1.1 Introduction
Stress is a common element in any kind of job and persons have to face it in almost every aspect of life. Stress has been defined in different ways over the years. Stress is a major source of problems that students face during their university education when they are struggling to achieve academic outcomes for their future life (Lee & Graham, 2001). Academic pressure is one of the factors that causes students to fail. Sharma, Parasar and Mahto (2017) define stress as the mental response and action by hormonal signaling, the perception of danger triggers an automatic response system, known as response to fight or flee.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitation of the study and Definition of terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Over the years, academic stress has been studied from different perspectives based on the results of numerous scientific researchers is now a general consensus that stress is not only can hinder performance basically in all fields of human endeavour, it can also cause harm and damages to the body if not properly managed. When most people talk about stress at home or stress on the job they are talking about mental, physical and stress actually can make negative contribution to performance.
Stress can have both positive and negative consequences for the individual. Optimal stress can lead to maximum efficiency; create satisfaction, a feeling of well-being and accomplishment, and another reward for success (Mensah, Fosu, & Oteng, 2017). On the other hand, excessive stress at school can lead to loss of appetite for reading, poor performance and reduced mental and physical health. Stress is caused by certain factors (stressors) that exist inside and outside the school environment (Zautra, 2006). These stressors can be identified as intra-individual, inter-individual, institutional and extra- institutional stressors.
Stress is not a bad phenomenon or a good phenomenon. Stress depends on individuals and the way they perceive it. Looking at stress and man, man is made of three diverse but inter-related components that is the physical body, the soul and the spirit. Stress and the three components are so linked to each other that one, affects the others. Stress in individuals is viewed as any interference that disturbs a person’s health, mental and physical well being. It occurs when the body is required to perform beyond its normal range of capabilities. The results become harmful to individuals, families, students, teachers and society at large. Stress comes in various forms. At one time or the other, individuals experience a particular stress; these are Eustress, Hyper-Stress, Hypo-stress and distress. Eustress is characterized with the state of uphoria, happiness as a result of good news, promotion, passing examination etc. Distress is viewed as with anxiety, frustration and anger.
Hypostress has the features of boredom, fatigue, lack of stimulation while Hyperstress which is characterized with over excitation, coping with many things at the same time which eventually leads to systematic failure. However, the causes of stress are not farfetched. A stressor is anything that causes stress − death of spouse, divorce, marital separation, death of love ones, death of close friend, death of close family member, personal, marital reconciliation, pregnancy, business adjustment, instability at work, schools financial state, church activities. When people are under severe emotional or mental stress, they face much higher risk of heart attack and sudden cardiac arrest and death than those people who have healthy arteries and less stress (Adeyemi, 2000).
The causes of stress in Nigeria are multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society. Some of the factors identified as the causes of stress in Nigeria include our cultural influence, economy, our life pattern, too many friends, fear of ageing and death, lack of motivation at the work place. Effects of stress may come in many forms on individuals under severe stress who may become absent minded. This is not because there is nothing on their mind but because the mind is stressed up with too many things. Teachers perception of the profession and the societal negative attitude to the teaching job have placed them under stressful situations because of poverty all of these have a spiral effect on the students’ academic performance.
Therefore, in Oshodi Local Government Area where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Effect of Teachers' Stress on Students' Academic Performance.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed that there is no doubt that teachers in this part of the world experience more stressful situation than their colleagues in other parts of the world especially the developed nations. Teachers’ perception of the teaching profession and societal negative attitudes to teaching job has placed us under undue stressful situations. Teachers are generally under paid; they receive small pay among their contemporaries in the country.
They are unable to rent a house of their choice, not able to meet basic responsibilities of their family, low self esteem, inability to cope with problem students in the class, too much workload in the area of lesson notes, marking, recording or grading, teaching, jealous among colleagues, job insecurity, all of these are enough for teachers in schools to be stressful and therefore have effect on the students’ academic performance.
Notable among these are absent-minded, fatigue as an adage says “a hungry man is an angry man”, which results to low performance, loss of concentration. When an individual becomes hypersensitive, restless, confusion set into his head. The blood pressure rises severely and causes an individual analgesic at times have a nagging headache which do not respond to common analgesic, stomach disorder such as diarrehoea, constipation, general body pains which may be worse at regions. However, when these effects of stress are telling much on the body, the teacher concerned experience hyper excitation or depression or high blood pressures, drying of the throat and mouth under these conditions, the teacher has nothing to offer the students but just like a mere image in front of the classroom.
