), isolation from teammates if the injury is over a long period of time ( Podlog and Eklund, 2007 ) and/or reduced mood or depressive symptoms ( Daly et al., 1995 ). In addition, athletes who experience prolonged negative thoughts may be more likely to have decreased rehabilitation attendance or adherence, worse functional outcomes from rehabilitation (e.g., on measures of proprioception, muscular endurance, and agility), and worse post-injury performance ( Brewer, 2012 ).

Monitoring Considerations

In addition to poor coaching, insufficient workload management can hinder an athlete's ability to recover and adapt to training, leading to fatigue accumulation ( Gabbett et al., 2017 ). Excessive fatigue can impair decision-making ability, coordination and neuromuscular control, and ultimately result in overtraining and injury ( Soligard et al., 2016 ). For instance, central fatigue was found to be a direct contributor to anterior cruciate ligament injuries in soccer players ( Mclean and Samorezov, 2009 ). Introducing monitoring tools may serve as a means to reduce the detrimental effects of stress in collegiate athletes. Recent research on relationships between athlete workloads, injury, and performance has highlighted the benefits of athlete monitoring ( Drew and Finch, 2016 ; Jaspers et al., 2017 ).

Athlete monitoring is often assessed with the measuring and management of workload associated with a combination of sport-related and non-sport-related stressors ( Soligard et al., 2016 ). An effective workload management program should aim to detect excessive fatigue, identify its causes, and constantly adapt rest, recovery, training, and competition loads respectively ( Soligard et al., 2016 ). The workload for each athlete is based off their current levels of physical and psychological fatigue, wellness, fitness, health, and recovery ( Soligard et al., 2016 ). Accumulation of situational or physical stressors will likely result in day-to-day fluctuations in the ability to move external loads and strength train effectively ( Fry and Kraemer, 1997 ). Periods of increased academic stress may cause increased levels of fatigue, which can be identified by using these monitoring tools, thereby assisting the coaches with modulating the workload during these specific periods. Coaches who plan to incorporate monitoring and management strategies must have a clear understanding of what they want to achieve from athlete monitoring ( Gabbett et al., 2017 ; Thornton et al., 2019 ).

Monitoring External Loads

External load refers to the physical work (e.g., number of sprints, weight lifted, distance traveled, etc.) completed by the athlete during competition, training, and activities of daily living ( Soligard et al., 2016 ). This type of load is independent of the athlete's individual characteristics ( Wallace et al., 2009 ). Monitoring external loading can aid in the designing of training programs which mimic the external load demands of an athlete's sport, guide rehabilitation programs, and aid in the detection of spikes in external load that may increase the risk of injury ( Clubb and McGuigan, 2018 ).

The means of quantifying external load can involve metrics as simple as pitch counts in baseball and softball ( Fleisig and Andrews, 2012 ; Shanley et al., 2012 ) or quantifying lifting session training loads (e.g., sum value of weight lifted during an exercise x number of repetitions × the number of sets). Neuromuscular function testing is another more common way of analyzing external load. This is typically done using such measures such as the counter movement jump, squat jump, or drop jump. A force platform can be used to measure a myriad of outcomes (e.g., peak power, ground contact time, time to take-off, reactive strength index, and jump height), or simply measure jump height in a more traditional manner. Jumping protocols, such as the countermovement jump, have been adopted to examine the recovery of neuromuscular function after athletic competition with significant decreases for up to 72 h commonly reported ( Andersson et al., 2008 ; Magalhães et al., 2010 ; Twist and Highton, 2013 ). ( Gathercole et al., 2015 ) found reductions in 18 different neuromuscular variables in collegiate athletes following a fatiguing protocol. The variables of eccentric duration, concentric duration, total duration, time to peak force/power, and flight time:contraction time ratio, derived from a countermovement jump were deemed suitable for detecting neuromuscular fatigue with the rise in the use of technology for monitoring, certain sports have adopted specific software that can aid in the monitoring of stress. For example, power output can be measured using devices such as SRM™ or PowerTap™ in cycling ( Jobson et al., 2009 ). This data can be analyzed to provide information such as average power or normalized power. The power output can then be converted into a Training Stress Score™ via commercially available software ( Marino, 2011 ). More sophisticated measures of external load may involve the use of wearable technology devices such as Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, accelerometers, magnetometer, and gyroscope inertial sensors ( Akenhead and Nassis, 2016 ). These devices can quantify external load in several ways, such as duration of movement, total distance covered, speed of movement, acceleration, and decelerations, as well as sport specific movement such as number and height of jumps, number of tackles, or breakaways, etc. ( Akenhead and Nassis, 2016 ). The expansion of marketing of wearable devices has been substantial; however, there are questions of validity and reliability related to external load tracking limitations related to proprietary metrics, as well as the overall cost that should be considered when considering the adoption of such devices ( Aughey et al., 2016 ; Torres-Ronda and Schelling, 2017 ).

Monitoring Internal Loads

While external load may provide information about an athlete's performance capacity and work completed, it does not provide clear evidence of how athletes are coping with and adapting to the external load ( Halson, 2014 ). This type of information comes from the monitoring of internal loads. The term internal load refers to the individual physiological and psychological response to the external stress or load imposed ( Wallace et al., 2009 ). Internal load is influenced by a number of factors such as daily life stressors, the environment around the athlete, and coping ability ( Soligard et al., 2016 ). Indirect measures, such as the use of heart rate (HR) monitoring, and subjective measurements, such as perceived effort (i.e., ratings of perceived exertion), are examples of internal load monitoring. Using subjective measurement systems is a simple and practical method when dealing with large numbers of athletes ( Saw et al., 2016 ; Nässi et al., 2017 ). Subjective reporting of training load (Rating of Perceived Exertion—RPE) ( Coyne et al., 2018 ), Session Rating of Perceived Exertion—sRPE) ( Coyne et al., 2018 ), perceived stress and recovery (Recovery Stress Questionnaire for Athletes—RESTQ-S), and psychological mood states (Profile of Mood States—POMS) have all been found to be a reliable indicator of training load ( Robson-Ansley et al., 2009 ; Saw et al., 2016 ) and only take a few moments to complete. In addition, subjective measures can be more responsive to tracking changes or training responses in athletes than objective measures ( Saw et al., 2016 ).

Heart rate (HR) monitoring is a common intrinsic measure of how the body is responding to stress. With training, the reduction of resting HR is typically a clear indication of the heart becoming more efficient and not having to beat as frequently. Alternately, increases of resting HR over time with a continuation of training may be an indicator of too much stress. Improper nutrition, such as regular or ongoing suboptimal intakes of vitamins or minerals, may result in increased ventilation and/or increased heart rate ( Lukaski, 2004 ). It has been suggested that the additional stress may lead to parasympathetic hyperactivity, leading to an increase in resting HR ( Statler and DuBois, 2016 ). This largely stems from research examining the sensitivity of various HR derived metrics, such as resting HR, HR variability (HRV), and HR recovery (HRR) to fluctuations in training load ( Borresen and Ian Lambert, 2009 ). HRR in athlete monitoring is the rate of HR decline after the cessation of exercise. A common measure of HHR is the use of a 2 min step test followed by a 60 s HR measurement. The combination of the exercise (stress) on the cardiovascular system and then its subsequent return toward baseline has been used as an indicator of autonomic function and training status in athletes ( Daanen et al., 2012 ). In collegiate athletes it was found that hydration status impacted HRR following moderate to hard straining sessions ( Ayotte and Corcoran, 2018 ). Athletes who followed a prescription hydration plan performed better in the standing long jump, tracked objects faster, and showed faster HRR vs. athletes who followed their normal self-selected hydration plan ( Ayotte and Corcoran, 2018 ). To date, HR monitoring and the various derivatives have mainly been successful in detecting changes in training load and performance in endurance athletes ( Borresen and Ian Lambert, 2009 ; Lamberts et al., 2009 ; Thorpe et al., 2017 ). Although heart rate monitoring can provide additional physiological insight for aerobic sessions or events, it thus far has not been found to be an accurate measurement for quantifying internal load during many explosive, short duration anaerobic activities ( Bosquet et al., 2008 ).

A multitude of studies have reported the reliability and validity of using RPE and sRPE across a range of training modalities ( Foster, 1998 ; Impellizzeri et al., 2004 ; Sweet et al., 2004 ). This measure can be used to create a number of metrics such as session load (sRPE × duration in minutes), daily load (sum of all session loads for that day), weekly training load (sum of all daily training loads for entire week), monotony (standard deviation of weekly training load), and strain (daily or weekly training load × monotony) ( Foster, 1998 ). Qualitative questionnaires that monitor stress and fatigue have been well-established as tools to use with athletes (see Table 1 for examples of commonly used questionnaires in research). Using short daily wellness questionnaires may allow coaches to generate a wellness score which then can be adjusted based off of the stress the athlete may be feeling to meet the daily load target ( Foster, 1998 ; Robson-Ansley et al., 2009 ). However, strength and conditioning coaches need to be mindful that these questionnaires may require sports psychologist or other licensed professional to examine and provide the results. An alternative that may be better suited for strength and conditioning professionals to use could be to incorporate some of the themes of those questionnaires into programing.

Table 1 . Overview of common tool/measures used by researchers to monitor training load.

A Multifaceted Approach

Dissociation between external and internal load units may be indicative of the state of fatigue of an athlete. Utilizing a monitoring system in which the athlete is able to make adjustments to their training loads in accordance with how they are feeling in that moment can be a useful tool for assisting the athlete in managing stress. Auto-regulation is a method of programming that allows for adjustments based on the results of one or more readiness tests. When implemented properly, auto regulation enables the coach or athlete to optimize training based on the athlete's given readiness for training on a particular day, thereby aiming to avoid potential overtraining ( Kraemer and Fleck, 2018 ). Several studies have found that using movement velocity to designate resistance training intensities can result in significant improvements in maximal strength and athletic performance ( Pareja-Blanco et al., 2014 , 2017 ; Mann et al., 2015 ). Velocity based training allows the coach and athlete to view real time feedback for the given lifts, thereby allowing them to observe how the athlete is performing in that moment. If the athlete is failing to meet the prescribed velocity or the velocity drops greater than a predetermined amount between sets, then this should signal the coach to investigate. If there is a higher than normal amount of stress on that athlete for the day, that could be a potential reason. This type of combination style program of using a quantitative or objective measurement (s) and a subjective measure of wellness (qualitative questionnaire) has recently been reported to be an effective tool in monitoring individuals apart of a team ( Starling et al., 2019 ). The subjective measure in this study was the readiness to train questionnaire (RTT-Q) and the objective measures were the HRR 6min test (specifically the HRR 60s = recorded as decrease in HR in the 60 s after termination of the test) to assess autonomic function and the standing long jump (SLJ) to measure neuromuscular function. The findings found that, based on the absolute typical error of measurement, the HRR 60s and SLJ could detect medium and large changes in fatigue and readiness. The test took roughly 8 min for the entire team, which included a group consisting of 24 college-age athletes. There are many other combinations of monitoring variables and strategies that coaches and athletes may utilize.

Data Analysis – How to Utilize the Measures

Regardless of what type of monitoring tool a coach or athlete may incorporate, it is essential to understand how to analyze this data. There are excellent resources available which discuss this topic in great detail ( Gabbett et al., 2017 ; Clubb and McGuigan, 2018 ; Thornton et al., 2019 ). This section will highlight two main conclusions from these sources and briefly describe two of the main statistical practices and concepts discussed. The use of z-scores or modified z-scores has been proposed as a method of detecting meaningful change in athlete data ( Clubb and McGuigan, 2018 ; Thornton et al., 2019 ). For different monitoring tools listed in Table 1 , the following formula would be an example of how to assess changes: (Athlete daily score—Baseline score)/Standard deviation of baseline. The baseline would likely be based off an appropriate period such as the scores across 2 weeks during the preseason.

In sports and sports science, the use of a magnitude-based inference (MBI) has been suggested as more appropriate and easier to understand when examining meaningful changes in athletic data, than null-hypothesis significance testing (NHST) ( Buchheit, 2014 ). Additional methods to assess meaningful change that are similar to MBI are using standard deviation, typical error, effect sizes, smallest worthwhile change (SWC), and coefficient of variation ( Thornton et al., 2019 ). It should be noted that all of these methods have faced criticism from sources such as statisticians. It is important to understand that the testing methods, measurements, and analysis should be based on the resources and intended goals from use, which will differ from every group and individual. Once identified, it is up to the practitioner to keep this system the same, in order to collect data that can then be examined to understand meaningful information for each setting ( Thornton et al., 2019 ).

Managing and Coping Strategies

Once the collegiate-athlete has been able to identify the need to balance their stress levels, the athlete may then need to seek out options for managing their stress. Coaches are be able to assist them by sharing information on health and wellness resources available for the students, both on and off campus. Another way a coach can potentially support their athletes is by establishing an open-door policy, wherein the team members feel comfortable approaching a member of the strength and conditioning staff in order to seek out resources for coping with challenges related to stress.

