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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Center for Teaching

Keeping stress from evolving into distress: a guide on managing student stress through course design.

stressed with university assignments

  • Defining Stress and its Origins

How Distress Manifests in the College Setting

Why make an effort to reduce distress among students, reducing distress in the classroom, further resources, defining stress, dis tress and their origins.

Stress is an omnipresent feature of most Americans lives (American Psychological Association 2010). The American Psychological Association defines stress as a “pattern of specific and nonspecific responses an organism makes to stimulus events that disturb its equilibrium and tax or exceed its ability to cope” (Gerrig and Zimbardo 2002) .

Stress affects all Americans regardless of age, gender, race, socioeconomic status or prior life experience. Typically those who are experiencing stress report feeling “overwhelmed, worried or run-down” (Alvord et al., n.d.). Now more than ever, college students feel stressed in the university setting (Yorke 2004). These feelings are particularly acute among first and second year students who may be away from home for the first time and trying to adjust to college life (Misra and McKean 2000).

Stress can be both beneficial and harmful. Stress is beneficial when it leads to the production of energy boosts that increase alertness and help individuals power through high stress situations such as exams and/or work deadlines. This type of stress is typically referred to as eustress . On the other hand, stress is harmful when it is experienced in excess (Alvord et al., n.d.). This form of stress is referred to as distress . According to the American Psychological Association, distress can lead to adverse health outcomes that affect the immune, cardiovascular, neuroendocrine and central nervous systems (Alvord et al., n.d.).

While the Princeton Review recently found that Vanderbilt has the happiest students in the country, students in distress remain a concern for those who lead, and interact with, students in Vanderbilt classrooms.

Within the academic setting, causes of student distress may include:

  • Test anxiety , a form of performance anxiety where a person experiences high levels of distress or uneasiness before, during, or after an examination. Test anxiety interferes with students’ ability to perform in testing situations
  • Perfectionism , the need to be or appear perfect
  • Imposter syndrome , a persistent belief or feeling that one is inadequate even in the face of success
  • Stereotype threat , a self-confirming belief that one may be evaluated based on a negative stereotype of a group in which they belong
  • Generalized anxiety , ongoing anxiety and worry that interferes with day-to-day activities

Vanderbilt University’s Office of Wellness Programs & Alcohol Education has identified several behavioral, emotional and psychological signs of student distress. The repeated occurrence of any combination of the following may indicate a student in distress:

Behavioral signs:

  • Academic performance concerns, uncharacteristic changes
  • Declining grades or reduced class participation
  • Incomplete or missing assignments
  • Repeated requests for extensions, incompletes, or withdraws
  • Increased absenteeism or tardiness
  • Disruptive classroom behavior
  • Apparent memory loss or difficulty concentrating
  • Cheating, rule breaking, or defiance
  • Poor organization skills or trouble with note taking
  • Bizarre, aggressive or morbid comments or written content
  • Expressions of feeling hopeless, helpless, guilty and/or worthless
  • Self injury or other self-destructive behavior

Psychological and emotional signs:

  • Chronic fatigue, falling asleep in class
  • Symptoms of being easily distracted, “spacey,” or a tendency to daydream
  • Nervousness or tearfulness
  • Marked changes in regular habits or activities
  • Significant weight gain or loss
  • Signs of intoxication, dilated or constricted puplis, or apparent hangovers
  • Poor or declining physical apperance, hygiene, and grooming
  • Hyperactivity or rapid, pressured speech
  • Extreme boredom, negativism, defensiveness, and secretiveness
  • Comments by others about alcohol or drug use
  • Erratic behavior, sudden mood swings, inappropriate anger, hostility, and irritability
  • Hyper-expansiveness or grandiosity
  • Withdrawal from others or loss of pleasure in everyday activities
  • Talk of suicide or harm to self or others

High levels of stress:

  • Affect students’ cognitive capabilities including information processing and memory (Sandi and Pinelo-Nava 2007; Sandi 2004);
  • Inform the mood and mindset that students bring to the classroom (Felstein 2004); and
  • Can lead to student burnout and unnecessary attrition, especially among students of color (Smedley, Myers, and Harrell 1993).

Being proactive about managing student stress is beneficial for course instructors and teaching assistants for several reasons:

  • A stressful classroom climate often increases the personal stress level of course instructors and teaching assistants (Jennings and Greenberg 2009).
  • Heightened stress among classroom leaders can reduce teachers’ ability to empathize with their students, an especially important issue when teaching in culturally diverse settings (Gault and Sabini 2000).
  • Decreases in teachers’ ability to empathize with students may eventually lead to compassion fatigue , a form of burnout that is characterized by extreme mental, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion (Schutz and Zembylas 2009).
  • Compassion fatigue can lead to teacher burnout , or overwhelming feelings of exhaustion, frustration and anger that impairs personal and social functioning and may lead individuals to quit their job (Maslach and Goldberg 1999).

Taking a proactive stance toward student stress also provides classroom leaders with a unique opportunity to help students:

  • Engage in self-reflection about the ways that stress affects their daily lives including the feelings they bring to classroom, course assignments and interpersonal exchanges with faculty and teaching staff;
  • Become more personally aware of how to manage stress in order to improve academic performance and position themselves to achieve their professional goals; and
  • Develop healthy practices with respect to time management, general work practices and study skills.

When there is an imminent threat of harm of a life-endangering situation, take immediate action to ensure the safety of the student and others. Call Vanderbilt Police Department emergency line 615-421-1911.

In non-life threatening situations, special attention to issues of course design has the potential to reduce unhealthy levels of stress. Options available to course instructors include the following:

Syllabus Construction

Assignments.

  • Stagger due dates for course assignments
  • Include low stake assignments that help identify students who may need additional instruction early in the semester
  • For course-long assignments, incorporate periodic “check-ins” during office hours or cancel regular classroom sessions to meet with students one-on-one

Making Office Hours Productive

Advise students on how to prepare for meetings with you. You might instruct them to bring appropriate materials, such as their lecture notes, books, homework problems, drafts of their papers, or readings with troublesome passages marked. You might tell them to write out their questions or points of confusion to help clarify and prepare before meeting with you. In addition, remind them that office hours are not an opportunity to receive a recap of a lecture or lesson. Make your sessions with students a chance to continue teaching them, by helping them work through their own confusions or problems. It may be helpful to respond to their questions with further questions that will lead them to their own conclusions. Provide guidance toward problem-solving rather than simply giving students the answer.

For more information, visit the CFT “Office Hours and Email” Teaching Guide.

  • Allow students to have one “do over” that provides students with an opportunity to either correct missed test questions or resubmit a revised paper draft for partial credit
  • Provide a clearly written explanation of your late assignment and extension policies. Source: Pat James Consulting “Samples of online Course Policies”
  • Describe and/or model “unsatisfactory”, “sufficient” and “satisfactory” classroom participation for students.

What Does Class Participation Look Like?

stressed with university assignments

Sample Participation Rubric

  • Voluntarily and frequently offering appropriate, relevant, and creative or original responses/interpretations/observations beyond the obvious,
  • consistently offering plenty of effective textual support for observations,
  • involving others in class discussion by asking questions, seeking others’ responses, etc.
  • eagerly and thoughtfully attempting to answer questions,
  • offering follow-up responses, and
  • treating classmates and the professor respectfully

See the full participation rubric developed by Dr. Nancy Chick , Assistant Director at the CFT.

  • Incorporate multiple methods of assessing student participation in courses where it is a component of students’ final grade (e.g. completing a worksheet of main concepts, themes, etc. and turning in for a grade)
  • Provide students with a grading rubric prior to giving assignments or at the beginning of the semester
  • Provide grade and feedback for assignments before the next assignment is due

Providing Meaningful Feedback to Students

  • Use your comments to teach rather than to justify your grade, focusing on what you’d most like students to address in future work.
  • Link your comments and feedback to the goals for an assignment.
  • Comment primarily on patterns — representative strengths and weaknesses.
  • Avoid over-commenting or “picking apart” students’ work.
  • In your final comments, ask questions that will guide further inquiry by students rather than provide answers for them.

Suggestions About Making Marginal and End Comments on Student Writing

For more information, visit the CFT “Grading Student Work” Teaching Guide

  • Incorporate language about the importance of learning from failure and disappointment in the course syllabus and one-on-one conversations
  • Post exam answer keys so that students can learn from their mistakes

Campus Resources

  • Include links to on-campus and/or online resources that educate students about how to study, write, prepare citations, etc. (e.g. The Writing Studio)
  • Alert students to other resources on campus that can aid in stress management

Communication Policy

  • Clearly articulate communication practices and preferences (i.e. email response policy, etc.)

Email Office Hours

Find more ideas on how to communicate with students by visiting  our “Office Hours and Email” Teaching Guide.

Course Management

  • Allow students to select which date(s) they will take on a leadership role in class (i.e. leading discussion, presenting their work, etc.)
  • Consult with other faculty members in your department about due dates and assignments they have implemented on a regular basis
  • Ask students to communicate days/weeks that are especially packed with assignments in their other classes at the beginning of the semester

In-Class Meetings

  • Interact with students with an awareness of the effect of one’s body language (i.e. frowning, smiling, etc.) on student behavior and performance
Nonverbal communication forms a social language that is in many ways richer and more fundamental than our words. Our nonverbal sensors are so powerful that just the movements associated with body language – that is, minus the actual bodies – are enough to engender within us the ability to accurately perceive emotion. Source: Psychology Today “How We Communicate Through Body Language”
  • Use affirming language when students provide correct answers, but more importantly , when they make an effort to contribute in class
  • Incorporate ongoing mindfulness practices that provide students with tools to cope with anxiety and stress in the moment

Course Communication

  • Provide students with a syllabus that includes complete course readings, assignments and due dates the first day of class
  • Promptly return student emails, particularly prior to assignment due dates and major exams

Exam Preparation

  • Organize review sessions outside of class prior to tests
  • Hold extra office hours the week prior to an exam or paper due date
  • Establish work groups for students at the beginning of the semester and encourage collaboration when preparing for major exams

Teaching about Learning

  • Schedule periodic workshops that impart skills and information needed to successfully demonstrate learning (i.e. how to construct a thesis statement, how to structure a analytical essay, etc.)
  • Post templates of model work on assignments in conjunction with providing students with feedback on their submitted work

Vanderbilt Campus Resources

Office of Wellness Programs & Alcohol Education provides outreach and support services that assist and empower students in identifying and managing interpersonal, academic and healthcare concerns. Phone 615-32(2-0480)

Liaisons Educating & Advocating for Psychological Support (LEAPS) is a group of undergraduate students who serve as liaisons between the PCC and the campus and serve as peer educators to promote positive mental health and well being on the Vanderbilt campus.

Psychological and Counseling Center Faculty and Staff Resources features information on online interactive training for identifying signs of psychological distress and suicide prevention. Phone 615-32(2-2571)

Students in Distress: A Guide for Faculty and Staff provides tools for how to approach students who may be in distress, make referrals and receive further training.

Vanderbilt Recovery Support provides support service to assist students who are in recovery from substance use issues and are working towards success in their academic, social, personal and professional lives.

“Back to Campus” Faculty Guide on Student Mental Health is a resource the Mary Christie Institute developed through focus groups and nine students from six different universities, during the summer of 2021.

National Resources

Anxiety and Depression Association of America promotes the prevention, treatment, and cure of anxiety, depression, OCD, PTSD and related disorders and works to improve the lives of those who suffer from these diseases through education, practice and research.

American College Health Association champions the health of college students and campus communities through advocacy, education and research.

Alvord, Mary, Karina Davidson, Jennifer Kelly, Kevin McGuiness, and Steven Tovian. n.d. “Understanding Chronic Stress.” American Psychological Association . http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/understanding-chronic-stress.aspx.

American Psychological Association. 2010. Stress in America: Findings .

Felstein, Gary. 2004. “Stress Reacitivity and Vulnerability to Depressed Mood in College Students.” Personality and Individual Differences 36 (4): 789–800.

Gault, Barbara A., and John Sabini. 2000. “The Roles of Empathy, Anger, and Gender in Predicting Attitudes toward Punitive, Reparative, and Preventative Public Policies.” Cognition & Emotion 14 (4): 495–520.

Gerrig, Richard J., and Philip G. Zimbardo. 2002. Psychology and Life . 16th ed. Boston, Mass., United States: Allyn and Bacon.

Jennings, Patricia A., and Mark T. Greenberg. 2009. “The Prosocial Classroom: Teacher Social and Emotional Competence in Relation to Student and Classroom Outcomes.” Review of Educational Research 79 (1): 491–525. doi:10.3102/0034654308325693.

Maslach, Christina, and Julie Goldberg. 1999. “Prevention of Burnout: New Perspectives.” Applied and Preventive Psychology 7 (1): 63–74.

Misra, Ranjita, and Michelle McKean. 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.

Sandi, Carmen. 2004. “Stress, Cognitive Impairment and Cell Adhesion Molecules.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 5 (12): 917. doi:10.1038/nrn1555.

Sandi, Carmen, and M. Teresa Pinelo-Nava. 2007. “Stress and Memory: Behavioral Effects and Neurobiological Mechanisms.” Neural Plasticity 2007 (April): e78970. doi:10.1155/2007/78970.

Schutz, Paul A., and Michalinos Zembylas. 2009. Advances in Teacher Emotion Research: The Impact on Teachers’ Lives . Springer Science & Business Media.

Smedley, Brian D., Hector F. Myers, and Shelly P. Harrell. 1993. “Minority-Status Stresses and the College Adjustment of Ethnic Minority Freshmen.” The Journal of Higher Education 64 (4): 434–52. doi:10.2307/2960051.

Yorke, Mantz. 2004. Leaving Early: Undergraduate Non-Completion in Higher Education . Routledge.

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Student stress

University can be a stressful experience, as well as being fun and exciting. You may feel stressed about starting university, exams, coursework deadlines, living with people you do not know, or thinking about the future.

Stress is a natural feeling, designed to help you cope in challenging situations. In small amounts it can be good, because it pushes you to work hard and do your best, such as during exams.

But if you're feeling very stressed or feel you cannot manage stress, it can lead to mental health problems such as depression and anxiety . It can also affect your academic performance.

Leaving home to start your studies can involve some stressful changes. These might include moving to a new area, meeting new people and managing on a tight budget.

Signs you might be stressed

There are lots of possible signs of stress.

Stress can make you feel:

  • like you cannot enjoy yourself
  • worried a lot of the time

You may start to:

  • have sleep problems (insomnia)
  • find it hard to concentrate
  • bite your nails, pick your skin or grind your teeth
  • snap at people
  • feel short of breath or breathe very fast

Things that can help with stress

Short periods of stress are normal and can often be resolved by something as simple as completing a task which cuts down your workload, or by talking to others and taking time to relax.

