Report on academic stress among adolescents in Karnali Province, Nepal.

Research Report.

SUMMARY:

The period of adolescence undergoes many physical and mental changes. Changing emotional and physical status along with increasing academic pressure led to various impairments in the mental health of adolescents. The general objective of this study is to identify the prevalence of academic stress and its associated factors. This is a cross-sectional study carried out in rural districts of Karnali Province with 424 high school students. Multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the association between factors and academic stress. We categorized stress levels into: low, moderate and high. The prevalence of low academic stress was 77.8%, moderate academic stress was 19.8% and high academic stress was2.4%. Female students had thrice higher odds of having academic stress as compared to male students (aOR:3.47; 95% CI:1.91to 6.31, p-value:<0.001). Grade 10 students had higher odds of having academic stress as compared to grade 9 (aOR:2.02; 95% CI:1.13 to 3.61, p-value:0.017). Students of literate mothers were more likely to experience academic stress than those with illiterate mothers (aOR:0.53; 95% CI:0.29 to 0.96, p-value:0.036). Students with unsatisfactory academic performance had thrice higher odds of having academic stress as compared to students with satisfactory academic performance (aOR:3.12; 95% CI:1.46 to 6.67, p-value:<0.003). The findings of the study showed that high school students have high academic stress which is related to many factors at home and school. Understanding academic stress and parents and teachers providing the best support to the students could help lessen the burden.