8th Balkan Region Conference on Engineering and Business Education Sibiu,

and Romania,
10th International Conference on Engineering and Business Education October,
DOI 10.1515/cplbu-2017-0052 2017

Stress among working college students

Case Study: Faculty of Engineering Sibiu, Romania
Roxana SĂVESCU
Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Sibiu, Romania
[email protected]

Ana Maria STOE

Faurecia Seating Talmaciu SRL, Romania
[email protected]

Mihaela ROTARU
Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Sibiu, Romania
[email protected]

ABSTRACT

Working students face many challenges: they must balance work, school, extracurricular activities,
and personal life. Several studies reflected the fact that this balancing act goes hand-in-hand with
the level of stress. The scope of the study was to find out whether working students in the Faculty of
Engineering Sibiu experience different levels of stress compared with the non-working students.
Eighty students from the third year of studies were interviewed regarding the research topic. The
interviewed students were randomly selected, five working and five non-working students from each
of the eight faculty specializations. The results of the study reflect the fact that the management of
the faculty and the professors themselves must take into consideration that stress is a factor that
affects students’ performance and behavior.

Keywords: working students, stress, faculty management.

INTRODUCTION
The word “stress” is one of the most commonly used words nowadays. It is defined as a force
applied to distort the body, accompanied by physical, psychological, or social complaints or
dysfunctions. Work-related stress can come from any kind of situation - work content, work
organization, work environment, lack of communication, etc. - and it differs from person to person.
Although in the short-term, some mental pressure increases people’s creativity and their job
performance, having a positive impact on the level of job satisfaction, there is a widespread
acceptance that in the long-term, too much stress, without having the chance to recover from
stressful situations, represents a significant burden with effects on people’s health.
Research on student stress dates back to the last century, to David Mechanic's 1962 book Students
under Stress. A Study in the Social Psychology of Adaptation. The study investigated the reaction of
20 graduate students taking departmental written examinations by examining responses to stress and
techniques of adaptation. Since then, psychological stress among college students has received a lot
of attention. Most of the studies performed by different universities focus on identifying types of
stress experiences by different subgroups of students (e.g. according to the field of study, first-year
students, race-ethnicity, sexual orientation and holding a job while going to school). In addition to
sources and experiences of stress, other studies focus on college students’ strategies for coping with
stress. Working students face many challenges: they must balance work, school, extracurricular
activities, and personal life. Several studies reflected the fact that this balancing act goes hand-in-
hand with the level of stress. In addition to offering financial independence and satisfaction, a job
provides both training and experience and helps students develop time-management and confidence
skills. Working teaches students about responsibility and can reinforce what they are learning in
school. On the other hand, experts agree that students who work more than 15 to 20 hours per week
often experience decreased academic performance, which can lead to dropping out of school
entirely. Working long hours can also limit opportunities to build friendships and explore interests
that enhance intellectual and emotional development.

SCOPE OF WORK
The scope of the study was to find out whether working students in the Faculty of Engineering Sibiu
experienced different levels of stress compared with the non-working students. The idea for such a
research topic originated from previous informal discussions between the researchers and different
groups of students, which revealed the fact that some working students fail to meet both educational
and professional goals, while other working students manage to combine the two programs.
The researchers were particularly looking for answers to the following questions:
- Do non-working students academically perform better than working students?
- Do working students consider different school practices as being more stressful than non-
working students?
- Do working students experience stress differently than non-working students?
- What are the relaxing activities performed by students to reduce stress?
The results of the study were useful for the management of the faculty in adjusting the educational
offerings and coming up with extra educational services.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Eighty students from the third year of Faculty of Engineering Sibiu1 were interviewed regarding the
research topic. The interviewed students were randomly selected, 5 working and 5 non-working
students from each of the eight faculty specializations. Faculty of Engineering in Sibiu is facing an
increasing demand from industrial companies to employ students not only by the time of graduation
but even during university studies. The students are either being offered an unsolicited job or they
themselves are seeking a job in order to get the necessary “work experience” further needed in the
recruitment process in an industrial company. The decision to select students from the third year of
studies came from the fact that the third year was, by the time of the study, the year with the highest
proportion of employed students (conclusion based on observations of students’ lecture attendance
and discussions with the professors, although the proportion of employed students in the second and
first year of studies has been increasing in recent years).

