Academic Stress among High School Students in a Rural Area of Nepal: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: The period of adolescence undergoes many physical and mental changes. Changing emotional and physical status along with increasing social, family, and academic pressure lead to various impairments in the mental health of adolescents. Academic failure leads to the suicide rate in adolescents, predominantly high during the declaration of exam results which is significantly high in a rural area in comparison with urban. The study examined the prevalence of academic stress among high school students in a rural area of Rolpa, Nepal. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 6 schools in Rolpa from July to October 2019. The sample size calculated was 521. A convenient sampling technique was used for this study. The target population was adolescents enrolled in high schools of Rolpa. Ethical approval was taken before data collection. The scale for assessing academic stress was used to find out the prevalence. A questionnaire was translated in local language and pre-testing was done in Nepal Police School, Sanga among 10% of the calculated sample size. Data entry was done in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 18. Descriptive statistical analysis was done for prevalence calculation. A RESULTS: Out of a total of 521 students, the prevalence of academic stress was seen among 138 (26.5%) students at a 95% confidence interval (22.72-30.28). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of academic stress in our study was high and was consistent with other South Asian studies. Understanding academic stress and providing help and support to the students would help ease the burden for them.