There are some basic skills that strength and conditioning coaches can teach (while staying within their scope of practice). Coaches can introduce their athletes to basic lifestyle concepts, such as practicing deep breathing techniques, positive self-talk, and developing healthy sleep habits (i.e., turning off their mobile devices 1 h before bed and aiming for 8 h of sleep each night, etc.). A survey of strength and conditioning practitioners by Radcliffe et al. (2015) found that strategies used by practitioners included a mix of cognitive and behavioral strategies, which was used as justification for recommending practitioners find opportunities to guide professional development toward awareness strategies. Practitioners reported using a wide variety of psychological skills and strategies, which following survey analysis, highlighted a significant emphasis on strategies that may influence athlete self-confidence and goal setting. Themes identified by Radcliffe et al. (2015) included confidence building, arousal management, and skill acquisition. Additionally, similar lower level themes that are connected (i.e., goal setting, increasing, or decreasing arousal intensities, self-talk, mental imagery) are all discussed in the 4th edition of the NSCA Essentials of Strength and Conditioning book ( Haff et al., 2016 ). When the interventions aiming to improve mental health expand from basic concepts to mental training beyond a coach's scope, it would be pertinent for the coach to refer the collegiate-athlete to a sport psychology or other mental health consultant ( Fogaca, 2019 ). Moreover, strength and conditioning coaches may find themselves in a position to become key players in facilitating management strategies for collegiate athletes, thereby guiding the athlete in their quest to learn how to best manage the mental and physical energy levels required in the quest for overall optimal performance ( Statler and DuBois, 2016 ).

Conclusion and Future Directions

This review article has summarized some of the ways that strength and conditioning professionals may be able to gain a better understanding of the types of stressors encountered by collegiate athletes, the impact these stressors may have on athletic performance, and suggestions for assisting athletes with developing effective coping strategies to reduce the potential negative physiological and psychological impacts of stress. It has been suggested that strategies learned in the context of training may have a carry-over effect into other areas such as competition. More education is needed in order for strength and conditioning professionals to gain a greater understanding of how to support their athletes with stress-management techniques and resources. Some ways to disseminate further education on stress-management tools for coaches to share with their athletes may include professional development events, such as conferences and clinics.

Author Contributions

All of the authors have contributed to the development of the manuscript both in writing and conceptual development.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

The handling editor declared a past collaboration with one of the authors RL.

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Keywords: stress, load management, academic stress, stress management, injury

Citation: Lopes Dos Santos M, Uftring M, Stahl CA, Lockie RG, Alvar B, Mann JB and Dawes JJ (2020) Stress in Academic and Athletic Performance in Collegiate Athletes: A Narrative Review of Sources and Monitoring Strategies. Front. Sports Act. Living 2:42. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2020.00042

Received: 05 October 2019; Accepted: 30 March 2020; Published: 08 May 2020.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2020 Lopes Dos Santos, Uftring, Stahl, Lockie, Alvar, Mann and Dawes. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: J. Bryan Mann, Bmann@miami.edu

Daily Sundial

OPINION: The importance of managing stress as a college student

Brandon Sarmiento

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Maya Morales , Reporter December 20, 2022

College students often deal with high levels of stress and anxiety. This can be due to factors such as college being a new experience, moving to new areas and taking on new responsibilities. Meeting other students, balancing classes, maintaining a social life and reaching financial responsibilities are also influencing factors of stress. According to a 2022 American College Health Association study, 49.3% of college students experienced moderate stress levels, while 29.5% faced high stress levels.

Many students may also experience a rise in stress levels during periods like midterms and finals week, as well as when competing for academic internships or preparing to meet financial matters to pay for school. It is during these times that it may be hard to remember to take breaks.

“Stress is there for a reason. It’s there to help mobilize you to meet the demands of your day, but you’re also supposed to have times where you do shut down and relax and repair and restore,” said Northwestern University education professor Emma K. Adam , according to a 2020 article in U.S. News & World Report.

Increased stress levels can leave students feeling unmotivated to attend class or finish assignments. According to the Learning Center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, increased stress levels can also lead to shorter attention spans and major health issues. High levels of stress that last for long periods may also result in a person being at higher risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression and anxiety.

Some students are also more prone to developing high stress levels.

“One thing to keep in mind about the people who are at the greatest risk, are the people who have a strong family history of family depression or anxiety, or other psychiatric disorders in their family,” stated Robert Barger, a psychiatrist with the Veterans Health Administration. “Or the other thing is if the individual has had previous moments of depression, that could result in the risk of clinical depression.”

There are several ways to help handle stress. Promoting therapy, healthy eating habits, good sleep patterns, exercising daily and creating goals are all different ways that people help manage their stress.

“If someone is starting to struggle around finals or the holidays, they should try to get in with a counselor to get that extra support,” suggested Barger. He suggested that talk therapy can improve stress by identifying why the person is feeling the way they are, and forming a plan to do something about it.

Personally, this semester was challenging for me. I felt like my workload had increased tenfold over the usual amount. It was hard trying to figure out a routine where I had time to do everything that I had to complete in a day. I was trying to balance an extremely busy class schedule with a job that had long hours.

There was one online resource that CSUN launched this semester that helped me balance out my schedule, which kept in mind other activities on my plate, so I didn’t burnout fast. I signed up for YOU@CSUN and selected the issues I struggled with once school started. The platform gave me reminders on when to take time for myself and would send me alerts when certain events that may benefit me were happening on campus. It made me feel more connected to campus and gave me a chance to take a step back from my assignments.

It is hard to take a step back when there are so many deadlines to meet. As students, we want so badly to perform well in school, assuming we haven’t burned out yet. If we have burned out, there’s no motivation to do any assignments or care about the outcome. We just want a break. I feel that if we were more educated on how to take care of ourselves mentally and emotionally, then we would give ourselves more of a chance to do something about such stress.

“Education is key to emphasizing the importance of stress relief. That even during finals, you need to budget your time. You need to allow yourself time to eat, have some exercise, and also budget in sleep. We should start talking about mental health in our general health education,” Barger stated.

If we began educating people while they were younger to recognize the signs of declining mental health and ways to treat it, we could help people reach out for the assistance they need faster. Such education would teach people how to handle stress by finding different healthy ways to cope with it.

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Home — Essay Samples — Education — College Students — The Impact of Stress on College Students: Causes, Effects, and Management

The Impact of Stress on College Students: Causes, Effects, and Management

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Introduction, causes and effects of stress in college students, ways to manage stress.

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How to manage stress in College: 13 actionable Tips

Is college stressing you out? College can be one of the most stressful times in your life, and I have some tips to help!

College is an exciting time for young adults, full of new experiences, challenges, and opportunities for personal and academic growth. 

It may seem like you are the only one wondering how to handle all the stress of college, but you’re not alone.  Stress levels are very high among college students.

However, with all the demands and pressures of college life, stress is almost inevitable. 

From looming deadlines to social pressures, stress can feel overwhelming. Stress can have a negative impact on mental health and academic performance. 

So, it’s important for college students to learn how to effectively manage stress in order to stay healthy and succeed academically. 

I know from my own personal experience how stressful college can be, and I want to give you some ideas to make your college experience less stressful.

In this blog post, I’ll give you some practical tips and strategies for managing stress in college so you can minimize stress and enjoy a more balanced and fulfilling college experience.

What is stress? 

Feeling like you’ll never get it all done?

On the verge of tears…all the time?

Having stomachaches from anxiety?

Are you exhausted?

Feeling cranky?

Having dramatic mood swings?

Yeah, that’s stress. 

Stress is your body’s physical and emotional reaction to a condition or event that is a challenge. It’s a normal reaction to being unable to cope with mental or emotional pressures. 

What causes stress in college students?

In college, the most common causes of stress are coursework, exams, and the pressure to get good grades. Other common causes for stress are related to relationships and finances.

College students worry about their academic performance, because their scholarships or financial aid might depend on maintaining a certain GPA.

College is much more challenging than high school. Navigating the academic challenges of college for the first time is bound to induce stress. 

Stress in college could also come from trying to work and go to college. Worrying about how to pay for tuition, room and board, and other expenses is a huge source of stress college students face.

Students may experience stress from relationships with family members and friends, roommate issues, feeling homesick, or feeling lonely among strangers.  

New levels of responsibility and independence can also cause stress in college. Romantic relationships, loss, or other factors can also cause stress for college students.

What are the three types of stress? 

Acute stress is short-term. It’s the feeling you get when a deadline is looming or you’re late for class. 

Episodic acute stress is when acute stress happens regularly. This can be when you’re repeatedly behind on coursework or constantly juggling bills. 

Chronic stress is when stressors continue over a long period of time.

This can be caused by any situation that seems like it is never-ending and impossible to improve. Small amounts of stress over time lead to chronic stress.

What are the Symptoms of stress?

Knowing the symptoms of stress will help you manage stress in college. When you are stressed, you may experience these symptoms: 

Physical symptoms of stress

• An increased heart rate
• Breathing faster and heavier or having shortness of breath
• Muscle tension
• Headaches or jaw tension
• Stomachaches 
• Shakiness and increased sweating
• Panic attacks
• Digestive issues

Emotional symptoms of stress

• Mood swings 
• Irritability or anger
• Feelings of being overwhelmed, helplessness, or hopeless
• Emotional exhaustion

Behavioral symptoms of stress

• Loss of or increase in appetite
• Procrastinating
• Having trouble sleeping and feeling exhausted
• Increased use of caffeine
• Increased use of alcohol, smoking/vaping, or drugs
• Fidgeting/inability to sit still
• Compulsive shopping

Cognitive symptoms of stress

• Being unable to stop worrying
• Being disorganized
• Not being able to concentrate or focus
• Thinking about too many things at once

Stress Management Techniques for College students

How to manage anxiety and stress in college.

Here are 13 ideas for how to deal with stress at college.

Managing stress as a student is a challenge all college students face. Try these techniques for learning how to deal with college stress.

1. Take a deep breath

In fact, take lots of deep breaths. Meditation and mindfulness are easy-to-practice relaxation techniques that you can do anywhere.

You can meditate in your room with an app or in a meditation class. Deep breathing will help calm your mind and allow you to focus.

Try yoga to help you engage with your breathing and slow your mind.

2. Make a plan

Evaluate what you have to do to meet all of your responsibilities, and prioritize your most important tasks.

What are your assignments and deadlines for your classes? What are your job obligations? What else are you committed to doing?

Keep track of everything you have to do and make a step-by-step plan to get it all done.

Just start by looking at this week (or even just today). Divide your to-do list into smaller tasks that feel more manageable.

Having a great planner will help you manage all your assignments and plan your life.

3. Set realistic expectations

You may have to scale back on the hours you work, social activities, or extracurricular activities.

If you’re really struggling in a class, use a final exam calculator to determine what grade you need to get on your final exam to get the overall course grade you want.

If you’re doing really poorly in a class, you may need to drop it so you can focus on the ones you’re going to pass.

If you’re planning your courses for next semester, choose a course load that you can handle without feeling overwhelmed.

Don’t be afraid to say no to opportunities you just don’t have the time or bandwidth for. 

4. Ask for help

If you’re struggling in your courses, communicate with your professors. Be sure to go to office hours and tutoring sessions to get extra help.

Ask for extensions if you need them.

Check out tutoring services, writing centers, and other resources on campus that can help you catch up. 

5. Don’t procrastinate

Follow your plan. Procrastination might feel like stress relief in the moment, but it comes with a cost.

Manage your time wisely so you aren’t pulling all-nighters and feeling worse about your situation. Good time management will help alleviate stress.

6. Spend time with friends and family

Yes, you’ve got SO MUCH to do, but spending time with your friends will give you perspective and support. If you’re lucky, you’ll have a good laugh too.

If your family is a good support system, give them a call or text to catch up.

Social isolation or relying mainly on social media for connections isn’t a great way to deal with stress.

Getting emotional support from your family and friends will go a long way toward alleviating your stress.

Spending time with people you care about is an effective way to cope with stress. Social support is a very important part of stress management.

7. Get some exercise

Even if you do lots of walking around campus, you might need more hard-core exercise to beat stress.

Go for a long run or try lifting weights. Take a spin class. Sign up for an intermural team (bonus—you will also get to socialize!)

Try to find the time for at least thirty minutes of physical activity five days a week. 

When you exercise, your body releases endorphins, natural mood-boosting chemicals that help reduce stress and anxiety.

Additionally, regular exercise can help improve sleep quality, increase energy levels, and reduce muscle tension, all of which can help reduce stress levels and improve your overall health.

If you run at night, take these precautions to stay safe .

8. Eat healthy food

Your physical health is essential to fighting stress, and a healthy diet is a great way to start.

Your body needs a healthy, balanced diet with nutritious foods and plenty of water to stay well. Try to avoid fast food, especially fried foods. Eat fresh fruits and vegetables instead.

Feeling stressed may make you forget to eat, or it might make you stress-eat, but eating healthy foods will help you handle stress and feel better.