It might also help to:

  • Work out what it is that's making you feel stressed. For example, is it exams, money or relationship problems? See if you can change your circumstances to ease the pressure you're under.
  • Try to have a healthy lifestyle. Eat well, get enough sleep, be physically active, cut down on alcohol, and take time to relax as well as working and studying.
  • Read about the 5 steps to mental wellbeing .
  • Avoid drugs, including lots of caffeine – this can have a negative impact on your stress levels and wellbeing.
  • Try not to worry about the future or compare yourself with others.
  • Try relaxation and breathing exercises .
  • Try to plan your time to help you keep track of your work. Break it down into manageable chunks so you can keep up with deadlines.
  • Try talking to a friend, tutor or someone in your family about your stress.
  • Read about tips on preparing for exams

More information

  • For more tips on beating stress, check out these 10 stress busters .
  • Find out more about anxiety, fear and panic .
  • The free mental wellbeing audio guides may help you when your mood is low or you're facing an anxious time in your life.
  • Get advice about dealing with exam stress from Young Minds .
  • Watch mental health and self-care videos for young people on the Every Mind Matters website .

When to get help for stress

You may want to consider getting help for stress if:

  • you're struggling to cope with stress
  • things you're trying yourself are not helping
  • stress is affecting your life or university work

You could try speaking to friends, family or your university tutor. A GP is also a good place to start and they can help you with advice or access to treatments if you need them.

Find out more about counselling for student mental health problems .

Video: stress

In this video, a GP describes what stress is, the physical and mental effects it can have and when to seek help.

Page last reviewed: 14 March 2023 Next review due: 14 March 2026

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A poll of almost 38,000 UK students found that psychological illnesses are on the rise in higher education institutes.

Why are students at university so stressed?

Fears about the future, leaving friends and family, and having a poor work-life balance can all take their toll on mental health

M ounting social and academic pressures mean that higher education can be a challenge for any student. A Uni Health study found that 80% of those studying in higher education reported symptoms of stress or anxiety, while one NUS survey found that nine in 10 students experienced stress.

Uncertainty around Brexit and rising living costs mean that many students don’t feel confident about finding a job. Alex, an international relations and politics student at the University of Leicester, says he’s constantly worried about graduate life. “There’s that fear of having to adjust back to life back home. I always think, what sector do I want to work in? How am I going to get work? Is my CV up to scratch?” While his institution offers career guidance, his plans weigh on his mind.

Hannah Morrish , a psychotherapist and the higher education lead at The Student Room , says students are increasingly questioning whether university is worth the cost. “The pressure to be successful and get a lucrative job role after graduation is high. Students worry that it won’t work out and they won’t achieve the success or personal return on investment.” She recommends speaking to student advisers about hardship funding and getting a part-time job. “The majority of universities also offer bursaries, grants and scholarships – and many go unclaimed.”

Leaving the structures of home and family for the first time can often exacerbate mental health problems. A 2019 poll of almost 38,000 UK students found that psychological illnesses are on the rise in higher education institutes, with a third stating they suffer from loneliness. “Spending all day and night studying in the library will certainly help you feel more in control of your personal success,” says Morrish, “but book time in to do things you enjoy with people you like spending time with. Join in with student meets and societies. You don’t have to commit indefinitely, just dip in and out and try new things in order to grow your social circle.”

For many students, a poor work-life balance is a huge contributing factor to mental health issues and stress. Morrish advises sticking to a schedule with space for recreational activities. “Give yourself permission to create a routine which gets the best out of you. Often when we’re feeling the burn we stop doing things that make us feel good, like working out and cooking balanced meals.”

Minority students can experience a different level of isolation. Much has been written about how higher education can marginalise black students , with figures from the Office for Students recently reporting that white students are more likely to be awarded first class or upper second class degrees than black students.

Sexism within Stem subjects , meanwhile, has been reported at all levels of academia. Grace Arena, a master’s student in prosthetics and sculpture at Buckinghamshire New University, says she’s picked up on gender biases from her tutors, almost all of whom are male. “I definitely feel there’s a gap in understanding between male tutors and female students and that can be quite difficult. It’s always in the back of your mind that you’re being taught by men, you’re going to be applying for jobs with men, the workshops are run by men ... The prospect of being one of the best in the field, without having females in the industry already to look up to, is really quite hard.”

Rianna Walcott, 24, is a PhD candidate at King’s College London in digital humanities, and co-author of the book The Colour Of Madness. While studying, Walcott co-founded Project Myopia to promote inclusivity and run workshops around the minority experience in academia. “There needs to be more support for students right now – and especially minority students,” she says. “If we want the culture to change, students and staff need to take a stand.”

Stress isn’t only rising among undergraduates. A report commissioned by the Higher Education Policy Institute revealed that staff referrals to counselling and occupational health services have soared over recent years. The culture of academia is unstructured and performance-driven, often lending itself to overwork. For master’s and PhD students who also teach, the lines between work and leisure-time are often blurred.

“Stress is unavoidable because you can’t clock out,” says Walcott. “If you don’t get a grant, you have to be able to support yourself in your PhD. Then there’s a lot of invisible stuff you need to do to become employable; you have to be involved in conferences, teaching, networking. Your responsibilities increase the older you get in academia, but if course you’re still living as a student with not nearly enough to actually live on.”

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Managing Anxiety, Assignment & Exam Stress

stressed with university assignments

Let’s start with the good news - experiencing some amount of stress or anxiety is an indication that you’re human. It’s how your body reacts to the demands and challenges it faces. It is natural to feel anxious prior to an exam or stressed while juggling assignment prep. 

While stress and anxiety can sometimes be overwhelming,  they can also be an energising and healthy pressure that encourages you to grow your capabilities and take control of your situation.

So how can you strike a balance between too little an too much stress? This blog will cover some techniques you can utilise to help reduce and manage your stress and anxiety levels during assignment periods and leading up to your exams. 

Slow Down to Speed Up 

When you're feeling overwhelmed, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that working harder and longer is the only solution. However, this can actually lead to burnout and a decline in your performance. By taking the time to slow down and prioritize your health, you can recharge your batteries and approach your work with renewed focus and energy.

There are many ways to slow down and take care of yourself, such as practising mindfulness, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, and eating a healthy diet. These activities may seem like luxuries when you're under the pressure of exams and assignments, but they are essential for maintaining your mental and physical health.

Remember that your grades or your academic achievements do not define you. Taking care of yourself is a crucial part of your journey as a student, and it will ultimately help you achieve your goals in a more sustainable and fulfilling way. So, take a deep breath, slow down, and prioritize your health and well-being - it's the best investment you can make in your academic and personal success.

Early Bird or Night Owl?

Not everyone is the same, and no one size fits all when it comes to the best time of day for productivity.  And it’s unproductive to try and force yourself to study when your focus and productivity levels are low.  You are better off trying to try and use those times as your downtime to relax,  catch up with friends,  exercise,  or do something you enjoy, and then make use of the times that work best for you.

Ask yourself these two questions:

  • When during the day do I have the greatest amount of energy and concentration?
  • When do I have the fewest interruptions and distractions?

For some, that might be first thing in the morning. For others, they might find the mornings challenging and have a habit of procrastinating until midday anyway. So rather than making yourself feel guilty for procrastinating, schedule in that time as downtime and kick off your studying session at midday.

Messy Workspace, Messy Headspace

The physical environment of your workplace has a  significant effect on the way that you work. Cluttered spaces can have negative effects on our stress and anxiety levels,  as well as our ability to focus, our eating choices, and even our sleep.

A Good Routine

Hopefully, you already have a good routine in place, but if not, there has never been a better time to start. Self-care doesn’t have to cost a lot of money or take up heaps of time. Start with the basics, making sure you get enough sleep,  drink enough water, eat regular meals and snacks,  and get in some movement or time outdoors. Then look to build on this through self-care that helps you to relax. Remember - relaxing is not one activity. It’s the outcome of that activity and how it makes you feel. And what works for your friends may not work for you. Experiment and see what works best for you!  From journaling,  reading,  different types of exercise,  stretching, and meditating, the options are endless.  Pay attention to how you feel after each activity. Ask yourself, does this make me feel grounded and at ease? If so, schedule some time each day to help you shake off the tension of studying or to unwind after an exam.

Not only can sleep deprivation worsens anxiety, but getting enough sleep is vital to feeling and performing your best,  which is particularly important around exam time. Don’t stay up late the night before or get up too early on the morning of. A good night’s sleep is more valuable than a few hours of revision.

Write Down Worries  

It’s been proven that if you take a few moments to write about your fears just before you take an exam, it will help to reduce your anxiety and improve your performance. Write down what you are stressed about, why you are stressed, and what the outcome would be if those  worries were realised.  By writing down your worries,  it can help you to put everything into perspective and help you to feel lighter and less tense by emptying your worries from your mind and onto the paper.

Move your Body  

You don’t need to run a marathon every day, but the movement is just as key to a healthy mind as it is to a healthy body. Exercise is considered healthy stress on the body,  which  can actually help your body fight off the effects of stress. Exercise in almost any form can act as a stress reliever.

Reach Out for Support 

Having people to lean on is great for your mental health. Make sure you let those close to you know if you are feeling overwhelmed or preparing for an upcoming exam. Not only can they help to support you emotionally, but they can also be on hand to help you in other ways (healthy study snacks, anyone!). If you don’t feel as though you have people in your life that understand your stress and anxiety,  that’s what  TalkCampus is for!  Jump onto their global community and chat with other students that get it.

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University assignment help: dealing with deadline pressure.

June 08, 2022

Have you submitted your assignments?

This is probably a phrase you hear quite often once you start to attend university. Regardless of what type of student you are - well-prepared or last-minute - assignment deadlines are daunting. 

Female student feeling the deadline pressure.

Image source: Andrea Piacquadio , Pexels

Trust us, we were once students too!

These deadlines can add pressure to your studies and academic performance. Stress from all the workload that is not managed well can even disrupt your workflow and daily life.

However, as long as you know how to handle multiple assignments correctly, you can steer away from stress and enjoy the wonderful university experience.

How do you handle assignment deadline pressure?

1. don’t panic.

Female student panicking over assignment deadline pressure.

Image source: Karolina Grabowska , Pexels

Easier said than done, right? 

When assignments come in relentlessly, your thoughts will be all over the place and you might even miss out some really close deadlines.

When this happens, staying calm is the best way to deal with deadline pressure. Even Forbes says to relax and stay calm !

Take a step back and visualise how you want to approach every task in your hands. Some may need more research, while others can be completed within a day. 

Once you are able to sort out your tasks based on priority, you will see things with a clearer view and hence, approach each assignment with a calm mind.

2. Set your own timeline.

Whiteboard with assignment timeline.

Image source: Startup Stock Photos , Pexels

Make sure to complete your assignments 1 to 2 days before the actual due date so you can proofread and make amendments.

For example: If the due date is on 30 June, start researching and drafting your assignment at least two weeks prior. You should be able to finish the first draft, review, edit and submit your work before the deadline! 

3. Create a checklist.

Notebook for assignment checklist.

Image source: Suzy Hazelwood , Pexels

A checklist does wonders to time management and organisation. Plus, the satisfaction of crossing off each completed task feels like an awesome accomplishment!

The key is to break down each task into small, chronological steps. Here’s a template that you can use:

Step 1 - Research and gather materials from credible sources Step 2 - Read and understand the information you have Step 3 - Work on your first draft Step 4 - Review and amend the draft Step 5 - Upload the draft to an online plagiarism checker Step 6 - Proofread again (extra effort wouldn’t hurt!) Step 7 - Submit your assignment

With an organised checklist, you will feel more confident and can keep deadline pressure away!

4. Do your own research.

Hands typing on a laptop for assignment research.

Image source: Christina Morillo , Pexels

Besides practicing your research skills, self-learning helps you gain a better understanding of a particular topic especially if what you learn on your own goes beyond what is taught in class. 

This adds value to your assignment because it will look unique, wholesome, and well-researched. 

5. Seek help from others.

Male university students discussing about their assignments.

Image source: Helena Lopes , Pexels

Your friends or group mates are the best people to go to because they can relate to you the most.

Being open with the stress you’re dealing with due to assignment deadlines can also help you bond with other students who feel the same. You can then help each other complete the assignment by sharing knowledge. After all, sharing is caring!

You can also speak to a trusted family member or counselor to share about your stress. Chances are, you will receive useful advice from those who have been through the same, or your counselor will share tips to help better manage your stress.

6. Seek guidance from your lecturer. 

University student talking to lecturer about assignment deadline pressure.

Sometimes, assignment topics can be quite tricky.

To avoid going off topic and starting over from scratch, it is best to seek clarification from your lecturer before you begin your assignment.

But don’t expect everything to be handed to you immediately! Put effort into the discussion by explaining what you understand first before seeking advice.

You can even gain more insight and tips from your lecturer. This will give you a strong head start!

7. Avoid last-minute work. 

Hourglass with red sand.

Image source: Pixabay , Pexels

A rushed assignment almost never looks good.

So many things can go south when you submit a last-minute work:

  • Poorly-done research
  • Grammatical errors
  • Lack of understanding of a particular topic
  • Your essay is below/exceeds the word limit
  • Lack of originality

Cramping assignments can result in a lower grade. Hence, it’s best to avoid last-minute work! Tips #2 and #3 can help you balance out your workload.

8. Request for a deadline extension

Male student working on assignment with extended deadline.

Image source: George Pak , Pexels

If all else fails and you couldn’t submit your assignment on-time, you should immediately inform your lecturer and request for an extension.

Keep in mind that this must not turn into a habit. You should only do this if you have acceptable reasons behind the delay. Remember to apologise too!

Once your lecturer accepts your request, be sure to be punctual with the new deadline.

There you have it! Follow these 8 steps and we’re sure you’ll ace your assignments, stress-free!

We have more articles about university life that you should totally check out!

5 Lessons You Learn as a University Student 9 Things You’ll Regret Not Doing in University Campus Life: How to Survive University

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How to Reduce Assignment Anxiety – 10 Best Tips and Tricks

The college homework and assignments often seem like an overwhelming pile of stress. Assignment stress and anxiety can prevent you from performing well and ultimately from achieving your highest potential. Thus, to avoid such consequences, you need to learn how to reduce assignment anxiety. So, to reduce assignment anxiety, you need to build strong and healthy habits.

How to Reduce Assignment Anxiety

Sometimes a little adjustment makes a huge difference. Therefore, building strong habits can help you fight against assignment anxiety and perform better in your class. Follow the tips below regularly to avoid homework stress.

1. Identify Your Source of Anxiety

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If you have been feeling gloomy lately, it is crucial to find out the source of your anxiety to tackle the problem. One of the best ways to do so is to keep a daily journal where you write your daily tasks, assignments, events, and your thoughts about them. Such a journal where you keep a record of everything can help you learn the main source of your anxiety. Whether it is your sleep pattern, caffeine, procrastination, or even unrealistic expectation from yourself, you need to as soon as possible acknowledge them.

