Volume 20 Number 1
May 1981

I. Linda Edgewater

STRESS IS the reaction of the body to the ordinary and extraordinary pressures of daily life (see Note 1). There is no single cause of stress. Rosch comments that "stress may be the spice of life or the kiss of death; the means to express our talents and energies and the pursuit of happiness or the cause of nervous tension, accidents, heart disease, or ulcers. Without stress there would be no life" (see Note 2).

Every day we are all faced with different stressful situations in our lifestyles, employment, health, world crisis, money and many other factors leading to stress. How we react to the stress affects our emotional and physical health. Physical response to stress generally involves "a chemical reaction in the body - increased production to certain hormones, which in turn causes increased heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate, enlarged pupils, a high blood-sugar level and other physical changes" (see Note 3). Emotional response varies according to an individual’s sex, hereditary, cultural and previous experience to stress. Most of our responses are determined behavior learned through the culture in which we live.

Rosch’s statement that "stress may be the spice of life or the kiss of death" is true since we all perceive situations and events differently. One person may perceive a situation or event casually while to another person it may be devastating. Engel comments that the individual’s ability or inability to cope with the situation or event can make a great difference to an individual’s susceptibility to disease. This is quite important since stress has been linked to major diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease, ulcers, diabetes, asthma, arthritis, dental problems, viral diseases and even cancer. With some of these diseases, "stress is directly connected as a causal factor" (see Note 5). Recent evidence of high incidence of suicide of college students also correlates directly with stress.

Because of wide prevalence of stress on people’s emotional and physical health, men like R. Rahe and T. Holmes, J. Meyers, H. Selye, A. Maslow and many other well-known men in the medical field, have focused their attention to the human body’s reaction to stress. Last year there were probably 10,000 articles written on the subject of stress. This interest has encouraged development of a wide variety of stress reduction techniques such as biofeedback, meditation, relaxation response and many other behavior-modification programs (see Note 6).

Studies relating the significance of stressful life-events to disease, the greater possibility of illness to one’s life, and the fact that stress "has surpassed the common cold as the most important health problem in America and that stress-related conditions are responsible for $10 to $20 billion annually in loss of industrial productivity (see Note 7) concludes that further research, especially in the area of stress in relation to university students, is greatly needed.

This brings us to the problems students face when they enter university life. Blaine states that "stress can be particularly acute for students because of their stage of development. It has been found that adolescents are more vulnerable to stress than adults and younger children. Ordinary stresses can be monumental at this stage of development" (see Note 8). Kuethe found that the college student is subjected to a variety of stresses in addition to examinations; these include the general atmosphere of competition, the student’s doubt about his vocational choice, and often his fears of acceptance into medical school or graduate school. The major stress of adjusting to a new environment is especially critical for the many students who are away for the first time (see Note 9). Other pressures such as deciding whether or not to continue school, to change majors, to get married, dating, etc., may also be added.

Several studies have dealt specifically with students and stress. In 1960, Sarason and Palola found that stress detrimentally affects the performance of highly anxious subjects. Along with this, Waterhouse and Child in 1953 concluded in their study that "stress or anxiety will produce a decrease in the quality of on-going performances, to the extent that the stress or anxiety evokes other responses which interfere with that ongoing performance" (see Note 10). Steiniger, Johnson and Kirts (1964) found a positive correlation between cheating on college examinations and the anxiety provoking content of the class environment. These authors implied that cheating was used as a technique to reduce the anxiety produced by the examination situation (see Note 11).

Stress researcher George Soloman suggests that during stress reaction the body’s natural immune system may be hampered in its defensive role so that various micro-organisms which would normally have been destroyed may prove too strong an opponent for the body’s defense. Result is illness (see Note 15). College students seem to be especially vulnerable to this situation. The financial pressures of college, added to the normal clothing, transportation, and socialization costs, lead many to seek employment. So after classes, studying, and socializing they often work instead of sleep (see Note 16).

