January 13, 2011
Dept of Social Work, Coimbatore
In the pre-industrial era, young adults were not subject to levels of stress that are seen in today’s intense times. Simply reflecting over an impending job interview can bring on anxiety, affecting performance during the actual interview.
To help students understand this phenomenon, Madhusudanan S, a first year student himself, of the Masters in Social Work program at the Coimbatore campus, selected this topic for a research paper.
Titled, A Study on Anxiety of College Students Appearing for Campus Placements, the paper was recently presented at a seminar on Health Issues of Youth in India: Problems and Prospects in Trichy.
Amrita’s Madhusudanan was one of eighty participants in the seminar, who together presented thirty-four papers.
One goal of Madhusudanan’s study was to determine the relationship between anxiety levels and demographic characteristics with respect to on-campus placements.
Based on data collected from students in graduate programs (M.C.A & M.Tech.) and undergraduate programs (B.Tech.), Madhusudanan concluded that higher the level of family income, the lesser was the level of anxiety experienced.
The study also found that students whose parents have higher levels of education experienced less anxiety levels.
The study used a ‘research descriptive’ approach, wherein it is attempted to describe the characteristics of a group of people or community, as accurately as possible.
The findings were clearly delineated with numerous tables and graphs included in the paper.
Making recommendations for relieving anxiety, Madhusudanan emphasized placement preparation using role plays, classes for enhancement of communication and creativity skills, soft-skill development, mock interviews and professional counselling, many of which are already offered to students at Amrita.
Madhusudanan’s paper was co-authored by his mentor, Dr. C. S. Sowndaram, Professional Counsellor at the campus. “The support and guidance given by Dr. Sowndaram helped me immensely,” stated the student.
Future plans include providing intervention to reduce anxiety levels. Perhaps meditation and yoga will be emphasized; all students on this campus have mandatory exposure to IAM meditation and yoga training.
We hope that the study and any future interventions that are designed come to serve as a compass for all institutions of higher education to emulate, so that student success rates can rise and anxiety levels can drop.