College students are subject to a variety of stressors. Among these, changes in sleeping and eating habits, vacations, work load and new responsibilities associated with moving away from home are reported as the most stressful. Studies investigating the link between students’ perceived stress and frequencies of somatic illness have shown that during high stress periods, such as final examinations, immune response is decreased resulting in increased incidence of somatic illness. In this study, we investigated stress in students at The College of Idaho and its relationship to somatic illness. We hypothesized that challenging coursework and high academic achievement would contribute to higher reported stress levels and that stress levels would be directly correlated to somatic illness. College students completed an online perceived stress survey reporting academic and lifestyle information. Among our population of college students, seniors reported significantly more stress than juniors, but we found no other significant relationships between any academic or lifestyle variables and stress or incidence of illness. Seniors may be apprehensive about future plans, resulting in increased stress. The rest of the College population may have reported similar stress levels due to the rather homogenous population at The College and similar academic expectations for all students.

Stress at the C of I: We Are All In It Together