Academic Stress and Mental Health among College Students in Bokaro Steel City

Abstract

The present study investigated the impact of academic stress on mental health among college-going students in Bokaro Steel City, Jharkhand. The study also examined the influence of gender and place of residence on academic stress and mental health outcomes. A total of 80 college students were selected through purposive sampling, comprising male and female students from both urban and rural areas. Academic stress was assessed using the standardized Academic Stress Scale (ASS) developed by Kumar, Yadav, and Yadav (2024), which evaluates classroom and examination stress domains, while mental health was measured using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) developed by Goldberg (1978). The collected data were analyzed using the independent samples t-test and Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient. The findings revealed significant gender differences, with female students reporting higher accumulation of academic stress, placing them within the 'High Stress' percentile (Stanine 7) of the indigenized scale, as well as significantly higher psychological distress than male students. Significant differences were also observed between urban and rural students; rural students exhibited alarmingly high academic stress approaching the 90th percentile threshold along with poorer mental health outcomes, pointing toward severe classroom adaptation and resource constraints. Furthermore, a significant positive correlation was found between academic stress and psychological distress (r = 0.68, p < .01), indicating that increased classroom and examination-related pressures are strongly associated with deteriorating mental health. The study highlights the urgent need for domain-specific stress-management strategies, institutional counseling services, and tailored mental health support programs within higher educational institutions to enhance students’ psychological well-being and academic adjustment in contemporary settings.