"I think that everyone feels some kind of stress"
An examination of stress perceptions and student stress measures in Danish universities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/djes.v2i.133664Keywords:
student stress, student wellbeing, study environment, evaluation, universityAbstract
Several Danish universities measure “stress” as an indicator of student wellbeing, and recent student environment surveys have shown widespread experiences of stress among students. However, students’ own understandings of “stress” – and thereby what their survey answers reflect – have not been examine. The purpose of this article is to investigate Danish university students’ understandings and ways of using the word stress. The analysis is based on 12 individual interviews with Danish university students from different programmes and universities. The word “stress” is used among students to describe a variety of experiences such as being busy, feeling ill and temporary, “productive” bodily states when preparing for exams. Hence, “student stress” cannot be defined as a broad, onedimensional category negatively related to wellbeing. There is a need for a more nuanced understanding and precise operationalization if the concept is to be included as an indicator of student wellbeing.
References
Adcock, R., & Collier, D. (2001). Measure-ment Validity: A Shared Standard for Quali-tative and Quantitative Research. American Political Science Review, 95(3), 529-546. doi:10.1017/S0003055401003100
Andersen, M., Wahlgren, B., & Wandall, J. (2021). Evaluering af læring, undervisning og uddannelse (2 ed.). København: Hans Reit-zels Forlag.
Andersen, P. Ø. (2011). Pædagogikken i evalue-ringssamfundet: Hans Reitzels Forlag.
Andersen, S. H., Ladenburg, J., & Dyssegaard, P. S. (2020). Danskernes mentale sundhed - ud-vikling, baggrund og konsekvenser. Retrieved from https://rockwoolfonden.dk/udgivelser/danskernes-mentale-sundhed/
AU. (2017). Studiemiljø 2017. Undersøgelse af studiemiljøet ved Aarhus Universitet. Retrieved from http://studerende.au.dk/fileadmin/www.au.dk/studmiljo/2017_-_ny/SMU2017._Rapport_nr._1._Hovedrapport_for_Aarhus_Universitet__endelig_.pdf
AU. (2022). Opfølgningen på Studiemiljøun-dersøgelsen 2020 er i gang. Retrieved from https://studerende.au.dk/studieundersogelse/studiemiljo2020
Bakker, A. B. D., Evangelia. (2007). The Job Demands-Resources model: state of the art. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 22(3), 309-328. doi:10.1108/02683940710733115
Beiter, R., Nash, R., McCrady, M., Rhoades, D., Linscomb, M., Clarahan, M., & Sammut, S. (2015). The prevalence and correlates of de-pression, anxiety, and stress in a sample of college students. Journal of Affective Disor-ders, 173, 90-96. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2014.10.054
Berger, R. (2015). Now I see it, now I don't: Researcher's position and reflexivity in qual-itative research. Qualitative Research, 15(2), 219-234. doi:10.1177/1468794112468475
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Braun, V., Clarke, V., Hayfield, N., & Terry, G. (2019). Thematic Analysis. In P. Liam-puttong (Ed.), Handbook of Research Methods in Health Social Sciences (pp. 843-860). Singa-pore: Springer Nature.
Breedlove, S. M., & Watson, N. V. (2013). Bio-logical psychology: an introduction to behavioral, cognitive, and clinical neuroscience (7 ed.): Sinauer Associates, Inc.
Cooper, C. L., & Dewe, P. (2008). Stress: A Brief History: Wiley Blackwell.
Dahler-Larsen, P. (2022). "Ingen kan sige sig fri" - en begrebshistorie om konstitutive virkninger. Cepra-striben, 28, 4-28. doi:https://doi.org/10.17896/UCN.cepra.n28.465
Denovan, A., Dagnall, N., Dhingra, K., & Grogan, S. (2019). Evaluating the Perceived Stress Scale among UK university students: implications for stress measurement and management. Studies in Higher Education, 44(1), 120-133. doi:10.1080/03075079.2017.1340445
DTU. (2018). DTU Studiemiljøhandlingsplan 2019-2021. Retrieved from https://www.dtu.dk/uddannelse/studieliv/campusliv/dtu-udvikler-studiemiljoeet/dtu-studiemiljoeundersoegelsen
DTU. (2021). DTU Studiemiljørapport 2021. Re-trieved from https://www.dtu.dk/uddannelse/studieliv/campusliv/dtu-udvikler-studiemiljoeet/dtu-studiemiljoeundersoegelsen
Dyrbye, L. N., Thomas, M. R., & Shanafelt, T. D. (2006). Systematic Review of Depression, Anxiety, and Other Indicators of Psycholog-ical Distress Among U.S. and Canadian Medical Students. Academic Medicine, 81(4), 354-373. doi:10.1097/00001888-200604000-00009
EVA. (2019). Følelsen af stress blandt studerende (978-87-7182-314-1). Retrieved from https://www.eva.dk/videregaaende-uddannelse/foelelsen-stress-blandt-studerende
Fisher, S. (1994). Stress in academic life: The men-tal assembly line: Open University Press.
Görlich, A., Pless, M., Katznelson, N., & Gra-versen, L. (2019). Ny udsathed i ungdomslivet (1 ed.): Hans Reitzel.
Haldorsen, H., Bak, N. H., Dissing, A., & Pe-tersson, B. (2014). Stress and symptoms of depression among medical students at the University of Copenhagen. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 42(1), 89-95. doi:10.1177/1403494813503055
Harkness, K. L., & Hayden, E. P. (2020). Intro-duction. In The Oxford handbook of stress and mental health (pp. xvi-6): Oxford University Press.
