conducting a research on managment of stress among unikl mestech students for subject in communication english 2

1. UNIVERSITI KUALA LUMPUR
Institute of Medical Science Technology
COMMUNICATION ENGLISH 2 (WED20302)
MANAGEMENT OF STRESS AMONG UNIKL MESTECH STUDENTS
Group Members:
NUR ATIKAH AMIRA BINTI RANI 12101315034
RUZIANA BT YUSRI 12101315016
YASMIN IZUREEN BINTI IBRAHIM 12101315020
NOR SYAFINAS BINTI NOR ASHAAZLIM 12101315023
Lecturer:
MISS DIYANATUL MARDHIAH BINTI ABDUL SHUKOR
Submission date: 28 / 7/ 2016

2. 1 | P a g e
CONTENT
NO. CONTENT PAGE
1. Abstract and keyword 2
2. Introduction 3
3. Literature Review 4-6
4. Methodology 7-8
5. Results 9-14
6. Discussion 15-16
7. Conclusion & Recommendations 17-18
8. References 19-20
9. Appendix 21-50

3. 2 | P a g e
ABSTRACT
Stress among students is not a rare thing nowadays. Whatever is, students must handle
their stress with the good strategies so that stress will not give a bad impact to them. This
study aimed to investigate the management of stress among the students of Universiti Kuala
Lumpur, Institute of Medical Science Technology (UniKL MESTECH). The way of stress
management consist of eating, sleep, early step, take a break, pills, counsellor, exercise,
travel, pray and entertainment. This research also conducted to identify various effects of
stress to UniKL MESTECH students. The self-administered questionnaires were distributed
to 30 students of UniKL MESTECH involving both DBLT and DEHS students. Respondents
are required to complete it by using the scale rating method, 1-5 from strongly disagree to
strongly agree. As results, students strongly agreed with taking a break and entertainment to
reduce the stress also agree with travel. Moreover, respondents strongly agreed with the
statement of ‘difficulty to relax’ as the effect of stress and agree with the point of ‘more
matured’. Besides, students were known to strongly disagree that taking pills was the correct
way to decrease stress plus disagree with excessively eating, meeting counsellor and exercise.
Students also suggested that they strongly disagreed with statement ‘gain more weight’ as the
impact of stress and disagree with ‘hypertension’ statement. The board has come to the
conclusion that suggests the components of management and effect of stress were not consist
of one aspect, they were linked to one another.
Key word:
UniKL MESTECH Universiti Kuala Lumpur Institute of Medical Science Technology
DBLT Diploma in Biomedical Laboratory Technology
DEHS Diploma in Environmental Health Sciences
GHQ General Health Questionnaire

4. 3 | P a g e
INTRODUCTION
Generally, stress is anything that represents a test or a risk to our prosperity. It has been
characterized as a procedure in which natural requests surpass the versatile limit of a life
form bringing about mental and organic changes that may put persons at danger for diseases.
This definition was adapted from Cohen S et al (1995). Stress among the university students
is commonly heard in this decade as they are busy struggling to get the best performance in
their studies. Abouserie (1994) claimed that students encounter academic stress when
comparing their exam results with each other. According to the National Centre for the
educational statistic (2008) shows that 25% of university students drop out after their first
year, and marginally more than half of the students attending four years institution complete
their baccalaureate degrees within six years of their first enrollment. Stevenson & Harper,
(2006) believe that stress in academic institutions can have both positive and negative
consequences if not well-managed among university students. This can affect their daily
lifestyles if they are not able to overcome their stress problem. So here, lifestyle can be
defined as behaviour, opinion, and interest of an individual, group, or culture (Lynn R. Kahle,
Angelina G Close, 2011) A student in the university has various ways managing their stress.
Based on the previous research, the student usually managed their stress by pills, sleep, eat
and entertain excessively. This behaviour can affect student lifestyles such as their health,
academic performance, and social skills. Based on the previous study there are many research
articles focused on cause, factor, and effect of stress. However, none of the research study
about the relationship between the management of stress and the effect on their lifestyle.
Generally, the aim of this study is to investigate the variance of stress among UniKL
students. This research also being conducted to identify the methods to overcome stress
among UniKL students while focusing on the effect of stress towards student’s lifestyle.
This study is to identify the relationship between the management of stress and its effects.
Students of UniKL Mestech have been chosen as our respondent for our research .The
research question of this study are, what are the methods that the students use to overcome
stress? And what are the effects of stress towards the student’s lifestyle?

