A Study on Understanding Academic Stress and Coping Strategy Amongst College Students in Shillong, Meghalaya

In the present study, an honest attempt is made to study the academic stress, various factors of academic stress and coping strategies among the college going students in Shillong, Meghalaya. For the purpose of study, a representative sample of 199 students of different colleges in Shillong was taken. The sample consisted of 71 male students and 128 female students. To determine the academic stress level of the students, the Academic Stress Scale by Rajendran and Kaliappan (1990) was administered to college going students. The Brief-COPE Scale was administered to understand the coping strategies used by the college youths of Shillong to cope with academic stress. The survey results when integrated and interpreted considering objectives for the study showed that there is moderate level (69.3%) stress among the college going students in Shillong. An analysis of the results by the age group and academic stress of college students is found to be the age group of 21-23 which is 50.7%. In another analysis, it was found that the students pursuing BA have moderate level of stress (69.3%). Based on the findings of this study, educational institutions should take proactive steps to address the prevalent of academic stress among students.