Anxiety Levels Among Business Majors

Emma Collins, Justina Cvach, Cassidy Stucky, Noah Hammerbeck

SPSS Analysis

William Jones
Background

Many college students begin their college careers without thinking about the

organizations that they could be in or how their organizations and sporting responsibilities will

affect them in the long-run. Some students get overly involved and feel anxious about the

workload. While others become under involved and feel anxious about all of the missed

opportunities and lack of experiences when applying to jobs.

When the semester begins to mature and the workload increases, many students become

discouraged to get jobs or have an increased feeling of anxiety or begin to feel overwhelmed.

According to the article, “20 Surprising Statistics about College Students” written by Lynn

O’Shaughnessy, “Twenty-three percent of full-time undergraduates, who are 24 or younger,

work 20 hours or more a week”. With this being such a low percentage, we wanted to measure if

anxiousness levels had a direct correlation with overall school involvement, jobs, and success.

One item that our survey did not cover was the adjustment period for new or transfer

college student. Although we did not cover this in our survey, this is an accumulated stresser that

could have an effect on the overall student’s success at the University. According to the article,

“Depression, anxiety and academic stress among college students: a brief review” written by

Vijay Bhujade, “College calls for a significant transition, where students experience many firsts,

including new lifestyles, friends, roommates, exposure to new cultures and alternate ways of

thinking. When students can’t manage these firsts, they’re more likely to struggle.” Since this

adds more anxiousness to the student’s feelings, this may be a causation for the students to not

want to participate in campus life or even begin to negatively affect their schoolwork and college

success.

Hypothesis
 Students who are actively involved in campus activities and campus organizations will

have less anxiety and higher involvement and achievement levels versus the students who are not

actively involved in campus activities and campus organizations. Also looking at demographics,

females will tend to have higher anxiety levels the males.

Introduction

Over the course of the last couple of weeks, we have conducted a survey measuring the

anxiety level among business majors. We collected a total of 85 responses from a diverse

population, on a number of different topics. Our research consisted of measuring their levels of

anxiety and their success when asked about various topics within the years that they have

completed and their future college years.

According to “Achieving Student Success Through Student Involvement” student

involvement is highly correlated to a student feeling very achieved during their college

experience. The study was done on over 400 college students attending a four-year college

(Friedlander & MacDougall, Achieving Student Success).

Target Population

The demographics of the survey was broken down by age, gender, credit hours, marital

status and whether or not each individual is holding a job or involved in any organization(s)

while attending college. We than asked questions about anxiety and how it affected the way that

the students choose their class schedule, number of credits they took, and different organizations

they were apart of on campus. We also asked about work involvement and if they were a student

athlete or not.
 Our target population was narrowed down to college students (up to 5th years). We chose

to only select students from The University of South Dakota that are pursuing a business degree

for our research. With a variety of responses available for the answers to the demographic

questions, we then had to move into coding each question.

According to the article, the prevalence and socio-demographic correlations of

depression, anxiety and stress among a group of university students, a study was conducted by

Nuran Bayram and Nazan Bilgel looking into anxiety levels among demographics. The result of

their study was, “Anxiety and stress scores were higher among female students. First- and

second-year students had higher depression, anxiety and stress scores than the others.”. This was

relevant to our study because we also investigated the change in the level of anxiety throughout

different demographics.

To conduct that correlation level between gender (grouping) and our five anxiousness

variables (test variables), we performed an independent samples t-test. The test is as follows:
When looking at the test results breaking down each variable, men tended to have higher anxiety

when it came to the anxiousness variables, “When thinking about my current grades I feel” and

“When thinking about balancing my organizations and school work I feel”. This indicates that

males tend to have higher anxiety when focusing on current school situations rather than future.

Females tended to have higher anxiety in three of the anxiousness categories, “Thinking about

registration for next semester I feel”, When thinking about my career after college I feel”, and

“When thinking about balancing my relationships and school work I feel”.

Coding

In terms of coding, the demographic questions were the only questions that needed

coding. We had to use different codes based on the demographic question asked. All of the

“Yes” and “No” responses we coded Yes=1 and No=2. As for the other questions; Gender:

“Prefer Not to Say” (0), “Female” (1), “Male” (2), Ethnicity: “White” (1), “Black or African

American” (2), “American Indian or Alaskan Native” (3), “Hispanic” (4), “Asian” (5), “Native

Hawaiian or Pacific Islander” (6), Grade Level: “Freshman” (1), “Sophomore” (2), “Junior” (3),
“Senior” (4), “5th Year” (5), Relationship Status: “Single” (1), “In a Relationship” (2),

“Engaged” (3).