9. Limit caffeine and avoid alcohol

You might think you need another coffee or energy drink to manage all your work, but too much caffeine will make you feel worse when the effects wear off.

And you may want alcohol to destress, but it won’t make you feel better in the long run. 

10. Use mental health resources

Every college has mental health services, usually both online and in person.

Connect with these resources as soon as possible if you are feeling overwhelmed. Colleges have trained professionals who want to help you!

You can also get help from off-campus counseling centers or therapists. If you are struggling with stress, reach out for professional medical advice.

If you are feeling emotional distress or are having a mental health crisis, please call the suicide and crisis lifeline by dialing 988 in the United States. The suicide and crisis lifeline (formerly known as the suicide prevention lifeline) is staffed 24/7 and you can talk to someone for free.

11. Spend some time in nature

Spending time in nature is a great way to feel less stress.

Take a minute to walk through your favorite part of campus or explore a nearby garden or park.

Getting some fresh air and looking nature will do wonders to help you destress. 

The sights, smells, and sounds of nature can soothe your senses and promote a sense of calm. Even just 10 minutes outside can reduce college students’ levels of stress.

12. Treat yourself to self-care

Take a break and relax.

Get a massage to relax knotted muscles. A massage can also help you reset emotionally and get better sleep.

Try aromatherapy or put a heat pack on sore muscles.

Listen to your favorite music.

Take time to do something you love to do, like playing an instrument or watching a favorite movie with a friend. 

Make taking care of yourself part of your daily routine.

13. Get plenty of sleep 

Getting enough sleep so important to combatting stress. College students should aim to get at least 7-9 hours of sleep per night. 

Make sure your bedroom is quiet and conducive to sleep . Go to bed at a reasonable time.

If you share your dorm room with a roommate, talk to them about trying to get more sleep. Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time each day. 

Sleep is essential for overall physical and mental health, including memory consolidation, mood regulation, and immune system function. 

You need need adequate rest to stay alert and focused during classes and study sessions

Final Thoughts

Stress is an unavoidable aspect of college life, whether you’re working on a bachelor’s or master’s degree.

While stress is a normal part of the college experience, there are several practical strategies that students can use to minimize its negative effects.

These include practicing self-care, such as getting enough sleep, eating well, and exercising regularly; managing time effectively by prioritizing tasks and taking breaks; seeking support from friends, family, or mental health professionals; and spending time in nature or engaging in other stress-reducing activities.

Learning stress management techniques to reduce stress in college will help you succeed in college and prepare you for life after college.

Managing stress in college is essential for maintaining good mental and physical health, and for achieving academic success.

Remember that everyone’s experience with stress is different, and what works for one person may not work for another. Experiment with different strategies and find what works best for you.

Know that you’re not in it alone and you can find solutions for managing stress in college! You got this!

You might also like to read:

• What’s the difference between a practicum and an internship?
• Best fall activities for college students
• College checking accounts

Best Coffee Makers for College

113 Fun Questions to Ask a Potential College Roommate 

Best Mattress Toppers for College Dorm Beds (and Why You Need One!)

Graduate of Brown University, higher ed professional, and mom of three. Sharing everything I’ve learned about college with you.

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Academic Stress and Mental Well-Being in College Students: Correlations, Affected Groups, and COVID-19

Georgia barbayannis.

1 Department of Neurology, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, United States

Mahindra Bandari

Xiang zheng.

2 Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, United States

Humberto Baquerizo

3 Office for Diversity and Community Engagement, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, United States

Keith W. Pecor

4 Department of Biology, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ, United States

Associated Data

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Academic stress may be the single most dominant stress factor that affects the mental well-being of college students. Some groups of students may experience more stress than others, and the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic could further complicate the stress response. We surveyed 843 college students and evaluated whether academic stress levels affected their mental health, and if so, whether there were specific vulnerable groups by gender, race/ethnicity, year of study, and reaction to the pandemic. Using a combination of scores from the Perception of Academic Stress Scale (PAS) and the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (SWEMWBS), we found a significant correlation between worse academic stress and poor mental well-being in all the students, who also reported an exacerbation of stress in response to the pandemic. In addition, SWEMWBS scores revealed the lowest mental health and highest academic stress in non-binary individuals, and the opposite trend was observed for both the measures in men. Furthermore, women and non-binary students reported higher academic stress than men, as indicated by PAS scores. The same pattern held as a reaction to COVID-19-related stress. PAS scores and responses to the pandemic varied by the year of study, but no obvious patterns emerged. These results indicate that academic stress in college is significantly correlated to psychological well-being in the students who responded to this survey. In addition, some groups of college students are more affected by stress than others, and additional resources and support should be provided to them.

Introduction

Late adolescence and emerging adulthood are transitional periods marked by major physiological and psychological changes, including elevated stress (Hogan and Astone, 1986 ; Arnett, 2000 ; Shanahan, 2000 ; Spear, 2000 ; Scales et al., 2015 ; Romeo et al., 2016 ; Barbayannis et al., 2017 ; Chiang et al., 2019 ; Lally and Valentine-French, 2019 ; Matud et al., 2020 ). This pattern is particularly true for college students. According to a 2015 American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment survey, three in four college students self-reported feeling stressed, while one in five college students reported stress-related suicidal ideation (Liu, C. H., et al., 2019 ; American Psychological Association, 2020 ). Studies show that a stressor experienced in college may serve as a predictor of mental health diagnoses (Pedrelli et al., 2015 ; Liu, C. H., et al., 2019 ; Karyotaki et al., 2020 ). Indeed, many mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and substance abuse disorder, begin during this period (Blanco et al., 2008 ; Pedrelli et al., 2015 ; Saleh et al., 2017 ; Reddy et al., 2018 ; Liu, C. H., et al., 2019 ).

Stress experienced by college students is multi-factorial and can be attributed to a variety of contributing factors (Reddy et al., 2018 ; Karyotaki et al., 2020 ). A growing body of evidence suggests that academic-related stress plays a significant role in college (Misra and McKean, 2000 ; Dusselier et al., 2005 ; Elias et al., 2011 ; Bedewy and Gabriel, 2015 ; Hj Ramli et al., 2018 ; Reddy et al., 2018 ; Pascoe et al., 2020 ). For instance, as many as 87% of college students surveyed across the United States cited education as their primary source of stress (American Psychological Association, 2020 ). College students are exposed to novel academic stressors, such as an extensive academic course load, substantial studying, time management, classroom competition, financial concerns, familial pressures, and adapting to a new environment (Misra and Castillo, 2004 ; Byrd and McKinney, 2012 ; Ekpenyong et al., 2013 ; Bedewy and Gabriel, 2015 ; Ketchen Lipson et al., 2015 ; Pedrelli et al., 2015 ; Reddy et al., 2018 ; Liu, C. H., et al., 2019 ; Freire et al., 2020 ; Karyotaki et al., 2020 ). Academic stress can reduce motivation, hinder academic achievement, and lead to increased college dropout rates (Pascoe et al., 2020 ).

Academic stress has also been shown to negatively impact mental health in students (Li and Lin, 2003 ; Eisenberg et al., 2009 ; Green et al., 2021 ). Mental, or psychological, well-being is one of the components of positive mental health, and it includes happiness, life satisfaction, stress management, and psychological functioning (Ryan and Deci, 2001 ; Tennant et al., 2007 ; Galderisi et al., 2015 ; Trout and Alsandor, 2020 ; Defeyter et al., 2021 ; Green et al., 2021 ). Positive mental health is an understudied but important area that helps paint a more comprehensive picture of overall mental health (Tennant et al., 2007 ; Margraf et al., 2020 ). Moreover, positive mental health has been shown to be predictive of both negative and positive mental health indicators over time (Margraf et al., 2020 ). Further exploring the relationship between academic stress and mental well-being is important because poor mental well-being has been shown to affect academic performance in college (Tennant et al., 2007 ; Eisenberg et al., 2009 ; Freire et al., 2016 ).

Perception of academic stress varies among different groups of college students (Lee et al., 2021 ). For instance, female college students report experiencing increased stress than their male counterparts (Misra et al., 2000 ; Eisenberg et al., 2007 ; Evans et al., 2018 ; Lee et al., 2021 ). Male and female students also respond differently to stressors (Misra et al., 2000 ; Verma et al., 2011 ). Moreover, compared to their cisgender peers, non-binary students report increased stressors and mental health issues (Budge et al., 2020 ). The academic year of study of the college students has also been shown to impact academic stress levels (Misra and McKean, 2000 ; Elias et al., 2011 ; Wyatt et al., 2017 ; Liu, C. H., et al., 2019 ; Defeyter et al., 2021 ). While several studies indicate that racial/ethnic minority groups of students, including Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Asian American students, are more likely to experience anxiety, depression, and suicidality than their white peers (Lesure-Lester and King, 2004 ; Lipson et al., 2018 ; Liu, C. H., et al., 2019 ; Kodish et al., 2022 ), these studies are limited and often report mixed or inconclusive findings (Liu, C. H., et al., 2019 ; Kodish et al., 2022 ). Therefore, more studies should be conducted to address this gap in research to help identify subgroups that may be disproportionately impacted by academic stress and lower well-being.

The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic is a major stressor that has led to a mental health crisis (American Psychological Association, 2020 ; Dong and Bouey, 2020 ). For college students, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant changes and disruptions to daily life, elevated stress levels, and mental and physical health deterioration (American Psychological Association, 2020 ; Husky et al., 2020 ; Patsali et al., 2020 ; Son et al., 2020 ; Clabaugh et al., 2021 ; Lee et al., 2021 ; Lopes and Nihei, 2021 ; Yang et al., 2021 ). While any college student is vulnerable to these stressors, these concerns are amplified for members of minority groups (Salerno et al., 2020 ; Clabaugh et al., 2021 ; McQuaid et al., 2021 ; Prowse et al., 2021 ; Kodish et al., 2022 ). Identifying students at greatest risk provides opportunities to offer support, resources, and mental health services to specific subgroups.

The overall aim of this study was to assess academic stress and mental well-being in a sample of college students. Within this umbrella, we had several goals. First, to determine whether a relationship exists between the two constructs of perceived academic stress, measured by the Perception of Academic Stress Scale (PAS), and mental well-being, measured by the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (SWEMWBS), in college students. Second, to identify groups that could experience differential levels of academic stress and mental health. Third, to explore how the perception of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic affected stress levels. We hypothesized that students who experienced more academic stress would have worse psychological well-being and that certain groups of students would be more impacted by academic- and COVID-19-related stress.

Materials and Methods

Survey instrument.

A survey was developed that included all questions from the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being (Tennant et al., 2007 ; Stewart-Brown and Janmohamed, 2008 ) and from the Perception of Academic Stress Scale (Bedewy and Gabriel, 2015 ). The Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale is a seven-item scale designed to measure mental well-being and positive mental health (Tennant et al., 2007 ; Fung, 2019 ; Shah et al., 2021 ). The Perception of Academic Stress Scale is an 18-item scale designed to assess sources of academic stress perceived by individuals and measures three main academic stressors: academic expectations, workload and examinations, and academic self-perceptions of students (Bedewy and Gabriel, 2015 ). These shorter scales were chosen to increase our response and study completion rates (Kost and de Rosa, 2018 ). Both tools have been shown to be valid and reliable in college students with Likert scale responses (Tennant et al., 2007 ; Bedewy and Gabriel, 2015 ; Ringdal et al., 2018 ; Fung, 2019 ; Koushede et al., 2019 ). Both the SWEMWBS and PAS scores are a summation of responses to the individual questions in the instruments. For the SWEMWBS questions, a higher score indicates better mental health, and scores range from 7 to 35. Similarly, the PAS questions are phrased such that a higher score indicates lower levels of stress, and scores range from 18 to 90. We augmented the survey with demographic questions (e.g., age, gender, and race/ethnicity) at the beginning of the survey and two yes/no questions and one Likert scale question about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of our survey.

Participants for the study were self-reported college students between the ages of 18 and 30 years who resided in the United States, were fluent in English, and had Internet access. Participants were solicited through Prolific ( https://prolific.co ) in October 2021. A total of 1,023 individuals enrolled in the survey. Three individuals did not agree to participate after beginning the survey. Two were not fluent in English. Thirteen individuals indicated that they were not college students. Two were not in the 18–30 age range, and one was located outside of the United States. Of the remaining individuals, 906 were full-time students and 96 were part-time students. Given the skew of the data and potential differences in these populations, we removed the part-time students. Of the 906 full-time students, 58 indicated that they were in their fifth year of college or higher. We understand that not every student completes their undergraduate studies in 4 years, but we did not want to have a mixture of undergraduate and graduate students with no way to differentiate them. Finally, one individual reported their age as a non-number, and four individuals did not answer a question about their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This yielded a final sample of 843 college students.

