DefinePK

Abstract

The current research aimed at to examine the impact of psychological stressors on academic achievement among university students in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.  It was a quantitative survey study conducted in five public sector universities of KP. These universities were Hazara, Haripur, Gomal, Abdul Wali Khan and Malakand, which represented the southern KP, central KP and northern KP so that the results of the study could be generalized to the entire province. The respondents of the study comprised of BS students of four departments (Economics, Education, Botany and Zoology) from selected universities. Data has been taken from (n=400) bs university students, 80 respondents from each university and 20 respondents from each department were randomly selected. An adopted questionnaire (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) DASS 21 (depression, anxiety and stress), was used for data collection. A Multi stage random Probability sampling technique was used to select the sample. Causal predictive research design was adopted to achieve the objective. For the achievement of present research objective, data was composed by using an updated questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS. The following statistical methods were used: Chi square, frequency test, Pearson correlation test, multi regression analysis, independent sample t-test, linear regression analysis, scatter plots, normal curve figure and descriptive statistical analysis were used for analysis of data.  Findings of the study revealed that majority of the students had moderate level of stress, anxiety and depression. Only 23 students 5.75% GPA remained in the range of 1.50 to 2.50 which is regarded as low academic achievement level. Similarly, 66 students 16.50% GPA remained in the range of 2.51 to 2.9 which is regarded as average level, while 311 students GPA   remained in the range of 3.00 to 4.00 which is high academic achievement level among university students.   The findings revealed that there was significant positive correlation between independent variables of depression, anxiety, stress, total Dass tool and academic achievement. In regression analysis the findings indicated that there was no statistically significant relationship between independent variables of total Dass tool and dependent variable of GPA. The study paves way for further investigation in the field in Pakistan.