2. Plan and Organize

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Another reason why students mostly feel stressed is the overwhelming assignments and coursework. Thus, we recommend you break down your assignments into smaller chunks and set goals for yourself. Most of the time, we feel anxiety because we can not control certain things. Therefore, being organized and mindful about your studies will help you feel calm and in control of things.

  • Best Ways to Reduce Stress Before an Exam

3. Procrastinate Productively

Stressed

Professor Frank Partnoy writes in his book Wait: The Art and Science of Delay that there are two kinds of procrastination : Active procrastination and passive procrastination. Passive procrastination, no doubt, is a negative thing because it prevents you from getting your work done. Meanwhile, passive procrastination is a positive thing because while actively procrastinating, you are delaying one task to focus on a more important task.

So, if you have been feeling anxious about a particular assignment, you can put it off for some time and focus on another task. This way not only you will feel relaxed but also productive.

4. Learn How to Manage Your Time Effectively

stressed with university assignments

Time management is crucial! Setting out time when you need to focus only on one thing such as your assignment makes it more accomplishable and reduces the stress. Thus, set aside an hour or more each day to focus only on your assignments. The key here is to understand when you are at your highest potential to concentrate at what time of the day. You can either start doing your homework in the early morning, in the evening, or at night before bed.

Besides, to stay organized, you can keep a study planner or a calendar. One of the best calendars out there is Google Calendar and Todoist is one of the best task management and to-do app out there. Also, try to make realistic goals to avoid burnout.

How to Manage Your Time Effectively – 10 Best Time Management Tips

5. Get Started Early

stressed with university assignments

Early risers are always considered to more energetic and potential problem solvers. However, nights owls may not agree with the fact that early risers get some extra hours by getting up earlier. They can use this additional advantage by doing the hard stuff earlier in the morning when they are the most energetic. Besides, waking up early has countless benefits some of which are below.

  • If you get habitual to going to bed earlier at night and getting up earlier in the morning, this will help you be more energetic during the day.
  • Studies also suggest that white cells drop in your body when you get a good night’s sleep which you can only get if you sleep and wake up earlier.
  • Early risers are more proficient in taking decisions, setting up goals, and achieving them.
  • They also enjoy reduced stress levels.
  • Moreover, researches prove that early risers are happier than night owls; not just for a day but they live happier throughout everything.

6. Get Goodnight Sleep

stressed with university assignments

Getting a goodnight’s sleep may sound like a very simple and obvious tip. There are countless benefits of a goodnight’s sleep and reducing homework stress is one of them. According to researches, people between 6 to 18 years old, need 7 to 9 hours of sleep. And a goodnight’s sleep significantly affects memory, concentration span, creativity, and all important aspects of a student’s life.

7. Refresh Your Memory Regularly

Common Essay Mistakes Students Commit

It is also very important to build a strong base of your every subject to reduce assignment anxiety. Because if you have difficulty in previous lessons, it will be hard for you to complete any assignment or task. Thus, once in a week, go through your previous lessons and take notes of areas that you find difficult. So, the next time when you sit to revise, you know which topics you need to give more attention to. Furthermore, refreshing or revising previous lessons also helps you build confidence.

8. Stay Organized

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An unorganized life, even desk, does more harm than ignorance. Besides, an unorganized desk is distracting too. Thus, cleaning your room and your desk is highly recommended. To stay organized, you can also get yourself a nice journal or a planner if you are a pen-and-paper person. Otherwise, apps such as todoist or Habitica can also help you get your work done. And here are some fascinating benefits of using a daily planner or agenda.

  • You can maintain an effective school and life schedule
  • Be more productive
  • keep track of everything you do and have to do
  • And most important of all, you can reduce stress levels
  • and much much more

9. Review Your Agenda Regularly

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To live a stress-free life, it is very important to stay organized. And one of the most magical ways is to keep an agenda or a planner where you can plan your life ahead of time. You can make a weekly and a daily planner section where you list down all your homework, assignments, and to-dos. However, just keeping an agenda is not enough. You need to review it on daily basis to lead a stress-free life.

10. Give Yourself Some “ME” Time

Give yourself time

While it is important to study hard, it is equally important not to neglect yourself. During your tight schedule at school, you may usually feel burnout. Therefore, cherishing yourself with some “ME” time can help you be more productive and creative. Thus, once a week, going out with friends, spending some quality time with family, or just taking care of yourself can help you make sure you enjoy a healthy and stress-free life.

You may also be interested in:

  • 10 Daily Activities of Successful Students
  • 10 Disciplinary Principles Every Successful Student Follow
  • The 5 Best Activities for School Assembly
  • The Top 10 Reasons Why Students Fail in Examination
  • How to Write a Personal Statement for College or University

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Interventions to reduce stress in university students: a review and meta-analysis

Affiliation.

  • 1 Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work Vice-Provost, Academic Programs, University of Toronto, 27 King's College Circle, Toronto, Canada M5S 1A1. [email protected]
  • PMID: 23246209
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2012.11.026

Background: Recent research has revealed concerning rates of anxiety and depression among university students. Nevertheless, only a small percentage of these students receive treatment from university health services. Universities are thus challenged with instituting preventative programs that address student stress and reduce resultant anxiety and depression.

Method: A systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis was conducted to examine the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing stress in university students. Studies were eligible for inclusion if the assignment of study participants to experimental or control groups was by random allocation or parallel cohort design.

Results: Retrieved studies represented a variety of intervention approaches with students in a broad range of programs and disciplines. Twenty-four studies, involving 1431 students were included in the meta-analysis. Cognitive, behavioral and mindfulness interventions were associated with decreased symptoms of anxiety. Secondary outcomes included lower levels of depression and cortisol.

Limitations: Included studies were limited to those published in peer reviewed journals. These studies over-represent interventions with female students in Western countries. Studies on some types of interventions such as psycho-educational and arts based interventions did not have sufficient data for inclusion in the meta-analysis.

Conclusion: This review provides evidence that cognitive, behavioral, and mindfulness interventions are effective in reducing stress in university students. Universities are encouraged to make such programs widely available to students. In addition however, future work should focus on developing stress reduction programs that attract male students and address their needs.

Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Publication types

  • Meta-Analysis
  • Systematic Review
  • Anxiety / prevention & control*
  • Depression / prevention & control*
  • Program Evaluation
  • Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
  • Stress, Psychological / prevention & control*
  • Students / psychology*
  • Universities
  • Open access
  • Published: 24 February 2024

Physical activity improves stress load, recovery, and academic performance-related parameters among university students: a longitudinal study on daily level

  • Monika Teuber 1 ,
  • Daniel Leyhr 1 , 2 &
  • Gorden Sudeck 1 , 3  

BMC Public Health volume  24 , Article number:  598 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

639 Accesses

17 Altmetric

Metrics details

Physical activity has been proven to be beneficial for physical and psychological health as well as for academic achievement. However, especially university students are insufficiently physically active because of difficulties in time management regarding study, work, and social demands. As they are at a crucial life stage, it is of interest how physical activity affects university students' stress load and recovery as well as their academic performance.

Student´s behavior during home studying in times of COVID-19 was examined longitudinally on a daily basis during a ten-day study period ( N  = 57, aged M  = 23.5 years, SD  = 2.8, studying between the 1st to 13th semester ( M  = 5.8, SD  = 4.1)). Two-level regression models were conducted to predict daily variations in stress load, recovery and perceived academic performance depending on leisure-time physical activity and short physical activity breaks during studying periods. Parameters of the individual home studying behavior were also taken into account as covariates.

While physical activity breaks only positively affect stress load (functional stress b = 0.032, p  < 0.01) and perceived academic performance (b = 0.121, p  < 0.001), leisure-time physical activity affects parameters of stress load (functional stress: b = 0.003, p  < 0.001, dysfunctional stress: b = -0.002, p  < 0.01), recovery experience (b = -0.003, p  < 0.001) and perceived academic performance (b = 0.012, p  < 0.001). Home study behavior regarding the number of breaks and longest stretch of time also shows associations with recovery experience and perceived academic performance.

Conclusions

Study results confirm the importance of different physical activities for university students` stress load, recovery experience and perceived academic performance in home studying periods. Universities should promote physical activity to keep their students healthy and capable of performing well in academic study: On the one hand, they can offer opportunities to be physically active in leisure time. On the other hand, they can support physical activity breaks during the learning process and in the immediate location of study.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

Physical activity (PA) takes a particularly key position in health promotion and prevention. It reduces risks for several diseases, overweight, and all-cause mortality [ 1 ] and is beneficial for physical, psychological and social health [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ] as well as for academic achievement [ 6 , 7 ]. However, PA levels decrease from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood [ 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Especially university students are insufficiently physically active according to health-oriented PA guidelines [ 11 ] because of academic workloads as well as difficulties in time management regarding study, work, and social demands [ 12 ]. Due to their independence and increasing self-responsibility, university students are at a crucial life stage. In this essential and still educational stage of the students´ development, it is important to study their PA behavior. Furthermore, PA as health behavior represents one influencing factor which is considered in the analytical framework of the impact of health and health behaviors on educational outcomes which was developed by the authors Suhrcke and de Paz Nieves [ 13 , 14 ]. In light of this, the present study examines how PA affects university students' academic situations.

Along with the promotion of PA, the reduction of sedentary behavior has also become a crucial part of modern health promotion and prevention strategies. Spending too much time sitting increases many health risks, including the risk of obesity [ 15 ], diabetes [ 16 ] and other chronic diseases [ 15 ], damage to muscular balances, bone metabolism and musculoskeletal system [ 17 ] and even early death [ 15 ]. University students are a population that has shown the greatest increase in sedentary behavior over the last two decades [ 18 ]. In Germany, they show the highest percentage of sitting time among all working professional groups [ 19 ]. Long times sitting in classes, self-study learning, and through smartphone use, all of which are connected to the university setting and its associated behaviors, might be the cause of this [ 20 , 21 ]. This goes along with technological advances which allow students to study in the comfort of their own homes without changing locations [ 22 ].

To counter a sedentary lifestyle, PA is crucial. In addition to its physical health advantages, PA is essential for coping with the intellectual and stress-related demands of academic life. PA shows positive associations with stress load and academic performance. It is positively associated with learning and educational success [ 6 ] and even shows stress-regulatory potential [ 23 ]. In contrast, sedentary behavior is associated with lower cognitive performance [ 24 ]. Moreover, theoretical derivations show that too much sitting could have a negative impact on brain health and diminish the positive effects of PA [ 16 ]. Given the theoretical background of the stressor detachment model [ 25 ] and the cybernetic approach to stress management in the workplace [ 26 ], PA can promote recovery experience, it can enhance academic performance, and it is a way to reduce the impact of study-related stressors on strain. Load-related stress response can be bilateral: On the one hand, it can be functional if it is beneficial to help cope with the study demands. On the other hand, it can be dysfunctional if it puts a strain on personal resources and can lead to load-related states of strain [ 27 ]. Thus, both, the promotion of PA and reduction of sedentary behavior are important for stress load, recovery, and performance in student life, which can be of particular importance for students in an academic context.

A simple but (presumably) effective way to integrate PA and reduce sedentary behavior in student life are short PA breaks. Due to the exercises' simplicity and short duration, students can perform them wherever they are — together in a lecture or alone at home. Short PA breaks could prevent an accumulation of negative stressors during the day and can help with prolonged sitting as well as inactivity. Especially in the university setting, evidence of the positive effects of PA breaks exists for self-perceived physical and psychological well-being of the university students [ 28 ]. PA breaks buffer university students’ perceived stress [ 29 ] and show positive impacts on recovery need [ 30 ] and better mood ratings [ 31 , 32 ]. In addition, there is evidence for reduction in tension [ 30 ], overall muscular discomfort [ 33 ], daytime sleepiness or fatigue [ 33 , 34 ] and increase in vigor [ 34 ] and experienced energy [ 30 ]. This is in line with cognitive, affective, behavioral, and biological effects of PA, all categorized as palliative-regenerative coping strategies, which addresses the consequences of stress-generating appraisal processes aiming to alleviate these consequences (palliative) or restore the baseline of the relevant reaction parameter (regenerative) [ 35 , 36 ]. This is achieved by, for example, reducing stress-induced cortisol release or tension through physical activity (reaction reduction) [ 35 ]. Such mechanisms are also in accordance with the previously mentioned stressor detachment model [ 25 ]. Lastly, there is a health-strengthening effect that impacts the entire stress-coping-health process, relying on the compensatory effects of PA which is in accordance to the stress-buffering effect of exercise [ 37 ]. Health, in turn, effects educational outcomes [ 13 , 14 ]. Therefore, stress regulating effects are also accompanied with the before mentioned analytical framework of the impact of health and health behaviors on educational outcomes [ 13 , 14 ].

Focusing on the effects of PA, this study is guided by an inquiry into how PA affects university students' stress load and recovery as well as their perceived academic performance. For that reason, the student´s behavior during home studying in times of COVID-19 is examined, a time in which reinforced prolonged sitting, inactivity, and a negative stress load response was at a high [ 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 ]. Looking separately on the relation of PA with different parameters based on the mentioned evidence, we assume that PA has a positive impact on stress load, recovery, and perceived academic performance-related parameters. Furthermore, a side effect of the home study behavior on the mentioned parameters is assumed regarding the accumulation of negative stressors during home studying. These associations are presented in Fig.  1 and summarized in the following hypotheses:

figure 1

Overview of the assumed effects and investigated hypotheses of physical activity (PA) behavior on variables of stress load and recovery and perceived academic performance-related parameters

Hypothesis 1 (path 1): Given that stress load always occurs as a duality—beneficial if it is functional for coping, or exhausting if it puts a strain on personal resources [ 27 ] – we consider two variables for stress load: functional stress and dysfunctional stress. In order to reduce the length of the daily surveys, we focused the measure of recovery only on the most obvious and accessible component of recovery experience, namely psychological detachment. PA (whether performed in leisure-time or during PA breaks) encourages functional stress and reduce dysfunctional stress (1.A) and has a positive effect on recovery experience through psychological detachment (1.B).

Hypothesis 2 (path 2): The academic performance-related parameters attention difficulties and study ability are positively influenced by PA (whether done in leisure-time or during PA breaks). We have chosen to assess attention difficulties for a cognitive parameter because poor control over the stream of occurring stimuli have been associated with impairment in executive functions or academic failure [ 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ]. Furthermore, we have assessed the study ability to refer to the self-perceived feeling of functionality regarding the demands of students. PA reduces self-reported attention difficulties (2.A) and improves perceived study ability, indicating that a student feels capable of performing well in academic study (2.B).

