Exploring the sources of stress and challenge facing Sixth form students.

This PhD research programme aimed to explore a branch of British education known as Sixth Form (SF) and how they perceive and manage their stress and what factors may be potentially stressful for students studying at SF. Sixth Form students have been largely neglected in research (Stoten, 2014a). The last dedicated study into SF sources of stress conducted by Dobson (1980) over 45 years ago. Using the model of Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome (1951) as a basis for the general effects of stress. Furthermore, Cavanaugh et al’s (2000) challenge-hinderance model also be used to explore how individual students perceive stress and whether SF students perceive obstacles to their learning as a stress or a challenge. Due to COVID-19 and the ensuing lockdowns, a unique opportunity arose to explore the effects of online learning on SF student’s self-efficacy and ability to undertake their studies over lockdowns and the subsequent challenges that students faced upon returning to face-to-face learning. Four studies were conducted to explore this topic area with Study 1 exploring SF student perceptions of stress via an online questionnaire perceived stress scale (Cohen, S. et al., 1983), brief COPE scale (Carver, 1997) and the academic self-efficacy scale (Chemers et al., 2001). Study 2 followed the initial study by utilising focus groups to further explore students’ sources of stress and what factors may affect student stress. Study 3 was an online questionnaire that focused on the effects of COVID-19 and lockdowns on student engagement with their studies and surveyed the students on their retrospective thoughts on studying over lockdown. Finally, Study 4 used semi-structured interviews to explore the effects of lockdown and online learning on SF students and the sources of stress that students may have encountered now they have returned to school. Data was examined using a mix of statistical analysis and Thematic Analysis as proposed by Braun and Clarke (2006). Analysis showed that there were several major stresses that students contended with over their time at SF such as transition from GCSE to A-level, perception of stresses, gender, returning to school after lockdown and fear of failure. Furthermore, students perceived stress as a multi-dimensional web that threatened to affect their academic success and viewed any stressor at this time through the lens of academic achievement and what effect it would have on their final A-level examinations. Research in this thesis also revealed that there were important mitigating factors of stress too such as a positive relationship with teachers, willingness to reach out for support and happiness with their subjects. Some students seemed view stress as a challenge to be overcome rather than a debilitating stress. Ultimately the research in this PhD programme aims to provide a modern understanding of the sources and perceptions of stress for SF students in England. Additionally, this research will provide a basis for future research to better understand a branch of British education that has been neglected in recent times.