Two Variables for Segmentation

We are looking at two different variables for our segments, anxiousness and success.

These two variables will show us a variation of different correlations among college students.

Anxiousness Among College Students

Being a college student and being stressed are two things that many people correlate with

each other. We are going to be testing this theory. When we measured anxiousness among our

target population with a likert scale from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7) on a scale

from one to seven. Our hypothesis was, supported or not supported, by the results from our

cluster analysis via IBM SPSS. We also ran principal component analysis (PCA), within the

principal component analysis we ran different test, including factor analysis, computing

variables, independent samples t- test, and a frequencies analysis. These test look at the

comparison of how students feel when they are registering for classes and how they feel

currently about their grades and how they feel about their careers after college.

When conducting a the principle component analysis we conducted the factor analysis

which resulted in the rotated component matrix between all five of our anxiousness variables.
The results of the rotated component matrix showed us that three out of the five variables

correlated and reliable. Those three anxiousness variables are: “Thinking about registration for

next semester I feel” (Anxious1), “when thinking about my current grades I feel” (Anxious2),

and “When thinking about my career after college I feel” (Anxious3). When computing the

overall median for all eighty-five anxiousness surveys, the median response was 5.0. Finding the

median was then followed by a median split and eventually an independent t-test running the

mean of the three reliable variables (Anioxus_1) as the test variable and the median-split

(MDN_Anxious) as the grouping variable then defined as group one and two.

In the table, it shows that the Levene’s test statistic is 22.740 while the significance level is 0.

We then would assume that there are equal variances and report the test statistic as -11.099.

Success Among College Students

Success among college students can be valued differently by each student. The more classes you

take and the more you are involved in organizations you are putting your drive to be successful

ahead of many things. Having a high involvement in organizations, or holding a position within

an organization, shows your need to be successful. In Tinto and Pusser’s article Practical

Assessment, Research and Evaluation, they say,

“Most students graduating high school choose to attend college to feel successful

and to be successful in the future. However, “Our discussion leaves open, for the

moment, the definition of success other than to imply that without learning there

is no success and, at a minimum, success implies successful learning in the

classroom”” (Tinto & Pusser, 2006, p.8).

Looking at what Tinto and Pusser say in this article shows that there is a drive for college

students to be successful after their college career, so what do they do during their time at college

for them to put themselves ahead of others in the same field as them. We ran the same test as we

used for finding anxiousness in college students, we ran a principal component analysis and also

a chi-square test to look at the comparison of student involvement and the success they are

having and feeling.

While conducting the principle component analysis we analyzed the two success

variables in the component matrix to look if the statistics were highly correlated and reliable.
The component matrix showed the same component statistic for both success variables (“When

thinking about my years at college I feel successful” and “what is your accumulated college

GPA”), 0.811. Since 0.811 is higher than .6 the variables proved to be reliable.

Involvement & Achievement

Sometimes a student’s involvement on campus has an effect on how they perceive

achievement. If they are not involved in very many things on campus they may feel less

achieved. If the student is involved in many organizations or is working while going to school,

maybe they feel like they are achieving more from their time at college. Furthermore, if a person

is involved in activities outside of a school they may feel overwhelmed and feel like they are

behind in school and in other relationships that they are apart of.

There are a number of different positive benefits that a student athletes gets for being

apart of a team on campus. For instance, in a study done by the NCAA, they found that “most

recent data indicate that more than eight out of ten (82 percent) Division I student-athletes are

earning their degrees. Overall, college student-athletes graduate at rates higher than college

students in general.” (NCAA1). Within this quote we see that athletes are working harder and

doing a lot better in school than they are profiled as doing. They are forced to do well in their
studies to ensure that they are eligible to compete for their teams and for their school. These

athletes are giving the opportunity to work hands on with a tutor to help them with any questions

that they may have.

Not only is it statistically proven that athletes tend to do overall better in college but it

also relates to students that workout daily and are physically fit. In the article, “An Examination

of Motivational Regulations, Dispositional Flow and Social Physique Anxiety Among College

Students for Exercise: A Self-Determination Theory Approach” Gozde Ersoz conducted a study

at Namik Kemal University examining the overall college success with physical activity. In this

study, the author discusses how students perform at a high level while doing physical activity,

versus those who were not physically active and found out that those who were not physically

active their scores were a lot lower. Ersoz study has proved that the higher exercise levels you

have the more internally motivated and determined you are. These two factors directly correlate

with the students level of achievement.