Selye has written that the possibility of the final outcome of continued excessive stress is death. A study on student suicides during a 20-year period at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst from July 1959 to June 1979 revealed the following: "Findings showed that the rates varied widely between years, with the lowest five-year rate occurring between 1969 and 1973. In general, annual rates per 100,000 were higher for men (7.0) than for women (3.7), for juniors (7.5), graduate students (7.4), and freshmen (5.6) than for seniors (4.9) and sophomores (1.5); for single or divorced students (5.9) compared to married students (4.2), and for the smaller group of foreign students than for white or black students. Over half of the suicides (58%) had a history of prior therapeutic mental health contact, including 37% who had been seen less than one week prior to death. More detailed analysis of suicides that occurred between 1974 and 1979 showed that most suicides with mental health contacts were either depressed or anxious; few were psychotic. Methods of suicide for students were generally violent, involving firearms, hanging, or jumping from tall buildings"(see Note 19). Forbes contends that "whether stress elates or defeats us depends on our perception of the temperament, education, and health as factors which influence our perception of the event" (see Note 20). Most of these factors may all interact to cause the college student to take his life especially when excessive stress is prolonged. As Kraft comments, "Campus efforts to prevent or reduce suicides should focus on prevention and early intervention activities for entering students, juniors and graduate students, further studies are needed that are more prospective and can ferret out factors that may predict high-risk groups for suicides" (see Note 21). Thus, it is important and useful to keep stress in bounds, to manage it so it does not become destructive.

Today’s social structure is different from that of our forefathers. Today in society one "must" be somebody and get on in life, acquire a higher position and a higher salary. People are prepared to make sacrifices to this end, since this is the standard of society. Modern society judges people by what they do, not by what the are (see Note 22).

This is where the Navajo university student gets caught in a maze of social acculturation. Acculturation here means the learning of a new set of rules of behavior and commitment of new values. Generally a person moves into a new culture with already set values and behavior. In this new setting, he must learn new ways of dealing with many of the same problems. And since ". . . all learning is inherently stressful, to the degree that non-reinforcement of a learned response occurs . . . " (see Note 23) we expect that a large segment of acculturative experience will be stressful.

In the Navajo society, the Navajo believes that whatever is not in the state of beauty or harmony may be called sickness, whether it be physical, mental, social, or environmental in nature. Navajo social, religion and medical life is aimed at restoring and maintaining this beauty or harmony (see Note 24). Carl N. Gorman, a well-known Navajo educator, comments about Navajo belief in health: "We believe that everything originates in thought and that the power of thought is real, for good or evil. Good thoughts, pure thoughts, thoughts as pure as corn pollen, pure as dew drops, we believe will maintain health and happiness. When bad thoughts of fear, envy, hate, etc., enter our minds, the balance is upset and the mind and body becomes what is called sick or ill. When this happens, the Navajo seeks a cure or restoration of a harmonious condition" (see Note 25).

In seeking this harmonious condition, the Navajo usually will turn to the traditional method of curing. Many times a cure will be sought by going to a medicine man for traditional medicine such as herbs, plants, and to have a ceremony or sing done for him.

Historically, "A college education has meant that the Indian people have left their homes. They have left because there was nothing for them to return to either because they were no longer acceptable since they were different for they had been tarnished somehow and they did not fit in" (see Note 26). So at that time, college education didn’t mean a thing to the Navajos. But now, Indian college students do not have this problem as many of the tribal leaders encourage the young people to gain a higher education. A college graduate now gains respect from his people and is able to find a good job and prestige among his people.

But the individual Navajo student in college has personal conflicts in trying to decide which values are right for him--values that will make it possible for him to excel in college, get skills, an education and still be "Indian" without cultural conflict. In the past, Navajo education meant complete assimilation of the students into the white culture. This posed many problems with the school. The Navajo child was taught to value harmony with nature, to work to satisfy present needs, time is infinite, following the ways of the old people, to cooperate with others, to be submissive, to have humility and to share with others. All this was taught to him as a child by his parents and family.

While in the white schools, he was taught to have mastery over nature, work to get ahead, plan for the future; the value of time - rushing to meet deadlines, competition, aggression, striving to win and saving for the future. These values in the white culture were taught in order to excel in education and within society in general. As Wells comments, "How can he be expected to be motivated when to do so means rejection of his parents as well as their teachings, his religion, his race and history?" (see Note 27).

Hence, the Navajo student is faced with the dilemma of cultural beliefs, values and self-concepts as well as the same stresses faced by white students. Heaps and Morrill did a study on comparing the self-concepts of Navajo and white high school students (see Note 28). Although they found no significant difference between the total positive score, or overall level of self-esteem, they did find significant differences on four sub-scales, with the Navajo students demonstrating less satisfaction with their personal identities, moral-ethical self and relations with other people, and more social defensiveness than the white students. They suggest that "educational and counseling tasks in working with Navajo students, other Indian students, or students from any minority or disadvantaged groups, is that of improving their self-concept or their cultural identities in those areas where a lower self-evaluation or confused identity may occur because of cross-cultural identities, social and religious values, etc."

