The author also found a significant direct effect of introspectiveness on perceived health status. In other words, the more one focuses on a problem, the more it affects one's health- (Goldman and Wong 604).
Loeb and Magee (1992) reported that college students experience the most stress during the first two years of school, which is partly due to the change in environment and the new role they have adopted "that of being a college student. "The authors found self esteem declined in the first year, then recovered during the second year. The aspects of self that recovered by late in the second year included: self esteem, self confidence-importance, seeing oneself as not being average, being energetic, being reliable, and viewing oneself as intelligent. The aspects that did not rebound were those of interpersonal relations, being friendly and trusting- (Goldman and Wong 604). This study shows that while the characteristics associated with education recover, personal perceptions may not, and therefore, stress continues to be a factor in performance.
Because of the importance of self-perception in the stressor relationship, perceptions of stress have been the subject of a number of studies on college students. "Garg (1992) found past academic performance to be a predictor of subsequent self perceptions. That is, perceptions of scholastic competence may affect the individuals self perceptions. Additionally, nonacademic perceptions (e.g., physical ability, physical appearance, relations with same or opposite gender, and general self concept) were found to be influenced by the family, social satisfaction, mental stress associated with recent life-change experiences, and health factors- (Goldman and Wong 605). The participants in Garg's study who demonstrated low self concepts were likely to have mental health problems (Goldman and Wong 605).
In one study, the stresses of college life outside of the classroom were linked to the same indicators of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PSD).