Open Ended Question (GPA)

The open-ended question we chose to do was the students GPA. We thought that a

student’s GPA would reveal how well the students are actually handling their college careers and

how the anxiety levels were based on and would affect the student’s GPA. This can be a touchy

subject with students as they do not want to be perceived as being non-intelligent or not

successful in their schooling. To help decrease responspondent error, displayed on the top of the

survey and survey question pages, we added a note ensuring that all responses were completely

anonymous. We found that typically student’s who had a higher GPA had a higher rating when

measuring their overall feeling of college success. Also, we found that students that were more
involved at school whether it be through sports or through other on campus organizations that

their GPA was generally higher.

There is no one type of anxiety or anxiousness that affects the students grade point

average. Anxiety can be contributed from many different sources and can cause a negative effect

on the students GPA. In the article, “Just Breathe: The Effects of Emotional Dysregulation and

Test Anxiety on GPA”, written by Samantha Hartman, David Wasieleski, and Mark Whatley

from Valdosta State University they ran a study on the correlation between test anxiety and the

students grade point average. This study showed correlation between test anxiety and grade point

average. It showed that students who tend to have a higher test anxiety, have a lower overall

grade point average.

ANOVA SPSS Test

To test the differences or similarity between 3 variables, we used a one-way ANOVA

test. We wanted to see if the school year of the surveyee had any effect on the amount of

organizations that they were a part of as well as if they held an executive position within that

organization. For the dependent list we used the two variables: “How many organizations are

you actively involved in?” (Demo_8) and “If you are involved in an organization, do you hold

any executive positions?” (Demo_9).

The testing statistic for the comparison between school years and the year level that the student

was in is (F) .881 and the significance is .479 which compared to a .05 level is not significant.

Meaning the year of the student is not correlated with the amount of organizations they

participate in. When testing executive positions with the school year that they surveyee was in,

the test statistic was (F) 2.375 and the significance level was .059 while testing at a significance

level of .05. Although the test is technically not significant, it is closer to being significant. This

statistic may change with more survey respondents.

Conclusion

In conclusion, anxiety and success are not directly correlated to a student’s feelings of

achievement. The higher the level of student involvement, the higher the level of student success.

When looking at demographics, females tend to have higher anxious levels overall, specifically

for future variables such as registration for next semester classes and careers after college as well

as balancing relationships with school work. Whereas, males tend to be more anxious when it

comes to current school and education variables such as anxiety towards current grades and

balancing school with other organizations they are currently and actively involved in.
 References

Bayram, N., Bilgel, N. (2008). The Prevalence and Socio-Demographic Correlation of Depression,

Anxiety and Stress Among a Group of University Students. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric

Epidemiology, 43(8), 667-672.

Bhujade, V.M. (2017). Depression, anxiety and academic stress among college students: A brief review.

Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing, 8(7), 748-751.

D. (2014, January 03). Benefits to College Student-Athletes. Retrieved December 08, 2017, from

https://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/benefits-college-student-athletes

Ersoz, Gozde. (2016). An Examination of Motivational Regulations, Dispositional Flow and Social

Physique Anxiety Among College Students for Exercise: A Self-Determination Theory

Approach. College Student Journal,50(2), 159-170.

Friedlander, J., & MacDougall, P. (1992, July 1). Achieving Student Success Through Student

Involvement. Retrieved December 08, 2017, from

http://journal.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0009155219202000104?journalCode=crwa

Hartman,S, Wasieleski, D., Whatley, M. (2017). Just Breathe: The Effects of Emotional Dysregulation

and Test Anxiety on GPA. College Student Journal. 51(1), 142-150.

Tinto, V., Pusser, B. (2006). The Impact of a First Year Development Course on Student Success in a

Community College: An Empirical Investigation. Retrieved December 08, 2017, from

http://www.sciepub.com/reference/55636

York, T., Gibbson, C., Rankin, S. (2015). ASP .NET Web Developer's Guide. Practical Assessment,

Research, and Evaluation, 2(5), 1-20. Doi: 10.1016/b978-1-928994-51-0.x5000-9

20 Surprising Statistics about College Students. (2011, October 12). Retrieved December 08, 2017,

retrieved from http://www.thecollegesolution.com/20-suprising-statistics-about-college-students

Wyland, R., Lester, S. W., Ehrhardt, K., & Standifer, R. (2015, August 13). An Examination of the

Relationship Between the Work–School Interface, Job Satisfaction, and Job Performance.

Retrieved December 10, 2017, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10869-015-9415-8