Hypothesis 3: We assume that a longer time spent on studying at home (so called home studying) could result in higher accumulation of stressors throughout the day which could elicit immediate stress responses, while breaks in general could reduce the influence of work-related stressors on strain and well-being [ 47 , 48 ]. Therefore, the following covariates are considered for secondary effects:

the daily longest stretch of time without a break spent on home studying

the daily number of breaks during home studying

Study setting

The study was carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic containment phase. It took place in the middle of the lecture period between 25th of November and 4th of December 2020. Student life was characterized by home studying and digital learning. A so called “digital semester” was in effect at the University of Tübingen when the study took place. Hence, courses were mainly taught online (e.g., live or via a recorded lecture). Other events and actions at the university were not permitted. As such, the university sports department closed in-person sports activities. For leisure time in general, there were contact restrictions (social distancing), the performance of sports activities in groups was not permitted, and sports facilities were closed.

Thus, the university sports department of the University of Tübingen launched various online sports courses and the student health management introduced an opportunity for a new digital form of PA breaks. This opportunity provided PA breaks via videos with guided physical exercises and health-promoting explanations for a PA break for everyday home studying: the so called “Bewegungssnack digital” [in English “exercise snack digital” (ESD)] [ 49 ]. The ESD videos took 5–7 min and were categorized into three thematic foci: activation, relaxation, and coordination. Exercises were demonstrated by one or two student exercise leaders, accompanied by textual descriptions of the relevant execution features of each exercise.

Participants

Participants were recruited within the framework of an intervention study, which was conducted to investigate whether a digital nudging intervention has a beneficial effect on taking PA breaks during home study periods [ 49 ]. Students at the University of Tübingen which counts 27,532 enrolled students were approached for participation through a variety of digital means: via an email sent to those who registered for ESD course on the homepage of the university sports department and to all students via the university email distribution list; via advertisement on social media of the university sports department (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, homepage). Five tablets, two smart watches, and one iPad were raffled off to participants who engaged actively during the full study period in an effort to motivate them to stick with it to the end. In any case, participants knew that the study was voluntary and that they would not suffer any personal disadvantages should they opt out. There was a written informed consent prompt together with a prompt for the approval of the data protection regulations immediately within the first questionnaire (T0) presented in a mandatory selection field. Positive ethical approval for the study was given by the first author´s institution´s ethics committee of the faculty of the University of Tübingen.

Participants ( N  = 57) who completed the daily surveys on at least half of the days of the study period, were included in the sample (male = 6, female = 47, diverse = 1, not stated = 3). As not all subjects provided data on all ten study days, the total number of observations was between 468 and 540, depending on the variable under study (see Table  1 ). The average number of observations per subject was around eight. Their age was between 18 and 32 years ( M  = 23.52, SD  = 2.81) and they were studying between the 1st to 13th semester ( M  = 5.76, SD  = 4.11) within the following major courses of study: mathematical-scientific majors (34.0%), social science majors (22.6%), philosophical majors (18.9%), medicine (13.2%), theology (5.7%), economics (3.8%), or law (1.9%). 20.4% of the students had on-site classroom teaching on university campus for at least one day a week despite the mandated digital semester, as there were exceptions for special forms of teaching.

Design and procedures

To examine these hypothesized associations, a longitudinal study design with daily surveys was chosen following the suggestion of the day-level study of Feuerhahn et al. (2014) and also of Sonnentag (2001) measuring recovery potential of (exercise) activities during leisure time [ 50 , 51 ]. Considering that there are also differences between people at the beginning of the study period, initial base-line value variables respective to the outcomes measured before the study period were considered as independent covariates. Therefore, the well-being at baseline serves as a control for stress load (2.A), the psychological detachment at baseline serves as a control for daily psychological detachment (2.B), the perception of study demands serves as a control for self-reported attention difficulties (1.A), and the perceived study ability at baseline serves as a control for daily study ability (2.B).

Subjects were asked to continue with their normal home study routine and additionally perform ESD at any time in their daily routine. Data were collected one to two days before (T0) as well as daily during the ten-day study period (Wednesday to Friday). The daily surveys (t 1 -t 10 ) were sent by email at 7 p.m. every evening. Each day, subjects were asked to answer questions about their home studying behavior, study related requirements, recovery experience from study tasks, attention, and PA, including ESD participation. The surveys were conducted online using the UNIPARK software and were recorded and analyzed anonymously.

Measures and covariates

In total, five outcome variables, two independent variables, and seven covariates were included in different analyses: three variables were used for stress load and recovery parameters, two variables for academic performance-related parameters, two variables for PA behavior, two variables for study behavior, four variables for outcome specific baseline values and one variable for age.

Outcome variables

Stress load & recovery parameters (hypothesis 1).

Stress load was included in the analysis with two variables: functional stress and dysfunctional stress. Followingly, a questionnaire containing a word list of adjectives for the recording of emotions and stress during work (called “Erfassung von Emotionen und Beanspruchung “ in German, also known as EEB [ 52 ]) was used. It is an instrument which were developed and validated in the context of occupational health promotion. The items are based on mental-workload research and the assessment of the stress potential of work organization [ 52 ]. Within the questionnaire, four mental and motivational stress items were combined to form a functional stress scale (energetic, willing to perform, attentive, focused) (α = 0.89) and four negative emotional and physical stress items were combined to form dysfunctional stress scale (nervous, physically tensioned, excited, physically unwell) (α = 0.71). Participants rated the items according to how they felt about home studying in general on the following scale (adjustment from “work” to “home studying”): hardly, somewhat, to some extent, fairly, strongly, very strongly, exceptionally.

Recovery experience was measured via psychological detachment. Therefore, the dimension “detachment” of the Recovery Experience Questionnaire (RECQ [ 53 ]) was adjusted to home studying. The introductory question was "How did you experience your free time (including short breaks between learning) during home studying today?". Students responded to four statements based on the extent to which they agreed or disagreed (not at all true, somewhat true, moderately true, mostly true, completely true). The statements covered subjects such as forgetting about studying, not thinking about studying, detachment from studying, and keeping a distance from student tasks. The four items were combined into a score for psychological detachment (α = 0.94).

Academic performance-related parameters (hypothesis 2)

Attention was assessed via the subscale “difficulty maintaining focused attention performance” of the “Attention and Performance Self-Assessment” (ASPA, AP-F2 [ 54 ]). It contains nine items with statements about disturbing situations regarding concentration (e.g. “Even a small noise from the environment could disturb me while reading.”). Participants had to answer how often such situations happened to them on a given day on the following scale: never, rarely, sometimes, often, always. The nine items were combined into the AP-F2 score (α = 0.87).

The perceived study ability was assessed using the study ability index (SAI [ 55 ]). The study ability index captures the current state of perceived functioning in studying. It is based on the Work Ability Index by Hasselhorn and Freude ([ 56 ]) and consists of an adjusted short scale of three adapted items in the context of studying. Firstly, (a) the perceived academic performance was asked after in comparison to the best study-related academic performance ever achieved (from 0 = completely unable to function to 10 = currently best functioning). Secondly, the other two items were aimed at assessing current study-related performance in relation to (b) study tasks that have to be mastered cognitively and (c) the psychological demands of studying. Both items were answered on a five-point Likert scale (1 = very poor, 2 = rather poor, 3 = moderate, 4 = rather good, 5 = very good). A sum index, the SAI, was formed which can indicate values between 2 and 20, with higher values corresponding to higher assessed functioning in studies (α = 0.86). In a previous study it already showed satisfying reliability (α = 0.72) [ 55 ].

Independent variables

Pa behavior.

Two indicators for PA behavior were included via self-reports: the time spent on ESD and the time spent on leisure-time PA (LTPA). Participants were asked the following overarching question daily: “How much time did you spend on physical activity today and in what context”. For the independent variable time spent on PA breaks, participants could answer the option “I participated in the Bewegungssnack digital” with the amount of time they spent on it (in minutes). To assess the time spent on LTPA besides PA breaks, participants could report their time for four different contexts of PA which comprised two forms: Firstly, structured supervised exercise was reported via time spent on (a) university sports courses and (b) other organized sports activities. Secondly, self-organized PA was indicated via (c) independent PA at home, such as a workout or other physically demanding activity such as cleaning or tidying up, as well as via (d) independent PA outside, like walking, cycling, jogging, a workout or something similar. Referring to the different domains of health enhancing PA [ 57 ], the reported minutes of these four types of PA were summed up to a total LTPA value. The total LTPA value was included in the analysis as a metric variable in minutes.

Covariates (hypothesis 3)

Regarding hypothesis 3 and home study behavior, the longest daily stretch of time without a break spent on home studying (in hours) and the daily number of breaks during home studying was assessed. Therein, participants had to answer the overarching question “How much time did you spend on your home studying today?” and give responses to the items: (1) longest stretch of time for home studying (without a break), and (2) number of short and long breaks you took during home studying.

In principle, efforts were made to control for potential confounders at the individual level (level 2) either by including the baseline measure (T0) of the respective variable or by including variables assessing related trait-like characteristics for respective outcomes. The reason why related trait-like characteristics were used for the outcomes was because brief assessments were used for daily surveys that were not concurrently employed in the baseline assessment. To enable the continued use of controlling for person-specific baseline characteristics in the analysis of daily associations, trait-like characteristics available from the baseline assessment were utilized as the best possible approximation.To sum up, four outcome specific baseline value variables were measured before the study period (at T0). The psychological detachment with the RECQ (α = 0.87) [ 53 ] was assessed at the beginning to monitor daily psychological detachment. Further, the SAI [ 55 ] was assessed at the beginning of the study period to monitor daily study ability. To monitor daily stress load, which in part measures mental stress aspects and negative emotional stress aspects, the well-being was assessed at the beginning using the WHO-Five Well-being Index (WHO-5 [ 58 ]). It is a one-dimensional self-report measure with five items. The index value is the sum of all items, with higher values indicating better well-being. As the well-being and stress load tolerance may linked with each other, this variable was assumed to be a good fit with the daily stress load indicating mental and emotional stress aspects. With respect to student life, daily academic performance-related attention was monitored with an instrument for the perception of study demands and resources (termed “Berliner Anforderungen Ressourcen-Inventar – Studierende” in German, the so-called BARI-S [ 59 ]). It contains eight items which capture overwork in studies, time pressure during studies, and the incompatibility of studies and private life. All together they form the BARI-S demand scale (α = 0.85) which was included in the analysis. As overwork and time pressure may result in attention difficulties (e.g. Elfering et al., 2013), this variable was assumed to have a good fit with academic performance-related attention [ 60 ]. Additionally, age in years at T0 was considered as a sociodemographic factor.

Statistical analysis

Since the study design provided ten measurement points for various people, the hierarchical structure of the nested data called for two-level analyses. Pre-analyses of Random-Intercept-Only models for each of the outcome variables (hypothesis 1 to 3) revealed an Intra-Class-Correlation ( ICC ) of at least 0.10 (range 0.26 – 0.64) and confirmed the necessity to perform multilevel analyses [ 61 ]. Specifically, the day-level variables belong to Level 1 (ESD time, LTPA time, longest stretch of time without a break spent on home studying, daily number of breaks during home studying). To analyze day-specific effects within the person, these variables were centered on the person mean (cw = centered within) [ 50 , 62 , 63 , 64 ]. This means that the analyses’ findings are based on a person’s deviations from their average values. The variables assessed at T0 belong to Level 2, which describe the person level (psychological detachment baseline, SAI baseline, well-being, study demands scale, age). These covariates on person level were centered around the grand mean [ 50 ] indicating that the analyses’ findings are based how far an individual deviates from the sample's mean values. As a result, the models’ intercept reflects the outcome value of an average student in the sample at his/her daily average behavior in PA and home study when all parameters are zero. For descriptive statistics SPSS 28.0.1.1 (IBM) and for inferential statistics R (version 4.1.2) were used. The hierarchical models were calculated using the package lme4 with the lmer-function in R in the following steps [ 65 ]. The Null Model was analyzed for all models first, with the corresponding intercept as the only predictor. Afterwards, all variables were entered. The regression coefficient estimates (”b”) were considered for statistical significance for the models and the respective BIC was provided.

In total, five regression models with ‘PA break time’ and ‘LTPA time’ as independent variables were computed due to the five measured outcomes of the present study. Three models belonged to hypothesis 1 and two models to hypothesis 2.

Hypothesis 1: To test hypothesis 1.A two outcome variables were chosen for two separate models: ‘functional stress’ and ‘dysfunctional stress’. Besides the PA behavior variables, the ‘number of breaks’, the ‘longest stretch of time without a break spent on home studying’, ‘age’, and the ‘well-being’ at the beginning of the study as corresponding baseline variable to the output variable were also included as independent variables in both models. The outcome variable ‘psychological detachment’ was utilized in conjunction with the aforementioned independent variables to test hypotheses 1.B, with one exception: psychological detachment at the start of the study was chosen as the corresponding baseline variable.

Hypothesis 2: To investigate hypothesis 2.A the outcome variable ‘attention difficulties’ was selected. Hypothesis 2.B was tested with the outcome variables ‘study ability’. Both models included both PA behavior variables as well as the ‘number of breaks’, the ‘longest stretch of time without a break spent on home studying’, ‘age’ and one corresponding baseline variable each: the ‘study demand scale’ at the start of the study for ‘attention difficulties’ and the ‘SAI’ at the beginning of the study for the daily ‘study ability’.

Hypothesis 3: In addition to both PA behavior variables, age and one baseline variable that matched the outcome variable, the covariates ‘daily longest stretch of time spent on home studying’ and ‘daily number of breaks during home studying’ were included in the models for all five outcome variables.

Handling missing data

The dataset had up to 18% missing values (most exhibit the variables ‘daily longest stretch of time without a break spent on home studying’ with 17.89% followed by ‘daily number of breaks during homes studying’ with 16.67%, and ‘functional / dysfunctional stress’ with 12.45%). Therefore, a sensitivity analysis was performed using the multiple imputation mice-package in the statistical program R [ 66 ], the package howManyImputation based on Von Hippel (2020, [ 67 ]), and the additional broom package [ 68 ]. The results of the models remained the same, with one exception for the Attention Difficulties Model: The daily longest stretch of time without a break spent on home studying showed a significant association (Table  1 in supplement). Due to this almost perfect consistency of results between analyses based on the dataset with missing data and those with imputed data alongside the lack of information provided by the packages for imputed datasets, we decided to stick with the main analysis including the missing data. Thus, in the following the results of the main analysis without imputations are presented.

Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics of the variables used in the analysis. An overview of the analysed models is presented in Table  2 .

Effects on stress load and recovery (hypothesis 1)

Hypothesis 1.A: The Model Functional Stress explained 13% of the variance by fixed factors (marginal R 2  = 0.13), and 52% by both fixed and random factors (conditional R 2  = 0.52). The time spent on ESD as well as the time spent on PA in leisure showed a positive significant influence on functional stress (b = 0.032, p  < 0.01). The same applied to LTPA (b = 0.003, p  < 0.001). The Model Dysfunctional Stress (marginal R 2  = 0.027, conditional R 2  = 0.647) showed only one significant result. The dysfunctional stress was only significantly negatively influenced by the time spent on LTPA (b = 0.002, p  < 0.01).

