STRESS ASSESMENTS OF JUNIOR AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN

DOLE PHILIPPINES SCHOOL

A Survey Report
Presented to the Senior High School Faculty of Dole Philippines School
Kalsangi, Polomolok, South Cotabato

In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for

English for Academic and Professional Purposes 12

Submitted by:
AQUINO, GABRIEL ANGELO O.
ARAMBALA, JAMYZA CLAIRE M.
BAÑAGA, JAEVEN B.
BRIONES, GREGORY IVAN D.
DE GUZMAN, LIANNE GENEVIE A.

Submitted to:
MR. JULIUS MARC G. TABORETE

SEPTEMBER 2019
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title page……………………………………………………………………………………………………i

Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………………….ii

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………..1

Objectives…………………………………………………………………………………………………..1

Procedures…………………………………………………………………………………………………1

A. Description of the Respondents………………………………………………………………….1

B. Survey Instrument………………………………………………………………………………..1

C. Implementation…………………………………………………………………………………...2

D. Treatment of the Data……………………………………………………………………………2

Results……………………………………………………………………………………………………...3

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………….5

Reference…………………………………………………………………………………………………...7

Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………………………...8

Appendix A…………………………………………………………………………………………...9

Appendix B………………………………………………………………………………………….12

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I. INTRODUCTION

Stress is a necessary part of our lives and can have both beneficial and negative effects.
The stress response is primarily determined by our perception of an event, transition, or problem.
Finding a balance in our lives and managing our stress can be a challenge. An important first step
is recognizing the degree to which we are affected by the stress in our lives and then move toward
strategies to make it better.

II. OBJECTIVES

The survey report is a series of self-assessment scales to help determine the degree and
type of stress the respondents are experiencing and how well their stress coping skills are working.

III. PROCEDURES

A. Description of the Respondents

The respondents consisted of 80 students of Dole Philippines School and were picked
disregarding the gender and status of the student in the classroom. The students were from the
Junior and Senior High School having only ten (10) respondents from each class. The final
set of respondents consisted of the following: 45 females and 35 males, aged 12 to 19.

B. Survey Instrument

Information on the perceived stress and stress coping of students were gathered through
questionnaires that contains multiple choice questions for inputting the respondents’ answers
on the stress level and how they cope up with it.

The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) questionnaire is a classic stress assessment instrument,
originally developed in 1983, was used to help the researchers understand how different
situations affect their feelings and their perceived stress.

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The Stress Coping Resource Inventory (SCRI) questionnaire was also used to understand
to what factors do the respondents were most closely associated with the capacity to cope
successfully with stress.

C. Implementation

The survey was done on September 16, 2019. The respondents were asked to answer the
questionnaire from 8:30 – 9:30 am during their first class period, the questionnaire asked
respondents to input their perceived stress scale that asks about their feelings and thoughts
during the last month and how they are most closely associated with the capacity to cope
successfully with stress into specified blanks and choices.

On September 16, 2019, 4:00 – 4:10 pm, after classes, respondents submitted their
responses by giving the questionnaires to the survey researchers.

D. Treatment of the Data

The perceived stress scale of each respondent were measured, for each question to choose
from the following alternatives: 0 – never; 1 - almost never; 2 – sometimes; 3 - fairly often;
and 4 - very often. Then the PSS scores were obtained by following these directions:

 First, reverse the scores for questions 4, 5, 7, & 8. On these 4 questions, change the
scores to: 0 = 4, 1 = 3, 2 = 2, 3 = 1, and 4 = 0.

 Then, the scores were added up for each item to get a total. Individual scores on the
PSS can range from 0 to 40 with higher scores indicating higher perceived stress.

- Scores ranging from 0-13 would be considered low stress.

- Scores ranging from 14-26 would be considered moderate stress.

- Scores ranging from 27-40 would be considered high perceived stress.

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The Stress Coping Resource Inventory of each respondent were measured, for each
question has been derived rationally, not empirically. Nevertheless, for each of the scales
below, compute the scores using the following legend: a= 4; b= 3; c= 2; and d= 1.

