Gender Effect in Stress and Academic Performance in the Year of Board Examination: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches

Gender is a ubiquitous social category in all cultures having an all-encompassing impact (implicit and explicit) on an individual’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior. This research tested the gender differences in stress and academic performance of 10th and 12th class students, before their board examination with that of 9th class students. The sample consisted of 270 students for quantitative study from two central schools of Jammu i.e. 90 students from each class were selected by the purposive sampling method to represent an equal number of males and females. They were tested on the Hopkins System Checklist (HSCL) Self-report Symptom Inventory developed by Derogatis, Lipman, Rickels, Uhlenhuth, and Covi (1974). Furthermore, for the qualitative study, semi- structured interviews were conducted with 20 students from a central school in New Delhi to bring out student’s voices about their experiences with examination and stress. There was considerable evidence of interaction between academic performance and gender. The findings revealed that 12th-class students were more stressed than the 9th and 10th-class students. Significant correlations have been noted between background characteristics, stress, and academic performance. The findings are discussed in light of available research and the policy imperatives having implications for adolescent mental health and examination reforms.