Abstract:

The transition from school to university is a period of intense change for young adults. For many, it means moving away from home for the first time, learning to manage many aspects of independent living that they’ve never had to do before, alongside integrating to a new social circle of friends and adapting to new more independent ways of studying. More students than ever are reporting symptoms of depression and anxiety, which is directly linked to their coping skills.

One area often reported to cause difficulty is time management, which relies heavily on a person being able to make realistic cognitive judgements about time passing, which is crucial in planning study time and in particular working to assessment deadlines. Time management relies heavily on a person being able to make realistic cognitive judgements about time, an ability which can be measured experimentally. It is known that perception is different in people with depression and anxiety compared to healthy participants so here, we asked whether the cognitive ability to perceive temporal order, temporal bisection and prospective movement might be different in those students who are experiencing high stress levels. The level of stress experienced by a student was measured using the Undergraduate Student Questionnaire (Crandall et al, 1992), anxiety and depression were measured using the State Trait Anxiety Text and the Becks Depression Inventory, respectively.

The study revealed a correlation between scores on the undergraduate stress questionnaire and prospective time estimations, which suggests that under stressful situations, students underestimate the time tasks will take, which could in turn impact their studies.

Keywords:

Time perception, stress, USQ, transition, first year undergraduates.