Stress Levels, Health Seeking Behaviors and Academic Performance of University Students. A Case Study of Kampala International University (Kiu), Uganda.

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to establish the relationship between stress levels, health seeking behaviors and academic performance among students of KampalaInternational University (KIU) Kampala, Uganda. The study was guided by three stated objectives: To determine the relationship between stress levels and academic performance among students; To examine the difference between the levels of stress experienced among male and female students; To establish relationship between health seeking behaviors and academic performance among students. The study used descriptivecorrelational and case studyresearch design with quantitative approach. The population of the study was 10923 students ‘population. Slovene’s formulafor selection of the sample size was used. The drawn sample size was 386. Data was analyzed in SPSS version 22.0. The findings of the study revealed that there is significance negative relationship between stress levels and academic performance. Findings also revealed that there is no significance difference between the stress levels experienced among male and female students. The study found that there is a significant negative relationship between health seeking behaviors and academic performance. It was concluded that there is a relationship between stress levels, health seeking behaviors and academic performance. Based on the study findings, the following recommendations weremade.The university management and other stakeholders (DSA and DS) should ensure that students engage in adequate sports, social and recreational activities in order to cope and manage their stress levels to improve academic performance. The lecturers, as well as school authority (DAA, DVC AA and DSA) should collaboratively guide students on how to develop and improve their academic performance and ensures that the learning atmosphere is conducive for the students in order to reduce stress levels among students, there should be maintained gender balance in academic, social, recreational and sport activities in the university. It was also recommended that university management (DAA, DVC AA and DSA) and lecturers should encourage students to engage in proper health seeking behaviors in order to promote their health, cope with stress and in turn achieve good academic performance.