Hypothesis 1.B: With the Model Detachment, fixed factors contributed 18% of the explained variance and fixed and random factors 46% of the explained variance for psychological detachment. Only the amount of time spent on LTPA revealed a positive impact on psychological detachment (b = 0.003, p  < 0.001).

Effects on academic performance-related parameters (hypothesis 2)

Hypothesis 2.A: The Model Attention Difficulties showed 13% of the variance explained by fixed factors, and 51% explained by both fixed and random factors. It showed a significant negative association only for the time spent on LTPA (b = 0.003, p  < 0.001).

Hypothesis 2.B: The Model SAI showed 18% of the variance explained by fixed factors, and 39% explained by both fixed and random factors. There were significant positive associations for time spent on ESD (b = 0.121, p  < 0.001) and time spent on LTPA (b = 0.012, p  < 0.001). The same applied to LTPA (b = 0.012, p  < 0.001).

Effects of home study behavior (hypothesis 3)

Regarding the independent covariates for the outcome variables functional and dysfunctional stress, there were no significant results for the number of breaks during homes studying or the longest stretch of time without a break spent on home studying. Considering the outcome variable ‘psychological detachment’, there were significant results with negative impact for both study behavior variables: breaks during home studying (b = 0.058, p  < 0.01) and daily longest stretch of time without a break (b = 0.120, p  < 0.01). Evaluating the outcome variables ‘attention difficulties’, there were no significant results for the number of breaks during home studying or the longest stretch of time without a break spent on home studying. Testing the independent study behavior variables for the SAI, it increased with increasing number in daily breaks during homes studying relative to the person´s mean (b = 0.183, p  < 0.05). No significant effect was found for the longest stretch of time without a break spent on home studying ( p  = 0.07).

The baseline covariates of the models showed expected associations and thus confirmed their inclusion. The baseline variables well-being showed a significant impact on functional stress (b = 0.089, p  < 0.001), psychological detachment showed a positive effect on the daily output variables psychological detachment (b = 0.471, p  < 0.001), study demand scale showed a positive association on difficulties in attention (b = 0.240, p  < 0.01), and baseline SAI had a positive effect on the daily SAI (b = 0.335, p  < 0.001).

The present study theorized that PA breaks and LTPA positively influence the academic situation of university students. Therefore, impact on stress load (‘functional stress’ and ‘dysfunctional stress’) and ‘psychological detachment’ as well as academic performance-related parameters ‘self-reported attention difficulties’ and ‘perceived study ability’ was taken into account. The first and second hypotheses assumed that both PA breaks and LTPA are positively associated with the aforementioned parameters and were confirmed for LTPA for all parameters and for PA breaks for functional stress and perceived study ability. The third hypothesis assumed that home study behavior regarding the daily number of breaks during home studying and longest stretch of time without a break spent on home studying has side effects. Detected negative effects for both covariates on psychological detachment and positive effects for the daily number of breaks on perceived study ability were partly unexpected in their direction. These results emphasize the key position of PA in the context of modern health promotion especially for students in an academic context.

Regarding hypothesis 1 and the detected positive associations for stress load and recovery parameters with PA, the results are in accordance with the stress-regulatory potential of PA from the state of research [ 23 ]. For hypothesis 1.A, there is a positive influence of PA breaks and LTPA on functional stress and a negative influence of LTPA on dysfunctional stress. Given the bilateral role of stress load, the results indicate that PA breaks and LTPA are beneficial for coping with study demands, and may help to promote feelings of joy, pride, and learning progress [ 27 ]. This is in line with previous evidence that PA breaks in lectures can buffer university students’ perceived stress [ 29 ], lead to better mood ratings [ 29 , 31 ], and increase in motivation [ 28 , 69 ], vigor [ 34 ], energy [ 30 ], and self-perceived physical and psychological well-being [ 28 ]. Looking at dysfunctional stress, the result point that LTPA counteract load-related states of strain such as inner tension, irritability and nervous restlessness or feelings of boredom [ 27 ]. In contrast, short PA breaks during the day could not have enough impact in countering dysfunctional stress at the end of the day regarding the accumulation of negative stressors during home studying which might have occurred after the participant took PA breaks. Other studies have been able to show a reduction in tension [ 30 ] and general muscular discomfort [ 33 ] after PA breaks. However, this was measured as an immediate effect of PA breaks and not with general evening surveys. Blasche and colleagues [ 34 ] measured effects immediately and 20 min after different kind of breaks and found that PA breaks led to an additional short‐ and medium‐term increase in vigor while the relaxation break lead to an additional medium‐term decrease in fatigue compared to an unstructured open break. This is consistent with the results of the present study that an effect of PA breaks is only observed for functional stress and not for dysfunctional stress. Furthermore, there is evidence that long sitting during lectures leads to increased fatigue and lower concentration [ 31 , 70 ], which could be counteracted by PA breaks. For both types of stress loads, functional and dysfunctional stress, there is an influence of students´ well-being in this study. This shows that the stress load is affected by the way students have mentally felt over the last two weeks. The relevance of monitoring this seems important especially in the time of COVID-19 as, for example, 65.3% of the students of a cross-sectional online survey at an Australian university reported low to very low well-being during that time [ 71 ]. However, since PA and well-being can support functional stress load, they should be of the highest priority—not only as regards the pandemic, but also in general.

Looking at hypothesis 1.B; while there is a positive influence of LTPA on experienced psychological detachment, no significant influence for PA breaks was detected. The fact that only LTPA has a positive effect can be explained by the voluntary character of the activity [ 50 ]. The voluntary character ensures that stressors no longer affect the student and, thus, recovery as detachment can take place. Home studying is not present in leisure times, and thus detachment from study is easier. The PA break videos, on the other hand, were shot in a university setting, which would have made it more difficult to detach from study. In order to further understand how PA breaks affect recovery and whether there is a distinction between PA breaks and LTPA, future research should also consider other types of recovery (e.g. relaxation, mastery, and control). Additionally, different types of PA breaks, such as group PA breaks taken on-site versus video-based PA breaks, should be taken into account.

Considering the confirmed positive associations for academic performance-related parameters of hypothesis 2, the results are in accordance with the evidence of positive associations between PA and learning and educational success [ 6 ], as well as between PA breaks and better cognitive functioning [ 28 ]. Looking at the self-reported attention difficulties of hypothesis 2.A, only LTPA can counteract it. PA breaks showed no effects, contrary to the results of a study of Löffler and collegues (2011, [ 31 ]), in which acute effects of PA breaks could be found for higher attention and cognitive performance. Furthermore, the perception of study demands before the study periods has a positive impact on difficulties in attention. That means that overload in studies, time pressure during studies, and incompatibility of studies and private life leads to higher difficulties with attention in home studying. In these conditions, PA breaks might have been seen as interfering, resulting in the expected beneficial effects of exercise on attention and task-related participation behavior [ 72 , 73 ] therefore remaining undetected. With respect to the COVID-19 pandemic, accompanying education changes, and an increase in student´s worries [ 74 , 75 ], the perception of study demands could be affected. This suggests that especially in times of constraint and changes, it is important to promote PA in order to counteract attention difficulties. This also applies to post-pandemic phase.

Regarding the perceived academic performance of hypothesis 2.B, both PA breaks and LTPA have a positive effect on perceived study ability. This result confirms the positive short-term effects on cognition tasks [ 76 ]. It is also in line with the positive function of PA breaks in interrupting sedentary behavior and therefore counteracting the negative association between sitting behavior and lower cognitive performance [ 24 ]. Additionally, this result also fits with the previously mentioned positive relationship between LTPA and functional stress and between PA breaks and functional stress.

According to hypothesis 3, in relation to the mentioned stress load and recovery parameters, there are negative effects of the daily number of breaks during home studying and the longest stretch of time without a break spent on home studying on psychological detachment. As stressors result in negative activation, which impede psychological detachment from study during non-studying time [ 25 ], it was expected and confirmed that the longest stretch of time without a break spent on home studying has a negative effect on detachment. Initially unexpected, the number of breaks has a negative influence on psychological detachment, as breaks could prevent the accumulation of strain reactions. However, if the breaks had no recovery effect through successful detachment, the number might not have any influence on recovery via detachment. This is indicated by the PA breaks, which had no impact on psychological detachment. Since there are other ways to recover from stress besides psychological detachment, such as relaxation, mastery, and control [ 53 ], PA breaks must have had an additional impact in relation to the positive results for functional stress.

In relation to the mentioned academic performance-related parameters, only the number of breaks has a positive influence on the perceived study ability. This indicates that not only PA breaks but also breaks in general lead to better perceived functionality in studying. Paulus and colleagues (2021) found out that an increase in cognitive skills is not only attributed to PA breaks and standing breaks, but also to open breaks with no special instructions [ 28 ]. Either way, they found better improvement in self-perceived physical and psychological well-being of the university students with PA breaks than with open breaks. This is also reflected in the present study with the aforementioned positive effects of PA breaks on functional stress, which does not apply to the number of breaks.

Overall, it must be considered that the there is a more complex network of associations between the examined parameters. The hypothesized separate relation of PA with different parameters do not consider associations between parameters of stress load / recovery and academic performance although there might be a interdependency. Furthermore, moderation aspects were not examined. For example, PA could be a moderator which buffer negative effects of stress on the study ability [ 55 ]. Moreover, perceived study ability might moderate stress levels and academic performance. Further studies should try to approach and understand the different relationships between the parameters in its complexity.

Limitations

Certain limitations must be taken into account. Regarding the imbalanced design toward more female students in the sample (47 female versus 6 male), possible sampling bias cannot be excluded. Gender research on students' emotional states during COVID-19, when this study took place, or students´ acceptance of PA breaks is diverse and only partially supplied with inconsistent findings. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, some studies reported that female students were associated with lower well-being [ 71 ] or worse mental health trajectories [ 75 , 77 ]. Another study with a large sample of students from 62 countries reported that male students were more strongly affected by the pandemic because they were significantly less satisfied with their academic life [ 74 ]. However, Keating and colleges (2020) discovered that, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, females rated some aspects of PA breaks during lectures more positively than male students did. However, this was also based on a female slanted sample [ 78 ]. Further studies are needed to get more insights into gender bias.

Furthermore, the small sample size combined with up to 16% missing values comprises a significant short-coming. There were a lot of possibilities which could cause such missing data, like refused, forgotten or missed participation, technical problems, or deviation of the personal code for the questionnaire between survey times. Although the effects could be excluded by sensitive analysis due to missing data, the sample is still small. To generalize the findings, future replication studies are needed.

Additionally, PA breaks were only captured through participation in the ESD, the specially instructed PA break via video. Effects of other short PA breaks were not include in the study. However, participants were called to participate in ESD whenever possible, so the likelihood that they did take part in PA breaks in addition to the ESD could be ignored.

With respect to the baseline variables, it must be considered that two variables (stress load, attention difficulties) were adjusted not with their identical variable in T0, but with other conceptually associated variables (well-being index, BARI-S). Indeed, contrary to the assumption the well-being index does only show an association with functional stress, indicating that it does not control dysfunctional stress. Although the other three assumed associations were confirmed there might be a discrepancy between the daily measured variables and the variables measured in T0. Further studies should either proof the association between these used variables or measure the same variables in T0 for control the daily value of these variables.

Moreover, the measuring instruments comprised the self-assessed perception of the students and thus do not provide an objective information. This must be considered, especially for measuring cognitive and academic-performance-related measures. Here, existing objective tests, such as multiple choice exams after a video-taped lecture [ 72 ] might have also been used. Nevertheless, such methods were mostly used in a lab setting and do not reflect reality. Due to economic reasons and the natural learning environment, such procedures were not applied in this study. However, the circumstances of COVID-19 pandemic allowed a kind of lab setting in real life, as there were a lot of restrictions in daily life which limited the influence of other covariates. The study design provides a real natural home studying environment, producing results that are applicable to the healthy way that students learn in the real world. As this study took place under the conditions of COVID-19, new transformations in studying were also taken into account, as home studying and digital learning are increasingly part of everyday study.

However, the restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic could result in a greater extent of leisure time per se. As the available leisure time in general was not measured on daily level, it is not possible to distinguish if the examined effects on the outcomes are purely attributable to PA. It is possible that being more physical active is the result of having a greater extent of leisure time and not that PA but the leisure time itself effected the examined outcomes. To address this issue in future studies, it is necessary to measure the proportion of PA in relation to the leisure time available.

Furthermore, due to the retrospective nature of the daily assessments of the variables, there may be overstated associations which must be taken into account. Anyway, the daily level of the study design provides advantages regarding the ability to observe changes in an individual's characteristics over the period of the study. This design made it possible to find out the necessity to analyze the hierarchical structure of the intraindividual data nested within the interindividual data. The performed multilevel analyses made it possible to reflect the outcome of an average student in the sample at his/her daily average behavior in PA and home study.

Conclusion and practical implications

The current findings confirm the importance of PA for university students` stress load, recovery experience, and academic performance-related parameters in home studying. Briefly summarized, it can be concluded that PA breaks positively affect stress load and perceived study ability. LTPA has a positive impact on stress load, recovery experience, and academic performance-related parameters regarding attention difficulties and perceived study ability. Following these results, universities should promote PA in both fashions in order to keep their students healthy and functioning: On the one hand, they should offer opportunities to be physically active in leisure time. This includes time, environment, and structural aspects. The university sport department, which offers sport courses and provides sport facilities on university campuses for students´ leisure time, is one good example. On the other hand, they should support PA breaks during the learning process and in the immediate location of study. This includes, for example, providing instructor videos for PA breaks to use while home studying, and furthermore having instructors to lead in-person PA breaks in on-site learning settings like universities´ libraries or even lectures and seminars. This not only promotes PA, but also reduces sedentary behavior and thereby reduces many other health risks. Further research should focus not only on the effect of PA behavior but also of sedentary behavior as well as the amount of leisure time per se. They should also try to implement objective measures for example on academic performance parameters and investigate different effect directions and possible moderation effects to get a deeper understanding of the complex network of associations in which PA plays a crucial role.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

Attention and Performance Self-Assessment

"Berliner Anforderungen Ressourcen-Inventar – Studierende" (instrument for the perception of study demands and resources)

Centered within

Grand centered

“Erfassung von Emotionen und Beanspruchung “ (questionnaire containing a word list of adjectives for the recording of emotions and stress during work)

Exercise snack digital (special physical activity break offer)

Intra-Class-Correlation

Leisure time physical activity

  • Physical activity

Recovery Experience Questionnaire

Study ability index

World Health Organization-Five Well-being index

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Juliane Moll, research associate of the Student Health Management of University of Tübingen, for the support in the coordination and realization study. We would like to express our thanks also to Ingrid Arzberger, Head of University Sports at the University of Tübingen, for providing the resources and co-applying for the funding. We acknowledge support by Open Access Publishing Fund of University of Tübingen.

Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. This research regarding the conduction of the study was funded by the Techniker Krankenkasse, health insurance fund.

