Abstract:
Over the last two decades, the number of higher education students in Ghanaian universities
has steadily increased. The rapid changes in the lives of fresh university students, some of
which are adolescents and particular challenges associated with education at this level may
expose them to stress. There is however limited information on stress perceived by fresh
undergraduate students in Ghanaian universities. The aim of this study was to therefore
investigate stress levels of fresh undergraduate students at the University of Cape Coast,
Ghana. The case study design was adopted and information was on perceived stress levels
among newly admitted educational psychology students and the extent to which these could
be linked to such background characteristics as age, gender and work experience or time
spent awaiting university admission after graduation from high school. The Perceived Stress
Scale (PSS) was administered on 398 respondents and data were analysed with the
frequency distribution and t-Test statistics. Findings indicated that 70% of the students had
moderate level of perceived stress whilst 3.5% demonstrated high level of stress. Results
also indicated that female fresh undergraduates had significantly higher perceived stress
levels than their male counterparts. There was a significant difference between the mean
perceived stress of fresh undergraduate students admitted within two years of their
graduation from senior high school and those who waited longer before they were admitted.
Employment statuses before admission and age have no significant influence on perceived
stress levels. Implications of the findings for future research, lecturers, school administrators,
counsellors and health workers were discussed and recommendations were made.
