Peer Stress

1.5.1 FACTORS AFFECTING ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

(i) Individual factors: These factors are related to the individual himself. The main among these factors are:

a) Cognitive like intelligence, learning ability, cognitive styles, creativity etc.

b) Non Cognitive like attitude towards self and others, perceptions of school, interests, motivation, level of aspiration, study habits, personality, self efficacy, attitude towards education etc.

(ii) Environmental Factors: These are related to the environment of the individual. These include socio-economic status; family traits and company i.e. value system, educational system, system of evaluation, teachers’ efficiency, training and methods of teaching, school environment and home environment, peer

.Academic achievement influences young people’s future opportunities in terms of later educational and occupational attainment. Academic achievement has in fact not only been linked to optimal adolescent functioning but is also considered to be a reliable indicator for future well-being (Schmidt & Padilla, 2003). Widey and (Liechtenstein, 1987) conducted a study and revealed that academic tasks that students were unable to handle caused the next to most severe symptoms of stress. (Anice James and Marice, 2004) investigated the influence of academic stress on the achievement of the XI standard students and found a significant difference between boys and girls. Girls performed better than boys in their level of achievement and lowered in the level of academic stress. (Mohammad and Philip, 2004) observed that girls academic stress was higher than the boys academic stress. (Naresh Kumar , 2008) investigated in a study on the sources of academic stress and their influence on the scholastic achievement and concluded that the overall achievement is positively and significantly associated with the level of academic stress. Moly Kuruvilla, 2008) studied the influence of certain psycho-sociological variables on the influence of the academic stress, overall adjustment and scholastic achievement of college students and found that –(i) there is a significant positive correlation between the gender and the academic stress; boys had higher level stress compared to the girls (ii) Science students suffered with higher level of stress compared to the Arts and Commerce students. (iii) Academic Stress is significantly influencing the level of the scholastic achievement. Stress is a common problem to male and female students in schools and the way it is managed may reflect in their academic performance (Salami, 2001). A number of studies have found a relationship between stress and poor academic performance (Clark & Rieker,