Teachers experience such effects of stress like grinding of teeth, sweating, frequent need to urinate, diarrhoea, indigestion, tension, pain of the neck, compulsive eating, increase of smoking which are all symptoms of stress and cannot achieve success rather than the opposite on the student’s academic performance. It has now come to the time to address this issue once and for all, to look at the exact meaning of stress to teachers, analyse the possible causes and prefer remedies to this effects of stress.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to investigate the Effect of Teachers' Stress on Students' Academic Performance in Some Selected Secondary Schools. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To identify the possible causes of stress to teachers in the area under review;
- To investigate into the term ‘stress’ and the various forms of stress; and
- To assess the effect of teachers’ stress on the students’ academic performance in the area under review.
- To suggest the possible solution on how to manage or remedy stress when it comes among teachers in the area under review;
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- Are there any causes of stress to teachers in government schools?
- Does stress have effect on the society?
- Can we have solution or remedies to the effect of stress to teachers in schools?
- What is the effect of teachers’ stress on students’ academic performance in schools?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0: There is no significant influence of teachers’ stress on students’ academic performance in school.
- H1: There is a significant influence of teachers’ stress on students’ academic performance in school.
Hypothesis Two
- H0: There is no significant relationship exists between the causes of teachers’ stress and students’ academic performance in the school.
- H1: There is a significant relationship exists between the causes of teachers’ stress and students’ academic performance in the school.
Hypothesis Three
- H0: There is no significant relationship between the effect of stress in the society and the students’ academic performance in the school.
- H1: There is a significant relationship between the effect of stress in the society and the students’ academic performance in the school.
Hypothesis Four
- H0: Relationship does not exist between teachers’ emotional stress and students’ academic performance.
- H1: Relationship exists between teachers’ emotional stress and students’ academic performance.
1.7 Significance of Study
This study will be beneficial to the following people listed below:
1) Teachers
Teachers who have stress as a result of their workloads in the school will benefit from the findings and recommendations of this study, in that, it will help them discover some of the problems caused by stress and how best to avoid them. Many teachers through this study would understand more about the effect of stress such as ill-health which may lead to low performance at work and even death. Thus, they would avoid those conditions that can lead them to be stressed up.
2) Students
Students at all levels would benefit from this study as it will enable them to identify those stressful conditions that are associated with their studies and learn how best to avoid them or even how to manage stressful condition as stress is one unavoidable issues of life.
3) Government
Government especially the Ministry of Education, will through this study have deeper insight into the ugly effects of stress on the teaching and learning process of both teachers and students in the school system. It will also benefit other workers outside the teaching profession. The findings and recommendations of the study would enable governments to formulate education policies that would not be so stressful to the workers and students in the school system.
4) The School Authority
The school authority will be able to gather necessary information on the effects of stress on teachers and students learning outcomes in the school sector and find remedies to the problem.
5) The Society
The society and new researchers will also benefit from this study immensely because it serves as a reference material to them and will give them great insight into the effect of stress of teachers, and academic performance of students.
1.8 Scope of Study
The scope of the research is focused on the Effect of Teachers' Stress on Students' Academic Performance in Some Selected Secondary Schools in Oshodi Local Government Area of Lagos State.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
1.10 Definition of Terms
Stress: Stress is a condition or a feeling felt when a person perceives that the demands exceed the personal and social resources that the individual can mobilize to manage the condition.
Stress Management: Refers to a series of measures taken by an individual or an institution to reduce the possible negative effects of stress (Smith et al, 2010).
Academic Performance: Refers to how the student obtains a score in a given exercise in class, homework or exams. It is measured by the grades they get and also their participation in class (Nana & Gowtham, 2014).
Stressors: These are chemical or biological agent, environmental condition, external stimulus or an event that causes stress to an organism.
Mental Health: According to WHO, it is not just the absence of mental disorder. It is defined as a state of well-being, in which every individual realizes his or her own potentials, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully and is able to make contribution to his or her community.
Stress Syndrome: These are groups of symptoms or characteristic of stress. It could be a psychological disorder or an abnormal condition.
