Stressors and stress responses of Filipino college students

The study determined the stressors and stress responses of Filipino college students in relation to sex, course and academic classification. There were 258 respondents for the study. Of the respondents, 68% were females and 32% were males. According to their degree, 42% belonged to the soft sciences and 58% to the hard sciences. In terms of academic classification, 10% were freshmen, 36% sophomores, 33% juniors and 21% seniors. The top five overall stressors of the respondents were academic difficulty of subject matter, workload due to subjects, time management because of subjects, responsibilities due to being on one's own, and time management because of both subjects and organizations. The most frequently occurring stress responses were affective stress responses followed by cognitive responses. For both male and female respondents, the top stressors were academics, workload due to subjects and time management concerns. Overall, the males reacted to stress through affective responses and females through cognitive responses. Students enrolled in the hard and soft sciences both considered academics, workload due to subjects and time management concerns as their top stressors. Those in the soft sciences reacted with cognitive stress responses while those in the hard sciences reacted with affective stress responses. Generally, all students, regardless of their academic classification pointed out that academics, workload due to subjects, and time management were their main stressors. They all reacted to stress with affective stress responses. These patterns can be monitored to maintain the psychological and physical well-being of adolescent students. Further studies can consider bigger samples in various universities and other socio-demographic variables which are related to stress perceptions.