The questionnaire has 32 questions and were divided to 6 categories: Wellness Scale for
questions 1-7; Thought Control Scale for questions 8-13; Active Coping Scale for questions
14-20; Social Ease Scale for questions 21-26; Tension reduction Scale for questions 27-28;
and Spiritual Practice Scale for questions 29-32.

Scores in each category were added and divided depending on how many questions there
were. The average of each scale were then added together and was divided to six (6) to get the
overall score. The overall score can be determined through the following:

 An overall score of 3.5+ suggests you may be a superior stresscoper.

 An overall score of 2.5-3.4 suggests you may be an above average stresscoper.

 An overall score of 1.5-2.4 suggests you may be an average stresscoper.

 An overall score of less than 1.5 suggests you may be a below average stresscoper.

The analysis of obtained data was processed with IBM SPSS Statistics v23. For descriptive
analysis means and standard deviations were considered and for comparative analysis, One-
Way ANOVA test was used.

IV. RESULTS

Figure 1 shows the average perceived stress scale of each class from grades 7 to 12.
According to the data, Dolefilites experience moderate stress only, but Grade 7S has the highest
PSS score mean of 24.3 and followed by Grade 12, having a PSS score mean of 23.5. The pattern
of the results is normal because according to Ioarga, Dondas, and Eloae (2018), high school
students are exposed to an average level of perceived stress. The highest rate of stress level
characterizes students who are especially freshmen and who is among students about to graduate.
Students from the grades 8 to 11, aside from grade 9, seems to be the least stressed, whereas
students from the grade 12 are the most prone to over thinking situations about college. About

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37.5% of students in high school who experience moderate stress level, are prone to have high
perceived stress level.

PERCEIVED STRESS SCALE

30

24.3
23.3 23.5 25
21.8
19.3 19.7 19.4
18.7 20

STRESS LEVEL
15

10

0
GRADE 7S GRADE 7A GRADE 8K GRADE 8R GRADE 9 GRADE 10 GRADE 11 GRADE 12
GRADE LEVEL

Figures 2 shows that Dolefilites have high internal consistency and reliabilities which
appears to be useful in predicting illness, emotional distress, personality type, drug dependency,
occupational choice, and life satisfaction. The data suggests that Grades 12 and 9 students can’t
cope up well with stress in specific aspects in life. In the same case with Grade 7S. The data has a
three-low peak patterns having Grades 7S, 9, and 12 part of the classes with low stress cope up
reflecting to negative class system.

About 30% of the high school population experience a low stress cope up. A recent study of
Ossola (2015), surveyed and interviewed students at a handful of high schools students and found
that about half of them are chronically stressed due to homework required for Advanced Placement
classes, sports practices, extracurricular activities like music and student government, and college

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exams preparation, the fortunate kids who have access to these opportunities don’t have much
downtime these days.

These experiences can cause kids to burn out by the time they get to college, or to feel the
psychological and physical effects of stress for much of their adult lives, says Marya Gwadz, a
senior research scientist at the New York University College of Nursing.

STRESS COPING RESOURCE INVENTORY SCALE

3.05
3.007
3
2.95

LEVEL OF STRESS COPE UP

2.873 2.87 2.9
2.837
2.85

2.767 2.8
2.759
2.722 2.722 2.75
2.7
2.65
2.6
2.55
GRADE 7S GRADE 7A GRADE 8K GRADE 8R GRADE 9 GRADE 10 GRADE 11 GRADE 12
GRADE LEVEL

V. CONCLUSION
The following are the key findings of this survey report:
 According to the data, Dolefilites experience moderate stress only and about 37.5% of
students in high school who experience moderate stress level, are prone to have high
perceived stress level.

 Freshmen and graduating students are the most stressed due to culture shock and college
preparations.

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 The data suggests that Grades 12 and 9 students can’t cope up well with stress in specific
aspects in life.

 The data has a three-low peak patterns having Grades 7S, 9, and 12 part of the classes
with low stress cope up reflecting to negative class system.

 About 30% of the high school population experience a low stress cope up.