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M.T. and G.S. designed the study. M.T. coordinated and carried out participant recruitment and data collection. M.T. analyzed the data and M.T. and D.L. interpreted the data. M.T. drafted the initial version of the manuscript and prepared the figure and all tables. All authors contributed to reviewing and editing the manuscript and have read and agreed to the final version of the manuscript.

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Teuber, M., Leyhr, D. & Sudeck, G. Physical activity improves stress load, recovery, and academic performance-related parameters among university students: a longitudinal study on daily level. BMC Public Health 24 , 598 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-18082-z

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February 29, 2024 | Danielle Faipler

Stress of Being Outed to Parents and Caregivers: What Are the Mental Health Consequences?

'Policymakers should be aware of the harms that bills targeting LGBTQ+ youth have on the well-being of students and strongly argue for their right to disclose their identities on their own terms'

A Pride flag and a trans flag hang side by side over a railing inside a state capitol building.

(Photo by STEPHEN MATUREN/AFP via Getty Images)

In 2023, lawmakers across the U.S. introduced a record number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills . Although the 2024 legislative session has just begun, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is already tracking 429 bills , a figure on pace to surpass 2023 numbers.

The rise in anti-LGBTQ+ policy rhetoric has coincided with an increase in anti-LBTGQ+ violence. According to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) 2022 annual crime report , anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes increased 13.8% from 2021. As more policy proposals are directed at LGBTQ+ youth, advocates are concerned about how children’s mental and physical well-being will be affected.

Ryan Watson, co-director of the UCOnn

“In recent years, we’ve seen an increase in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation targeting kids, and even though not all of these bills will become law, even the introduction of the bills may have an immediate and real impact on kids’ lives and their mental health,” says Ryan Watson , associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences (HDFS).

Thirty-two such proposals have advanced in in the legislatures of Arizona, Hawaii, Missouri, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Washington, West Virginia, and other states. At least six states have laws on the books to forcibly out students.

Lisa Eaton, co-director of the UConn SHINE Lab

“It’s critical that as researchers we stay engaged in understanding and speaking out against legislative policies that have the potential to do real harm to LGBTQ+ youth, equally important is supporting policies that protect youth. These policies have the potential to greatly and quickly impact the lives of LGBTQ+ youth,” says Lisa Eaton , professor of Human Development and Family Sciences.

Despite social progress, SGDY experience higher levels of discrimination, bullying, and stress, depression, and anxiety compared to their cisgender and heterosexual peers, and these health disparities continue to grow. SGDY report experiencing bullying, violence, discrimination, and rejection based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. When youth choose to disclose their identity, they often consider the support they may receive.

To investigate the mental health consequences of sexual and gender-diverse youth (SGDY) whose sexual or gender identity is forcibly disclosed to their parents without their permission, a team of researchers at UConn’s Sexuality, Health, and Intersectional Experiences (SHINE) Lab conducted a study that was recently published in the Journal of Research on Adolescence.

Watson and Eaton, both are principal investigators at UConn’s Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy ( InCHIP ), co-direct the SHINE Lab. The SHINE Lab conducts research to improve understanding of how sexual orientation and gender identity, family experiences, school contexts, and ethnoracial identity affect health outcomes among sexually and gender-diverse youth and adults.

Peter McCauley, second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences

“Unique stressors, like bullying based on sexual and gender identities, are experienced at a time when youth are meeting important developmental milestones; at this same time, SGDY are typically financially and legally dependent upon their caregivers. There is a critical gap of knowledge on how the manner of disclosure may be related to the well-being of sexual and gender diverse youth. Our study aimed to understand how experiences of being outed to parents were related to mental health,” says the study’s lead author Peter McCauley, a second-year HDFS Ph.D. student and research assistant at the SHINE Lab.

McCauley and his collaborators used data from the LGBTQ National Teen Survey collected in partnership with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) between April and December 2017. Respondents were between the ages of 13 and 17, identified as LGBTQ+, spoke English, and were U.S. residents.

The team found that respondents who were outed (about 30%) to their parents were more likely to experience elevated depressive symptoms and lower LGBTQ family support compared to those who were not. Parents who affirmed and supported their child’s identity could potentially mitigate depressive symptoms from the stress of being outed.

The study demonstrates that a lack of agency in disclosing a sexual and/or gender identity to parents can greatly undermine the well-being of SGDY and indicate lower levels of family support. It also underscores the importance of enabling SGDY youth to have greater control over when they disclose their identities.

“A staggering number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been proposed that mandate school officials to out students’ identities to parents and caregivers. Policymakers should be aware of the harms these bills have on the well-being of students and strongly argue for their right to disclose their identities on their own terms,” says McCauley.

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Active Badger Day

Active badger meals & yoga for stress relief, active badger meals.

We are keeping you fueled with a delicious menu full of dishes for your #ActiveBadger lifestyle all day long during Active Badger Day on Thursday, March 7! Stop by Gordon Avenue or Four Lakes Markets all day for healthy, protein packed items for each meal period.

  • Breakfast: Avocado Toast (vn), Blue Banana Smoothie (vn), Mahnomin Porridge (vn), and Scrambled Egg Whites (veg)
  • Lunch: Miso Cod, Spicy Sweet Potatoes & Quinoa, Green Beans with blistered Peppers & Shallots
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Study compared outcomes for expecting doctors, lawyers. One group fared worse.

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Raw tuna. Copious caffeine. Cigarettes. Unpasteurized brie. Alcohol.

Most women know to avoid these potentially harmful substances while pregnant, plus certain risky activities such as rock climbing, ice skating, and skiing.

But what if your job could negatively impact your pregnancy? 

That’s what a team of researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of Kansas recently set out to investigate. To start, they narrowed in on expecting mothers in two careers that demand long hours: medicine and law. But physicians — surgeons, in particular — spend many of those hours on their feet, often facing life-or-death stakes. The team wanted to know: Does that extra stress lead to negative birth outcomes, including shorter pregnancies, lower birth weights, premature births, and even health issues for newborns?

“Anything that a mother experiences during their nine or 10 months of pregnancy can have a lasting impact.” Lilly Springer, study co-author

According to the team’s recently published National Bureau of Economic Research working paper , the answer is yes. But the effects are “not enormous in magnitude, which I think is very reassuring,” said Anupam B. Jena , the Joseph P. Newhouse Professor of Health Care Policy at the Medical School, associate physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, and one of the authors on the paper.

The paper, which was co-authored by David Slusky, a professor of economics at the University of Kansas, has not yet been peer-reviewed.

“It certainly does suggest that there might be some differences in birth outcomes that are attributable to the lifestyle of medicine, all the things that it includes,” Anupam said. “But it’s also important not to sell it to be more than what it is.”

The correlation between stress and pregnancy problems is well documented. One study found that in the six months after the Sept. 11 attacks, women with Arabic names experienced a 34 percent increased chance of their baby being born with a low birth weight. The authors pinned that increase to a surge in anti-Arab sentiment, which elevated the women’s stress levels.

But even seemingly more benign events that are dramatic and unexpected, like your team winning the Super Bowl, led to a 4 percent increased likelihood of a low birth weight, according to another study.

“Anything that a mother experiences during their nine or 10 months of pregnancy can have a lasting impact on not only the immediate birth outcomes, but adolescence, and even young adulthood,” said Lilly Springer, a Madison & Lila Self graduate fellow at the University of Kansas and an author on the paper. “Those nine months are incredibly formative.”

According to the paper, physicians tend to have about 2.3 percent lower birth weights and 0.3 percent shorter pregnancies than lawyers; surgeons fare a bit worse in pregnancy length (about 0.9 percent shorter) and are about 32 percent likelier to deliver prematurely than non-surgeon physicians. Anupam said these numbers are not extreme. They’re comparable to the effect of air pollution on infant health.

2.3% Lower birth weights for physicians than lawyers, according to the study

But for some expecting mothers, even a small reduction in their infant’s birth weight could be cause for concern.

“Two percent doesn’t seem like a big deal,” Springer said. That’s only a third of the birth weight gap between Black and white mothers. But it’s bigger than the education and urban-rural birth weight gaps. And if an infant is hovering around a riskier weight (typically under 5.5 pounds), “a 2 percent difference can really push you over the edge,” Springer said.

But both Springer and Anupam want to make it clear: These results do not mean that expecting mothers should avoid high-stress jobs or quit when they get pregnant (which, for many, isn’t a viable option anyway). Nor should the findings provide a rationale to discriminate against women, blocking them from entering high-stress careers.

“It’s really easy to look at the study and say, ‘Well, physicians shouldn’t get pregnant, or women shouldn’t have children if they’re in a very stressful environment,’” Springer said. “That is a knee-jerk reaction. But that would be a disservice to everyone.”

Instead, the team hopes these findings lead to further studies that examine how specific hospital environments — and their gender ratios, policies on parental leave, required hours, and even prevalence of sexism — might be impacting their pregnant staff members.

As part of their study, the researchers analyzed the impact of two workforce reforms (in 2003 and 2011), which limited the number of hours physician trainees could work. Although they found a negligible impact on birth outcomes, this shift was too minor and impacted too small a cohort to make any sweeping conclusions. But the team does see workforce reform as a potential solution for physician mothers. Many women surgeons report experiencing high levels of sexism, which can add to their overall stress. And some hospitals don’t offer accommodations to help expecting parents reduce their stress levels while continuing to work. These issues can be fixed.

But because expecting mothers cannot always control their work environment, Springer thinks it’s critical that mothers at least understand the potential risk their jobs could pose to their pregnancies.

“Unfortunately, in the United States, pregnant women, especially Black pregnant women, have to be advocates for themselves,” Springer said. She recommends pregnant women talk to their doctors about their jobs.

This risk might not be limited to physicians and surgeons. The team launched their exploration by focusing on a typically well-educated, higher-income population, which is likelier to have access to high-quality healthcare and inherent knowledge about their health. Because those qualities are often associated with more positive birth outcomes, these effects could potentially be lower than other physically demanding or high-stress jobs, like fast food workers, firefighters, or even delivery truck drivers — one group Springer would be curious to examine further. The team’s current Texas dataset has this bonus: Demographically, Texas is like a mini U.S. That makes it more reasonable to extrapolate any results to the broader country.

Next, the team is planning to refine and publish their results, use the Texas dataset to explore other maternal questions, and potentially analyze how specific hospital environments could contribute to negative birth outcomes for physician mothers.

“The take-home is actually if there is an impact on infant health, we should figure out how to mitigate that,” Anupam said. “The idea here is to figure out how you can do something right and do it safely.”

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Husker researchers using metabolic model to study temperature stress on corn.

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A research team led by Nebraska scientists has built the largest-ever metabolic model of corn to study how temperature stress affects the plant and how a certain fungus can help alleviate the problem.

The research is an expansion of earlier work with a metabolic model of corn roots that the same team used to study the plant’s nitrogen-use efficiency under nitrogen stress conditions, said Rajib Saha, Richard L. and Carol S. McNeel associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and principal investigator. Saha and the team have expanded the model to comprise the entire plant, not just the roots, allowing for expanded research into the intricate metabolic interactions, their associated molecular underpinning and a variety of stressors that can affect productivity.

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The Nebraska-developed multi-organ metabolic model — the largest ever created of corn (or any other plant) — allows scientists to conduct research more efficiently and quickly than field research using actual corn plants. The model can also help field researchers with actual corn plants conduct experiments faster and more efficiently, said Niaz Bahar Chowdhury, a doctoral student working with Saha.

It’s estimated that temperature stress resulting from climate change can reduce corn productivity by 7% to 18%.

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Family and Academic Stress and Their Impact on Students' Depression Level and Academic Performance

1 School of Mechatronics Engineering, Daqing Normal University, Daqing, China

2 School of Marxism, Heilongjiang University, Harbin, China

Jacob Cherian

3 College of Business, Abu Dhabi University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Noor Un Nisa Khan

4 Faculty of Business Administration, Iqra University Karachi Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan

Kalpina Kumari

5 Faculty of Department of Business Administration, Greenwich University Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan

Muhammad Safdar Sial

6 Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Islamabad, Pakistan

Ubaldo Comite

7 Department of Business Sciences, University Giustino Fortunato, Benevento, Italy

Beata Gavurova

8 Faculty of Mining, Ecology, Process Control and Geotechnologies, Technical University of Kosice, Kosice, Slovakia

József Popp

9 Hungarian National Bank–Research Center, John von Neumann University, Kecskemét, Hungary

10 College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

Associated Data

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

Current research examines the impact of academic and familial stress on students' depression levels and the subsequent impact on their academic performance based on Lazarus' cognitive appraisal theory of stress. The non-probability convenience sampling technique has been used to collect data from undergraduate and postgraduate students using a modified questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale. This study used the SEM method to examine the link between stress, depression, and academic performance. It was confirmed that academic and family stress leads to depression among students, negatively affecting their academic performance and learning outcomes. This research provides valuable information to parents, educators, and other stakeholders concerned about their childrens' education and performance.

Introduction

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are believed to be one of the strongest pillars in the growth of any nation ( 1 ). Being the principal stakeholder, the performance of HEIs mainly relies on the success of its students ( 2 ). To successfully compete in the prevailing dynamic industrial environment, students are not only supposed to develop their knowledge but are also expected to have imperative skills and abilities ( 3 ). In the current highly competitive academic environment, students' performance is largely affected by several factors, such as social media, academic quality, family and social bonding, etc. ( 4 ). Aafreen et al. ( 2 ) stated that students continuously experience pressure from different sources during academic life, which ultimately causes stress among students.

Stress is a common factor that largely diminishes individual morale ( 5 ). It develops when a person cannot handle their inner and outer feelings. When the stress becomes chronic or exceeds a certain level, it affects an individual's mental health and may lead to different psychological disorders, such as depression ( 6 ). Depression is a worldwide illness marked by feelings of sadness and the inability to feel happy or satisfied ( 7 ). Nowadays, it is a common disorder, increasing day by day. According to the World Health Organization ( 8 , 9 ), depression was ranked third among the global burden of disease and predicted to take over first place by 2030.

Depression leads to decreased energy, difficulty thinking, concentrating, and making career decisions ( 6 ). Students are a pillar of the future in building an educated society. For them, academic achievement is a big goal of life and can severely be affected if the students fall prey to depression ( 10 , 11 ). There can be several reasons for this: family issues, exposure to a new lifestyle in colleges and universities, poor academic grades, favoritism by teachers, etc. Never-ending stress or academic pressure of studies can also be a chief reason leading to depression in students ( 12 ). There is a high occurrence of depression in emerging countries, and low mental health literacy has been theorized as one of the key causes of escalating rates of mental illness ( 13 ).

Several researchers, such as ( 6 , 14 , 15 ) have studied stress and depression elements from a performance perspective and reported that stress and depression negatively affect the academic performance of students. However, Aafreen et al. ( 2 ) reported contradictory results and stated that stress sharpens the individual's mind and reflexes and enables workers to perform better in taxing situations. Ardalan ( 16 ) conducted a study in the United States (US). They reported that depression is a common issue among students in the US, and 20 percent of them may have a depressive disorder spanning 12 months or more. It affects students' mental and physical health and limits their social relationships and professional career.