Data Analyses

After reviewing the dataset, some variables were removed from consideration due to a lack of consistency (e.g., some students reported annual income for themselves and others reported family income) or heterogeneity that prevented easy categorization (e.g., field of study). We settled on four variables of interest: gender, race/ethnicity, year in school, and response to the COVID-19 pandemic ( Table 1 ). Gender was coded as female, male, or non-binary. Race/ethnicity was coded as white or Caucasian; Black or African American; East Asian; Hispanic, Latino, or of Spanish origin; or other. Other was used for groups that were not well-represented in the sample and included individuals who identified themselves as Middle Eastern, Native American or Alaskan Native, and South Asian, as well as individuals who chose “other” or “prefer not to answer” on the survey. The year of study was coded as one through four, and COVID-19 stress was coded as two groups, no change/neutral response/reduced stress or increased stress.

Characteristics of the participants in the study.

Our first goal was to determine whether there was a relationship between self-reported academic stress and mental health, and we found a significant correlation (see Results section). Given the positive correlation, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with a model testing the main effects of gender, race/ethnicity, and year of study was run in SPSS v 26.0. A factorial MANOVA would have been ideal, but our data were drawn from a convenience sample, which did not give equal representation to all groupings, and some combinations of gender, race/ethnicity, and year of study were poorly represented (e.g., a single individual). As such, we determined that it would be better to have a lack of interaction terms as a limitation to the study than to provide potentially spurious results. Finally, we used chi-square analyses to assess the effect of potential differences in the perception of the COVID-19 pandemic on stress levels in general among the groups in each category (gender, race/ethnicity, and year of study).

In terms of internal consistency, Cronbach's alpha was 0.82 for the SMEMWBS and 0.86 for the PAS. A variety of descriptors have been applied to Cronbach's alpha values. That said, 0.7 is often considered a threshold value in terms of acceptable internal consistency, and our values could be considered “high” or “good” (Taber, 2018 ).

The participants in our study were primarily women (78.5% of respondents; Table 1 ). Participants were not equally distributed among races/ethnicities, with the majority of students selecting white or Caucasian (66.4% of responders; Table 1 ), or years of study, with fewer first-year students than other groups ( Table 1 ).

Students who reported higher academic stress also reported worse mental well-being in general, irrespective of age, gender, race/ethnicity, or year of study. PAS and SWEMWBS scores were significantly correlated ( r = 0.53, p < 0.001; Figure 1 ), indicating that a higher level of perceived academic stress is associated with worse mental well-being in college students within the United States.

SWEMWBS and PAS scores for all participants.

Among the subgroups of students, women, non-binary students, and second-year students reported higher academic stress levels and worse mental well-being ( Table 2 ; Figures 2 – 4 ). In addition, the combined measures differed significantly between the groups in each category ( Table 2 ). However, as measured by partial eta squared, the effect sizes were relatively small, given the convention of 0.01 = small, 0.06 = medium, and 0.14 = large differences (Lakens, 2013 ). As such, there were only two instances in which Tukey's post-hoc tests revealed more than one statistical grouping ( Figures 2 – 4 ). For SWEMWBS score by gender, women were intermediate between men (high) and non-binary individuals (low) and not significantly different from either group ( Figure 2 ). Second-year students had the lowest PAS scores for the year of study, and first-year students had the highest scores. Third- and fourth-year students were intermediate and not statistically different from the other two groups ( Figure 4 ). There were no pairwise differences in academic stress levels or mental well-being among racial/ethnic groups.

Results of the MANOVA.

SWEMWBS and PAS scores according to gender (mean ± SEM). Different letters for SWEMWBS scores indicate different statistical groupings ( p < 0.05).

SWEMWBS and PAS scores according to year in college (mean ± SEM). Different letters for PAS scores indicate different statistical groupings ( p < 0.05).

SWEMWBS and PAS scores according to race/ethnicity (mean ± SEM).

The findings varied among categories in terms of stress responses due to the COVID-19 pandemic ( Table 3 ). For gender, men were less likely than women or non-binary individuals to report increased stress from COVID-19 (χ 2 = 27.98, df = 2, p < 0.001). All racial/ethnic groups responded similarly to the pandemic (χ 2 = 3.41, df = 4, p < 0.49). For the year of study, first-year students were less likely than other cohorts to report increased stress from COVID-19 (χ 2 = 9.38, df = 3, p < 0.03).

Impact of COVID-19 on stress level by gender, race/ethnicity, and year of study.

Our primary findings showed a positive correlation between perceived academic stress and mental well-being in United States college students, suggesting that academic stressors, including academic expectations, workload and grading, and students' academic self-perceptions, are equally important as psychological well-being. Overall, irrespective of gender, race/ethnicity, or year of study, students who reported higher academic stress levels experienced diminished mental well-being. The utilization of well-established scales and a large sample size are strengths of this study. Our results extend and contribute to the existing literature on stress by confirming findings from past studies that reported higher academic stress and lower psychological well-being in college students utilizing the same two scales (Green et al., 2021 ; Syed, 2021 ). To our knowledge, the majority of other prior studies with similar findings examined different components of stress, studied negative mental health indicators, used different scales or methods, employed smaller sample sizes, or were conducted in different countries (Li and Lin, 2003 ; American Psychological Association, 2020 ; Husky et al., 2020 ; Pascoe et al., 2020 ; Patsali et al., 2020 ; Clabaugh et al., 2021 ; Lee et al., 2021 ; Lopes and Nihei, 2021 ; Yang et al., 2021 ).

This study also demonstrated that college students are not uniformly impacted by academic stress or pandemic-related stress and that there are significant group-level differences in mental well-being. Specifically, non-binary individuals and second-year students were disproportionately impacted by academic stress. When considering the effects of gender, non-binary students, in comparison to gender-conforming students, reported the highest stress levels and worst psychological well-being. Although there is a paucity of research examining the impact of academic stress in non-binary college students, prior studies have indicated that non-binary adults face adverse mental health outcomes when compared to male and female-identifying individuals (Thorne et al., 2018 ; Jones et al., 2019 ; Budge et al., 2020 ). Alarmingly, Lipson et al. ( 2019 ) found that gender non-conforming college students were two to four times more likely to experience mental health struggles than cisgender students (Lipson et al., 2019 ). With a growing number of college students in the United States identifying as as non-binary, additional studies could offer invaluable insight into how academic stress affects this population (Budge et al., 2020 ).

In addition, we found that second-year students reported the most academic-related distress and lowest psychological well-being relative to students in other years of study. We surmise this may be due to this group taking advanced courses, managing heavier academic workloads, and exploring different majors. Other studies support our findings and suggest higher stress levels could be attributed to increased studying and difficulties with time management, as well as having less well-established social support networks and coping mechanisms compared to upperclassmen (Allen and Hiebert, 1991 ; Misra and McKean, 2000 ; Liu, X et al., 2019 ). Benefiting from their additional experience, upperclassmen may have developed more sophisticated studying skills, formed peer support groups, and identified approaches to better manage their academic stress (Allen and Hiebert, 1991 ; Misra and McKean, 2000 ). Our findings suggest that colleges should consider offering tailored mental health resources, such as time management and study skill workshops, based on the year of study to improve students' stress levels and psychological well-being (Liu, X et al., 2019 ).

Although this study reported no significant differences regarding race or ethnicity, this does not indicate that minority groups experienced less academic stress or better mental well-being (Lee et al., 2021 ). Instead, our results may reflect the low sample size of non-white races/ethnicities, which may not have given enough statistical power to corroborate. In addition, since coping and resilience are important mediators of subjective stress experiences (Freire et al., 2020 ), we speculate that the lower ratios of stress reported in non-white participants in our study (75 vs. 81) may be because they are more accustomed to adversity and thereby more resilient (Brown, 2008 ; Acheampong et al., 2019 ). Furthermore, ethnic minority students may face stigma when reporting mental health struggles (Liu, C. H., et al., 2019 ; Lee et al., 2021 ). For instance, studies showed that Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Asian American students disclose fewer mental health issues than white students (Liu, C. H., et al., 2019 ; Lee et al., 2021 ). Moreover, the ability to identify stressors and mental health problems may manifest differently culturally for some minority groups (Huang and Zane, 2016 ; Liu, C. H., et al., 2019 ). Contrary to our findings, other studies cited racial disparities in academic stress levels and mental well-being of students. More specifically, Negga et al. ( 2007 ) concluded that African American college students were more susceptible to higher academic stress levels than their white classmates (Negga et al., 2007 ). Another study reported that minority students experienced greater distress and worse mental health outcomes compared to non-minority students (Smith et al., 2014 ). Since there may be racial disparities in access to mental health services at the college level, universities, professors, and counselors should offer additional resources to support these students while closely monitoring their psychological well-being (Lipson et al., 2018 ; Liu, C. H., et al., 2019 ).

While the COVID-19 pandemic increased stress levels in all the students included in our study, women, non-binary students, and upperclassmen were disproportionately affected. An overwhelming body of evidence suggests that the majority of college students experienced increased stress levels and worsening mental health as a result of the pandemic (Allen and Hiebert, 1991 ; American Psychological Association, 2020 ; Husky et al., 2020 ; Patsali et al., 2020 ; Son et al., 2020 ; Clabaugh et al., 2021 ; Lee et al., 2021 ; Yang et al., 2021 ). Our results also align with prior studies that found similar subgroups of students experience disproportionate pandemic-related distress (Gao et al., 2020 ; Clabaugh et al., 2021 ; Hunt et al., 2021 ; Jarrett et al., 2021 ; Lee et al., 2021 ; Chen and Lucock, 2022 ). In particular, the differences between female students and their male peers may be the result of different psychological and physiological responses to stress reactivity, which in turn may contribute to different coping mechanisms to stress and the higher rates of stress-related disorders experienced by women (Misra et al., 2000 ; Kajantie and Phillips, 2006 ; Verma et al., 2011 ; Gao et al., 2020 ; Graves et al., 2021 ). COVID-19 was a secondary consideration in our study and survey design, so the conclusions drawn here are necessarily limited.

The implications of this study are that college students facing increased stress and struggling with mental health issues should receive personalized and specific mental health services, resources, and support. This is particularly true for groups that have been disproportionately impacted by academic stress and stress due to the pandemic. Many students who experience mental health struggles underutilize college services due to cost, stigma, or lack of information (Cage et al., 2020 ; Lee et al., 2021 ). To raise awareness and destigmatize mental health, colleges can consider distributing confidential validated assessments, such as the PAS and SWEMWBS, in class and teach students to self-score (Lee et al., 2021 ). These results can be used to understand how academic stress and mental well-being change over time and allow for specific and targeted interventions for vulnerable groups. In addition, teaching students healthy stress management techniques has been shown to improve psychological well-being (Alborzkouh et al., 2015 ). Moreover, adaptive coping strategies, including social and emotional support, have been found to improve the mental well-being of students, and stress-reduction peer support groups and workshops on campus could be beneficial in reducing stress and improving the self-efficacy of students (Ruthig et al., 2009 ; Baqutayan, 2011 ; Bedewy and Gabriel, 2015 ; Freire et al., 2020 ; Green et al., 2021 ; Suresh et al., 2021 ). Other interventions that have been effective in improving the coping skills of college students include cognitive-behavioral therapy, mindfulness mediation, and online coping tools (Kang et al., 2009 ; Regehr et al., 2013 ; Molla Jafar et al., 2015 ; Phang et al., 2015 ; Houston et al., 2017 ; Yusufov et al., 2019 ; Freire et al., 2020 ). Given that resilience has also been shown to help mediate stress and improve mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, interventions focusing on enhancing resilience should be considered (Surzykiewicz et al., 2021 ; Skalski et al., 2022 ). Telemental health resources across colleges can also be implemented to reduce stigma and improve at-risk students' access to care (Toscos et al., 2018 ; Hadler et al., 2021 ). University campuses, professors, and counselors should consider focusing on fostering a more equitable and inclusive environment to encourage marginalized students to seek mental health support (Budge et al., 2020 ).

Limitations

While our study has numerous strengths, including using standardized instruments and a large sample size, this study also has several limitations due to both the methodology and sample. First, the correlational study design precludes making any causal relationships (Misra and McKean, 2000 ). Thereby, our findings should be taken in the context of academic stress and mental well-being, and recognize that mental health could be caused by other non-academic factors. Second, the PAS comprised only the perception of responses to academic stress, but stress is a multi-factorial response that encompasses both perceptions and coping mechanisms to different stressors, and the magnitude of stress varies with the perception of the degree of uncontrollability, unpredictability, or threat to self (Miller, 1981 ; Hobfoll and Walfisch, 1984 ; Lazarus and Folkman, 1984 ; Wheaton, 1985 ; Perrewé and Zellars, 1999 ; Schneiderman et al., 2005 ; Bedewy and Gabriel, 2015 ; Schönfeld et al., 2016 ; Reddy et al., 2018 ; Freire et al., 2020 ; Karyotaki et al., 2020 ). Third, the SWEMSBS used in our study and the data only measured positive mental health. Mental health pathways are numerous and complex, and are composed of distinct and interdependent negative and positive indicators that should be considered together (Margraf et al., 2020 ). Fourth, due to the small effect sizes and unequal representation for different combinations of variables, our analysis for both the PAS and SWEMSBS included only summed-up scales and did not examine group differences in response to the type of academic stressors or individual mental health questions.