Fifty percent of the respondents had a job at the time of the interview, while 50% did not have a job.
The reasons the students stated they decided to take a job were financial independence (52.5%),
getting professional experience (40.0%), or taking advantage of an opportunity (7.5%). Of the
interviewed students, 42.5% had a job in a field related to the specialization they were attending in
the university. The average monthly disposable income was 1167 lei in the case of working students
and 778 lei in the case of non-working students.
Half of the interviewed students were males and half were females. Regarding the residence, 38.8%
of the students live together with their parents, 31.2% live in rented apartments, 22.5% live in
students’ dormitories, while 7.5% live in their own apartment. Students’ financial resources consist

1 Faculty of Engineering Sibiu is offering four-year programs of bachelor studies (8 semesters), followed by
two-year master programs.
of regular salary (50% of students), parents’ financial support (40%), scholarship (17.5%), and other
non-regular sources of income like daily jobs, remittances, etc. (23.8%).

The data were collected by the means of a self-administrated structured questionnaire, in March
2016 - at the beginning of the spring term and after students’ winter exam session.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Academic performance of working students vs non-working students

Academic performance of students enrolled at Faculty of Engineering was measured by two
indicators: the average exams grade of the last session - February 2016 (Figure 1)2 and current
number of exams still to pass (Figure 2)3. The two metrics were reported by the respondents and
cross-checked by the research team with official faculty records.
Two conclusions can be drawn regarding academic performance of non-working students in
comparison with working students:
- in terms of extreme performances (high performances / low performances), non-working
students perform better than working students:
o 11% of non-working students have very high grades vs only 3.7% of working
students;
o 45% of non-working students have passed all exams vs 26.5% of working
students;
o the proportion of students with low performances is higher in the group of
working students (33.8% of them have average grades lower than 7.00 and 27.7%
of them still have more than 4 past exams to pass, with 7.5% having even more
then 10 past exams to pass) compared with a lower proportion in the group of
non-working students (10.0% of them have the average grade below 7.00 and
7.0% of them still have more than 4 past exams to pass);
- in terms of medium performances (average grade between 7.00-8.99, number of current
failed exams between 1-3), the difference between non-working and working students is
not so evident.

100%
Non-working students
Percentage of students

80% Working students

45.3%

60%
37.5%
33.7%

33.8%
25.0%

40%
11.0%

10.0%

20%
3.7%

0%
> 9.00 8.00-8.99 7-00-7.99 <7.00
Average grade (last session)

Figure 1: What is the average grade of your last session?

2 Faculty of Engineering Sibiu holds two ordinary sessions of exams each year: in February (end the fall
semester) and in June (end the spring semester). The students are required to accumulate a certain number of
credits by the end of each academic year (each exam being assigned a fixed number of credits). Within the
session month, the students can undertake exams in each of the subjects taught during the current semester and
in subjects not passed in the previous semesters (years) of study.
3
According to the Romanian grading system, 10 is the maximum grade and 5 is the minimum necessary in
order to pass an exam.
 100%
Non-working students

Percentage of students
80% Working students

45.0%
60%

28.0%
28.3%

27.7%
26.5%
40%

12.0%

10.0%
8.0%
7.5%

7.0%
20%

0%
0 1 2 3 >4
Current number of failed exams

Figure 2: How many exams, from previous semesters, you still have to pass?

The students’ inner motivation plays an important role in fulfilling both school and job
requirements. Surprisingly, when asked for any specific reason that would make them give up
university studies, 65.7% of working students answered “No reason”, while only 34.3% of non-
working students had the same answer.

