'A week before exam, 82% students show high stress'

JAIPUR: A survey conducted on school students revealed startling figures of stress among adolescents. It shows that a month before the examination, just 13% of students have high stress level but before a week's time of examination, 82.2% of students have high stress level.

The investigators, all government doctors, mentioned in the study 'Assessment of Examination Stress in Adolescents and its Association with Heart Rate Variability' published in National Journal of Integrated Research in Medicine that stress is a major cause of suicide among students. The survey showed that examination stress is not only affecting mind but also causing heart beat variations which is dangerous.

The study was conducted by department of paediatrics, Sawai Man Singh Medical College and attached hospitals, Jaipur in association with department of physiology, SMS Medical College, Jaipur at a city's senior secondary school, Jaipur after getting the requisite clearance from the Institute Research Review Board.

They used Hari's Stress inventory to measure the level of stress among students before secondary and senior secondary board examination.

"When we conducted various tests on students in the age group of 12-18 years, a month before the examination, we found the incidence of stress among them is 13%," Dr Dhan Raj Bagri, a government's senior paediatrician, who conducted the study along with J K Lon Hospital superintendent Dr Ashok Gupta, physiology expert Dr Amitabh Dube and J K Lon's paediatrician Dr RK Gupta.

The investigators conducted two same tests on students - once it was conducted a month before the examination and the other was conducted one week before the examination. "Seven days before examination, 82.2% students have incidence of stress. It shows that as the examination draws nearer, more and more students develop stress. It happens because performance in examination becomes detrimental as how much a student is intelligent. But, intelligence and performance in examination is two different things. There is always a pressure of expectation like what will my parents, teachers and others will think if I do not get good marks, which develop stress among students," Dr Ashok Gupta, one of the investigator in the study, said.

He said there is a need to develop a stress-free environment when examination comes closer for better performance of the students.

The study says, "The incidence of stress among adolescents in general is 13%; this is in consonance with the view of experts worried about teen stress, that a significant number of adolescents are having stress these days. It may be because during this period adolescents are going through a lot of physical, emotional and social stress."

But, there were 16.8% adolescents did not have stress even before a week of examination. "It can be concluded that some adolescents have stable sets of internal standards for their actions," the study says, while talking about those who did not have stress even before 7 days of examination.