A Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Pranayama on Academic Stress among 10^th Standard Students in Selected High Schools at Chennai

The study was conducted to assess the level of academic stress among the 10^th standard students, to determine the effectiveness of pranayama on academic stress among 10^th standard students and to associate academic stress among 10^th standard students with their selected background variables during posttest.

A quasi experimental, nonrandomized pretest posttest control group design was used to assess the formulated objectives.

Purposive sampling technique was used to select a sample of 30 students in the study and the control group.

The results of the study showed that majority of the students 91.4% and 70.2% had moderate level of academic stress in the study and the control group respectively. Nearly 5.7% and 19.1% had low stress and 2.85% and 10.63% had high stress in the study and the control group respectively. There was a high significant difference in the mean difference score between the study and the control groups before and after the pranayama intervention at the level of p<.001. Significant association was found between the academic stress of 10^th standard students and the background variables of the students like previous academic year percentage, attending morning tuition and the demographic variables of parents like occupation of mother during posttest at the level p <.05.

The study concludes that majority of the students have moderate and high level of academic stress. Pranayama is an effective intervention to decrease academic stress among students. The academic stress is influenced by previous academic year percentage, attending morning tuition and the occupation of mother in the study group.