School sources of stress: working students vs. non-working students

School requirements put more stress on working students compared with non-working students.
Compulsory lecture attendance (average 3.95 / 5.00), school tasks (average 4.10 / 5.00) and exam
session periods (average 4.13 / 5.00) are generally considered very stressful school
requirements/situations, especially for working students.

5
4.10 4.13
3.95
(1=not stressfull at all .... 5 very stressful)

4 3.63 3.53
3.28
3.85
3.45 3.45 3.48 3.43
Level of stress

3
2.88

2 Non-working students
Working students
1

0
Compulsory

Exam session
Insufficient lab
School tasks
Professors' little

Professors'
attendance

infrastructure
behavior
involvement
lectures

period

School sources of stress

Figure 3: How stressful do you consider the following requirements imposed by the
faculty?

The students were asked to mention one very stressful situation that they had to pass through during
the last year. Examples of students’ answers are:
- “I faced health problems and I had to continue going both to school and to job,”
- “a failed exam from the second year of studies, which I could not repeatedly pass,”
- “a project conducted in cooperation with a company,”
 - “decision I had to take with implications in the long term,”
- “when I returned from an Erasmus exchange program and I had to pass my local university
exams, too,”
- “managing both the job schedule and the university lectures,”
- “the exam session.”

Symptoms of stress among working students vs. non-working students

The students were asked to mention which of the following stress symptoms they experienced over
the last three months: tendency to quarrel for any reason, difficulties in decision-making, decisions
taken in a hurry, difficulties in focusing, state of continual concern, increased alcohol or cigarette
consumption, insomnia, continued working at home, loss of appetite or overeating, restlessness and
worries.

Working students feel more stressed compared with non-working students (Figure 4). Stress
symptoms such as loss of appetite or overeating, difficulties in focusing, difficulties in taking
decisions, or feelings of restless and worries are mentioned by more than 50% of working students.
The proportion is lower in the case of non-working students (around 30-35%, with the exception of
loss of appetite / overeating that might be caused by the exam session period).

100%
Non-working students

82.5%
Working students

70.0%
80%
62.5%
Percentage of students

50.0%

50.0%
60%

45.0%
42.5%
40.0%
35.0%
30.0%

30.0%

30.0%

30.0%

40%
25.0%
22.5%

22.5%
20.0%

17.5%
15.0%

20%
7.5%

0%
decision-making

Insomnia
Increased alcohol

working at home
continual
Decisions taken

Difficulties in

Restlessness,
determination in

concern

Loss of appetite
State of
The tendency to
quarrel for any

or overeating
consumption
focusing

worries
or cigarette
in a hurry

Continue
reason
Non-

Symptoms of stress

Figure 4: Which of the following situations did you experience over the last three
months?

Relaxing activities performed by students to reduce stress

The students were asked to identify the activities they do when feeling stressed. A very high
percentage of students said that they prefer to spend time with family and friends (85% of working
students and 87.5% of non-working students) or they simply like to stay and relax at home (77% of
working students and 70% of non-working students). A smaller but still significant proportion of
students prefer sport and open-air activities: respectively, 35% and 40% of working students, and
45% and 22.5% of non-working students. Volunteering was not a common activity for either group.
 87.5%
85.0%
100%

77.5%
Non-working students

70.0%
80% Working students

Percentage of students

45.0%
60%

40.0%
35.0%

22.5%
40%

20%

2.5%
0.0%
0%

Relaxing at
family and

Volunteering
activities
Open air
practices

time with
Spending

friends
Sport

home
Relaxing activities practiced by students

Figure 5: Which of the following activities do you undertake when feeling stressed?

CONCLUSIONS

With the help of family and friends, many working students are able to keep their stress levels
relatively under control. Identifying students' interests and goals is an important part of helping
them successfully pass through college. At the same time, the management of the faculty and the
professors themselves must take into consideration that stress is a factor that affects students’
performance and behavior. Student support programs for reducing stress among the group of
working students must be developed as well.

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Mechanic, D. (1962). Students Under Stress: A Study in the Social Psychology of Adaptation. The
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