Figure 3 shows the summary of the results where in 37.5% of the high school population
experience a higher moderate stress associated with low stress coping resource inventory score
mean. Too much stress or chronic stress can affect mental and physical health and increase the risk
of premature mortality. Adverse effects of stress result from the interaction between stressors and
individual perceptions of and reaction to these stressors (Al-Dubai, 2011).

In addition to Al Dubai (2011), knowing the causes of stress among students and methods
students use to deal with it will help lecturers, career-counselling centres, and university
administrators monitor and control these factors in order to reduce stress experienced by students.

STRESS ASSESSMENT SUMMARY

3.05 30
3
25
2.95
2.9
20
2.85
2.8 15
2.75
10
2.7
2.65
5
2.6
2.55 0
GRADE 7S GRADE 7A GRADE 8K GRADE 8R GRADE 9 GRADE 10 GRADE 11 GRADE 12

PSS SCRI

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VI. REFERENCE

Al-Dubai, S., et al. (2011). Stress and coping strategies of students in a medical faculty in
Malaysia. The Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences, 18 (3), pp. 57-64.
PMID: 22135602.

Iorga, M., Dondas, C. Eloae, C. Z. (August 3, 2018). Depressed as freshmen, stressed as

seniors: the relationship between depression, perceived stress and academic results
among high school students. Behavioral Sciences, 8 (80), pp. 1-70. DOI:
10.3390/bs8080070.

Ossola, A. (2015). High-stress high school: What’s the balance between preparing students
for college and ensuring they aren’t killing themselves in the process? Retrieved on
September 21, 2019 from
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/high-stress-high-
school/409735/.

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Appendix

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APPENDIX A
Stress Coping Resource Inventory Breakdown

WELLNESS SCALE
4.5
3.874
4

STRESS COPING INVENTORY

3.157 3.155 3.5
2.97 2.943 2.943 3.028 2.913
3

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
GRADE 7S GRADE 7A GRADE 8K GRADE 8R GRADE 9 GRADE 10 GRADE 11 GRADE 12
GRADE LEVEL

THOUGHT CONTROL SCALE

2.966 3
2.934
2.883
2.9
STRESS COPING INVENTORY

2.8

2.666 2.667 2.7

2.635
2.6
2.549 2.6

2.5

2.4

2.3
GRADE 7S GRADE 7A GRADE 8K GRADE 8R GRADE 9 GRADE 10 GRADE 11 GRADE 12
GRADE LEVEL

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ACTIVE COPING SCALE

3

2.871 2.9
2.785 2.799

STRESS COPING INVENTORY

2.8
2.713
2.7
2.614
2.543 2.6
2.527
2.484
2.5

2.4

2.3

2.2
GRADE 7S GRADE 7A GRADE 8K GRADE 8R GRADE 9 GRADE 10 GRADE 11 GRADE 12
GRADE LEVEL

SOCIAL EASE SCALE

3
2.951
2.934 2.95
2.9
2.9
STRESS COPING INVENTORY
2.851
2.85
2.783 2.8
2.751
2.712 2.75
2.671 2.7
2.65
2.6
2.55
2.5
GRADE 7S GRADE 7A GRADE 8K GRADE 8R GRADE 9 GRADE 10 GRADE 11 GRADE 12
GRADE LEVEL

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TENSION REDUCTION SCALE

3.5
3.15
2.8 2.85 3
2.75 2.75 2.75
2.65 2.6

STRESS COPING INVENTORY

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
GRADE 7S GRADE 7A GRADE 8K GRADE 8R GRADE 9 GRADE 10 GRADE 11 GRADE 12
GRADE LEVEL

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE SCALE

3.2
3.125
3.1

2.975
2.95
2.975 3 STRESS COPING INVENTORY
2.9 2.9
2.875 2.9

2.75 2.8

2.7

2.6

2.5
GRADE 7S GRADE 7A GRADE 8K GRADE 8R GRADE 9 GRADE 10 GRADE 11 GRADE 12
GRADE LEVEL

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APPENDIX B
Waiver of Confidentiality

Perceived Stress Scale Questionnaire

Stress Coping Resource Inventory Questionnaire

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