Academic Stress and Personality in Relation to Gender: A Study on the Undergraduates

Academic stress and personality are particularly useful in attempting to investigate psychological difference between genders. The purpose of the current study was to examine gender difference in academic stress and personality among college going undergraduate students (Male=66, Female=84) ranging from 18-22 years. Participants were randomly selected for the study. Academic stress inventory by Lin and Chen and Neo Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI3) by Paul T. Costa and Robert McCrae were administered. A significant gender difference was not found in academic stress. However mean score suggested that female students (Mean=109.417, SD=21.011) experience higher academic stress than the male students (Mean=107.061, SD=17.083). In the Big five factors, females had more levels of neuroticism personality (Mean=39.24, SD=5.715) than Males (Mean=37.59, SD= 5.429). In extraversion, females scored high (Mean= 41.32, SD=5.563) than males (Mean=40.61, SD=4.614). A There was no gender difference in openness to experience and agreeableness. However, a significant gender difference was found in conscientiousness. Females were more conscientious (Mean=43.88, SD= 4.858) than their male counterparts (Mean= 42.29, SD=4.7771). Academic stress is an apparent problem for students nowadays that threatens their physical and mental wellbeing and affects academic performance. Specific personality traits make students more vulnerable to the stressful situations. Moreover, the experience and the perception of situations are gender specific. So, an understanding of the gender difference on academic stress and personality will be helpful to find out individual differences and accordingly design strategies to help students deal with the challenges of life.