5. 4 | P a g e
LITERATURE REVIEW
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Stress can be defined as a state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in
your life, work, etc. Hong Ji (2011) stated that stress could be defined in two fields,
namely mental stress , and physical stress. From a psychological point of view, stress
is a cognitive and behavioural experience process constituted by mental stress sources
and mental stress reactions together. Stress sources refer to factors causing stress
reactions, including biological stress sources, spiritual stress sources, and social and
environmental stress sources. Stress sources that cause mental disorders are most
comprehensive.
Rawson and other scholars agree that mental stress sources of college students mainly
include study factors, social factors, life and economic factors, and career factors
(Rawson, Harve E, Bloomer, Kimberly, Kendall, Amanda, 1994). In addition, Heins’
studies show that there are two types of stress sources among college students. One
type is about academic expectation and achievements, and the other is about social
factors, such as maintaining and developing social connections, etc. (Lin Zhang, Wenbo
Che & Bing Li, 2003 )
1.1 METHOD USE TO MANAGE STRESS
1.1.1 EATING BEHAVIOUR
Cartwright et al (2003), assumed that perceived stress may influence daily dietary practices.
While greater perceived stress might have adverse impacts on college students’ food choices
by decreasing consumption of healthy foods and increase in consumption of unhealthy foods.
This is strongly proven by Healthy Eating Choices and Fat Contents of Foods: a study
of stress and appetite and eating habits of students found that under normal
conditions, 80% of students made healthy eating choices, however only 33% ate
healthy when stressed. (Kanadiah J, Yake M, Jones J, Meyer M, 2006).

6. 5 | P a g e
1.1.2 SLEEP CYCLE
According to Lund et al., 2010; Vail-Smith, Felts, & Becker, 2009, cited by Catherine Coccia
et al (2014), the duration of students’ sleep has been related to health, stress and quality of
life; good health may result from longer time sleeping. In fact, changes in sleeping habits
were found to be the most frequent form of stress for college students. (Ross, Niebling, &
Heckert, 1999).
2.0 EFFECT OF STRESS
2.1.1 SOCIAL SKILLS
From Hildingh C, et al (2006), one of the highly potential of stress come from adequate self-
confidence. Gallagher IIC (2013) , Warren CS et al (2013) , Noels KA et al (1996) also
mentioned about lack of self-confidence has also been recognized as a part of stressors.
However, Ellison et al (2007) stated that by using social networking site as a medium to
communicate to each other, may play a role in which they form their social skills. This will
eventually be a stress barrier, thus increasing the life satisfaction of them. In addition,
Matsuba (2006) suggested that social networking sites may be one of the platforms for
students to develop their identity and for those who were a lack in self-concepts can explore
the Internet and also social sites. Another evidence to strengthen this finding is by Catherine
Coccia
2.1.2 HEALTH
According to McTigue et, al (2002) cited by Vanessa L Errisuriz et al claimed that
overweight during adulthood is associated with increased incidence of obesity in adulthood.
Hence, the research suggests those who are obese will more likely to remain as their age
increases. This will surely increase the risk of health outcomes. Based on Tuschen-Caffier &
Vogelle (1999), it has been stated that greater perceived stress connected with a greater
desire. While Dahlin et al reported that 5.4% of medical students in a Swedish university had
suicidal thoughts and 2.7% of students had made suicide attempts before. While Zaid Z an et
al (2007) reported that medical students with a medical history of chronic diseases had higher
GHQ scores. For the common disease were asthma and migraine.

