Academic Stress In Relation To Unsaturated Fat Consumption Among Students

This chapter encompasses the discussion on related literature and study which provide significant information about academic stress in relation to unsaturated fat consumption among students. It is included to help in familiarizing information relevant and similar to present studies.

Profile of the Subject in terms of Age

Among the 2376 individuals surveyed in 2003, and 1662 individuals in 2008 the adolescents had the worst diet quality compared with other age groups. With this data, it can be used to promote consumption of specific food groups, such as fruits and vegetables, milk and dairy products. It can also raise awareness of the need for publications promoting better lifestyle habits. According to Kim, So Young et al. if there is regular consumption of breakfast and frequent intake of fruits, vegetables and milk among adolescents it can contribute to high levels of school performance. But the consumption of soft drink, instant noodle, fast-food intake and eating confections more than or equal to 7 times a week will have a negative effect on school performance.

Profile of the Subject in terms of Gender

There was no main effect of gender or task, and no significant interaction between gender and task. It was hypothesized that females would express more stress than males. The result of the experiment was insignificant leading to a conclusion that there is no difference between stress levels and genders of both male and female.

According to a journal from the International Journal of Applied Research it was evident that female adolescents are found to be under more academic stress than male adolescents that may be due to the fact that females are sensitive and sincere by nature than the male adolescents. It was also found out that when the level of academic stress is reduced it contributes to the increase of mental well-being among adolescents.

Profile of the Subject in terms of Course

Result shows that there are five over all stressors among the respondents which are the following: academic difficulty of subject matter, workload due to subjects, time management because of subjects, responsibilities due to being one’s own and time management because of both subjects and organizations. In general, regardless of academic classification among the respondents it pointed out those academics, workload due to subjects, and time management were the main stressors which they responded with an affective stress response.

Profile of the Subject in terms of Religion

According to Ansari, S. et al. religiosity and spirituality (R/S) is vital in many people’s lives but the longitudinal study showed that there is no relationship between R/S and health outcomes. Through additional research the role of R/S on adoption of healthy behavior must be delineated due to longitudinal designs, embedded faith messages, and reliable measurement tools. Knowledge gained from this must be employed to further understand the contexts of R/S which are influential in shaping one’s health behavior that may narrow the gaps of health disparities.

This study shows that religious organization (RO) members with higher extrinsic (socially motivated) religious orientation reported more low-fat dietary habits. Previous studies also showed that people look to ROs for social support that provided interactions with credible sources of health-related information and encouragement. Higher intrinsic religious orientation did not provide healthier diets which may suggest that individuals were less familiar with religious teachings regarding of taking care of one’s health and body.

Socioeconomic factors ‒‒ Food allowance

Factors that influence to the students’ food choice are food product prices and individual budget. When eating outdoors, they tend to spend more money. Students believed that unhealthier foods in e.g. fast food restaurants are less expensive than preparing a healthy meal at home. In contrast, others believed that this is not always true and that preparing or eating healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables maybe cheaper than others (e.g. certain cookies). Students also mentioned that when living in a student residence, one becomes more self-dependent which also implies that price and budget become more and more important. Basically, the results revealed that living in a student residence (and receiving a weekly based allowance) shows that you have to buy and prepare your own foods that’s why these students automatically start to pay attention to product prices. Thus, a stronger relationship between food prices and eating behavior might be observed when students live away from their home in comparison to those living with their parents. In addition, students have to make these healthful food choices within a university specific setting (e.g. living in a student residence, having exams), depending on the availability and accessibility, appeal and prices of food products. Moreover, during this choice making process, students are either controlled or lacking control by their parents as well as influenced by friends and peers. According to the study of Stollak, M., Vandenberg, A., Steiner, K., Richards, J. (2010), that examined whether there were significant differences between males and females on whether they had a monthly budget for expenses, there was a significant difference in monthly budgeting of the students based on class standing.

It was found out that Seniors were most likely to have a budget, followed by juniors, sophomores, and freshman, in respective order. Correspondingly, a significant difference was revealed in eating out based on class standing. Seniors and sophomores were most likely to eat out than eating in the canteen. Spending habits were then examined by first looking at how students used their meal budget. First, a substantial change was found in the use of meal budget. To illustrate, juniors and seniors often move away from residence halls to provide for themselves, it is not surprising that they were much less likely to have meal budget than sophomores and freshman. Second, there was a significant difference in the amount of meal budget placed in student accounts. Seniors had the most budget, followed by juniors, sophomores, and freshman, respectively. This could be due to simple experience over the years regarding how much they might really need to spend on meals over a semester. Finally, there’s no significant difference found on spending all their meal budget or the time when meal budget ran out. As they matured, students tend to became better budgeters and planners.

Demographic Factors ‒‒ Food diary (one week), Food record and FFQ

Most of the identified records were three or seven day records, with one exception, the Zinc Effects on Nutrient/nutrient Interactions and Trends in Health and Aging (ZENITH) study. This study used a four recall day method, over two weekday and two weekend days. All records were self-administered. Food-frequency questionnaires (FFQ) have become an increasingly popular method of assessing diet in epidemiological studies since their introduction in the 1950s, as they are a relatively inexpensive tool of assessment and tend to be more accessible than other dietary assessment methods such as weighed records. This FFQ assessed intake over a typical week during the previous month. Almost all FFQs were paper-based and self-administered. All were semi-quantitative, and assessed portion size either through specifying a standard portion size on the FFQ for the food item in question.

Demographic Factors ‒‒ Eating preference

In females, perceived stress was associated with more frequent consumption of sweets/fast foods and less frequent consumption of fruits/vegetables. Additionally, depressive symptoms were associated with less frequent consumption of fruits/vegetables and meat. The initial Transition from home to the university environment is the first major stressor that can lead to the development on an eating disorder for some individuals; so they could lead to unhealthy eating among them. Researchers found that all forms of stress, with the exception of physical stress, which had an inverse relationship, were associated with reported increases in snacking behaviors and decrease in main meal consumption.

Demographic Factors ‒‒ Eating pattern

The eating pattern of 3 times per day without skipping meals, especially breakfast, and frequent intakes of fresh fruits, vegetables, and milk were related to good school performance. However, consuming several processed foods such as soft drinks, instant noodles, fast foods, and eating confections more than 7 times a week showed correlations with poor school performance.

Demographic Factors ‒‒ Interval between meals

Commonly consumed food item which has high fat content Behavioral intention can be predicted from a person's attitude towards the behavior. Principal component analysis for beliefs revealed factors related to pleasantness/benefit aspects, to health and weight concern and to the functionality of the foods. Cheese, chocolate and ice cream were highly liked by the subjects. Results showed that the vast majority of the subjects eat fast food. Beef or chicken burgers were the main kinds of fast food meals usually eaten by the sample subjects, followed by pizza and French fries. Adolescent girls and of young adult girls consumed fast food twice or more weekly.

Factors that contribute to Academic Stress

The level of stress seems to increase from preadolescence to adolescence. According to Byrne et al., stress plays an important role in shaping adolescent health and well-being. To determine the factors that contribute to the stress of adolescents, Darviri et al., provide a modified ASQ consisting of 58-item question reflecting the 10-stress dimensions having the stress of home life as the most significant stressor of adolescents followed by school performance, teacher Interaction and school/leisure conflict.

Overloaded curriculum in a small amount of time, taking and studying for exams and competition among classmates are the greatest source of academic stress that was reported by the student. Another stressors includes too many assignments, poor relationship with lecturers and failures in subjects. School requirements, time pressures and bad relationship with faculty and the demand to have good grades and to receive a degree and to graduate on time also leads students to be academically stress.