Stress is the way in which the body responds to either real or imagined threat. During this modern era, everyone wants the best for themselves, which leads to stiff competition since there are limited resources. In this paper, the behaviour and activities of both the college students and working adults are studied. The young adults in college, although assured of a certificate at the end of their course, are pessimistic of being unable to find a job in the future. Due to this, they are discouraged, and their stress levels increase hence affecting their present performance in school. The working adults on the other end are so much preoccupied with the daily struggles in life, and they try so hard to meet what their families and society expect of them.
In the beginning years, college students are assured of getting a job by the sweet stories they get from the government. The only problems they face at this stage arise from the academic work they are supposed to do and their relationships with their peers- too trivial. To the employed workers, these challenges occupy greater parts of their minds which results to feelings of discouragement and eventually stress. When appropriate measures are not employed to manage the stress, the working person may be affected psychologically. They develop feelings of resentment toward the employer and to themselves too, withdrawal from society and in extreme cases, it may lead to suicidal feelings.
The expectations of good progress and excellent results from both the college students and working adults have been proven to bring about a lot of stress when things do not go as they had expected. The young people in college, as it is required, have to read smart and hard to pass their exams. However, this is not always the case since bad luck happens. For example, when students fail an exam, they are very much disturbed by how they would face their parents or have to explain to society. This stresses them to the extent that some of them decide to drop out of school. The working adults, on the other hand, are subjected to a lot of pressure from their employers. Some of the hardships they face at workplace include; expectation to complete a task within limited amounts of time, being forced to overwork contrary to the agreement they signed, payment issues and subjection to unhealthy working conditions among other problems. When they are faced with these issues, their productivity reduces making them underperform. Their stress increases making them psychologically impaired. They make rush decisions one of them being quitting the job which is a deadly choice.
Pressure from the family, the government and society affect college students as well as working adults but at different levels. For the students in college, hard work and good behaviour are expected. The society sees this as nurturing them and preparing them how to relate with people in the society while the students view it abuse. They find a hard time meeting these societal expectations and often find themselves “on the wrong side of the town”. The government or elderly people in the family may punish the students a way to correct them. However, the college students claim that their rights and freedoms are being violated and hence are consumed psychologically by the actions of punishment taken against them. Most of the pressures subjected on the adult workers by family and the government are financial. In the family, they are expected to pay the bills provide for the family and their time. To the government, they are supposed to pay taxes. The workers compare the amount of money they earn to the one they give out. Some people find that all their salary is used in paying bills leaving them with nothing to enjoy themselves with. The family and the employer compete for the time of the working persons which they find most difficult to balance. The situation gives the employed person a feeling of being attacked from every side and not being loved. Eventually, they are depressed and their relationships ruined.
Some students in college do courses which they do not like whereby they do see a bright future in it. It may be due to bad decisions or parents' pressure to take a particular line of profession. These students feel like they are wasting time and they spent their entire life in college unhappy and depressed. In the workplace, some people do jobs they do not like. They regret all the time and are always bitter working as though they are being forced. It gives them stress and lives an unhappy life.
It is evident that the major causes of stress are; high expectations and pressure from society to both the students in college and the working adults. They should know that bad luck happens at the time you least expect it. The nation should also consider the responsibilities they put on their people.
References
Ross, S. E., Niebling, B. C., " Heckert, T. M. (1999). Sources of stress among college students. Social psychology, 61(5), 841-846.
Heckman, S., Lim, H., " Montalto, C. (2014). Factors related to financial stress among college students. Journal of Financial Therapy, 5(1), 3.
Baghurst, T., " Kelley, B. C. (2014). An examination of stress in college students over the course of a semester. Health promotion practice, 15(3), 438-447.