In relation to stress, the Navajo student is at a cross-roads of decision-making -whether to assimilate with the white culture or to maintain traditional ties with his culture. Whichever he chooses, he is faced with stress. Forbes states that "Even those people who still keep in touch with their own traditions are affected by the radical changes taking place throughout our culture and society" (see Note 29). So it is with the Navajo university students.

The following quote of the words of Sitting Bull regarding Indian education is an inspiration to Navajo students in adjusting to and coping with university life and lessening their anxiety about their future in continuing their education: "I have advised my people this way - when you find something good in the white man’s road, pick it up. When you find something that is bad or turns out bad, drop it, leave it alone. We shall learn all the devices the white man has. We shall master his machinery, and his inventions, his skills, his medicine, his planning, but we will retain our beauty and still be Indians."

1. S., M.L. "What Stress Can Do to Mind and Body." Good Housekeeping, February 1979, page 248.

2. Rosch, Paul J. "Stress and Illness." Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume 242, August 3, 1979, pages 427-428.

3. S., M. L., Op. cit.

4. Engle, George L. "Memorial Lecture: The Psychosomatic Approach to Individual Susceptibility to Disease." Gastroenterology, Volume 67, December 1974, pages 1085-1093.

5. S. M. L., Op. cit., page 249.

6. Mechanic, David, "Development of Psychological Distress Among Young Adults." Archive General Psychiatry, Volume 36, October 1979, pages 1233-1239.

7. Rosch, Paul J., Op. cit.

8. Blaine, G.B. "Stress and Distress and Identity Formation in College and High School." National Association of Women Deans and Counselors Journals, 1963, page 25.

9. Kuethe, James L. "Personality Traits Related to Stress Tolerance as Determinants of Academic Achievement." Cooperative Research Project No. 1218, Baltimore, Maryland, 1971.

10. Basowitz, Harold, Sheldon J. Korchin, Harold Persky and Roy R. Grinker. Anxiety and Stress. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1955.

11. Boyer, Theodore, Jr. "Student Stress and Illness: The Relationship Between Academic Stress and the Incidence of Psychosomatic Illness Among University Students." Thesis for Master of Science, Brigham Young University, August 1970.

12. Hoover, Stephanie, Andres Skuja and Joseph Casper. "Correlates of College Student’s Loneliness." Psychological Reports, Volume 44, 1979, page 1116.

13. Hammen, Constance L. "Depression in College Students: Beyond the Beck Depression Inventory." Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Volume 48, Number 1, 1980, page 126.

14. McMurray, James V. Understanding Human Behavior. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, NY, 1977.

15. Girdano, Daniel A. and George S. Everly Jr. Controlling Stress and Tension. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1979.

16. Ibid.

17. Boyer, Theodore, Jr. Op. cit.

18. Forbes, Rosalind E. Life Stress. Doubleday and Company, Inc., Garden City, NY, 1979.

19. Kraft, David P. "Student Suicides During a 20-Year Period at a State University Campus." Journal of American College Health Association, Volume 28, Number 5, April 1980, pages 258-259.

20. Forbes, Rosalind E., Op. cit., page 16.

21. Kraft, David P., Op. cit., page 262.

22. Lennart, Levi, Stress: Sources, Management, and Prevention. Liverright Publishing Corp, NY, 1967.

23. Alfred, Broxton M. "Acculturation Stress Among Navajo Migrants to Denver, Colorado," Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy degree, 1965.

24. Bock, George E. "The Medicine Man." PHS World, Volume 2, Number 4, April 1967, pages 32-34.

25. Gorman, Carl N. "Navajo Theory of Disease and Healing Practice." Article written for new PHS physicians as an introduction to Navajo healing practice, 1967, pages 1-9.

26. Wells, Robert N. Jr. Clash of Cultures. New York, 1972, page 23.

27. Ibid.

28. Heaps, Richard A. and Stanley G. Morrill. "Comparing the Self-Concepts of Navajo and White High School Students." Journal of American Indian Education, May 1979, pages 12-14.

29. Forbes, Rosalind E., Op. cit.

Linda Edgewater is a graduate student in Health Education at Brigham Young University, where she received her B.S. degree. A Navajo, Miss Edgewater minored in Indian Education, and worked with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1974-78. She was with the supervisory guidance counselor in the Junior High section at Tuba City Boarding School.