Effect of structured physical education on academic stress of undergraduate students

Abstract

The study examined the effect of a Structured Physical Education Programme (SPEP) on academic stress of undergraduate students of Kerala. The investigation further explored the differential influence of gender and age on the effectiveness of SPEP in reducing academic stress of the participants. The quasi-experimental study adopted the pretest-posttest control group design where undergraduate students (n = 92) of all the three years of study from two colleges were the participants. Students from one college were randomly designated as waitlist control group while students from the other college were taken as treatment group. The treatment group was exposed to 36 sessions of 40 minutes long SPEP intervention. Pre-intervention and post-intervention measure of academic stress was done, and the data were analysed to test the hypotheses. The results showed that SPEP is effective in reducing academic stress of undergraduate students. Gender exerts a significant differential influence on the efficacy of SPEP in alleviating academic stress, the intervention being more effective for female students. Age of the students is a significant factor that discriminate undergraduate students based on the effectiveness in SPEP in relieving academic stress.