Psychological distress is an adverse emotional state carried on by several events, such as tension, fear, anxiety, or psychological instability. Certain types of distress can even lead to major psychological issues like depression. Every college student may face three types of psychological distress namely academic distress, personal distress, and social distress. Psychological distress among college students has been unnoticed for a long time. Hence, this paper attempts to develop a likert scale for measuring psychological distress among undergraduate students in Tamil Nadu. A five-point continuum likert scale was developed considering three types of psychological distress. Initially, 50 statements were developed as a universal statement of the concourse. After consulting with experts, 35 statements have been sent to 60 undergraduate agriculture students (non-sample respondents). After getting the response, item analysis has been carried out for all the statements and the t-value has been calculated. The first fifteen statements having the t-value of more than 1.75 have been selected for measuring psychological distress. Cronbach’s alpha – Reliability of internal consistency was calculated as 0.712. The developed scale was found to be valid and reliable. The scale was developed and sent to 150 undergraduate agriculture students (sample respondents) pursuing B.Sc. (Hons) Agriculture at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. The results revealed that major portion (36 per cent) of students are having a high level of academic distress. In case of personal distress, 41 per cent of students are having a high level of personal distress. It was also found that 41 per cent of students are having a low level of social distress. From this research, it is evident that undergraduate students are facing distress in many ways. To overcome these distress, few steps need to be taken which includes reducing the overburden of credit hours within the semester, to maintain the gap between the examinations, timely declaration of result, emphasis need to be done in counseling and capacity building of the students.

Psychological distress, Academic distress, Personal distress, Social distress

A five point continuum likert scale was developed for measuring psychological distress among UG Agriculture students in Tamil Nadu. Initially 50 statements considering three types of psychological distress viz., academic, personal and social stress was collected. After consulting with experts, it was reduced to 35 statements and sent to 60 non sample respondents. Item analysis was carried out and t – value for all the statements were computed. The first fifteen statements having t – value more than 1.75 was used to measure psychological distress. Cronbach’s alpha – Reliability of internal consistency was calculated as 0.712. The developed scale was found to be valid and reliable. The scale was developed and sent to 150 Undergraduates students pursuing B.Sc. (Hons) Agriculture at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU). The results revealed that more than one third of students (36 per cent) are having a high level of academic distress. Nearly two fifth of the respondents (41 per cent) of students are having high level of personal distress and low level of social distress. Suggestions were collected from the respondents and tabulated. Ward counseling need to be strengthen to overcome academic stress. Capacity building of students should be carried out to improve the confidence level of students to overcome personal distress. To overcome social stress, students were encouraged to participate in sports, arts and cultural activities. This paper indicates that Undergraduate students are facing stress in academic, personal and social activities. This need to be concerned and change need to be done in curriculum level for the well being of students.

Mohammed Ghouse L., Karthikeyan C. and Padma S.R. (2025). Psychological Distress among Undergraduate Agriculture Students in Tamil Nadu. International Journal of Theoretical & Applied Sciences, 17(1): 27–31.