7. 6 | P a g e
2.1.3 ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
In accordance with the statement by the National Center for Educational Statistics (2008) ,
cited by Catherine Coccia et al, 25% of college students dropped out after their first year, and
only slightly more than half of the students attending 4-year institutions complete their
degrees within 6 years of enrolment. While the students’ time spent studying for classes may
play a role in satisfaction with life (Catherine Coccia et al, 2014). Hirsch & Ellis (1996)
stated that the pressure to obtain good grades among students is very high. Statement by
Abouserie (1994), Misra et al (2000), supports the previous statement which claimed that
studying for exams and grade competition are the greatest sources of academic stress. In
another study have found that the amount of study time has declined over five decades with
one study finds that college students spent 51% of their time on non-academic whereas only
7% was used for studying (Arum & Roksa, 2011; Babcock & Marks, 2010) . According to
Zaid Z and et al (2007), perceived pressure due to examinations have associated with positive
General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) whereas its positive result indicates the presence of
stress among the respondent.
2.1.4 DAILY TASK
Catherine Coccia et al claimed that the time spent on the study was lesser than the time they
spend on other things. Plus, in the United States, the duration of study time has decreased
gradually from 24 hours in 1961 to 14 hours only per week in 2003 (Babcock & Marks,
2010) . It has been stated that students nowadays have different ways in the study by applying
multitasking and using technology to learn something in advance. In addition, this younger
generation prefers to mix between study and playing game. (Carlson, 2010)

8. 7 | P a g e
METHODOLOGY
3.1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter discussed the methodology that used in this research. The first section described
the research instrument, respondent of the study, research procedure and follows by data of
the respondent. The third part described the data analysis for this research. The number of
respondents involved in this research was 30 students. This research was conducted based on
the methodology. This method plays a major role in implementing this research accordingly.
The main purpose of the research is to find out the best way to manage stress among UniKL
MESTECH students.
3.2 RESEARCH INSTRUMENT
This research used quantitative research methodology. To complete this research, the
instrument used to collect information from the public’s was a questionnaire. A set of
questionnaires, make it into copies and distributed them to a few respondents. The respondent
for this research was students from UniKL MESTECH students. A few students is chosen
that coming from different background, course and personalities.
The questionnaires were divided into three sections, which is Section A, Section B and
Section C. In section A, respondents were required to fill in some basics information about
themselves. This part is known as demographic. The basic information that required were
age, gender, course, health status and current semester result (CGPA). With this basic
information, the respondent will not felt a burden as they do not need to reveal their identity
randomly.
In section B, the question is about the management of stress. This section is actually want to
know how the respondent manages their stress. Ten questions are given, and respondent
needs to answer using the scale that given. Lastly, in section C, the questions is about the

9. 8 | P a g e
effect of stress. From this question, it illustrated how stress affects their lifestyle. This section
also consists of 10 questions that respondent need to answer.
3.3 RESPONDENTS OF THE STUDY
30 respondents are randomly selected among UniKL MESTECH student to involve in this
research. The respondents’ age is mean between 19 to 21 years old. Five respondents aged,
27 aged 19 years old, two aged 20 years old and 1 of them aged 21 years old.
Besides that, the respondents’ gender are in ratio male to female is 10:20. 10 of the
respondent are Male, and the other 20 are Female. For the course, the course that has is
DBLT and DEHS.23 of the respondents come from the DBLT students and the rest is DEHS
students who are 7. For the health status, most of our respondent is in good health were 29
and only 1 in a bad health condition.
3.4 RESEARCH PROCEDURE
During the study, the questionnaire was distributed at various locations on campus such as
the library, computer lab, and lecture hall. Respondents were approached to fill up the
questionnaire that is given. 15 students are seen at the library and ten students at the lecture
hall and five students in the computer lab.2 days were taken to distribute the questionnaire.
3.5 DATA ANALYSIS
For this research, to analyse the data, there are three parts are analyze based on the
questionnaire which is the demographic, management of stress and effect of stress. The data
were entered into the computer using Microsoft Excel 2013. The result of the data was
present using frequency and toe descriptive statistic.

