Presented in International Seminar on Global Education II, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, 24-25 February 2014 ACADEMIC STRESS ON COLLEGE STUDENTS: THE ROLE OF SELF-ESTEEM AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING Wahyu Rahardjo Faculty of Psychology, Gunadarma University Jl. Margonda Raya No. 100, Depok, 16424, West Java, Indonesia Abstract Academic stress is psychological condition often experienced by college students as, to some extent, being multidimensional variables. Among others are self-esteem and psychological well-being which are considered to have influences in explaining why college students experience academic stress. This study aims at identifying the influences of self-esteem and psychological well-being towards academic stress on college students. Participants of this study are 153 students of Gunadarma University in Jakarta. Results of the study seem to indicate that self-esteem and psychological well- being have influences towards academic stress on the students. Results are indicated by reconstructed model of study which corresponded to data. Also, results explain that self-esteem has direct and indirect influences towards academic stress through psychological well-being. The results also indicate that male students tend to have higher self-esteem, higher psychological well-being and even higher academic stress than female students. In addition, academic stress also correlates negatively with students’ academic achievements. Keywords: Academic stress, Self-esteem, Psychological well-being, College students INTRODUCTION Academic stress is commonly experienced by college students. There are many stressors within academic life such as academic demands and achievements from parents, personal inclination for academic self-actualization, amount of assignments, conflicts with classmate(s), final writing assignment (thesis), and so on. Since not all students have the ability to cope with the above-mentioned stressors, consequently they experience academic stress. There are numerous factors influencing academic stress on college students. One of them is self-esteem. Students with positive self-esteem are considered capable of coping with many academic stressors. When students are capable of handling academic problems, then they tend to be at low level of academic stress. Erturgut’s and Erturgut’s study (2010) supported this statement by arguing that self-esteem relates to students’ academic stress. Students with higher self-esteem are at lower level of academic stress. Psychological well-being is also a factor that influences academic stress on college students. When one, psychologically, is in state of well-being then s/he will not be thinking too