Types of Stress Experienced by the Youth and Factors Influencing It

Two hundred undergraduate youth (female 110 and male 90) between the age group of 18- 23 yrs were selected from randomly chosen five colleges of Parbhani town of Marathwada region, Maharashtra state. The data were collected by personally interviewing the sample with open ended interview schedule and by administering on them Bisht Battery of Stress Scales (BBSS) and Socio-economic status scale. Irrespective of gender, more than half of the sample youth experienced high levels of academic, institutional, vocational, financial and achievement stress. On the whole, the female youth were found to have experienced more stress as compared to their counterparts male youth. Significant negative correlations were recorded between youth's socio- economic status of the family, types of parenting practices adopted for them, specialization in degree programme, academic achievement, types of family, kind of interpersonal relations with family, disciplinary styles adopted by the parents and interpersonal relations with peers, teachers and neighbours with different types of stress experienced by them. The results advocate that, there is a great need to provide supportive social network of family, peers, lecturers and neighbourers to youth for developing and maintaining good mental health in addition to training to them on relaxation strategies and techniques for combating stress and to empower them to lead quality life.