Academic Performance and Stress

By Katherine Garcia, Magaly Gutierrez, Tiffany Hale, Ricardo Mora

On November 4, 2010

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Along with admission to a university, students encounter new stressors that can possibly affect them personally or academically. The most common variables that affect academic performance are sleep habits, social networking, alcohol and drug consumption, and emotional issues.

Many students live in their own time zone especially when it comes to bed time hours. Studies have suggested that quality and quantity of sleep are related to learning ability and grades, according to the Elsevier Sleep Medicine Reviews.

Social networking accounts for students wasting countless hours on Facebook and disregarding class work or home work that needs to be accomplished. Other students have the idea of multitasking trying to do their work while chatting on Facebook. In all reality human beings do not possess the ability to multitask; our brain needs time to switch from one task to another. The brain needs time to adjust from task to task to have the capability to learn and maintain the most information possible, according to "Facebook and Academic Performance" from Computers in Human Behavior.

Alcohol and drug consumption have also been proven to affect GPA. College students are among the highest alcohol drinkers in the nation and drug consumption usually follows. This is true because many have moved away, not only from their home, but from their culture and customs.

If not controlled properly stress can have both emotional and physical effects on the human body. According to the American College Health Association, 31.6 percent of college students identified stress as one of their impediments to academic success, with depression accounting for 15.3 percent

Eventually extreme consequences may occur such as, permanent record of poor academic performance and in turn decreases the students desire to return to school or rather increase the complexity of college/university reentrance. Students are encouraged to visit Student Counseling and Disability Services located in the Student Center room. 124 for dealing with stress and depression.