Jacobsen, B., & Nørup, I. (2020). Young peo-ple’s mental health: Exploring the gap be-tween expectation and experience. Educa-tional Research, 62(3), 249-265. doi:10.1080/00131881.2020.1796516
Katznelson, N., Görlich, A., & Pless, M. (2022). Mistrivsel i lyset af tempo, præstation og psykologisering: Aalborg Universitetsforlag.
Katznelson, N., & Louw, A. V. (2018). Karak-terbogen: Om karakterer, læring og elevstrategier i en præstationskultur. (1 ed.): Aalborg Uni-versitetsforlag.
Katznelson, N., Pless, M., Görlich, A., Graversen, L., & Sørensen, N. B. (2021). Ny udsathed: nuancer i forståelser af psykisk mistrivsel. Nordisk Tidsskrift for Ungdoms-forskning, 2, 83-103. doi:10.18261/ISSN.2535-8162-2021-02-01
KU. (2019). Studiemiljøundersøgelse 2019. Retrie-ved from https://uddannelseskvalitet.ku.dk/kvalitetssikring/statistik-og-ledelsesinformation/studiestatistik---undersoegel-ser_grid/studiemiljoeundersoegelse-2019_2/
KU. (2020). Nye handleplaner har fokus på trivsel, stress og det gode studiemiljø. Re-trieved from https://uddannelseskvalitet.ku.dk/kvalitetssikring/statistik-og-ledelsesinformation/studiestatistik---undersoegelser_grid/fra-ledelsen/
Kvale, S., & Brinkmann, S. (2014). InterView: introduktion til et håndværk (3 ed.). Køben-havn: Hans Reitzels Forlag.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping: Springer Publishing Company.
Lin, S.-H., & Huang, Y.-C. (2014). Life stress and academic burnout. Active Learning in Higher Education, 15(1), 77-90. doi:10.1177/1469787413514651
Lyrakos, D. G. (2012). The Impact of Stress, Social Support, Self-Efficacy and Coping on University Students, a Multicultural Euro-pean Study. Psychology, 2(2), 143-149. doi:10.4236/psych.2012.32022
McNamara, S. (2000). Stress in young people: what's new and what can we do? : Continuum.
Mørch, S., Pultz, S., & Stroebaek, P. (2018). Strategic self-management: the new youth challenge. Journal of Youth Studies, 21, 422-438. doi:10.1080/13676261.2017.1385747
Philipsen, T. S. (2022). Trives trivsel i målstyr-ingen af universiteterne? , 1, 117-124. doi:https://doi.org/10.7146/djes.v1i1.132588
Pike, K. L. (1967). Etic and emic standpoints for the description of behavior. In Language in relation to a unified theory of the structure of human behavior (pp. 37-72). Berlin, Boston: Mouton & Co.
Pillay, A. L., & Ngcobo, H. S. B. (2010). Sources of stress and support among rural-based first-year university students: an explorato-ry study. South African Journal of Psychology, 40(3), 234-240. doi:10.1177/008124631004000302
Pitt, A., Oprescu, F., Tapia, G., & Gray, M. (2018). An exploratory study of students' weekly stress levels and sources of stress during the semester. Active Learning in High-er Education, 19(1), 61-75. doi:10.1177/1469787417731194
Robinson, O. C. (2014). Sampling in Interview-Based Qualitative Research: A Theoretical and Practical Guide. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 11(1), 25-41. doi:10.1080/14780887.2013.801543
Sarauw, L. L., & Madsen, S. R. (2017). Risikonavigation i fremdriftsstormen - når studerende oversætter fremdriftsreformen ud fra nye risikologikker. Dansk Universi-tetspædagogisk Tidsskrift, 12(22), 141-152.
Sarauw, L. L., & Madsen, S. R. (2020). Higher education in the paradigm of speed. Stu-dent perspectives on the risks of fast-track degree completion Learning and Teaching, 13(1), 1-23. doi: 10.3167/latiss.2020.130102
SDU. (2019). Studiemiljøundersøgelsen 2021. Re-trieved from https://mitsdu.dk/da/mit_studie/bachelor/statskundskab/studieliv/studieundersoegelser/studiemiljoeundersoegelsen
Simonelli-Muñoz, A. J., Balanza, S., Rivera-Caravaca, J. M., Vera-Catalán, T., Lorente, A. M., & Gallego-Gómez, J. I. (2018). Relia-bility and validity of the student stress in-ventory-stress manifestations questionnaire and its association with personal and aca-demic factors in university students. Nurse Education Today, 64, 156-160. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2018.02.019
Sundhedsstyrelsen. (2022). Danskernes Sundhed - Den Nationale Sundhedsprofil 2021. Re-trieved from https://www.sst.dk/da/Udgivelser/2022/Danskernes-sundhed
UFM. (2022a, 17/06 2022). Danmarks Studieun-dersøgelse, 2021. Retrieved from https://ufm.dk/uddannelse/statistik-og-analyser/dkstudieundersoegelse
UFM. (2022b). Universiteternes strategiske rammekontrakter 2022-2025. Retrieved from https://ufm.dk/uddannelse/videregaende-uddannelse/universiteter/styring-og-ansvar/strategiske-rammekontrakter/strategiske-rammekontrakter-universiteter
Undervisningsmiljøloven, LBK nr 316 af 05/04/2017 C.F.R. (2017).
You, M., Laborde, S., Dosseville, F., Salinas, A., & Allen, M. S. (2020). Associations of chro-notype, Big Five, and emotional competenc-es with perceived stress in university stu-dents. Chronobiology International, 37(7), 1090-1098. doi:10.1080/07420528.2020.1752705
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Anna Skov Jensen
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/