Factors causing stress to in-campus indian maritime students

Abstract

Stress is a serious type of condition that needs an immediate attention in order to prevent its negative effects in the academic life of the students. The objective of this study is to identify the factors which cause academic stress amongst Indian in-campus maritime students. Extensive literature review indicates that this apparently is the first focused study of Indian maritime university in-campus students. Data was collected online through structured questionnaire from students of Mumbai and Chennai campuses of Indian Maritime University. A total of 208 responses were received which were first analysed employing Exploratory Factor Analysis(EFA) using jamovi 2.3.13. EFA reduced 15 variables to 4 factors which were named Personal, Academic, Family and Fear factors, based on the common features of the variables aligned to each of the factors. The outcome of EFA was then subjected to Confirmatory Factor Analysis(CFA) which confirmed that the model was a good fit with Comparative Fit Index (CFI) value of 0.968, Tucker-Lewis Index(TLI) value of 0.960 and Root mean square error of approximation(RMSEA) value of 0.0434. This study is very significant as these findings would help the maritime institutes to take steps to mitigate the stress of the students. It will also help the students to handle academic stress in a better way, once they know what causes it. In addition, the parents should be made aware about the courses so that they have realistic expectations from their children.