10. 9 | P a g e
RESULTS
Figure 1 shows frequency of UniKL MESTECH students among genders
Figure 1 shows that more females UniKL MESTECH students are involved in this study than
males. It represented sixty-seven percents of females and thirty-three percents of males.
Figure 2 shows frequency of UniKL MESTECH students according to course
Figure 2 indicates both DBLT’s and DEHS’s students involve in this study. The involvement
of students showed higher in DBLT’s students which are seventy-seven percents than
DEHS’s students which are twenty-three percents.
MALE
33%
FEMALE
67%
GENDER
MALE FEMALE
DBLT
77%
DEHS
23%
COURSE
DBLT DEHS

11. 10 | P a g e
Figure 3 shows frequency of UniKL MESTECH students’ age
Figure 3 revealed the distributions of studied students who have shared in the study. The total
number of students involved UniKL MESTECH was thirty students. They consist of three
age groups, which are 19, 20 and 21. 19 years old students own the percentages of thirty-five
percents. 20 years old students have the percentages of thirty-three percents. Meanwhile, 21
years old students own the percentages of thirty-two percents.
Figure 4 shows the frequency of health among UniKL MESTECH students
1
32%
2
33%
3
35%
AGE
1 2 3
GOOD
97%
BAD
3%
HEALTH STATUS
GOOD BAD

12. 11 | P a g e
Overall, the total number of UniKL MESTECH students involved in this investigation are
thirty students. Ninety- seven percents of them are in the good health status while three
percents of them are in the bad health status.
Figure 4 shows the distribution of UniKL MESTECH students’ CGPA
Most of the UniKL MESTECH students own the CGPA 0f 3.00-4.00. It represented fifty-
seven percents of the thirty students. Forty-three percents of them are having CGPA'S of
2.00-3.00 while zero percent of students scored CGPA’s of 1.00-2.00.
1.00-2.00
0%
2.00-3.00
43%3.00-4.00
57%
CGPA
1.00-2.00 2.00-3.00 3.00-4.00
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
PERCENTAGE(%)
TYPE OF QUESTIONS
MANAGEMENT OF STRESS
Strongly Agree
Agree

13. 12 | P a g e
Figure 5 shows the management of stress among UniKL MESTECH students
Based on Figure 5, the most popular ways for the students use to release stress are by taking a
break and use the source of entertainment. The graph above portrays that students strongly
agree with those two methods in order to manage stress. However, respondents seemed to
agree that travel also may be the other rational for respondent as to reduce stress.
Figure 6 shows the effect of stress among UniKL MESTECH students
The majority of respondents thought that the effect of stress is the difficulty to relax. The
figure above points that the percentage of difficult to relax rated as strongly agree with the
highest vote, forty percent of the students. Respondents likely agree with the statement ‘more
matured’ as the impact of stress and highly rated among the respondents as shown in the
figure above.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
PERCENTAGE(%)
TYPE OF QUESTIONS
EFFECT OF STRESS
Strongly Agree
Agree

14. 13 | P a g e
Figure 7 shows the management of stress among UniKL MESTECH students
From the bar chart, the main method that students strongly disagree on using in managing
stress is by taking pills. The diagram above shows that pills recorded as the most voted with
eighty-three percent of the respondents. In the other hands, students consider that excessively
eating, meeting counsellor and exercise as not the effective ways in dealing with the stress.
The most important finding to appear from the data is that there is a similarity in the amount
of disagreeing rating between excessively eating, meeting counsellor and exercise question.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
PERCENTAGE(%)
TYPE OF QUESTIONS
MANAGEMENT OF STRESS
Strongly Disagree
Disagree

15. 14 | P a g e
Figure 8 shows the effect of stress among UniKL MESTECH students
What is interesting in this findings from Figure 8 is that students are claiming that gain more
weight is the effect of stress. From the figure above clearly, shows that twenty-three percent
of students rate on strongly agree with the ‘gain more weight’ statement. Further analysis of
data revealed that most of the respondents seem to disagree with the issue, ‘hypertension may
result from the stress feeling’. Strong evidence on it was found when thirty percent of the
students vote for the disagree scale.
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
PERCENTAGE(%)
TYPE OF QUESTIONS
EFFECT OF STRESS
Strongly Disagree
Disagree

