Literature Review Blog #1

Citation: Misra, RanjitaMcKean, Michelle. "College Students' Academic Stress And Its Relation To Their Anxiety, 
                          Time Management, And Leisure Satisfaction." American Journal Of Health Studies 16.1 (2000):
                          41. MasterFILE Elite. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.

Summary: This article relates stress, anxiety, time management, and leisure activities through an investigation of 
                 undergraduate students. They found that there were differences in how males and females manage
                 there time and participate in different leisure activities. For example, females tend to have more stress 
                 than males even though the study showed that they have better time management skills. Also, the 
                 study shows that stress varies by age. This article shows the results of the study, expands on the 
                 factors of student stress, and shows how the results can be used to reduce future stress in college 
                 students.

Authors: Ranjita Misra and Michelle McKean are the authors of this article. Misra is a professor in the Department 
              of Health and Kinesiology at Texas A & M University, and McKean is one of her students. The pair 
              conducted a study by surveying students at Midwestern University. They surveyed a total of 249 college  
              students. They are both very knowledgeable on the topic from their study, and they have included much 
              of their knowledge in this article.

Key terms: Two key terms in the article are stressors and reactions, meaning what causes the stress among 
                  individuals and how they react to the stress. Both of these terms depend on different factors such as 
                  age and gender.

Quotes: "Effective time management seemed to lower academic stress in this sample. Hence, faculty members

             and counselors should emphasize participation in time management seminars to improve academic

             success of students. It is recommended that college students be made aware of time management's 

             potential impact on academic stress, and of what activities should be undertaken instead of leaving it to  

             trial and error" (1).

            "Our results indicated that within this college population, the freshmen and sophomore students had 

             higher reactions to stress than juniors and seniors. This could be due to slightly higher anxiety, lower 

             time management behaviors and leisure activities among them as compared to juniors and seniors" (1).

            " A significant age difference existed in students' reactions to academic stress. Perceived Control of    

             Time, educational component of leisure satisfaction, and lower anxiety were the other variables that 

             predicted reactions to stressors" (1).

Value: This material will help me explore my research question because it provides a study of students who are

          getting stressed in college. Not only does it's results show some of the stressors for students, but it also 

          shows how the stressors differ between different groups. From this, I can research on how other groups    

          may be affected differently by stressors and expand my information. Another reason that this material is 

          very helpful for my question is that it provides some ways that stress can be prevented which will guide

          me to even more ways how it can be prevented. This article is just the beginning of my research, but it is 

         already providing me with substantial information for my topic.

Research Blog #3: How might privatization connect to your topic?

Privatization is the shift from public to private sources of funding. The privatization of colleges is causing tuition to rise because states are cutting back on funding them. This is causing college students to drown in debt from all of the student loans they will need to pay off. This negative effect of privatization connects with my project because the debt causes students so much stress. College brings on a lot of stress that students must learn to cope with, and the rise of tuition just adds to the stress and makes things worse. In "Does 'Stress' Hide Deeper Social Problems?", Dana Becker states, "Stress is now a protean concept whose shape-shifting properties give it tremendous versatility as a vehicle for explaining human dilemmas" (Becker). The excerpt of her article caught my attention because of the truth behind it. Stress is now a very common factor in the college experience. With privatization, there is even more stress for college students.

Research Blog #2: Scouting the Territory

1. My topic idea has changed since my first blog. I no longer want to focus on the transition from high school to college, but instead I want to focus on stress in college students. A lot happens in college that puts stress on students. Students have to deal with the pressures of keeping high grades while managing their social life, emotions, and other responsibilities, including jobs and paying off the hight cost of higher education. I would like to explore the different components that contribute to stress in college students. Also, I would like to research how students cope with the stress, how they can avoid stress, and the stress that different subgroups of college students may encounter. These subgroups maybe be differences in major, race, sexual orientation, and more.
I changed my research topic because I figured that there was not enough information for the topic. I did some quick research and found the idea of stress in college students, and it immediately caught my eye. I am a college student dealing with stress, and I so many others students dealing with stress as well. I can relate to the topic, which will make it more interesting to write about. I think it could be a really good paper with further research.
2. While searching the internet I found many articles on college stress. Most of these articles mentioned the different things that cause stress for students, like the ones I mentioned earlier, and They talked about ways to deal with the stress. Some of the articles that seem interesting for my topic are:
3.

• Stress in College Students:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-campus/201110/stress-in-college-students
• Anxiety rampant among college students: http://thecollegianur.com/2014/02/18/student-anxiety/41504/
• College Students' Academic Stress and It's Relation to Their Anxiety, Time Management, and Leisure Satisfaction: http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=2de4a9b3-d730-46fb-8339-ad0e2aed846a%40sessionmgr111&vid=1&hid=105&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=fth&AN=3308416
• One Nation Under Stress: The Trouble with Stress as an Idea by Dana Becker

4. The issues that seem most important from the articles I have read are the different components that cause students stress, what kind of stress different subgroups have to deal with, and how students deal with stress, meaning whether they let it control them or find methods to reduce it.

5. I included four different references for my topic above. The first three are articles that have give me ideas about what I will write for my paper. The last reference is a book that seems like it may be very useful for me to borrow from the library.

6. I have not found any controversies over my topic, but maybe with further research I will. The only controversy I can think of is whether colleges should be privatized or not, which relates to a part of my topic. With the privatization of collages, tuition rises. This means students will have a lot of student loans to pay off, and therefore they will have added stress as a college student.

Blog #1: Initial Topic Idea

Emotional Transition to College
I am still unsure as to what I would like the topic of my final paper to be, but an idea that came to mind was the transition from high school to college. I could discuss how different teens deal with the transition, whether it be that they anticipate going, are worried about going, or do not want to go at all. I could write about how some freshmen react due to these emotional transitions. With further research I will surely see how I could expand on the topic. I might want this to be the topic of my paper because I find it interesting how different people react to the situation.