Abstract

Stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension that individuals experience when they are challenged to respond to a demand. As stated by Alvord(n.d), "A little stress and in moderation can be helpful to high school students in so many ways. It motivates them to study and to do better. It helps push them. But too much stress has many effects on the body and mind". Focusing on academic stress, the researchers are aiming to understand the scholarly context and the situations in which the students, particularly in Holy Family Academy, live. The Junior High School students from this private school institution experience an increased class difficulty and extracurricular activities in addition to other tasks given by the teachers. On the other hand, Senior High School students have subjects patterned based on one's strand with the addition of research subjects every student has to take. The components mentioned influences students' stress because of their inability to perform all of these demands. The purpose of the study is to determine the difference in stress levels between Junior High School and Senior High School Students. Specifically, the researchers aim to discover the stress levels, the factor affecting stress, and the coping strategies of the students. Any students from the Junior High School and Senior High School can become a respondent in this study for all are susceptible to experiencing stress. The researchers made use of phenomenological analysis and design for the study. The phenomenon that the researchers aim to find a deeper understanding of is stress. In this study, the researchers are focusing on the reaction or experience of the students of Junior High School and Senior High School on the stress that they encounter academically. Through the use of an interview questionnaire, the researchers found out that many of the Senior High School students experience long-term stress indicating that many among them are experiencing episodic acute stress compared to the Junior High School students. The researchers also discovered that listening to music was the most used coping strategy of the students. As a result, the stress level of the Senior High School students is higher than the stress level of the Junior High School students in Holy Family Academy.