Comparative Analysis of Stress-Related Factors Influencing Academic Performance of Married and Unmarried Female Students Tertiary Institutions in Delta State: The Case of Professional Diploma in Education (Pde), Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba, Delta State

The study was a comparative analysis of stress-related factors that influence the academic performance of married and unmarried female students of the Professional Diploma in Education (PDE) programme, Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba, Delta State. The study adopted a descriptive survey and ex-post facto designs. Three research questions and three research hypotheses guided the study. The population for the study comprised all 59 (42 married 17 unmarried) regular female students of the PDE programme for the 2021/2022 academic session and all past students of the programme from the 2018/2019 to 2020/2021 sessions. The entire population was adopted for the study due to the manageable number. The instruments for data collection were a self-structured questionnaire and past results of the programme from the 2018/2019 – 2020/2021 session.The questionnaire was a 35-item instrument of the four-point rating scale. The instrument was validated by two experts while the reliability of 0.81 was attained after a trial test was conducted. 59 copies of the instrument were administered and all were returned and used for the study. Approved final results of students for 2018/2019-2020/2021 sessions were also adopted and used for analysis to determine the differences in academic performance of married and unmarried students. Descriptive statistics of mean scores and standard deviation were used for data analysis while t-test was used for the test of hypotheses. The findings in the study revealed among others that; both married and unmarried women experience stress related activities but in different spheres. While married women’s school attendance and academic performance are influenced by care for children and husband, cooking for family members, the nature of the job, worries over the husband’s attitude, worries over disappointment in a relationship, a fear of divorce, the unmarried women are influenced by care for children, home chores, care for parents, cooking for family members, nature of the job, hustling after work, no support from anyone, joblessness, worries over no husband, worries over disappointment in a relationship, worries over derogatory statements about marriage, embarrassment from peers about marriage, lopsided respect by lecturers and colleagues in favour of married women, unequal regard for married against unmarried women and unfriendly social environment. It was recommended among other things that; Institutions of higher learning should make it statutory to organise stress control seminars/workshops for married and unmarried female freshers every year to enable them to strike a balance between their home, work and academics by adopting emotion-focused strategies to ensure better psychological health and marital relationship as any unhealthy feeling or conception could affect their psychological wellbeing, the entire family and their career