Abstract:
People and students alike often suffer a great deal of stress as a result of day to day life
happenings and commitments like work place requirements, uncertainty of career choices
and future prospects, family commitments, fear of academic failure among other factors.
It is difficult to gauge stress because different people respond differently to different
situations under different circumstances. It was against this background that the present
study was envisaged. The study was to assess the level of stress among Moi University
students. The study was conducted at Moi University, Eldoret. A casual comparative
research design was adopted and the study was based on Selye's theory on stress. The
sample constituted students from School of Education that were sampled through
stratified and simple random sampling techniques. Data was collected using a
questionnaire that was administered to 100 postgraduate and 100 undergraduate students.
The data collected was coded and analysed using both descriptive and inferential
statistics. Descriptive statistics included mean scores and standard deviations while
inferential included t-test, Pearson Product moment correlation and Analysis of Variance.
The analysis was done at .05 level of significance. The findings revealed that the level of
stress among Moi University student is the same regardless with the level of education. It
was also revealed that gender affects the level of stress among students. However, the
present study indicated that marital status does not influence the level of stress among
the students. Also there is no statistical relationship between age and level of stress
among the students. Lack of money for fees and upkeep was the major factor causing
stress. To cope up with this stressor, students go for loans from financial institutions. The
findings were to assist in setting up functional social support mechanism to handle stress
amonguniversity students.