First things first, we all know that student life is tough and stressful, whether it’s for males or females. What does one actually mean by academic stress? It can be defined as emotional, mental or physical strain that students may experience.
Both male and female students may undergo academic stress, but the gender roles that society has developed for them may affect how they both deal with this stress. Gender roles are deep-rooted because they are learned through family and society in which an individual has been brought up.
Male and female students both have a different way of reacting to the academic pressure and stress. Male students don’t work in groups as much as female students, which reflects how our society discourages male students from asking for help and makes it normal for females to seek social support.
Psychological Perspective
Psychology has consistently proved that female students fall under academic stress more than male students, even after all the social support. It’s because the mind of both groups work and reacts differently. Men have left hemisphere dominant in their brain, where reside the logic and language; whereas women have right hemisphere dominant in their brain, where reside the emotional intelligence and creativity.
Now, the psychological factors that are known to affect females are:
- Their higher emotional sensitivity. Women are found to internalize stress more deeply, making themselves prone to anxiety and self-doubt.
- Their coping techniques. The majority of women are found to have an emotion-focused coping style. While it is known to be a therapeutic technique in some cases, it can produce negative consequences when a person focuses on negative emotions or self-criticism. This can lead toward more distress in overall well-being.
- Their empathetic and responsible trait. Women may often take emotional responsibility for group work, fulfilling expectations of parents and teachers, which can lead to overwhelming pressure.
Meanwhile, in men, psychological studies show a higher level of disengagement and self-distraction during stressful episodes:
- Men don’t internalize stress as deeply as women, even when they do internalize it, they do not experience self-doubt. They use avoidance-based coping strategies, such as smoking or procrastinating.
- Men are found to have a problem-focused coping style. They don’t think about their stress emotionally, they target the main problem and try to solve it.
- Most male students are found to react with externalizing behaviours, like rebellion and recklessness. They act logically and don’t prefer to take extra pressure. Instead of seeking groups, they would rather approach Assignment Writing Services UK.
Social Perspective
Gender roles vary across cultures and histories. They are learned through the standards set for both genders by families and societies. They can often shape the personality traits in males and females both. Society is the main culprit that has made it a feminine trait to seek social support, due to which many male students are dependent on themselves and online exam help.
The personality and thinking that society has internalized within male students may lead them toward emotional suppression, avoidance issues, and unhealthy coping methods:
- The stereotype to “tough it out” discourages male students from sharing about their fear of failure or academic stress to their peers, since talking about feelings is not “masculine” enough
- In some cultures, or struggling families, men are supposed to be high achievers or someone who’d bring bright days to the family. This can bring further unnecessary pressure to fulfil the high expectations of the family.
- Since male students aren’t supposed to share their stress, they in turn, move toward an avoidance-coping mechanism, which can be momentarily stress-free but is risky in the long run.
It’s already hard for female students to deal with academic stress according to psychology. But society isn’t easy on female students as well:
- Girls are supposed to be “good”, polite, and diligent. This can create an unconscious need to be perfect and fulfil all the expectations, leading to further pressure in academics.
- In many cultures, girls are supposed to be responsible academically, socially, and domestically, which can add up to their chores, which may interfere with their studies.
- Girls ought to feel more self-conscious when it comes to being judged by others. They already feel judged on their looks and appearances, which makes them try to cope with striving in studies. They may develop a perfectionist trait, leading them to approach services like Dissertation Writing Services UK to perfectly draft their dissertation and assignments.
Philosophical Perspective
Disregarding gender roles in any field is foolish. Especially in handling stress because the male and female mind work differently in stress, not because of psychology and society only, but because even their motivations are different from each other.
The basic motivations that can lead male students to work through their academic stress are:
- The masculine need to provide and take responsibility for family. Even if academic stress makes them want to avoid the problem initially, they might find a breakthrough from their procrastination, and instead of paying other services to ask do my assignment, they avoid the risks and do it themselves.
- Male mindset is more goal-oriented. Since their mind uses more of a problem-solving coping method, they deal with their academic stress by studying hard, making schedules, and improving time management instead of dealing with stress emotionally.
Whereas the factors that may motivate female students to deal with their stress are totally different:
- For female students, their education is a way to achieve a piece of independence for themselves. The motivation to build themselves a career may lead to a breakthrough from stress in female students.
- Female students feel this constant need to prove themselves in society. That competitive nature makes them create goals for themselves, due to which they may face further academic stress.
Final Thoughts:
Academic stress is real, there is no argument about it. But the way it is dealt with is the main point. Gender roles are standard ideas that young boys and girls pick up and internalize them in their personalities. Social and psychological perspectives aren’t the only things that affect students in handling their stress. There are other factors present as well.
However, student life and its hardships require both problem-solving based coping mechanisms and emotion-focused based coping techniques. Both male and female students can use both methods if they are comfortable fighting with the gender-biased norms and roles of society.