However, the current literature provides mixed results on the relationship between stress and performance. Therefore, the current research investigates stress among students from family and academic perspectives using Lazaru's theory which describes stress as a relation between an individual and his environment and examines how it impacts students' depression level, leading to their academic performance. Most of the available studies on stress and depression are from industrial perspectives, and limited attention is paid to stress from family and institutional perspectives and examines its impact on students' depression level, leading to their academic performance, particularly in Pakistan, the place of the study. Besides, the present study follows a multivariate statistical technique, followed by structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the relationship between stated variables which is also a study's uniqueness.

This paper is divided into five main sections. The current section provided introduction, theoretical perspective, and background of the study. In the second section, a theoretical framework, a detailed literature review and research hypotheses of the underlying relationships are being proposed. In the third and fourth section, methodology and analysis have been discussed. Finally, in the last section, the conclusion, limitations, implications, and recommendations for future research have been proposed.

Theory and Literature

The idea of cognitive appraisal theory was presented in 1966 by psychologist Richard Lazarus in Psychological Stress and Coping Process. According to this theory, appraisal and coping are two concepts that are central to any psychological stress theory. Both are interrelated. According to the theory, stress is the disparity between stipulations placed on the individuals and their coping resources ( 17 ). Since its first introduction as a comprehensive theory ( 18 ), a few modifications have been experienced in theory later. The recent adaptation states that stress is not defined as a specific incitement or psychological, behavioral, or subjective response. Rather, stress is seen as a relation between an individual and his environment ( 19 ). Individuals appraise the environment as significant for their well-being and try to cope with the exceeding demands and challenges.

Cognitive appraisal is a model based on the idea that stress and other emotional processes depend on a person's expectancies regarding the significance and outcome of an event, encounter, or function. This explains why there are differences in intensity, duration, and quality of emotions elicited in people in response to the environment, which objectively, are equal for all ( 18 ). These appraisals may be influenced by various factors, including a person's goals, values, motivations, etc., and are divided into primary and secondary appraisals, specific patterns of which lead to different kinds of stress ( 20 ). On the other hand, coping is defined as the efforts made by a person to minimize, tolerate, or master the internal and external demands placed on them, a concept intimately related to cognitive appraisal and, therefore, to the stress-relevant person-environment transactions.

Individuals experience different mental and physiological changes when encountering pressure, such as stress ( 21 , 22 ). The feelings of stress can be either due to factors in the external environment or subjective emotions of individuals, which can even lead to psychological disorders such as anxiety and depression. Excess stress can cause health problems. A particularly negative impact has been seen in students due to the high level of stress they endure, affecting their learning outcomes. Various methods are used to tackle stress. One of the methods is trying to pinpoint the causes of stress, which leads us to different terms such as family stress and academic stress. The two factors, stress and depression, have greatly impacted the students' academic performances. This research follows the Lazarus theory based on stress to examine the variables. See the conceptual framework of the study in Figure 1 .

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Conceptual framework.

Academic Stress

Academic issues are thought to be the most prevalent source of stress for college students ( 23 ). For example, according to Yang et al. ( 24 ), students claimed that academic-related pressures such as ongoing study, writing papers, preparing for tests, and boring professors were the most important daily problems. Exams and test preparation, grade level competitiveness, and gaining a big quantity of knowledge in a short period of time all contribute to academic pressure. Perceived stress refers to a condition of physical or psychological arousal in reaction to stressors ( 25 , 26 ). When college students face excessive or negative stress, they suffer physical and psychological consequences. Excessive stress can cause health difficulties such as fatigue, loss of appetite, headaches, and gastrointestinal issues. Academic stress has been linked to a variety of negative effects, including ill health, anxiety, depression, and poor academic performance. Travis et al. ( 27 ), in particular, discovered strong links between academic stress and psychological and physical health.

Family Stress

Parental participation and learning effect how parents treat their children, as well as how they handle their children's habits and cognitive processes ( 28 ). This, in turn, shapes their children's performance and behaviors toward them. As a result, the parent-child relationship is dependent on the parents' attitudes, understanding, and perspectives. When parents have positive views, the relationship between them and their children will be considerably better than when they have negative attitudes. Parents respond to unpleasant emotions in a variety of ways, which can be classified as supportive or non-supportive ( 29 ). Parents' supportive reactions encourage children to explore their emotions by encouraging them to express them or by assisting them in understanding and coping with an emotion-eliciting scenario. Non-supportive behaviors, such as downplaying the kid's emotional experience, disciplining the child, or getting concerned by the child's display, transmit the child the message that expressing unpleasant emotions is inappropriate and unacceptable. Supportive parental reactions to unpleasant emotions in children have been linked to dimensions of emotional and social competence, such as emotion comprehension and friendship quality. Non-supportive or repressive parental reactions, on the other hand, have been connected to a child's stored negative affect and disordered behaviors during emotion-evoking events, probably due to an inability or unwillingness to communicate unpleasant sentiments ( 30 , 31 ).

Academic Stress and Students' Depression Levels

Generally, it is believed that mental health improves as we enter into adulthood, and depression disorder starts to decline between the age of 18 and 25. On the other hand, excessive depression rates are the highest pervasiveness during this evolution ( 15 ), and many university students in the particular screen above clinical cut-off scores for huge depression ( 14 , 32 ). Afreen et al. ( 2 ) stated that 30% of high school students experience depression from different perspectives. This means a major chunk of fresh high school graduates are more likely to confront depression or are more vulnerable to encountering depression while enrolling in the university. As the students promote to a higher level of education, there are many factors while calculating the stress like, for example, the syllabus is tough to comprehend, assignments are quite challenging with unrealistic deadlines, and accommodation problems for the students who are shifted from other cities, etc. ( 33 ). Experiences related to university can also contribute while studying depression. The important thing to consider is depression symptoms vary from time to time throughout the academic years ( 34 ); subjective and objective experiences are directly connected to the depression disorder ( 6 ), stress inherent in the university situation likely donates to the difference in university students' depressing experiences.

Stress negatively impacts students' mental peace, and 42.3% of students of Canadian university respondents testified devastating levels of anxiety and stress ( 35 , 36 ). Moreover, there were (58.1%) students who stated academic projects are too tough to handle for them. In Germany, Bulgaria, and Poland, a huge sample of respondents consider assignments a burden on their lives that cannot stand compared to relationships or any other concern in life ( 14 ).

In several countries, university students were studied concerning stress, and results show that depression disorder and apparent anxiety are correlated to educational needs and demands ( 37 ). In their cross-sectional study conducted on a sample of 900 Canadian students, Lörz et al. ( 38 ) concluded that strain confronted due to academic workload relatively has high bleak symptoms even after controlling 13 different risk affecting factors for depression (e.g., demographic features, abusive past, intellectual way, and personality, currently experienced stressful trials in life, societal support). Few have exhibited that students who are tired of educational workload or the students who name them traumatic tend to have more depressing disorders ( 15 ).

These relations can be described by examining the stress and coping behaviors that highlight the role of positive judgments in the stress times ( 39 ), containing the Pancer and colleagues' university modification framework ( 40 , 41 ). The evaluation concept includes examining the circumstances against the available resources, for instance, the effectiveness of coping behavior and societal support. As per these frameworks, if demand is considered unapproachable and resources are lacking, confronted stress and interrelated adverse effects will be high, conceivably giving birth to difficulties in an adjustment like mental instability. Stress triggering situations and the resources in the educational area led to excessive workload, abilities, and study and enhanced time managing skills.

Sketching the overall evaluation frameworks, Pancer et al. ( 40 ) established their framework to exhibit the constructive and damaging adjustment results for the university students dealing with the academic challenges. They stated that while students enroll in the university, they evaluate all the stress-related factors that students confront. They consider them manageable as long as they have sufficient resources. On the other hand, if the available resources do not match the stress factors, it will surely result in a negative relationship, which will lead students to experience depression for sure. Based on the given arguments, the researcher formulates the following hypothesis:

  • H1: Increased academic stress results in increased depression levels in students.

Family Stress and Students' Depression Levels

According to Topuzoglu et al. ( 42 ), 3% to 16.9% of individuals are affected by depression worldwide. There are fewer chances for general people to confront depression than university students ( 43 , 44 ). In Mirza et al.'s ( 45 ) study, 1/3 of students encounter stress and depression (a subjective mean occurrence of 30.6%) of all participant students, which suggests students have a 9% higher rate of experiencing depression than general people. Depression can destroy life; it greatly impacts living a balanced life. It can impact students' personal and social relationships, educational efficiency, quality of life, affecting their social and family relationships, academic productivity, and bodily operations ( 46 , 47 ). This declines their abilities, and they get demotivated to learn new things, resulting in unsatisfactory performances, and it can even result in university dropouts ( 48 ). Depression is a continuous substantial risk aspect for committing suicide for university students ( 49 ); thus, it is obliged to discover the factors that can give rise to students' depression.

Seventy-five percentage of students in China of an intermediate school are lucky enough to enroll in higher education. The more students pursue higher education, the more they upsurge for depression (in 2002, the depression rate was 5 to 10%, 2011 it rises 24 to 38%) ( 5 ). Generally, University students' age range is late teens to early twenties, i.e., 18–23 years. Abbas ( 50 ) named the era of university students as “post-adolescence. Risk factors for teenage depression have several and complicated problems of individual characteristics and family and educational life ( 51 ). Amongst the huge depression factors, relationship building with family demands a major chunk of attention and time since factors like parenting and family building play an important role in children's development ( 52 , 53 ). Halonen et al. ( 54 ) concluded that factors like family binding play a major role in development, preservation, and driving adolescent depression. Generally speaking, depressed teenagers tend to have a weaker family relationship with their parents than non-depressed teenagers.

There are two types of family risk factors, soft and hard. Hard factors are encountered in families with a weak family building structure, parents are little to no educated at all, and of course, the family status (economically). Several studies have proved that students of hard risk factors are more likely to encounter depression. Firstly, students from broken families have low confidence in every aspect of life, and they are weak at handling emotional breakdowns compared to students from complete and happy families ( 55 – 57 ). Secondly, the university students born in educated families, especially mothers (at least a college degree or higher degree), are less likely to confront depression than the university students born in families with little to no educated families. Secondly, children born with educated mothers or mothers who at least have a college degree tend to be less depressive than the children of less-educated mothers ( 58 ). However, Parker et al. and Mahmood et al. ( 59 , 60 ) stated a strong relationship between depression and mothers with low literacy levels.

On the other hand, Chang et al. ( 46 ) couldn't prove the authentication of this relationship in university students. Thirdly, university students who belong to lower class families tend to have more unstable mental states and are more likely to witness depression than middle or upper-class families ( 61 ). Jadoon et al. and Abbas et al. ( 62 , 63 ) said that there is no link between depression and economic status. Their irrelevance can be because medical students often come from educated and wealthy families and know their jobs are guaranteed as soon as they graduate. Therefore, the relationship between the hard family environment and depression can be known by targeting a huge audience, and there are several factors to consider while gauging this relationship.

The soft family environment is divided into clear factors (parenting style example, family guidelines, rules, the parent with academic knowledge, etc.) and implied factors (family norm, parent-child relationship, communication within the family, etc.). The soft factor is the key factor within the family that cannot be neglected while studying the teenagers' mental state or depression. Families make microsystems within the families, and families are the reason to build and maintain dysfunctional behavior by multiple functional procedures ( 64 ). Amongst the soft family environmental factors, consistency and struggles can be helpful while forecasting the mental health of teenagers. The youth of broken families, family conflict, weak family relationships, and marital issues, especially unhappy married life, are major factors for youth depression ( 65 ). Ruchkin et al. ( 66 ) stated that African Americans usually have weak family bonding, and their teenagers suffer from depression even when controlling for source bias. Whereas, few researchers have stated, family unity is the most serious factor while foreseeing teenagers' depression. Eaton noted that extreme broken family expressions might hurt emotionality and emotional regulation ( 67 , 68 ).

Social circle is also considered while studying depression in teenagers ( 69 – 71 ). The traditional Pakistani culture emphasizes collectivism and peace and focuses on blood relations and sensitive sentiments. Adolescents with this type of culture opt to get inspired by family, but students who live in hostels or share the room with other students lose this family inspiration. This transformation can be a big risk to encounter depression ( 72 ). Furthermore, in Pakistan securing employment is a big concern for university students. If they want a good job in the future, they have to score good grades and maintain GPA from the beginning. They have to face different challenges all at once, like aggressive educational competition, relationships with peers and family, and of course the biggest employment stress all alone. The only source for coping with these pressures is the family that can be helpful for fundings. If the students do not get ample support the chances are of extreme depression. The following hypothesis is suggested:

  • H2: Increased family stress level results in increased depression levels in students.

Students' Depression Levels and Students' Academic Performance

University students denote many people experiencing a crucial conversion from teenagers to adulthood: a time that is generally considered the most traumatic time in one's ( 73 ). This then gets accumulated with other challenges like changes in social circle and exams tension, which possibly puts students' mental health at stake. It has been concluded that one-third of students experience moderate to severe depression in their entire student life ( 74 ). This is the rate that can be increased compared to the general people ( 75 , 76 ). Students with limited social-class resources tend to be more helpless. Additionally, depressed students in attainable-focused environments (for instance, higher academic institutes) are likely to score lower grades with a sense of failure and more insufficient self-assurance because they consider themselves failures, find the world unfair, and have future uncertainties. Furthermore, students with low self-esteem are rigid to take on challenging assignments and projects, hence they are damaging their educational career ( 77 ).

Depression can be defined as a blend of physical, mental, bodily processes, and benightedness which can make themselves obvious by symptoms like, for example, poor sleep schedule, lack of concentration, ill thoughts, and state of remorse ( 78 , 79 ). But, even after such a huge number of depressions in students and the poor academic system, research has not explored the effect of depression on educational performance. A study has shown that the relationship between emotional stability and academic performance in university students and financial status directly results in poor exam performance. As the study further concluded, it was verified depression is an independent factor ( 80 ). Likewise, students suffering from depression score poor grades, but this relationship vanished if their depression got treated. Apart from confidence breaking, depression is a big failure for their academic life. Students with depression symptoms bunk more classes, assessments, and assignments. They drop courses if they find them challenging than non-depressed peers, and they are more likely to drop out of university completely ( 81 ). Students suffering from depression can become ruthless, ultimately affecting their educational performance and making them moody ( 82 ).

