Psychological Stress and its Relationship with the academic underachievement in a students' sample from the Faculty of Arts, Misurata University

Abstract

The research aims to identify the level of psychological stress among a sample of students of the Faculty of Arts. Also, to recognize the relationship between the psychological stress and the academic underachievement. As well as to identify the differences in psychological stress according to the gender and specialization variables. The research problem is defined in the following questions: 1. What is the level of psychological stress in the sample of students of the Faculty of Arts, Misurata University? 2. Is there a relationship between the psychological stress and the academic underachievement? 3. Are there differences in the psychological stress according to the gender variable? 4. Are there differences in the psychological stress according to the specialization variable? To achieve the research objectives, the researcher followed descriptive methodology due to the possibilities it provides in reaching accurate facts and the existing circumstances related to the research topic. The research community consisted of all 2846 male and female students of the Faculty of Arts. The research sample consisted of 150 male and female students. Following conversance and benefitting from previous studies, reviewing the literature by research and referring to the questionnaire by Nabila Ahmed Abu-Habib (2010), the researcher arranged a questionnaire of 59 items. Its validity was confirmed by presenting in front of a group of referees, with a reliability coefficient reached 0.889. To obtain the research results, the researcher used the statistical means: Pearson's correlation coefficient, the T-test, as well as the Kruskal-Wallis test, the arithmetic mean, the standard deviation and the relative weight. The research reached the following results:  The level of psychological stress among the sample of students of the Faculty of Arts, Misurata University is moderate, with an arithmetic mean of 1.86, a relative weight 62%, a standard deviation of 0.29 and an average level.  There is a weak inverse correlation with statistical significance at a level of 0.046 0.05 between psychological stress and academic achievement. There are significant differences between male and female students in the research sample regarding the level of academic stress, personal stress and psychological stress in favour of females.  There are no significant differences between male and female students in the research sample regarding the level of social stress and family stress according to the gender variable.  There are no significant differences between the level of psychological, academic, personal, social and family stress among a sample of students from the faculty of Arts according to the specialization variable.