16. 15 | P a g e
DISCUSSION
The findings of the research showed that the management of stress has a great linkage
between itself and the effect of having stress to the UniKL MESTECH students. Methods to
manage the stress here consist of ten components based on the questionnaire which is eating
behaviour, sleep, early step, take a break, pills, counsellor, exercise, travel, pray and
entertainment. The correct ways of managing stress will affect the students’ health, academic
performance, and social skills.
The study was conducted for students of ages 19 years to 21 years including both male and
female students. The students own various opinion about the management of stress and the
effects.
As what has been observed, students are likely to manage their stress by taking a break and
get contact with the entertainment. The presence of stress may disrupt the students’ daily
activities therefore they need to take a break after doing the tasks in order to calm. Break time
is the moment where students will taking the chance to make themselves comfort, relax and
more peaceful. Rest will help students to decrease the feeling of stress itself. In the other
hands, entertainment is more user-friendly and so easy to get in along for the students to
manage the stress. Entertainment can be an example by watching movies, hear to the songs of
a variety of genres, surfing the internet and social media plus more. However, the findings of
the current study do not support the study conducted by Oliver et al (2000). Oliver suggests
that by changing the eating behaviour, stress will be reduced as students will consume more
foods according to the students’ emotion.
Most of the respondents surveyed suggested that travel is the best method to deal with the
stress. It might because of the students thought that by visiting the dream places, can vanish
the stress feeling away. The present findings did not seem to be consistent with other research
which believes that sleep may be one of the step students take to overcome stress. It is likely
to be true that,all stress feelings that conquering us will be ease when sleeping. Moreover, the
sleep cycle is very important for the university students. Those with enough sleep will result
in a better quality of health (Lund et al., 2010; Vail-Smith, Felts, & Becker, 2009).
Further analysis of data showed that most of the students are justifying that difficult to relax
is the common effect of stress. It might be impacting more on the respondents when
respondents are in a panic or hard situations. This study has been unable to demonstrate that
stress will affect students to not performing well. It is supported by Hirsch & Ellis (1996) that

17. 16 | P a g e
claimed the pressure among the students to earn a good grade are very high. ‘Most matured’
is also resulting as a usually chosen answer in respondents regarding it as the implication of
stress. It could be proposed that students who often facing difficulties in life will become
stronger and rational in handling problems than before.
In response to question ‘taking pills’ as the best way to manage stress, a majority of the
respondents revealed that they disagree with the statement. Respondents might be thinking
that by consuming pills, it may contribute the bad effects to the health. These findings of this
research are consistent with those of Ersche et al. (2010) and Everitt (2014) who found that
overuse of drugs can lead to drug addiction and related neuropsychiatric disorders. Most of
the students are taking stress matter not seriously. The excessiveness of stress will affect
many bad impacts to health. However, respondents are seemed to disagree with statement
‘eating, meeting counsellor and exercise’ to control stress. It might be that those are less
important matters to look for.
From the figure 8, the percentage of respondents that strongly disagree with statement ‘gain
more weight’ as one of the effects of stress. It may be suggested that weight is a not closely-
related with stress and if it so, it just a part of it. Students also not considering that
hypertension is one of the impacts from stress. Hypertension may lead to various type of
disease. These findings agree with Moffat et al. (2004) findings which showed that stress
would result in a different rate of psychological illness.

18. 17 | P a g e
CONCLUSION
This study has investigated about the management of stress among UniKL MESTECH
students. This study has been conducted at UniKL MESTECH by distributed the
questionnaire to the respondents. From the questionnaire, it can know how UniKL
MESTECH students manage their stress. This research has an objective that needs to be
achieved. As mentioned earlier in the introduction, the purpose of the study is to investigate
the deviation of stress among UniKL MESTECH students. Apparently, the objective has been
achieved. The ways to manage stress and the effect of stress has already being identified by
conducting this research. The major findings of the research are students found to strongly
agree with taking a break and entertainment to reduce the stress also agree with travel.
Furthermore, respondents strongly agreed with the statement of ‘difficulty to relax’ as the
effect of stress. The results of this study support the idea that the previous study and the
current study both must be referred and related each other so that we are not depending the
result on one side only. The research was limited in several ways that the sample size is very
small inclusive only 30 students of UniKL MESTECH. Besides, this study is conducted
under a very limited time and everything needs to be a rush.
5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS
There are several ways that we thought could improve the management of stress among
students and other suggestions to boost up the process for getting more precise and specific
results of the research. In this section, we divided into two main suggestions. Firstly, in
5.2.1, we discussed on recommendations for future research. Secondly, in 5.2.2 we discussed
recommendations to students.
5.2.1 Recommendations for future research
We believed the results we got from this research are not precise and specific enough to
achieve the objectives of this study. We suggest for the future study, we have to increase the
numbers of the respondent who participate in this research. In this study, we only make a
survey to thirty respondents among the UniKL MESTECH students. However, the answered
questionnaire did not represent the majority of thousands UniKL MESTECH students.

