50 International Journal of Multidisciplinary Education and Research ISSN: 2455-4588 Impact Factor: RJIF 5.12 www.educationjournal.in Volume 2; Issue 5; September 2017; Page No. 50-56 Academic stress symptoms in students of higher education and the relation with variable sex * Arturo Barraza Macías, Gonzalo Arreola Medina Área de Investigación y Posgrado de la, Universidad Pedagógica de Durango, Mexico Abstract The objectives of this research are: to establish the descriptive profile of the presence of the symptoms of academic stress in high school students, and to determine the relation between the symptoms of stress and the variable sex in the students of upper secondary education. To achieve these objectives, a correlational, transectional and non-experimental study was carried out through the application of the Stress Symptom Inventory, Version Two (SSI-VD) to a sample of 223 students of Escuela Preparatoria Diurna of Universidad Juarez del Estado de Durango. The results indicate that the most frequent symptoms are: "Excessive concern", "Hard to concentrate" and "Restlessness and nervousness". While those that occur less frequently are: "Heart palpitations", "Difficulty to swallow or breath," "Smoking a lot," and "Nervous tics"; on the other hand the correlation analysis indicates that the variable, sex influences in the symptoms of stress, being the women that present them with a greater frequency. Keywords: symptoms, stress and sex 1. Introduction In 2007, Barraza [4] develops a state of the art on academic stress, where he emphasizes that sex is one of the most studied sociodemographic variables in relation to academic stress; however, he underlines that the reported results are basically contradictory. Some studies support the non-difference between sexes in relation to academic stress, while others affirm that females present higher levels of academic stress. Through the literature review for this investigation, in search of the background, three different situations can be identified in this respect: 1. Some authors still maintain that it is women who present a higher level of stress (De Mesquita, Aline, Dos Santos & Amaral, 2014; Ghazanfar, et al. 2016; Hamza, Abdulaziz, Ebrahim, Gominda & Eiad, 2011; Lizardo, Ferreira, De Souza, Barros & De Oliveira, 2013; Machado, Da Silva & De Souza, 2011; Martín, Trujillo & Moreno, 2013; Patkar, Patkar & Patil, 2016; Sambasiva & Kumar, 2016) [11, 14, 16, 21, 22, 24, 33, 34] . 2. Other authors mention that sex does not effect on academic stress, that is, it is presented similarly in both sexes (Allen & Smith, 2012; Andrade, Vasconcelos, Nakagaki, Borges, Pereira & Rogatto, 2013; Nieves, Otero, Mabiala, Malonda & Guimbi, 2014; Viana, Andrade, Back & Vasconcellos, 2010) [1, 2, 28, 40] . 3. While others affirm the prevalence in either sex, depending on certain conditions: a) Garcia, Pérez and Fuentes (2015) [13] recognize the presence of higher levels of stress in women, exclusively on their way of joining or beginning their university studies; Oliveira, Carvalho, Almeida and Figueredo (2015) [30] argue that women who have a job and study are more stressed than those who only study; Nieves, et al. (2014) [28] report that in the moderate level of stress, the greater number of subjects are women; Marín, Álvarez, Lizalde, Anguiano and Lemus (2014) [23] state that academic stress occurs more frequently in female students, in the last period of the career and during clinical practices, b) Oliveira, et al. (2015) [30] conclude that men who only study are more stressed than those who have had a job and also study; Machado, et al. (2011) [22] found differences in the comparison between women and men with the interpersonal factor (that is related to the interaction of social background, friends, family and affective relationships), men are the ones who present greater stress at this point; Nieves, et al. (2014) [28] establish that at the mild and deep levels of stress, male students are predominat. As it can be observed, the contradictions, in the show results, about the relation between academic stress and variable sex are maintained. The explanation for this variability can be attributed to multiple hypotheses that would deal with contextual aspects (i.e. type of institution or career), to how to measure variables (i.e. symptom inventory or stressor scale). In the present research, the way of conceptualizing stress is considered as the central element of this variability; in this regard, we must remember that in the last decades, stress studies have been discussed under the following perspectives (in terms of Travers & Cooper, 1997) [37] , alternative approaches (in terms of Kyriacou, 2003) [17] or conceptions (in terms of Trianes, 2002) [38] : 1. Stress as a dependent variable. In this perspective, researchers have focused their attention on the physiological and psychological reactions of the individual towards unpleasant backgrounds (symptoms). 2. Stress as an independent variable. From this perspective, the studies have focused on the background characteristics that affect the subject in a disruptive way, causing changes in him (stressors). 3. Stress as an intervening variable. This perspective, of an