An additional limitation is that the participants in our study were a convenience sample. The testing service we used, prolific.co, self-reports a sample bias toward young women of high levels of education (i.e., WEIRD bias) (Team Prolific, 2018 ). The skew toward this population was observed in our data, as 80% of our participants were women. While we controlled for these factors, the possibility remains that the conclusions we draw for certain groups, such as nonbinary students, ethnic/racial minorities, and men, may not be as statistically powerful as they should be. Moreover, our pre-screening was designed to recruit undergraduate level, English-speaking, 18–30-year-olds who resided in the United States. This resulted in our participant demographics being skewed toward the WEIRD bias that was already inherent in the testing service we used. Future research will aim to be more inclusive of diverse races/ethnicities, sexual orientations, languages, educational backgrounds, socioeconomic backgrounds, and first-generation college students.

Another limitation of our study is the nature of satisficing. Satisficing is a response strategy in which a participant answers a question to satisfy its condition with little regard to the quality or accuracy of the answer (Roberts et al., 2019 ). Anonymous participants are more likely to satisfice than respondents who answer the question face-to-face (Krosnick et al., 2002 ). We sought to mitigate satisficing by offering financial incentives to increase response rates and decrease straight-lining, item skipping, total missing items, and non-completion (Cole et al., 2015 ). Concerns of poor data quality due to surveys offering financial incentives found little evidence to support that claim and may do the opposite (Cole et al., 2015 ). On the other hand, social desirability bias may have influenced the participant's self-reported responses, although our anonymous survey design aimed to reduce this bias (Joinson, 1999 ; Kecojevic et al., 2020 ).

Future Studies

Future studies should replicate our study to validate our results, conduct longitudinal cohort studies to examine well-being and perceived academic stress over time, and aim for a more representative student sample that includes various groups, including diverse races/ethnicities, sexual orientations, socioeconomic backgrounds, languages, educational levels, and first-generation college students. Additionally, these studies should consider examining other non-academic stressors and students' coping mechanisms, both of which contribute to mental health and well-being (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984 ; Freire et al., 2020 ). Further explorations of negative and other positive indicators of mental health may offer a broader perspective (Margraf et al., 2020 ). Moreover, future research should consider extending our work by exploring group differences in relation to each factor in the PAS (i.e., academic expectations, workload and examinations, and self-perception of students) and SWEMBS to determine which aspects of academic stress and mental health were most affected and allow for the devising of targeted stress-reduction approaches. Ultimately, we hope our research spurs readers into advocating for greater academic support and access to group-specific mental health resources to reduce the stress levels of college students and improve their mental well-being.

Utilizing two well-established scales, our research found a statistically significant correlation between the perceived academic stress of university students and their mental well-being (i.e., the higher the stress, the worse the well-being). This relationship was most apparent among gender and grade levels. More specifically, non-binary and second-year students experienced greater academic burden and lower psychological well-being. Moreover, women, non-binary students, and upper-level students were disproportionately impacted by stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Studies regarding broad concepts of stress and well-being using a questionnaire are limited, but our study adds value to the understanding of academic stress as a contributor to the overall well-being of college students during this specific point in time (i.e., the COVID-19 pandemic). Competition both for admission to college (Bound et al., 2009 ) and during college (Posselt and Lipson, 2016 ) has increased over time. Further, selective American colleges and universities draw applicants from a global pool. As such, it is important to document the dynamics of academic stress with renewed focus. We hope that our study sparks interest in both exploring and funding in-depth and well-designed psychological studies related to stress in colleges in the future.

Data Availability Statement

Ethics statement.

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Institutional Review Board at Rutgers University. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author Contributions

GB and MB contributed to conceptualization, study design, IRB application, manuscript drafting, and revision. XZ participated in the conceptualization and design of the questionnaires. HB participated in subject recruitment and questionnaire collection. KP contributed to data analysis, table and figure preparation, manuscript drafting, and revision. XM contributed to conceptualization, study design, IRB application, supervision of the project, manuscript drafting, and revision. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This study was made possible by a generous donation from the Knights of Columbus East Hanover Chapter in New Jersey.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Shivani Mehta and Varsha Garla for their assistance with the study. We also thank all the participants for their efforts in the completion of the study.

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Managing Stress as a College Student

For a recorded audio introduction to "Stress Management and Biofeedback Services" click the link below. "Introduction to Biofeedback" Written and read by Dr. Mike Maughan, Ph.D.

Introduction

Our individual stress level, scheduling and preparation, use of energy, getting closer to the lord, daily relaxation, sound thinking, resolving anger, increasing our love.

• Exercise & Recreation

Nutritious Food

Doing something permanent, structuring relationships, our expectations, reinterpretation of the stress.

This article has been written to provide students with some ways to handle the stress of college. Many of the ideas are particularly directed toward members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an effort has been made to integrate stress management techniques with scriptural references. The basic stress reduction techniques are, however, universally recognized and have direct application to students of different religious denominations. The article is not intended to include an extensive list of stress management procedures, but instead, some selected methods which students have found useful.

Stress is a common and natural condition of our mortal existence. It arises through our daily efforts to achieve goals, relate with others, and adjust to the demands of living in an ever changing world. It is a part of the "opposition in all things" referred to in the scriptures. (1) We often view stress as a negative element in our lives and seek to reduce or eliminate it. We forget that there can be a great deal of growth from learning how to deal with stressful situations. Dr. Hans Selye, an authority on stress, states, "Our aim shouldn't be to completely avoid stress, which at any rate would be impossible, but to learn how to recognize our typical response to stress and then try to modulate our lives in accordance with it." (2)

It is easy to become depressed when there is too much stress in our lives. Elder Boyd K. Packer explains a positive way to deal with such a condition in an address to LDS Church leaders:

We live in a day when the adversary stresses on every hand the philosophy of instant gratification. We seem to demand instant everything, including instant solutions to our problems. We are indoctrinated that somehow we should always be instantly emotionally comfortable. When that is not so, some become anxious--and all too frequently seek relief from counseling, from analysis, and even from medication. It was meant to be that life would be a challenge. To suffer some anxiety, some depression, some disappointment, even some failure is normal. Teach your members that if they have a good, miserable day once in a while, or several in a row, to stand steady and face them. Things will straighten out. There is a great purpose in our struggle in life. (3)

Elder Packer helps us see how accepting stress as a natural part of life can provide us strength in getting through tough times.

College is a particularly stressful time for most of us with the pressures of examinations, large amounts of reading, research papers, competition for grades, financial expenses, and social and career decisions. The remainder of this booklet contains suggestions on how students can effectively deal with stress rather than become discouraged and immobilized by it. These suggestions are supported by a major study conducted with university students which examined their most stressful challenges and how they dealt with them. (4)

"See that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that man should run faster than he has strength...." Mosiah 4:27

Each of us functions best at a particular stress level. When stress increases beyond that level, the effectiveness of our performance begins to drop. When we pass our peak of effectiveness we usually experience symptoms like forgetfulness, dulled senses, poor concentration, headaches, digestive upsets, restlessness, irritability, and anxiety. The occurrence of these symptoms can alert us to take steps to reduce our stress so our effectiveness can remain at a high level.

Dr. Selye suggests that some people have a "race horse" life-style and seem to thrive on intense activity while others prefer a "turtle" life-style and function best when their activity level is not intense. Trying to adopt a "turtle" life-style when we really prefer a "race horse" life-style, or vice-a-versa, can be stressful. An example of this concept was illustrated when a medical doctor told a "race horse" patient, who had just been diagnosed as having high blood pressure, to go home and take it easy. He told her to slow down and do more things like reading and handiwork. She tried this program for two weeks and told the doctor she was going crazy. The change from the "race horse" to the "turtle" life-style actually increased, rather than decreased, her blood pressure. After talking with the doctor, she adopted a moderate "race horse" level and consequently reduced her blood pressure as well as her stressful feelings. We need to trust ourselves as the authority on what is best for us. We should avoid comparing ourselves with others who seem to function with a higher degree of stress in their lives than we do. For example, we should register for the number of credit hours we think we can effectively handle even though our friends may register for more hours. Also, we should get the number of hours of sleep we need even though our roommates may function on fewer hours.

"Men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves...." D&C 58:27,28

Setting goals is a good stress management procedure. Without goals, we are likely to spend time and energy in an aimless way. We are encouraged by the Lord to avoid being idle and to be diligent in doing good things.

Setting our own goals is important. It is wise to listen to the suggestions of others, but when we finalize our goals, we need to give first priority to what we think will be best for our growth and happiness. We create problems when we try to fulfill the dreams of others. For example, if we are encouraged by others to become a medical doctor and we do poorly in chemistry and math, we will likely be miserable trying to reach that educational goal. As difficult as it might be, we need to pursue a career course compatible with our interests, values and abilities even though it may not guarantee us a high degree of social prestige and financial security.

It is important to set short-term goals which are easily obtainable as well as long-range goals. Reaching short-range goals gives us a feeling of accomplishment and motivates us to work toward long-range goals. We can be more at peace with ourselves at the end of the day if we think about what we have accomplished rather than what we have not done.

Once we select a goal, it is helpful to pre-experience it in our mind. Visualizing the steps we will take to obtain the goal increases the probability of actually reaching it. Successful athletes pre-experience over and over in their minds how they are going to perform in a game so as to be at their peak effectiveness once the game begins.

One mistake made in seeking a goal is to focus so much on reaching the goal that we fail to enjoy the process of getting to it. We enjoy life more when we find satisfaction in our immediate efforts rather than thinking how nice it is going to be when we finally arrive at our distant goal. For example, we enjoy a trip more if we decide to take an interest in the landmarks along the way rather than just enduring the ride until we arrive at our destination. Similarly, we enjoy a class more if we explore the content beyond what is required rather than just do the bare minimum to pass the class.

Another mistake is to set unrealistic goals or have so many that it is impossible to reach them. We frequently do this at the beginning of the semester. We soon become discouraged when we realize we have neither the time nor the energy to accomplish all of our goals. Recognizing our physical, mental and emotional limits is an important component to realistic goal setting.

"Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish even a house of prayer... a house of faith, a house of learning...a house of order, a house of God...." D&C 88:119

We usually feel stressed when we are unorganized or do not get done what we hoped to do in a certain period of time. Effective scheduling and planning can help ease such stress. There are many ways to schedule our time, but whatever method we use it is wise to keep the following points in mind. First, we need to be realistic and avoid over-scheduling ourselves. Most of us have a tendency to schedule too much for the time and energy we possess.

Second, we need to allow for unanticipated interruptions in our schedule. This means leaving some empty spaces during the day or in some way being flexible enough to handle interruptions. If the unexpected does not happen, time is available to do something we were saving until the next day.

Third, we should make our first appointment of each day with the Lord. Communicating with the Lord helps us remember that we are indebted to Him for our lives. The Lord preserves us from day to day and supports us from moment to moment. (5) Without that support, our daily schedule would mean nothing.

Fourth, we should schedule homework early in the day so it is less likely to be crowded out by unexpected events like meeting an old friend or having a roommate ask for help with one of his classes. Homework should be a part of each day's schedule. Students who participated in a major study on stress (results at the back of this pamphlet) , reported doing homework as the most frequently used method for reducing stress in their lives.

Fifth, it is wise to study in an environment which is conducive to study. We should pick a place which has few distractions and where we do nothing else but study. This should not be a place where we talk with friends, eat food, write letters, take naps, etc. When we are through studying, we need to leave that environment. This procedure will help us study more effectively.

Sixth, it is good to plan breaks in our study time to reduce mental fatigue. Breaks need to be short so we do not become distracted and lose interest in returning to our studies.

Seventh, it is helpful to reinforce ourselves for work we have completed. For example, once we have finished a particular assignment, we could reinforce ourselves with something like a game of basketball, talking to a friend, a movie, a treat, or a phone call to a loved one. We need to be careful with this procedure, however, so that the completion of the task comes before the reinforcement rather than the reverse.

Eighth, our daily schedule should include at least some time for doing what we want to do rather than just a long list of "have-to-dos." Looking forward to something each day is good for our mental health and can help prevent the feeling of burn-out.

Ninth, after we have made our schedule for the day, we should take a moment to visualize ourselves carrying out the schedule. This is similar to examining a blueprint of our activities before actually doing them. It is also similar to the Lord creating our world spiritually before creating it temporally. (6) For example, visualizing ourselves going to the library after our ten o'clock class instead of wandering over to the bookstore and looking through magazines increases the likelihood that we will actually go to the library. When we pre-experience in our mind how we will spend our time, we will be less tempted to become interested in non-productive "side-show" attractions.

Some days may feel overwhelming when we look at our schedule. If this is the case, it is helpful to concentrate on one thing at a time and avoid looking at the whole day. We will be amazed how quickly the tasks of the day will be completed.

"Cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated." D&C 88:124

Most of us have a high energy period during the day when we feel physically energetic and mentally alert. This period varies from early morning to late evening, depending on the individual. It is wise to do our most important and difficult tasks during our high energy time and leave less important tasks for low energy times. Since studying and attending class contribute more to success in school than anything else, it makes sense to schedule our study time and classes when our energy level is high so as to maximize our learning effectiveness.

It is easy to talk ourselves into believing that we will have more energy for our studies if we first take care of worrisome details like running errands, cleaning our apartment, grocery shopping, balancing our checkbook, or making phone calls. We think that if we can clear our mind of these details, we will be able to more fully concentrate on our studies. This belief is misleading. All of these details consume small units of energy which will not be available when we get around to studying those difficult chemistry and biology assignments. Also, we will have less motivation to do so. It is interesting to note that doing difficult tasks first is likely to energize us to do less difficult tasks afterward. Conversely, doing less difficult tasks first seldom energizes us to do more difficult tasks afterward. Thus, studying our hardest subjects before our easiest ones is likely to motivate us to do more studying overall.

"Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." D&C 88:63

Stress can occur when we are casual in our relationship with the Lord. It is easy to slip into the mode of only praying when we need something, only attending church meetings when our roommates attend, only reading the scriptures when we have a test in our religion class, or only helping our roommates when we absolutely have to. This pattern may not bother us much until we are called upon to perform a spiritual function like accepting a Church position or administering to the sick or praying for the Lord's help when a loved one experiences a tragedy. It is then that we clearly recognize the distance between ourselves and the Lord.

When our level of spirituality is high, we feel at peace with ourselves, others and God. We feel the Lord will support us and that things will somehow work together for our good. (7) When our level of spirituality is low, we are likely to feel lonely and anxious about the future. If we feel this way, we can always increase our closeness to the Lord by repenting of our sins, praying for companionship of the Spirit, reading the scriptures, and performing acts of service for others. Feeling close to the Lord helps us encounter any stressful situation in life.

"That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." I Timothy 2:2

Sleep and relaxation are valuable in preserving our physical and emotional health. When we are tired, it is more difficult to deal with stressful challenges than when we are rested.

Our bodies function best when we get adequate sleep. Most sleep experts suggest getting seven to eight hours of sleep a night but they recognize that the need for sleep varies for each individual. The Lord gives us some wise counsel about sleep. He encourages us to go to bed early and to arise early so our bodies and minds can be invigorated. (8)

Relaxation is most effective if it is incorporated into our daily life. One way to accomplish this is to let go of some tension in our muscles as we go about our daily tasks. We hold a lot of unnecessary tension in the body when we perform most functions, and those functions can be done just as effectively with less muscular tension. For example, we can let go of tension in our shoulders and arms as we walk to class, in our legs and back as we vacuum the carpet, in our jaw and neck as we take a test, and in our arms and hands as we drive our car.

Other ways of relaxing include doing something like knitting or drawing, taking a warm bath or shower, listening to music or playing a musical instrument, stretching or walking, reading or meditating, and using relaxation exercises like the three included at the end of this booklet.

"O be wise; what can I say more?" Jacob 6:12

The thoughts we give ourselves have a direct effect on our feelings. Our feelings are usually a result of how we perceive ourselves, others, and the events in our lives. For example, our anger at a messy roommate most likely comes from such thoughts as, "She is lazy. She ought to have more consideration for me. She deliberately lives like this to get me mad". Realistically speaking, it is not the roommate who makes us angry; instead, it is what we choose to tell ourselves about her behavior. We always have the choice of thinking thoughts that do not produce anger, such as, "She and I are different. Maybe she was never taught to keep things clean and organized. Hopefully, my example will help. Perhaps this is a good time for me to learn more patience. She does have a fun sense of humor even though she is messy." Calm feelings will begin to replace angry feelings when we use such statements. Remember, in most cases, it is our thoughts about the event which cause our stressful feelings - not the event itself.

Sound thinking involves checking out the intent of a person's behavior rather than making a hasty assumption about it. When someone says or does something which upsets us, it is best to ask him what he meant by his comments or actions. This helps us avoid making incorrect assumptions about the person, taking things personally, and saying or doing something we would later regret.

Sound thinking involves accepting our past decisions and using the outcomes from those decisions to make better decisions in the future. It is always easy to look back and see what we might have done without realizing we probably did the best we could at that time. Brooding over past decisions wastes time, gets us upset, restricts us from enjoying the present, and hinders us in planning for the future. When we think of the past and future, it is more beneficial to learn from the past and plan for the future than it is to feel guilty about the past and worry about the future. It is more constructive to think about past mistakes in terms of "next time" instead of "if only." We accomplish nothing when we worry. In fact, we usually make things worse. Sometimes we believe the more we worry, the more we care. This is an erroneous idea. Genuine caring involves doing what we can about the situation rather than worrying about it.

"Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger...be put away from you...." Ephesians 4:31

When our stressful feelings include anger, it is best to resolve them as soon as possible. Holding in anger and hostility puts a great stress on the body which may be converted into physical symptoms like headaches and gastrointestinal problems. Anger turned inward can lead to depression. Anger not only damages us physically but erodes our spirituality by letting the evil forces in the world influence us. (9)

There are a number of ways we can deal with anger. One way is to go directly to the person we are angry with and try to settle our differences before getting other people involved. (10) Another way is to give in occasionally rather than always having to be right. The use of the phrase "perhaps you are right" will help us do this. Along with giving in occasionally, we can resist correcting someone who has an incorrect understanding about something. We can do this by asking ourselves, "Does it really matter in the long run?" and "Will it do more damage than good for me to show him he is wrong?" Another way do deal with anger is to laugh at ourselves and smile more. It is difficult to remain angry when we smile, even if it is a forced smile. Hard physical work and prayer are additional ways to reduce anger. Brigham Young's advice is to pray when we are angry until we feel like praying. (11)

Other ways to reduce anger are to thank others for small things as opening a door, serving us at a cash register, or picking up an extra handout from a class we missed. We can thank the Lord for blessings of health, movement, the air we breathe, the ability to think and learn, and freedom. We can write letters of appreciation to people who have added to our life in some way. A genuine "thank you" melts away anger. Forgiveness also reduces anger. Doing something for a person we are angry with and praying for him is a powerful way to combat anger. (12)

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." John 13:34

Much has been written about love and the benefits it can bring into our lives. Love is associated with many of our emotions. When we give love to others, we are likely to feel peaceful, happy, and secure. Conversely, when we withhold our love from others, we miss the benefit of such positive feelings.

Loving others is difficult when they have hurt us. We must remember, however, that our ability to love others is not dependent upon them. As unloving as they may be, we still have the power within us to love them regardless of their obnoxious, mean, or vulgar behavior. It helps if we can direct this power toward focusing on their positive aspects, their eternal worth, and their potential for change rather than concentrating on their offensive and undesirable behaviors.

One of the first things we can do to increase love within us is to decide to love others. A dramatic example of this is illustrated in a true story from World War II, when a Polish individual by the nickname of Wild Bill Cody decided to love others even though the German army had just shot his wife and five children. He stated:

I had to decide right then whether to let myself hate the soldiers who had done this. It was an easy decision, really. I was a lawyer. In my practice I had seen too often what hate could do to people's minds and bodies. Hate had just killed the six people who mattered most to me in the world. I decided then that I would spend the rest of my life - whether it was a few days or many years - loving every person I came in contact with. (13)

The decision to love instead of hate gives us an inner calmness and peace of mind with which to face this world of turmoil.

Another step we can take is to try to understand the background of others. It is common for someone to act in an unloving way as a protection against hurt and rejection. For example, a roommate may use criticism and sarcasm to protect herself from being the target of verbal abuse like she experienced when she was growing up in her family. Our love for her will develop as we begin to better understand her needs and her past family environment.

We can also increase love by doing things for others without any expectations for reciprocation. Voluntary acts of kindness and service without a desire for recognition or repayment usually increases love in both the giver and the receiver. Examples of such acts could be: complimenting someone for a talk she gave, helping a roommate type his term paper, leaving an anonymous note of admiration and encouragement, running an errand for a friend, listening to a friend's troubles, and doing the dishes for a roommate.

One of the quickest ways to increase our love is to become involved with people who are handicapped or disadvantaged. Associating with and serving those who are less fortunate than ourselves usually increases our compassion and appreciation for them. It also helps us put our own problems in perspective.

Loving others is much easier if we love ourselves. For some reason, it seems easier for us to focus on our failures and the successes of others. When we belittle our ideas, looks, and abilities, we diminish our capacity to extend love to others. Accepting our limitations in a positive and realistic way, while keeping in mind our eternal potential, helps us maintain good feelings about ourselves and makes it easier to love others.

Exercise & Recreation

"They were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity...." Alma 53:20

Exercise is a valuable way to reduce unwanted stress and tension in our bodies. It helps us feel better emotionally, as well as physically, and consequently helps us to better deal with frustrations and disappointments. College students are usually at their peak of health and sometimes see little need to exercise, but it should be remembered that the body is the only machine which wears out when it is not used.

Choosing an appropriate exercise activity can be difficult, particularly if we have not engaged in one since our high school gym class. To start with, we should pick one which does not markedly disrupt our daily routine such as a brisk walk each day which only takes a few minutes and can be done most any time and place. We should try to establish an exercise program which is enjoyable and fits our interests and time schedule. Varying our exercise is important so we can maintain interest in it. Boredom sets in when we walk or jog around the same block every day. Exercising with someone else is helpful since it sustains a commitment to exercising on a regular basis. Regular exercise (at least three times a week) is necessary for beneficial effects to occur within the body. It is best to start with a small amount of exercise and gradually build upon it until reaching a desirable level.

Recreational activities other than exercise are also good stress-reducing avenues. Hobbies, crafts, attending movies and plays, sports, hiking and reading all provide a stimulating variety in our lives and help us keep our stressful challenges in perspective.

"Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof....flesh...of beasts and of the fowls...used sparingly...all grain... shall receive health...and shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint." D&C 89:11, 12, 16, 20

Much could be said about eating good food on a regular basis but most of us already know that we feel better physically and emotionally if we eat foods containing complex carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables, grains), lean meats and low-fat dairy products, and avoid foods high in sugar, refined flour and saturated fat. When we eat better, we feel better. When we feel better, we are happier. When we are happier, we handle pressure and responsibility better. In short, eating better leads to handling stress better. Good eating habits, which include eating a wholesome breakfast each day, help us better control our emotions and be less susceptible to anxiety and depression when the events in our life do not go as planned.

The Lord has given us the Word of Wisdom as a guide in taking care of our physical bodies. (14) It is interesting that more and more health authorities around the country are emphasizing the adverse effects of alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee on the body systems. Each of these substances should be avoided to help maintain maximum body efficiency in dealing with stress.

"Do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy...feast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted...." 2 Nephi 9:51

Stress can come from feeling that we are not moving ahead in life. This is particularly true when we seem to do the same tasks day in and day out. We frequently feel exhausted at the end of the day but seriously question whether we have accomplished anything of significance. We recognize that the process of daily living requires a number of short-lasting, have-to-do tasks like preparing meals, doing dishes, cleaning, washing clothes, and running errands, but if our day is consumed with such tasks, a stress reaction is likely to develop. We begin to feel bored. We feel like we are spinning our wheels since we have to turn right around and repeat the same tasks the next day.

One way to counteract this stress reaction is to schedule an activity each day which has some lasting value. A few examples include: (1) writing meaningful ideas in our diary; (2) reading something new and sharing it; (3) providing a service for someone which we would not normally do; (4) writing letters of encouragement to relatives or friends facing difficult circumstances; (5) spending time teaching a skill to a child; and (6) making something like an article of clothing or a bookshelf which can be used and enjoyed. Such activities can give us a feeling of doing something significant which will last beyond the routine tasks of the day.

"That which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God." Moroni 7:13

Relationships with others can bring a great sense of joy and happiness but can also be a source of great stress and unhappiness. Even though we cannot totally control the nature nor outcome of a relationship, there are some steps we can take to help foster a happy, fulfilling friendship with another person.

First, we can look for someone with whom we have similarities such as classes in school, music, sports, books, exercise and movies. This makes initial conversation easier and gives a foundation on which to build the relationship. Second, we should look for someone we can respect and esteem. (15) We should be skeptical of someone who tries to persuade us to do things like skip class, give up study time for a movie, cheat on a test, or lower our standard of appropriate physical affection. We should avoid those who try to use, control, manipulate or play mind-games with us. Third, we should look for those people who help us feel good about ourselves and spiritually uplifted. Fourth, we should have in mind what we would like in the relationship, including what physical and emotional boundaries we feel comfortable with, so we will not be drawn into a relationship we later resent. All interpersonal relationships become structured with time whether or not we make a conscious effort to structure them. Once certain patterns have been established, it becomes increasingly difficult to change them. It is wise to decide at the beginning of a relationship what kind of interaction would be in our best personal, academic and spiritual interest.