19. 18 | P a g e
Other than that, we have to change the methodology in the questionnaire. We recommend
adding an “Autonomic Measures” such as blood pressure for every respondent for
participating in this research. This will give us the practical answers via the respondents
autonomic measures, not by their opinion only.
5.2.2 Recommendations to students
There are many ways to manage a stress among students. However, we need to choose the
best ways to manage stress that suitable to our current situations in order to achieve a better
life. There are few suggestions that can improve this study:
1. To create awareness among students about how to manage their stress in positive
ways.
2. To ensure students to have the proper guidance on identifying the early symptoms of
stress.

20. 19 | P a g e
REFERENCES
Ansari, W. El, Adetunji, H., & Oskrochi, R. (2014). FOOD AND MENTAL HEALTH :
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FOOD AND PERCEIVED STRESS AND
DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN THE UNITED
KINGDOM, 22(2), 90–97.
Bakhsh, M. M., & Sayed, S. A. (2015). Sources of Academic Stress : Stress Management
among Regular and Executive MBA Students, 3(1), 17–22.
Beiter, R., Nash, R., Mccrady, M., Rhoades, D., Linscomb, M., Clarahan, M., & Sammut, S.
(2015). The prevalence and correlates of depression , anxiety , and stress in a sample of
college students. Journal of Affective Disorders, 173, 90–96.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2014.10.054
Chraif, M. (2015). International Conference EDUCATION AND PSYCHOLOGY
CHALLENGES - TEACHERS Correlative Study between Academic Satisfaction ,
Workload and Level of Academic Stress at 3rd Grade Students at Psychology. Procedia
- Social and Behavioral Sciences, 203(1994), 419–424.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.08.317
Coccia, C., & Darling, C. A. (2016). Having the Time of Their Life : College Student Stress ,
Dating and Satisfaction with Life, 35, 28–35. http://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2575
Errisuriz, V. L., Pasch, K. E., & Perry, C. L. (2016). Eating Behaviors Perceived stress and
dietary choices : The moderating role of stress management. Eating Behaviors, 22, 211–
216. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2016.06.008
Miñarro, J., & Aguilar, M. A. (2015). Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological
Psychiatry Long-term effects of repeated social stress on the conditioned place
preference induced by MDMA in mice. Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology &
Biological Psychiatry, 63, 98–109. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2015.06.006

21. 20 | P a g e
Pulido-martos, M., & Lopez-zafra, E. (2012). Sources of stress in nursing students : A
systematic review of quantitative studies Sources of stress in nursing students : a
systematic review of quantitative studies, (March). http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-
7657.2011.00939.x
Ramana, T. V. (2013). MANAGEMENT STRESS MANAGEMENT AMONG THE
CAMPUS STUDENTS, 2(1), 35–39.
Yu, B., Chen, X., Li, S., Liu, Y., Jacques-tiura, A. J., & Yan, H. (2014). Acculturative Stress
and Influential Factors among International Students in China : A Structural Dynamic
Perspective, 9(4). http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0096322
Yusoff, M. S. B., Abdul Rahim, A. F., Baba, A. A., Ismail, S. B., Mat Pa, M. N., & Esa, A.
R. (2013). Prevalence and associated factors of stress, anxiety and depression among
prospective medical students. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 6(2), 128–133.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2012.09.012