Does Having a Reading Week Affect Student Stress Levels?

COPE: VP Education
Nov 6 · 4 min read

Written by: Arnav Kaul

In the spirit of reading week, I thought it would be fitting to review some relevant research conducted by Dr. Ayesha Khan, a member of both the School of Interdisciplinary Science and the Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour program at McMaster University. She received her Ph.D. for behavioural neuroendocrinology while studying a multifactor model of sexual development in females.(5) Some of her current research highlights the impact of community engagement in education for undergraduate students.(5)

A paper co-authored by Dr. Khan in 2017 assessed whether having a fall break affected stress levels in first-year male engineering students. The paper cited a 2016 release by the American College Health Association which outlines statistics demonstrating that post-secondary students are a population with a high susceptibility to mental health concerns, and have shown high rates of anxiety, hopelessness and exhaustion.(2) The authors state that stress has shown to be a strong indicator of poor mental health in recent literature.(3) Moreover, as posed in the paper by Dr. Khan and her team, the studies at the time analyzing the efficacy of a Fall break on students were few in number, establishing a need for more information.

The study established levels of two known stress hormones — salivary cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) — as indicators of stress, and thereby mental health This is based on an already literature-established negative correlation between stress levels and overall mental health,(3) as the authors mention. Hormone concentrations were assessed in participant saliva on equally high stress days before and after the Fall break to determine significant differences. This eliminated bias from more subjective methods of measurement such as self-reported stress ratings. 60 male first-year engineering students from two universities were recruited for the study, one with and one without a Fall break. Holding the engineering program constant helped mitigate course load differences, and selecting male students accounted for variation in hormone levels due to menstrual cycles.

No significant difference in cortisol and DHEA levels between the two groups was found for the pre-break sample. After the break, for all students, it was found that there was an increase in both stress hormone levels. The cortisol to DHEA ratio, which the writers emphasize literature has demonstrated to be a strong indicator of stress,(4) increased to a higher degree for the no-break group, emphasizing poorer overall mental health. A high range of between-subject hormone levels was found for both groups. While not statistically significant, these results exhibit some correlation between having a Fall break and lower stress levels.

Dr. Khan and her team outlined a few sources of bias that could be accounted for in the future. Firstly, ensuring course loads are as similar as possible is an important extraneous variable that could be better accounted for by involving instructors or academic advisors. In addition, due to the additional stress that grades as well as test-taking imposes, establishing a test ban may be a viable method of control. Finally, they admitted the sample size was quite low, and the low compliance rate from the 60 student sample was a factor in obtaining high variance in hormone level data. To account for this wide range of data and increase study significance, Dr. Khan and her team recognized the need for a larger sample. Another possible future direction not mentioned in the paper could be to select participants with relatively similar grades, which might further eliminate differences in the sample pool. An interesting further topic of study might be to compare self-reported ratings of stress to salivary stress hormone levels to better understand stress perception in post-secondary students.

Though the idea that instituting a Fall break leads to decreased levels of stress in students did not achieve statistical significance in this study, it is important to note that some correlation was established. With that said, I plan on taking some time to unwind over Reading Week, and hopefully that reduces my stress levels over the rest of Fall term.

Dr. Khan’s paper can be found at the link below:

https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/cjsotl_rcacea/article/view/7046/5760

If you or someone you know is in need of counseling, please connect to the appropriate resources whenever possible. Some services in the McMaster/Hamilton area can be found at the link below, but there are many others available.

https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/9f7209_a77a3abed2fe4fe39d9b98e18936e694.pdf

References:

  1. Khan, A., Poole, H., & Beaton, E. A. (2018). Measuring the impact of a weeklong fall break on stress physiology in first year engineering students. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 9(2), 9.
  2. American College Health Association. (2016). ACHA — National College Health Assessment II: Canadian reference group executive summary. Retrieved from https://www.acha.org/documents/ncha/NCHA-II%20SPRING%202016%20CANADIAN%20REFERENCE%20GROUP%20EXECUTIVE%20SUMMARY.pdf
  3. Backović, D. V., Ilić Živojinović, J., Maksimović, J., & Maksimović, M. (2012). Gender differences in academic stress and burnout among medical students in final years of education. Psychiatria Danubina. 24(2), 175–181.
  4. Markopoulou, K., Papadopoulos, A., Juruena, M. F., Poon, L., Pariante, C. M., & Cleare, A. J. (2009). The ratio of cortisol/DHEA in treatment resistant depression. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 34(1), 19–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2008.08.004
  5. Ayesha Khan — School of Interdisciplinary Science | McMaster University [Internet]. Science.mcmaster.ca. 2019 [cited 15 October 2019]. Available from: https://science.mcmaster.ca/sis/component/comprofiler/userprofile/akhan.html?Itemid=351

COPE: Translating Mental Health Research

The COPE Knowledge Translation committee consists of a group of students working to “translate” information from scientific journals to the general public in a medium that is more easily understood.

COPE: VP Education

Written by

COPE: Translating Mental Health Research

The COPE Knowledge Translation committee consists of a group of students working to “translate” information from scientific journals to the general public in a medium that is more easily understood.

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