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In this study, Student's coping with Stress at High School Level Particularly. The objectives of this

is to study the academic anxiety among the students. To analyze stress among the students. To

understand the coping strategies adopted by the students. For this purpose, a sample of 100 students

from government secondary schools. For the purpose of gathering information from respondents on

personal data, coping strategies, stress and academic anxiety, the Stress and coping strategy

questionnaire which was consists of a series of questions about stress and coping strategies was

administered to a total of 90 (90%) students.

The finding of the research showed that: the percentage of distressed secondary students was

26.1%. The top ten rank of stressor among students were afraid of not getting place in tertiary

education, examinations, too much content to be learn, difficulty in understanding subject that have

been learn, too much homework, and school timetable was too packed. All of the stressors were

related to the academic matters. While the rest of the top ten stressors were rated as causing moderate

to high stress.

The findings of the study indicated that students coped with difficult situations in a mature

manner, yet they tended to withdraw from the problems they faced in life. Several studies have

shown the positive relationship between stress by health and social activities affecting the academic

performance of students.

On this topic are done either on gender basis, different educational levels to find out the affect on

academic performance of students. It is within this research framework that we want to find out how

much stress on gender basis affects the academic performances. Stress, or to be more accurate

pressure, is an unavoidable part of everyday life, meaning different things to each of us.
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This paper attempts to determine the factors of stress resulting from health and social factors

affecting intellectual factors which on further analysis on gender basis affect the academic

performance of students. To accomplish the objective, information related to topics, past researches,

analysis, and graphic representation we got to our final results. Results are presented graphically,

inferentially and descriptively. Regression analysis and Independent Sample test are done for the

analysis to check the predictions of independent variables on dependent variable and difference of

affects on gender basis.

Stress is much more recognized than it used to be, people have become very aware of the

potential negative impact of stress on their health. Yet despite all of this information and wealth of

knowledge, the subject of stress still remains vague and not very well understood.

Life in the 21st Century is infinitely far more complex than it has ever been. People were never

designed to live in this complex, modern world with its many demands on us. People lived in a

crowded, noisy society that people often refer to as the rat race. Their lives are run by deadlines, the

clock, modern technology, mobile phones, pagers, faxes, computers, satellites and a hundred and one

other demands and pressures.

Many people have too many tasks and too little time. They try to get to work on time, through

more congested roads with millions more cars than there used to be, or people deal with delayed

trains as some of us may have to commute hundreds of miles to work. While people at work they

have to operate computers, learn newer versions of software, deal with faxes, phones, manage many

tasks and people, often without adequate training or support. There are no longer jobs for life and

many people are working under temporary or short-term contracts.

Many of life's demands can cause stress, especially work, relationships and money problems, and

when they feel stressed, it can affect everything people do. While there is little in their life, it can do

to prevent stress, there are many things that people can do to manage stress more effectively, such as

learning how to relax, taking regular exercise and adopting good time management techniques.

Stress is the feeling of being under too much mental or emotional pressure. Pressure turns into stress

when people feel unable to cope. People have different ways of reacting to stress, so a situation that

feels stressful to one person may in fact be motivating to another. Stress is also a source of

inspiration. When there is a stress for any work it leads to higher performance. When stress is

gravest, it reduces employee productivity.

Stress should not be confused with anxiety or nervous tension and damaging. They occur as

regular features in many cases and have no long - lasting impact on the working capacities of the

people. Similarly, only physical impacts will not be stress unless it is felt by the mind and heart. The

psychological and physical impacts are visible in the form of stress. Anxiety is the cause of stress but

not stress itself.

Stress is generally of a mild nature and one recovers from it easily. Once a person gets used to

environmental factors and people with whom one generally works on a daily basis, there is no

existence of stress. It is the work environment, plant, people and situations,which one is not used to,

creates tension and resultant stress. The stress diminishes gradually when one get used to it. However

the stress can be mild, stiff and chronic in nature. Mild stress is visible when person develops lack of

appetite and high blood pressure.

Stress is a state of mind which reflects biochemical reactions in the human body. Environmental

and internal forces cause sense of anxiety, tension and depression to human being. As stress is the

non specific response of the body to any demand, it is necessary to understand specific or routine

activities that cause stress. There are two types of activities. Desirable activities and undesirable

activities. Both these activities create stress.

The stress created by desirable and successful effects is called "eustress". Eustress is a positive,

healthy and developmental stress response. It leads to better performance and a more adjusted

personality. In eustress situation, people learn how to deal with the situation better. It improves their

capacity to deal with stressful situations.

Stress created by undesirable outcomes is known "distress". It is primarily the distress form of

stress which causes undesirable effects on physical and psychological well - being of the person.

Highly stressful activities weakens individuals ability to cope up with various situations. Just as

extremely high level of stress is harmful and damaging, extremely low level of stress is also equally

harmful. It causes boredom, reduces innovativeness and ability to face challenges. Thus, moderate

level of stress is desirable for higher level of performance.

People have different levels of handling stress. Those who are highly affected by stress tend to be

depressed and display lack of self confidence. People believe that their lost the battle in handling a

situation and develop a feeling of helplessness and elicit sympathy from others. People have a greater

fear of unknown, display irritating behaviour, become impatient and tend to blame others for the

inefficiency.

Workers who are seriously affected loose confidence in themselves and display a low
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productivity. To overcome this situation, individuals should be kept busy, put through promotional

cadres and subjected to regular physical exercises. This reduces work stress and help individual to

develop.

Only recently has stress been seen as a contributory factor to the productivity and health costs of

countries. As studies of stress-related illnesses, stress imposes a high cost on individual health and

well-being as well as organizational productivity. In everybody's life, people are subjected to a wide

range of pressures. Similarly there are also a wide range of resources and strategies for coping with

pressure. Sometimes people cope well and will not feel that the pressure is having any adverse effect

upon them. At other times they will have difficulty in dealing with the situation and that is when they

may use the term "stress".

In reality, any situation that puts pressure is technically "stressful". Stress is not necessarily

unpleasant or harmful. When people are able to cope satisfactorily with the stress and find it to be

positive in its effect, they tend to use other words - such as "stimulation" or "challenge". Stress

cannot be avoided. It should not be avoided. Without stress, there will be no attempt to try the

difficult. One will give up much too easily.

With the development of society, the rhythm of modern life is becoming faster and faster. Many

people have suffered from the stress and strain of life. So stress has become a normal part of life.

Psychologically speaking, stress is a kind of disease of modern society. There are many causes of

stress which come from work, family and social life. As a result, they become anxious and feel

stressed.