Academic stress reduction by Jacobson’s progressive muscle relaxation: A quasi experimental study

Adolescents are the most dramatic phase, undergoing academic and social pressure which subjects them to negative emotional stress. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of Jacobson's progressive muscle relaxation (JPMR) technique on Academic stress among adolescents of selected schools at Mangalore. A Quasi Experimental, Non-randomized control group design was used for the study. 100 adolescents of 15- 16 yrs of age were selected using Purposive sampling technique. Academic stress rating scale was used to assess academic stress. The results showed that all adolescents had moderate pre – test level of stress in both experimental and control groups whereas in post-test level there was marked reduction in academic stress scores (40.20) when compared to mean pre-test score (90.44) in the experimental group. In the control group pre-test academic stress score was 90.30 and the post-test academic stress score was 88.94. There was a significant difference between the mean post-test academic stress scores of the adolescents in the experimental and control group. (t98= 36.53, p<0.005). There was no association in pre-test academic stress scores and selected demographic variables among both the experimental and control group. The findings of the study showed that JPMR was effective in reducing academic stress.