SCHOOL RELATED STRESS, SYMPTOMS SEVERITY AND COPING MECHANISMS AMONG UNDERGRADUATES IN ACHIEVERS UNIVERSITY OWO.

ABSTRACT In the educational setting, a certain amount of stress is essential, but excessive stress can adversely influence their physiological and mental health. Hence, the study aims to assess the school related stress, symptoms severity and coping mechanisms among undergraduates in Achievers university, Owo, Ondo state. A descriptive cross-sectional design was used to select a total of 351 respondents using multistaging sampling technique. Self-administered and validated questionnaires were used to collect data and were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The result of the study has shown the major school related stressors among the respondents to be fear of failing courses (68.7%) and exam periods (53.9%). Majority (56.4%) of the respondents experienced high level of school related stress, some (34.5%) experienced moderate level while only few (9.1%) experienced low level of school related stress. The notable self-reported symptoms associated with stress among the students include inability to study (66.4%), yelling (65.8%), anxiousness (39.3%), lack of concentration (34.8%), emotionally drained (33.1%), headaches (31.9%), and procrastination (29.1%).Moreover, most of the respondents (50.7% ) had average coping skills, some (27.4%) had poor coping skills, while few (21.9%) had good coping skills to manage stress. The statistical analysis reveals p- value of 0.0001, which is below the conventional threshold (p