However, it has been stated that the association between anxiety and educational performance is even worse and ambiguous. At the same time, some comprehensive research has noted that the greater the anxiousness, the greater the student's performance. On the other hand, few types of research have shown results where there is no apparent relationship between anxiety and poorer academic grades ( 83 ). Ironically, few studies have proposed that a higher anxiety level may improve academic performance ( 84 , 85 ). Current research by Khan et al. ( 86 ) on the undergraduate medical students stated that even though the high occurrence of huge depression between the students, the students GPA is unharmed. Therefore, based on given differences in various research findings, this research is supposed to find a more specific and clear answer to the shared relationship between students' depression levels and academic performance. Based on the given arguments, the researcher formulates the following hypothesis:

  • H3: Students' depression level has a significant negative effect on their academic performance.

Methodology

Target population and sampling procedure.

The target audience of this study contains all male and female students studying in the public, private, or semi-government higher education institutions located in Rawalpindi/Islamabad. The researchers collected data from undergraduate and postgraduate students from the management sciences, engineering, and computer science departments. The sampling technique which has been used is the non-probability sampling technique. A questionnaire was given to the students, and they were requested to fill it and give their opinion independently. The questionnaire is based on five points Likert scale.

However, stress and depression are the most common issue among the students, which affects their learning outcomes adversely. A non-probability sampling technique gathered the data from February 2020 to May 2020. The total questionnaires distributed among students were 220, and 186 responses were useful. Of which 119 respondents were females, 66 males, and 1 preferred not to disclose. See Table 1 for detailed demographic information of respondents.

Respondent's demographic profile.

Measurement Scales

We have divided this instrument into two portions. In the first section, there is demographic information of respondents. The second section includes 14 items based on family stress, academic stress, students' depression levels, and students' academic performance. Academic and family stress were measured by 3 item scale for each construct, and students' depression level and academic performance were measured by 4 item scale for each separate construct. The five-point Likert scale is used to measure the items, in which one signifies strongly disagree (S.D), second signifies disagree (D.A), third signifies neither agree nor disagree (N), fourth signifies agree (A.G), and the fifth signifies strongly agree (S.A). The questionnaire has been taken from Gold Berg ( 87 ), which is modified and used in the given questionnaire.

Data Analysis and Results

The researchers used the SEM technique to determine the correlation between stress, depression, and academic performance. According to Prajogo and Cooper ( 88 ), it can remove biased effects triggered by the measurement faults and shape a hierarchy of latent constructs. SPSS v.23 and AMOS v.23 have been used to analyze the collected data. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test is used to test the competence of the sample. The value obtained is 0.868, which fulfills the Kaiser et al. ( 89 ), a minimum requirement of 0.6. The multicollinearity factor was analyzed through the variance inflation factor (VIF). It shows the value of 3.648 and meets the requirement of Hair et al. ( 90 ), which is < 4. It also indicates the absence of multicollinearity. According to Schwarz et al. ( 91 ), common method bias (CMB) is quite complex in quantitative studies. Harman's test of a single factor has been used to analyze CMB. The result obtained for the single factor is 38.63%. As stated by Podsakoff et al. ( 92 ), if any of the factors gives value < 50% of the total variance, it is adequate and does not influence the CMB. Therefore, we can say that there is no issue with CMB. Considering the above results are adequate among the measurement and structural model, we ensure that the data is valued enough to analyze the relation.

Assessment of the Measurement and Structural Model

The association between the manifest factors and their elements is examined by measuring model and verified by the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). CFA guarantees legitimacy and the unidimensional of the measurement model ( 93 ). Peterson ( 94 ) stated that the least required, i.e., 0.8 for the measurement model, fully complies with its Cronbach's alpha value, i.e., 0.802. Therefore, it can confidently be deduced that this measurement model holds satisfactory reliability. As for the psychological legitimacy can be analyzed through factor loading, where the ideal loading is above 0.6 for already established items ( 95 ). Also, according to the recommendation of Molina et al. ( 96 ), the minimum value of the average variance extracted (AVE) for all results is supposed to be >0.5. Table 2 gives detail of the variables and their quantity of things, factor loading, merged consistency, and AVE values.

Instrument reliability and validity.

A discriminant validity test was performed to ensure the empirical difference of all constructs. For this, it was proposed by Fornell and Larcker ( 97 ) that the variance of the results is supposed to be greater than other constructs. The second indicator of discriminant validity is that the square root values of AVE have a greater correlation between the two indicators. Hair et al. ( 90 ) suggested that the correlation between the pair of predictor variables should not be higher than 0.9. Table 3 shows that discriminant validity recommended by Hair et al. ( 90 ) and Fornell and Larcker ( 97 ) was proved clearly that both conditions are fulfilled and indicates that the constructs have adequate discriminant validity.

Discriminant validity analysis.

Acd. Strs, Academic Stress; Fam. Strs, Family Stress; Std. Dep. Lev, Student's Depression Level; Std. Acd. Perf, Student's Academic Performance .

Kaynak ( 98 ) described seven indicators that ensure that the measurement model fits correctly. These indicators include standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR), root means a square error of approximation (RMSEA), comparative fit index (CFI), normative fit index (NFI), adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI), the goodness of fit index (GFI) and chi-square to a degree of freedom (x 2 /DF). Tucker-Lewis's index (TLI) is also included to ensure the measurement and structural model's fitness. In the measurement model, the obtained result shows that the value of x 2 /DF is 1.898, which should be lower than 2 suggested by Byrne ( 99 ), and this value also meets the requirement of Bagozzi and Yi ( 100 ), i.e., <3. The RMSEA has the value 0.049, which fully meets the requirement of 0.08, as stated by Browne and Cudeck ( 101 ). Furthermore, the SRMR acquired value is 0.0596, which assemble with the required need of < 0.1 by Hu and Bentler ( 102 ). Moreover, according to Bentler and Bonett ( 103 ), McDonald and Marsh ( 104 ), and Bagozzi and Yi ( 100 ), the ideal value is 0.9, and the values obtained from NFI, GFI, AGFI, CFI, and TLI are above the ideal value.

Afterward, the structural model was analyzed and achieved the findings, which give the value of x 2 /DF 1.986. According to Browne and Cudeck ( 101 ), the RMSEA value should not be greater than 0.08, and the obtained value of RMSEA is 0.052, which meets the requirement perfectly. The minimum requirement of Hu and Bentler ( 102 ) should be <0.1, for the structural model fully complies with the SRMR value 0.0616. According to a recommendation of McDonald and Marsh ( 104 ) and Bagozzi and Yi ( 100 ), the ideal value must be up to 0.9, and Table 4 also shows that the values of NFI, GFI, AGFI, CFI, and TLI, which are above than the ideal value and meets the requirement. The above results show that both the measurement and structural models are ideally satisfied with the requirements and the collected data fits correctly.

Analysis of measurement and structural model.

Testing of Hypotheses

The SEM technique is used to examine the hypotheses. Each structural parameter goes along with the hypothesis. The academic stress (Acd. Strs) with the value β = 0.293 while the p -value is 0.003. These outcomes show a significant positive relationship between academic stress (Acd. Strs) and students' depression levels (Std. Dep. Lev). With the β = 0.358 and p = 0.001 values, the data analysis discloses that the family stress (Fam. Strs) has a significant positive effect on the students' depression level (Std. Dep. Lev). However, the student's depression level (Std. Dep. Lev) also has a significant negative effect on their academic performance (Std. Acd. Perf) with the values of β = −0.319 and p = 0.001. Therefore, the results supported the following hypotheses H 1 , H 2 , and H 3 . The sub-hypotheses analysis shows that the results are statistically significant and accepted. In Table 5 , the details of the sub-hypotheses and the principals are explained precisely. Please see Table 6 to review items with their mean and standard deviation values. Moreover, Figure 2 represents the structural model.

Examining the hypotheses.

Description of items, mean, and standard deviation.

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Structural model.

Discussion and Conclusion

These findings add to our knowledge of how teenage depression is predicted by academic and familial stress, leading to poor academic performance, and they have practical implications for preventative and intervention programs to safeguard adolescents' mental health in the school context. The outcomes imply that extended academic stress positively impacts students' depression levels with a β of 0.293 and a p -value sof 0.003. However, according to Wang et al. ( 5 ), a higher level of academic stress is linked to a larger level of school burnout, which leads to a higher degree of depression. Satinsky et al. ( 105 ) also claimed that university officials and mental health specialists have expressed worry about depression and anxiety among Ph.D. students, and that his research indicated that depression and anxiety are quite common among Ph.D. students. Deb et al. ( 106 ) found the same results and concluded that depression, anxiety, behavioral difficulties, irritability, and other issues are common among students who are under a lot of academic stress. Similarly, Kokou-Kpolou et al. ( 107 ) revealed that depressive symptoms are common among university students in France. They also demonstrate that socioeconomic and demographic characteristics have a role.

However, Wang et al. ( 5 ) asserted that a higher level of academic stress is associated with a higher level of school burnout, which in return, leads to a higher level of depression. Furthermore, Satinsky et al. ( 105 ) also reported that university administrators and mental health clinicians have raised concerns about depression and anxiety and concluded in his research that depression and anxiety are highly prevalent among Ph.D. students. Deb et al. ( 106 ) also reported the same results and concluded that Depression, anxiety, behavioral problems, irritability, etc. are few of the many problems reported in students with high academic stress. Similary, Kokou-Kpolou et al. ( 107 ) confirmed that university students in France have a high prevalence of depressive symptoms. They also confirm that socio-demographic factors and perceived stress play a predictive role in depressive symptoms among university students. As a result, academic stress has spread across all countries, civilizations, and ethnic groups. Academic stress continues to be a serious problem impacting a student's mental health and well-being, according to the findings of this study.

With the β= 0.358 and p = 0.001 values, the data analysis discloses that the family stress (Fam. Strs) has a significant positive effect on the students' depression level (Std. Dep. Lev). Aleksic ( 108 ) observed similar findings and concluded that many and complicated concerns of personal traits, as well as both home and school contexts, are risk factors for teenage depression. Similarly, Wang et al. ( 109 ) indicated that, among the possible risk factors for depression, family relationships need special consideration since elements like parenting styles and family dynamics influence how children grow. Family variables influence the onset, maintenance, and course of juvenile depression, according to another study ( 110 ). Depressed adolescents are more likely than normal teenagers to have bad family and parent–child connections.

Conversely, students' depression level has a significantly negative impact on their academic performance with β and p -values of −0.319 and 0.001. According ( 111 ), anxiety and melancholy have a negative influence on a student's academic performance. Adolescents and young adults suffer from depression, which is a common and dangerous mental illness. It's linked to an increase in family issues, school failure, especially among teenagers, suicide, drug addiction, and absenteeism. While the transition to adulthood is a high-risk period for depression in general ( 5 ), young people starting college may face extra social and intellectual challenges that increase their risk of melancholy, anxiety, and stress ( 112 ). Students' high rates of depression, anxiety, and stress have serious consequences. Not only may psychological morbidity have a negative impact on a student's academic performance and quality of life, but it may also disturb family and institutional life ( 107 ). Therefore, long-term untreated depression, anxiety, or stress can have a negative influence on people's ability to operate and produce, posing a public health risk ( 113 ).

Theoretical Implications

The current study makes various contributions to the existing literature on servant leadership. Firstly, it enriches the limited literature on the role of family and academic stress and their impact on students' depression levels. Although, a few studies have investigated stress and depression and its impact on Students' academic performance ( 14 , 114 ), however, their background i.e., family and institutions are largely ignored.

Secondly, it explains how the depression level impacts students' academic learning, specifically in the Asian developing countries region. Though a substantial body of empirical research has been produced in the last decade on the relationship between students' depression levels and its impact on their academic achievements, however, the studies conducted in the Pakistani context are scarce ( 111 , 115 ). Thus, this study adds further evidence to prior studies conducted in different cultural contexts and validates the assumption that family and academic stress are key sources depression and anxiety among students which can lead toward their low academic grades and their overall performance.

This argument is in line with our proposed theory in the current research i.e., cognitive appraisal theory which was presented in 1966 by psychologist Richard Lazarus. Lazarus's theory is called the appraisal theory of stress, or the transactional theory of stress because the way a person appraises the situation affects how they feel about it and consequently it's going to affect his overall quality of life. In line with the theory, it suggests that events are not good or bad, but the way we think about them is positive or negative, and therefore has an impact on our stress levels.

Practical Implications

According to the findings of this study, high levels of depressive symptoms among college students should be brought to the attention of relevant departments. To prevent college student depression, relevant departments should improve the study and life environment for students, try to reduce the generation of negative life events, provide adequate social support for students, and improve their cognitive and coping capacities to improve their mental qualities.

Stress and depression, on the other hand, may be managed with good therapy, teacher direction, and family support. The outcomes of this study provide an opportunity for academic institutions to address students' psychological well-being and requirements. Emotional well-being support services for students at Pakistan's higher education institutions are lacking in many of these institutions, which place a low priority on the psychological requirements of these students. As a result, initiatives that consistently monitor and enhance kids' mental health are critical. Furthermore, stress-reduction treatments such as biofeedback, yoga, life-skills training, mindfulness meditation, and psychotherapy have been demonstrated to be useful among students. Professionals in the sector would be able to adapt interventions for pupils by understanding the sources from many spheres.

Counseling clinics should be established at colleges to teach students about stress and sadness. Counselors should instill in pupils the importance of positive conduct and decision-making. The administration of the school should work to create a good and safe atmosphere. Furthermore, teachers should assume responsibility for assisting and guiding sad pupils, since this will aid in their learning and performance. Support from family members might also help you get through difficult times.

Furthermore, these findings support the importance of the home environment as a source of depression risk factors among university students, implying that family-based treatments and improvements are critical in reducing depression among university students.

Limitations and Future Research Implications

The current study has a few limitations. The researcher gathered data from the higher education level of university students studying in Islamabad and Rawalpindi institutions. In the future, researchers are required to widen their region and gather information from other cities of Pakistan, for instance, Lahore, Karachi, etc. Another weakness of the study is that it is cross-sectional in nature. We need to do longitudinal research in the future to authoritatively assert the cause-and-effect link between academic and familial stress and their effects on students' academic performance since cross-sectional studies cannot establish significant cause and effect relationships. Finally, the study's relatively small sample size is a significant weakness. Due to time and budget constraints, it appears that the capacity to perform in-depth research of all firms in Pakistan's pharmaceutical business has been limited. Even though the findings are substantial and meaningful, the small sample size is predicted to limit generalizability and statistical power. This problem can be properly solved by increasing the size of the sample by the researchers, in future researches.

Data Availability Statement

Ethics statement.

Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent for participation was not required for this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements.

Author Contributions

All authors contributed to conceptualization, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, writing and editing of the original draft, and read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This work was funded by the 2020 Heilongjiang Province Philosophy and Social Science Research Planning Project on Civic and Political Science in Universities (Grant No. 20SZB01). This work is supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research, and Sport of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Academy Sciences as part of the research project VEGA 1/0797/20: Quantification of Environmental Burden Impacts of the Slovak Regions on Health, Social and Economic System of the Slovak Republic.

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

Authors would like to thank all persons who directly or indirectly participated in the completion of this manuscript.

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