Academic Stress in Relation to Personality and Gender in College Students

Stress is an inevitable part of a student’s life that can affect the academic performance and overall well-being. The stress experienced can differ across genders and personality traits. The pressure of always being at the top, peer pressure and competition amongst students are major stressors which students experience and are subjected to internal and external expectations that stem from the pressure of succeeding academically. A student has to juggle his/her way through hundreds of assignments, tests and examinations without disappointing his/her parents and teachers who have unrealistic expectations from him/ her. This vicious cycle of constantly taking stress, the need to prove their worth and the demanding attitude of parents and teachers leave the students stressed and burdened. With this study, we aim to study the impact of academic stress on gender and personality. A total of 100 participants took part in this study. Standardized measures of academic stress and personality were used. The results showed that there was a significant correlation between neuroticism personality traits and perceived academic stress. However, no correlation between extraversion personality traits and perceived academic stress was found. Moreover, there was no difference in the way males and females perceived academic stress regardless of their personality (neuroticism and extraversion dimension).