Abstract
Early in the first semester of college, the current study involved various first-year students (n = 316) as participants in May 2022 at the school’s hall. A survey was disseminated via an operational survey connection to the first-year learners in October 2019. For the investigation, field experimental designs were used. Since Microsoft Office Forms allowed the researchers to design surveys and questions for the study, they were utilized to gather data anonymously. The students’ stated mean level of social support fell into the moderate group (M = 62.64, SD = 14.52). By the findings, 33%, 32%, and 35% of the population fit into the low and intermediate groups. Gender-specific social support varies significantly across students (X2 (2,312) = 8.73, p 0.05); 28% of male and 43% of female students had strong social support. The findings are presented in terms of suggestions for fostering social networks among first-year learners to reduce stress and improve the learning experience for these individuals.
Introduction
Students face ongoing challenges and demands for adaptation and change during college life. Undergraduates are under pressure to perform academically but looking for more close relationships. Students might learn from this study the value of social support in reducing academic stress. Everyone indeed talks about stress, but when they do, they are referring to the pressure that something is putting on them or around them (Somech & Bogler, 2019). For instance, students may mention feeling stressed out due to subpar exam results or a looming paper deadline.
Theoretical Framework
Stress is the way the body responds to various demands. In the psychology literature, stress is an uncomfortable state of physiological and mental activity that person experiences in situations they see as damaging or dangerous to their health. Some people describe stress as incidents or circumstances that make them feel heavy, tense, or unpleasant moods like anger and anxiety (MacIntyre et al., 2020; Arnetz et al., 2020). However, the majority of psychologists believe that stress is a process that involves how an individual interprets and reacts to a hazardous occurrence.
Aims and Hypotheses
Stress can have either a beneficial or harmful psychological impact. Coping mechanisms can be successful or unsuccessful in addressing the problem that the stressful circumstance presents (Altena et al., 2020). One of the most crucial ways to deal with academic stress is social support (Alsubaie et al., 2019). The research aimed to explore the correlation between professed stress and communal support in college students. The research hypotheses are as shown:
- Stress and joint support have a statistically significant association.
- The degree of stress experienced by learners before and after intervention differs statistically significantly.
- Contacting social support is different before and after therapy in a statistically significant way.
- A statistically substantial strain and social sustenance difference exist between the experimental and control groups.
Method
Participants
Three hundred sixty-eight first-year college students in their first semester of study made up the sample. Following the screening, data from 316 first-year scholars from 9 different disciplines registered in full-time programs at one institution in Dublin, including 162 females (SD = 6.71, M = 21.13) and 150 boys (M = 20.50, SD = 5.10), were analyzed as shown in Table 1 below. The pupils ranged in age from 18 to 54 (M = 20.79). The Ethics Committee gave the study its ethical seal of approval.
Table 1: Participants. Source: The Researcher, 2022.
Design
A survey was used to gather data as the design, and it was sent to all first-year students in October 2019 via an online survey link. Perceived stress is the independent variable, while support is the dependent variable. Emotional and informational support are the different conditions or levels. IV and DV were operationalized by controlling extraneous variables hence protecting bot the dependent and independent variables from possible bias such as perplexing causative variables.
Materials
The name of the questionnaire used to collect the data is the Microsoft Office Form adopted from the research. These forms were used to collect data anonymously since they could allow the researchers to create polls and questions for the study (Kita, 2021). For each metric, raw data was analyzed by standardized screening and scoring techniques. Processing of data and analysis was carried out using the statistical software suite SPSS220.
Procedure
The researchers approached the students during required classes and requested them to answer all questions they were asked correctly since their answers cold only be used for study purposes. The scholar asked them to participate, gave them the link, and gave them time in class to fill out the survey. 368 of the 924 year-one students that were contacted participated, covering six different academic fields among the university’s student body.
Results
The students’ reported mean level of social support (M = 62.64, SD = 14.52) was in the moderate category. The results showed that 32%, 33%, and 35% of individuals fell into the low and intermediate categories. Social solid support varied substantially by gender (X2 (2,312) = 8.73, p 0.01); 28% of male and 43% of female students were classified as having strong social support, respectively. Student stressful situations were on mean M = 20.01 and SD = 7.01, with 67% of pupils expressing symptoms of stress and 15% expressing high levels.
High perceptions of support networks were linked to a lower level of perceived stress (r = -0.31, n = 3.00, p 0.01), and there was a substantial, moderate, negative connection between the two measures. In female students, there was a substantial, moderate, negative connection between the two measures (r = -0.42, n = 160, p 0.01), with solid perceptions of social support being related to reduced perceptions of stress. For male students, there was a somewhat negative association between the two measures (r = -0.31, n = 152, p 0.01), with elevated concentrations of felt social support correlated with reduced ranks of experienced stress, as shown in figures 2 and 3 below.
Discussion
This study found that most students reported feeling stressed out during the first few weeks of school and that female student reported feeling significantly more anxious than male students. First-year students’ opinions of the forms and accessibility of social aid revealed gender disparities. The number of social support students reported having and their degree of stress were negatively correlated, which proves that social support has evolved (Ye et al., 2020; Wen et al., 2021). It emphasizes recognizing sex differences and creating initiatives based on them.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the survey results suggest that students looked to their family and close friends for support. While students are treated as adults at universities as opposed to when they are in schools, there may be more robust documentation of self-directed aristocrats and faculty-based communal supports. The present study’s findings suggest that educators may more fully acknowledge the value of first-year pupils’ families as an essential basis of social sustenance throughout their university studies (Mishra, 2020). Educators must comprehend the importance of family and other close relationships in students’ lives because prior research has shown that these relationships impact students’ accomplishments and well-being.
References
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