The Extent of Perceived Stress among Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students of Selected State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) of Northern India

Abstract

The present study was conducted during 2016 in three colleges selected purposely, namely College of Agriculture, College of Home Science and College of Agriculture Engineering of selected four State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) namely Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology (G.B.P.U.A.T)., Pantnagar (Uttarakhand), Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU), Hisar, (Haryana), Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology (MPUAT), Udaipur (Rajasthan) and Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana (Punjab) in India. The objective of the study was to identify the extent of perceived stress among undergraduate and postgraduate students of selected State Agricultural Universities of Northern India. A sample of 540 students was selected through stratified random sampling technique. Thirty undergraduate and 15 postgraduate students were selected randomly from each college to make a total of 360 undergraduate and 180 postgraduate students respectively. A scale was developed to measure the extent of perceived stress. Data were collected through distributed questionnaire technique. The findings of the study revealed that both undergraduate and postgraduate students had perceived stress. Majority of the undergraduate students were falling under low and medium extent of stress while highest percentage of the postgraduate students was falling under low and high extent of stress. There was a significant difference with regard to the perception of stress between undergraduate and post graduate students.Approximately 25% of the undergraduate students were under higher extent of stress while 40% of the postgraduate students had high level of perceived stress thus Postgraduate students were more stressed than undergraduate students.