Project 1: Student Lifestyle and Stress

JS

2025-04-01

Background Information

“Daily Lifestyle and Academic Performance of Students”

  • Google Form survey
  • 2000 students
  • 8 variables
  • August 2023 - May 2024 academic year
  • primarily reflects lifestyles of students from India

Problem and Objective

  • Over half report high stress level!
  • Stress contributes to many negative health conditions
  • Which factors contribute most to high stress levels?
  • How can we reduce levels of high stress among students?

Boxplots Pt. 1

Comments about the Boxplots Pt. 1

This is particularly useful in seeing where the outliers are for each stress level.

  • Study Hours: high-stress and study less than 6 hours a day are considered outliers
  • Extracurricular Hours: not too much difference
  • Sleep Hours: median is significantly less for high-stress

Boxplots Pt. 2

Comments about the Boxplots Pt. 2

  • Social Hours: some difference, but not too much
  • Physical Activity Hours: some extreme outliers for high-stress, and maximum for low-stress
  • GPA: considered an outlier for a low-stress student to have a 3.5 GPA, or for a moderate-stress student to have a 3.75 GPA, but not for a high-stress student. For them, it is considered an outlier to have below a 2.5 GPA.

Histograms Color-Coded by Stress Level Pt. 1

Comments about the Histograms Pt. 1

The main thing to look for in these histograms is the proportion of colors in each bin.

  • Study Hours: only students with levels of high stress study more than 8 hours a day
  • Extracurricular Hours: proportion of each color within extracurriculars is generally pretty stable throughout
  • Sleep Hours: only students with levels of high stress are getting lower end of sleep hours

Histograms Color-Coded by Stress Level Pt. 2

Comments about the Histograms Pt. 2

  • Social Hours: proportions are generally similar throughout
  • Physical Activity Hours: close to the 4-5 hour mark is where the Low and Moderate stress are not only the highest, but also combine to make up a bigger proportion than those with High stress
  • GPA: certain colors lie within distinct sections

Conclusion

Extracurricular and social hours seem to make the least difference in stress levels.

Suggestions and biggest takeaways:

  • focus on getting at least 6 hours of sleep a night (but ideally 7 hours)
  • not to study more than 8 hours a day as a daily routine

Additional Notes

  • only one person in the whole study has a 4.0
  • all the hours add up to 24 - potential flaw in the study

It is also worth noting that sometimes a high GPA comes at the cost of increased stress, and while it is not a reality for everyone to be able to be more relaxed about it, hopefully this can change for at least some students.

Next Steps

  • need to do more studies
  • longitudinal: work with high stress students, get back to them periodically
  • latitudinal: study students in other schools
  • creating stress level as a numerical variable, so regression model is more feasible