Stress and its effects on female students at a Zimbabwean State University

Abstract

Indisputably, university students are exposed to multiple stress situations on a daily basis. However, research evidence shows that globally, female university students are more susceptible to stress than their male counterparts. This study sought to establish some causes and forms of stress, as well as effects of stress confronting undergraduate Bachelor of Education Degree female students at a satellite centre of a state university in Zimbabwe. We purposively selected a sample of 100 female students (n=100) comprising 50 married and 50 single. We preferred a qualitative survey and used a survey questionnaire and a semi-structured interview to collect data. Interview data were subjected to content analysis and distilled into broad themes, while a Chi-Square statistics was computed to prove the hypotheses to determine the association between the effects of stress and the marital status of female university students, thereby addressing the question on the effects of stress on these students. The findings revealed academic demands, economic hardships and social issues as major sources of stress and categories around which stress among female students revolved. An association existed between the female students’ marital status and effects of stress on them, in a statistically significant manner, prompting us to conclude that stress effects took their toll more on married female students than single female students. These findings have implications for furthering our understanding of stress experience profiles of female university students with a view to helping them to develop stress coping strategies.