"The hope of the righteous shall be gladness...." Proverbs 10:28

We almost automatically create daily expectations for ourselves, others, and the events in our lives. Common examples include: (1) expecting an "A" grade in our biology class; (2) expecting to get all the items on our list done before the day is over; (3) expecting the bus to arrive on time; (4) expecting birthday money from mom and dad; (5) expecting our boss to recognize our extra work; and (6) expecting our spouse to know how we are feeling without our saying anything. When things do not happen the way we expect, it is easy to become disappointed and upset.

One way to deal with the stress which comes from unmet expectations is to replace expectations with hopes. For example, if we say, "I hope I get a scholarship for next year, but I am not going to expect it to happen," we will be less disappointed if we do not get it. Another example is to say, "I sure hope he calls tonight, but I am not going to expect him to." By thinking this way, the evening is not ruined if he does not call. Identifying and changing our expectations to hopes is an excellent way to control stress.

"Thou hast suffered afflictions and much sorrow...thou knowest the greatness of God: and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain." 2 Nephi 2:1,2

How we view or perceive the events in our lives determines the degree of stress we attach to them. We commonly take a negative view of a winter snow storm, an opinionated roommate, losing a game, getting a low grade, being refused membership in a club, and receiving a speeding ticket. Such negative views create stressful feelings. We can reduce those feelings by perceiving the events in a different way. For example, we can reinterpret a stressful situation as:

• A growth promoting event which will give us valuable experience and understanding for the future,
• A challenge where we will have a chance to test our ability and increase our competence,
• A natural or normal part of mortal life which we need to accept and endure,
• A humorous event which we will be able to laugh at in the future.

The Lord seemed to be helping Joseph Smith reinterpret the stressful events in his life when he told Joseph his trials "...shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good." (16)

We always have the choice of how we are going to view or interpret a situation. A student who fails a class can view himself as stupid and not fit for college or perceive himself as needing more background in the subject before repeating the class. A blind person can view his physical disability as an affliction he resents or perceive it as something which enables him to appreciate people on a deeper level since he cannot see them. A person who receives a speeding ticket can view the event as unfair since other drivers were going faster than him or perceive the event as an opportunity to assume responsibility for his behavior without comparing himself with others. A student can view living with her strong-willed and outspoken roommate as intolerable or perceive the situation as an experience which will prepare her for dealing with idiosyncracies her future husband might possess. A parent can view his two-year old child's constant wiggling in church as behavior which needs to be disciplined or perceive it as natural behavior for a child that age and patiently try to cope with it until the child grows older. Any sacrifice can be interpreted as a hardship or as a chance for us to build character and spirituality.

How we interpret a situation often depends on the types of questions we ask ourself about the situation. It is easy to ask questions like, "Why me?" and "What did I do to deserve this?" and end up feeling confused and angry. Asking different questions like, "Is there any way this terrible situation could be a blessing?" or "What are other ways I could view this situation?" are more likely to help us see the situation in a less stressful light. Elder Richard G. Scott talked about the impact of our questions when we face adversity:

When you face adversity, you can be led to ask many questions. Some serve a useful purpose; others do not. To ask, Why does this have to happen to me? Why do I have to suffer this, now? What have I done to cause this? will lead you into blind alleys. It really does no good to ask questions that reflect opposition to the will of God. Rather ask, What am I to do? What am I to learn from this experience? What am I to change? Whom am I to help? How can I remember my many blessings in times of trial? Willing sacrifice of deeply held personal desires in favor of the will of God is very hard to do. Yet, when you pray with real conviction, "Please let me know Thy will" and "May Thy will be done," you are in the strongest position to receive the maximum help from your loving Father. (17)

The way we perceive a stressful situation has a powerful effect on our feelings and ultimately our behavior. When we interpret our stress as useful, beneficial, growth-promoting, enriching, refining or enlightening, we increase our capacity to control the stress instead of letting it control us.

There is nothing that will magically relieve our stress. Effective stress management involves selecting a variety of ways to deal with stress and implementing them over a period of time. A particular stress management technique may be effective on one occasion, but not another, so we need to be ready to implement new ones at any given time. The use of stress management procedures can help us grow from the stress in our lives rather than being immobilized by it.

• Book of Mormon , 2 Nephi 2:11.
• Selye, Hans (March, 1978). On the real benefits of eustress. Interview by Laurence Cherry, Psychology Today , p. 60.
• Packer, Boyd (May, 1978). Solving emotional problems in the Lord.s own way. Ensign , p. 93.
• Maughan, Michael L.; Hawkins, Clyde; and Barton, Paul (1997). Stress Among On- Campus Housing Residents and RA.s. Unpublished Report, Brigham Young University.
• Book of Mormon , Mosiah 2:21.
• Pearl of Great Price , Moses 3:5
• Doctrine and Covenants , Section 90:24
• Doctrine and Covenants , Section 88:124.
• Book of Mormon , 3 Nephi 11:29.
• Doctrine and Covenants , Section 42:88.
• Widtsoe, John A. (1961). Discourses of Brigham Young . Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company, p. 44.
• Holy Bible , Matthew 5:44.
• Ritchie, George G. (1978). Return From Tomorrow . Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, p. 116.
• Doctrine and Covenants , Section 89.
• Doctrine and Covenants , Section 38:24, 25.
• Doctrine and Covenants , Section 122:7.
• Scott, Richard (November, 1995). Trust in the Lord . Ensign, p.16.

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12 Tips to Manage Stress for College Students

• May 14, 2019
• Jan Hall, PhD

Table of Contents

Stress in college is inevitable. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America , 80% of college students frequently or sometimes experience stress daily. Stress is also a contributing factor to poor academic performance for one in three students. College students can develop coping strategies to combat stress triggers and improve their experience while in school.

What causes stress in college students?

According to the American College Health Association (ACHA), 44.9% of college students experience more than average stress levels, while 12.7% experience overwhelming stress levels. With so many academic demands and responsibilities as a student, it’s expected that you might feel high levels of stress from time to time. But, when stress disrupts daily activities, you need to determine the cause of your stress and how to manage it.

These are some of the most common causes of stress for college students.

Living away from home

Transitioning from high school to college is exciting for many students because it’s their first time living away from home. However, with independence comes new responsibilities and taking accountability for your actions. It can be overwhelming adapting to a new environment and learning how to take care of yourself. It’s normal for students to experience sadness and high stress levels when they realize how far away they are from their support system of family and friends.

Financial struggles

The rising cost of college is a significant source of stress for many low-income families and students who put themselves through school while working. One study found that 70% of college students experienced financial stress . This stress comes from working out how to manage college expenses, including tuition, textbook costs, meal plans, and general expenses, on top of a full course load. For many students, this additional stress increases the chance of dropping out of school.

Academic pressure

One of the most common stressors in college is academic performance. There is enormous pressure placed on students’ academic performance, which can negatively affect mental health. This pressure can stem from maintaining certain grades to keep a scholarship, not wanting to disappoint parents, or personal expectations. If academic stress isn’t managed, it can lead to mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, substance use, burnout, and declining health and well-being.

Conflict with a roommate

While some colleges provide the option to choose a private room in a residence hall, most schools only offer shared living spaces. Putting a group of strangers together in a small room can easily lead to tension and conflict if the individuals don’t get along or become friends. Research has shown that roommate conflict impacts grades and increases the chance of a student dropping out .

Relationship issues

College is an excellent place for students to form new relationships while still maintaining relationships that existed before leaving for school. Connections with family, friends, and partners can be a great stress reliever. But, if these connections go awry, a student may experience significant stress and anxiety. It’s crucial to identify if a relationship is making you feel supported or more stressed out . Stressful relationships can impact academic performance and mental health if a healthy solution can’t be found.

Post-graduation plans

It’s common for students preparing to graduate to start thinking about what comes next, but it can also be stressful and scary. Post-graduation stress disorder can make you feel emotionally and mentally drained when making decisions on the next chapter of your life. It can be daunting to think about leaving behind the life you created in college and taking your first steps into the real world. For students dealing with this type of stress, it’s important to find coping mechanisms before symptoms get worse.

Accessible virtual care improves campus well-being

Stress management tips for college students.

Long-term stress can have detrimental effects if left unmanaged. Not only can it affect your mental and physical health, but also grades and relationships. Identifying and understanding where your stress comes from can help you better manage it. Consider these twelve ways to manage stress when you feel anxious or overwhelmed.

1. Get proper rest and sleep

American Psychological Association notes that good sleep allows our brains to recharge, repair our muscles, promote memory consolidation, and boost the immune system. In fact, 21 percent of adults feel higher levels of stress from not getting enough sleep.

Many college students pull all-nighters, studying through the night to prepare for an exam, but this type of habit can lead to sleep deprivation and insomnia. Depriving your body of sleep can lower cognitive function, academic performance, and mental health. If you have trouble sleeping at night, try techniques such as avoiding excess caffeine, turning down the lights, or putting away technology at least one hour before bed.

2. Focus on health and nutrition

When you think of college weight gain, it’s usually associated with the “freshman 15.” However, it’s not necessarily true that you’ll gain 15 pounds in your first year of college. According to Harvard Medical School , stress can both shut down the appetite by releasing a corticotropin-releasing hormone and increase the appetite by releasing cortisol.

When you pair the freedom to choose what and when along with academic stress, college students are more likely to cope by overeating or undereating. Developing good habits like eating a balanced diet, exercising regularly, and getting enough sleep can help manage stress and prevent dramatic weight loss or weight gain.

3. Be active

The Mayo Clinic suggests that regular exercise increases overall health and can reduce stress. Exercise is also effective in reducing fatigue, improving mental clarity, and enhancing cognitive function. After physical activity, the brain produces feel-good neurotransmitters called endorphins that act as natural painkillers. Relaxation techniques such as meditation, acupuncture, massage therapy, and deep breathing can also produce endorphins.

If you’re having trouble getting motivated to be active, try inviting a friend, changing up your routine, or exercising in short-time intervals. Adding just 15 minutes of physical activity to your daily routine can help your physical and mental health.

4. Have a stress outlet

Having a healthy outlet to turn to in times of stress can help calm your mind and clarify how to move forward in a stressful situation. Things like a hobby, social club, or physical exercise can all be outlets for relieving stress.

5. Find connections

There are numerous benefits of having a solid support system while in college. Personal connections provide stress-relief hormones that counteract the body’s fight or flight response. Surrounding yourself with people that you trust can also help you feel safe and calm.

The Mayo Clinic says that “social isolation and loneliness are associated with a greater risk of poor mental health and poor cardiovascular health, as well as other health problems.” College is a great time to make new friends. Joining a club or organization, talking to classmates, volunteering, or being on an intramural sports team can help create connections on and off-campus.

6. Practice self-care

Stress causes tension in the body through stiff and sore muscles, headaches, or lowered immune systems. Setting aside time in your busy schedule to prioritize self-care helps reduce tension and stress. Having a spa day, taking a bubble bath, meditating, or taking yourself on a date are just some of the ways you can practice relaxation.

7. Manage time effectively

Ineffective time management can cause significant stress for college students. Approximately 87% of college students said they would perform better in their classes if they had better time management skills. Experiencing college life for the first time can make it tempting to choose social life over schoolwork.

Developing time management strategies helps you stay organized and better prioritize your most important tasks. Writing down your upcoming assignments and exams in a planner or on your phone can help you know what’s next and prioritize your time. When you know you have to study or do an assignment, you can schedule your day accordingly. Effective time management can help improve academic performance and keep you organized, which, in turn, can lower stress and anxiety.

8. Stay organized

It may seem overwhelming to keep track of everything with a schedule crammed full of classes, assignments, extracurricular and social activities. But, not having organizational skills will only add more stress and pressure to your plate. Unorganized students typically have less academic success than organized students.

Before assignments start piling up, it’s crucial to find ways to stay organized . Calendars and planners are valuable organizational tools. Try to keep your living environment and workspace tidy and organized as well to reduce distraction and anxiety.

9. Practice positive thinking

Research has shown that there are numerous benefits to positive thinking when you’re feeling stressed out. Positive thoughts can improve physical well-being and provide a clear mind. When you feel yourself thinking negatively, counteract these thoughts by giving yourself positive encouragement. Positive reinforcement during stressful times can lessen the chance of developing chronic stress.

10. Try mindfulness exercises

College students are busy and constantly distracted, which makes it challenging to be present in the moment. Mindfulness helps to drown out the background noise and increase awareness. Meditation is a great way to practice mindfulness, but you can also incorporate it into daily activities . This will not only improve memory and focus but is also a beneficial way to relieve stress.

11. Start journaling

Journaling can be very therapeutic and lower stress levels. Write down your daily thoughts and feelings or keep a stress journal . This type of self-reflection can help you find a pattern of regular stress in your life and examine how you deal with it. This will help put things into perspective so that you can effectively manage these stressors.

