A study of academic and social stress of higher secondary students in relation to their emotional intelligence and academic achievement

Abstract

On the basis of review of literature, it has been observed that in abundant studies, constructs such as stress, newlinestressful life events and social anxiety have been studied either independently or they are studied in relation to selfesteem, newlineEmotional Intelligence, and Academic Achievement independently. It has been further observed that in various newlinestudies Academic Stress has been studied in relation to Academic Achievement and family support independently. newlineWhile reviewing the literature, it was felt that meager studies have been conducted and their findings reported newlinethat attempted to study Academic Stress and Social Stress in relation to Emotional Intelligence either independently or newlinetogether. No study has been reported that deals both with Academic Stress and Social Stress simultaneously or newlineattempted to investigate them in relation to Emotional Intelligence, self-esteem and Academic Achievement. Apart newlinefrom it, findings of researches reviewed by the researcher need to be replicated in the present scenario. Because as we newlinesee in the present scenario, the society is influenced by modernization and westernization and the path from newlineadolescence to adulthood is endowed with a lot of stress. In India there is a heavy academic and social pressure that newlineresults in negative emotional states and more internalizing problems (Verma; Sharma; Larson, 2002). In many studies newlineof self-harm, academic pressure was found to be associated with suicidal ideas and occurrence of deliberate self-harm newline(Verma et al., 2002; Krishnakumar et al., 2005; Lai et al., 1992). Suicide is considered to be the second most common newlinecause of unnatural death in adolescents in industrialized countries, and high rates are reported from India as well (Aron newlineet al., 2004; Rey et al., 1997). In addition to it, one of the most worrying factors is the unnatural death of students. newlineAccording to a survey of National Crime Records Bureau in 2009, among the total suicidal victims reported in 2009, newline5.3 per cent (n=1, 27,151) were students. The data discussed so far shows that basically students studying in schools newlineand universities are the vulnerable group in context of suicidal ideation. If we look deeply at this scenario, we all will newlineagree that somehow the academic environment and the whole social set-up is responsible for the suicides of the newlinestudents. newlineRealizing the sensitivity of influence of these psychological, social, educational changes on student behavior, newlineinvestigator s interest arose to explore the facts by conducting research in the area of academic and Social Stress and its newlinerelation with Emotional Intelligence and Academic Achievement. As past researches show that social and emotional newlineskills result in higher achievements in life (Katyal and Awasthi, 2005, Mayer and Salovey, 1997), it means that both newlineemotional and social abilities have an important place in a student s life. Therefore, the researcher intends to study the newlinerelationship of academic and Social Stress with Emotional Intelligence, self-esteem and Academic Achievement. newline