Gender differences in Academic Stress and Academic Pressure among students aged 18-23 in Sri Lanka

Nearly 75% of students experience academic stress and pressure across the globe. There can be gender differences in perceiving and managing academic stress. The present study explored to identify the gender differences among the school and college students who experience academic stress and academic pressure. The sample consists of 58 students in total aged 18-23, 39 female students and 19 male students. They were chosen by purposive and snowball sampling method and the data was collected by an online based survey using the Google forms. Students were assessed with; Demographic questionnaires, Academic Stress Scale (ASS) and Academic Pressure Scale (APS). The collected data was analysed using IBM SPSS 25 version. To assess the hypotheses; Pearson correlation, Independent t-tests and ANOVA test were conducted. The findings of the study revealed that almost 45% of the participants in Sri Lanka experience academic stress and there is a strong positive correlation between academic stress and academic pressure. But, there were no gender differences among the sample in academic stress and academic pressure. Also, there were negative significant relationships between other demographic variables and academic stress. The students stated the major academic stressors were high workload, peer pressure and worrying about grades or results. Thus, every student who experience academic stress are prone to psychological disorders, there should be implications developed in order to maintain a stress-free, positive school and college environments.