12. Don’t be afraid to reach out for help

Even before you feel like the stress has become too much to handle, reach out for help. Find out what mental health resources your school offers or take the time to talk to a professional. A mental health professional can determine your stress triggers, develop a mental health plan , and strategize healthy ways to cope with stress.

How telehealth can support students who need help managing stress

Focused on improving the health and wellness of students, TimelyCare offers colleges and universities virtual mental health resources and services powered by telehealth. TimelyCare’s total health and well-being solution is an extension of on-campus health services. With 24/7/365 access to providers in all 50 states, TimelyCare helps students manage stress anytime, anywhere.

Contact us to explore TimelyCare’s telehealth programs that deliver high-quality, on-demand mental health care for students.

Dr. Jan Hall

Director of curriculum development and complex case management.

Jan serves as the Director of Curriculum Development and Complex Case Management for TimelyCare. She has been practicing for more than 30 years and was previously an adjunct faculty member at the University of North Texas. She has recently conducted research on the resilience strategies of youth who lived on the streets of Kenya, Africa and served as the Assistant Manager of the 2019 Christian Association of Psychological Studies International Conference. Jan has a B.S. in Elementary Education from the University of Texas, Austin; an MMFT Master of Marriage & Family Therapy from Abilene Christian University; and a Ph.D. of Counseling Psychology from the University of North Texas. Also, Jan trained in Clinical Neuropsychology both at the Ph.D. level and post doctorate.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, why are college applications so stressful 5 helpful strategies.

College Admissions

A totally normal (but totally frustrating!) part of getting ready for college is college application stress. Statistics show that 76% of students feel high levels of stress about the college application process…so if you’re feeling overwhelmed by college applications, you aren’t alone!

The good news is that there are steps you can take to prepare for the college application process, including having some stress management tactics at the ready. In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know for effective college application stress management, including:

• Answering the question, “Why are college applications so stressful?”
• Explaining four reasons why college applications are so stressful
• Providing a college application schedule to help manage stress
• Listing five tips for managing stress during college application season

Let’s get started!

If you're stressed out about the college application process, you might want to buy some extra pencils. You know...just in case.

Why Are College Applications So Stressful? 5 Key Reasons

There are many different parts of the college application process, and each one can affect your stress levels in unique ways. But by learning about what each part of the application process entails , you’ll be on the fast track to overcoming college application stress!

The more you learn about the college application process, the easier it will be to answer the question, “Why is applying to college so stressful?” Once you can answer that question, coming up with a solid stress management plan will be much easier. Below, we’ll go over five reasons why college applications are stressful to help you manage college admissions anxiety.

Reason 1: Time Management

Time management is one of the biggest stressors during college application season. Some sources suggest that applying to colleges takes 60 to 200 hours from start to finish , depending on how many college applications you choose to complete.

But even if you apply to just one college, there are still many steps in the application process that take up quite a bit of time . You’ll spend time researching and picking colleges to apply to, choosing, studying for, and taking college entrance exams like the SAT or ACT, and collecting info about different colleges’ application guidelines. 

From there, you’ll dedicate lots of time to filling out online applications, writing college essays, preparing your list of extracurriculars, and seeking out teacher recommendations. You’ll also apply for financial aid and scholarships. 

When you think about how many steps are involved in the college application process, it makes sense that the process can eat up so much time!

While 200 hours spent on applications seems like a lot, it helps to remember that every college applicant will have to put in that time and effort …which means you aren’t alone! Stellar college applications take hours of work, and each hour you put in will make a difference. 

Reason 2: Cost and Debt

The cost of college is one of the main answers to the question, “Why is applying to college so stressful?” For many students, the first thing they see when looking at college applications is a bunch of dollar signs. College is expensive in general, and that starts with college application fees. 

The average college application fee is $45 , with the most expensive college application fees coming in at $100. There will be a separate fee for each application you submit. If you choose to apply to five, ten, or even 20 schools, it makes sense that those costs can really add up! 

In addition to college application fees, many students are worried about the price tag that comes with a college degree . 39 percent of students who responded to a recent survey cited the level of financial debt as their biggest concern about applying for college. 

At the same time, 84 percent of college students receive some kind of financial aid for college , and many students are eligible for waivers that exempt them from paying college application fees. So if you’re feeling overwhelmed by college applications and financial aid, you aren’t alone! For the majority of students, taking the time to research financial aid options and fee waivers can pay off (literally!) in the end. 

Reason 3: Standardized Test Scores

The SAT and ACT can feel like the biggest villains in the admissions process. Standardized tests are challenging for many students because they’re long, difficult, and require hours of prep time. SAT or ACT scores have traditionally been required pieces of most college applications. While many colleges have remained test-optional since Covid-19, this can actually add to the stress as many students wonder whether to submit their scores or not. 

Even though test score requirements feel stressful all on their own, many students experience the added stress of comparing their test scores to other students. Lots of colleges provide data about the average test scores of their accepted students, which makes it even easier to compare yourself to other applicants. 

While you might feel overwhelmed by the test scores you need to aim for, it can also motivate you to come up with a top-notch SAT/ACT study plan and put in quality time preparing for the exams. 

And at the end of the day, it helps to remember that while test scores are important, they aren’t the only important part of your college application. Working hard on SAT/ACT prep is always the best move … as long as you remember that college admissions teams are going to evaluate you based on more than just your test scores . Your essays , extracurriculars , and letters of recommendation will speak for you too!

This is Jack. He just turned 18, but the stress of applying to Stanford aged him prematurely. (Don't be like Jack—follow our tips for a stress-free application process below!) 

Reason 4: Competition

It’s no secret that college admissions are competitive. In 2021, Stanford rejected more than 96 percent of its applicants , though many of them had perfect SAT or ACT scores. Elite schools typically have really low acceptance rates, and most students who apply to them have outstanding test scores, GPAs, and extracurriculars. 

Looking at those numbers might make you feel even more overwhelmed by college applications, but that isn’t the whole story. According to Pew Research Center , more than half of schools admitted two-thirds or more of their applicants in 2017 , including well-known schools like Virginia Tech, George Mason University, and St. John’s University of New York. While the acceptance rates for elite colleges get a lot of attention, there are tons of other great schools that accept a majority of applicants. 

No matter where you apply, it’s important to put in the time and effort to make your college applications excellent. Looking at the average test scores and GPAs of students who were accepted to schools you’re considering can even help you choose schools that are a good fit for you! 

Being overly focused on the competition will pull your attention away from crafting college applications that show how you’re a uniquely qualified candidate for the schools of your choice. 

Reason 5: Getting the Right “Fit”

The college admissions process is all about making choices. Which schools will you apply to? How many? Which one is your top choice? Do you have a safety school ? These questions can feel like a lot, but taking the time to answer them will help you pick (and get accepted to!) a school that’s a great fit for you.

While you don’t want to be overly stressed about choosing a college, feeling a little bit of stress about that decision can motivate you to research schools and consider what you want out of your college experience . Spending time learning everything you can about the colleges you’re considering applying to will help you make good decisions about which schools to submit applications to. 

And even when admissions decision deadlines are months away, having lots of knowledge about your choice schools can help you feel more confident and less stressed when it’s time to accept an admission offer!

Creating a College Application Schedule

For many students, staying organized and knowing what to expect at each stage of the college application process can make the whole experience less stressful. That’s why it’s a good idea to put together a college application schedule to keep you on track and on top of all your deadlines.

Most college application schedules start with the same step: researching colleges, selecting the ones you’ll apply to, and learning everything you can about your choice schools. Once you’ve finalized your list of schools, you’ll need to get all the details on the application requirements and deadlines for each of the schools you’re applying to. 

As you learn about the application process for all of your schools, you’ll quickly notice that there are a lot of different deadlines, application components, and requirements to meet. To help you stay on top of all of those moving parts, create a spreadsheet or calendar that marks each major deadline you’ll have to meet in order to get your applications in on time. 

It’s a good idea to include the following application components and deadlines in your schedule: 

• College research, planning, and finalizing your list of schools
• Selecting an admissions plan
• Registering for, studying for, and taking standardized tests
• Setting up your accounts on online application portals
• Writing admissions essays
• Requesting letters of recommendation
• Filling out your online applications
• Sending test scores, transcripts, and letters of recommendation to colleges
• Applying for application fee waivers
• Filing your FAFSA
• Submitting your applications

Once you have the major application deadlines slotted in, you can start adding in plans for how you’ll complete each application component . For instance, it’s best to write your application essays during the summer before your senior year. On your application schedule, you might block off the summer before senior year as essay writing time, then set a loose deadline for when your application essays should be completed. 

You might even consider color-coding the different activities and deadlines associated with each part of your college applications . For example, you might designate everything related to taking the SAT or ACT as blue, and everything related to asking for letters of recommendations as red. Setting up a coding system like this will keep you organized when you’re working on multiple application components at one time, or when you have multiple deadlines hitting all at once. 

The prospect of seeing all those dates and deadlines written down in one place might have you asking, “Why are college applications so stressful?” If you’re still feeling overwhelmed, remember this: keeping a detailed application schedule will make things less stressful once you start working on applications. You’ll have a solid plan for each part of the process, and you’ll generally know what to expect at each step!

5 Tips for Managing Stress

While we can’t change the fact that college applications are complicated, we can give you some useful tips for managing college application anxiety. Feeling overwhelmed by college applications is totally normal…but there are things you can do to cope!

If you’ve found yourself thinking, “I’m so stressed about getting into college,” keep reading. These five tips for managing college application stress are for you!

Tip 1: Start Early

Getting started on your college applications early is probably the best way to manage application stress. You know that college applications come with hard and fast deadlines that fall between November and February each year. With that knowledge in your back pocket, you can make a solid plan to start on your college applications as soon as schools open up their online application portals . 

In general, it’s best to start working on college applications no later than the summer before your senior year. Starting in the summer will give you enough time to prepare your application materials, get feedback from someone you trust, and revise them before it’s time to submit the whole thing. By giving yourself extra time to work on applications by starting early, you’ll save yourself from the extra stress of falling behind and feeling pressed when deadlines are on the horizon. 

Tip 2: Ask for Help

Your college application is all about you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get help from other people as you complete it . Many parts of college applications are somewhat subjective, like your application essays and letters of recommendation. Working with people you trust to get these materials right can give you peace of mind and let you know that you’re on the right track. 

Consider having a teacher, tutor, or mentor read over your application essays and give you feedback. You’ll want to make sure you give them the essay prompt and requirements so they can give you good feedback, though! 

You can also meet with the people you ask to write your letters of recommendation and discuss what you envision the letters looking like. While they’ll ultimately have the final say in what goes in the letter, you can still talk to them about the parts of your academic performance and extracurriculars that you feel speak to your ability to make positive contributions to the schools you’re applying to. 

So if you’re finding yourself focusing on the question, “Why is applying to college so stressful?”, try being proactive. Asking for help from people you trust is a great way to gain some reassurance and manage your college application anxiety. 

Tip 3: Collaborate With Friends

The college application process can be a lonely road…but it doesn’t have to be! For every moment that you think to yourself, “I’m stressed about college!”, one of your friends is probably thinking the exact same thing. Many of your friends will be coping with the same deadlines and requirements as you. Instead of isolating yourself and going it alone, consider working with your friends to make the college application process less lonely. 

For instance, you could pick one night a week where you and your friends meet up and work on college applications together. Bring snacks, relaxing music, and even games to play when you take a break! Just being in the presence of friends who are going through the same thing you are can lighten the mood and give you the motivation to keep working hard. 

Tip 4: Let Yourself Rest

College application burnout is real–and it’s something you don’t want to experience. While it’s true that you can spend hundreds of hours on college applications, in order for your applications to be truly excellent, you also need to give yourself time away from them. 

Scheduling an evening off every week and giving yourself plenty of leisure time on the weekends can help prevent college application burnout. Doing things you enjoy with people you care about will help you dive back into your college applications with a fresh perspective and more energy. 

Instead of convincing yourself that resting and recharging is a waste of time, remember that a little R&R can actually make your applications better . You’ll feel happier and more confident when you get back to your applications, and that positivity will shine through in each part of your application!

Tip 5: Focus on Why You’re Awesome

When you’re looking at test scores percentiles and admissions rates, it can be easy to forget the most important part of your application: you! Every applicant is different, and that means that every applicant has uniquely awesome assets that schools will be interested in . 

When you’re feeling overwhelmed by college applications, remember to focus on what’s awesome about you. The things colleges are most interested in are the things that you’re passionate about and the contributions you hope to make to their school. Keeping some positive affirmations in your back pocket and reminding yourself that colleges care about who you are as a person just as much as they care about your test scores can help you stay motivated and combat anxiety. 

What's Next? 

Sometimes application stress can come from not understanding what an application is asking you to do . Our complete breakdown of the college application process can help demystify things! 

Choosing which colleges to apply to can  also  be pretty stressful...and daunting. We'll make the process easier by teaching you how to make a college list.

Submitting your applications ahead of time can take a lot of stress off your plate , too. Use our complete application timeline to take the time-crunch out of the process! 

Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

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