Shouting to Relieve Stress in High School Students

In the constantly busy and chaotic lives of modern adolescents teenagers must be exposed to great levels of stress daily. I suspect that few know how to vent such stresses or emotions through this stage in life. Many are starting to discover themselves and begin to search for independence and identity. In observing teenagers, I often find that many are quite stressed, either from their academic endeavors, relationships with friends and families, or just the transition into adulthood. I formulated a hypothesis with my group simply stating that shouting may help relieve stress in teenagers.

Method:

•Participants- The participants of our treatment were not randomly chosen. We used biased samples which were students of 2nd period AP Psychology. The age range of our samples ranged from 14 to 18 years of age.
•Materials- This experiment did not require any special materials. Two surveys were given to each individual being tested before and after treatment.

Procedure for Treatment:

1.The participants were gathered around 8:40 AM during 2nd period class.
2.A survey paper with 18 was given to each student to try to measure their current level of stress.
3.After the survey papers were answered, each participant was instructed to put #1 on his or her paper in order to show that the paper was answered prior to the treatment. Then the surveys were collected.
4.Our treatment was then explained to participants.
•Each individual shouted for 5 seconds, rested for 5 seconds, and repeated this process three times..
•Each individual shouted for 5 seconds, rested for 5 seconds, and repeated this process three times.
5.After the treatment, a survey identical to the first was administered to the participants. After they answered the survey the results were collected.
6.Each participant was instructed to put #2 on his or her survey paper in order to indicate that that survery was answered after the treatment.

Results: Data Table:
Score of Survey Before and After Treatment for Individual Students:

Before the treatment After the treatment
Student 1 55 56
Student 2 54 57
Student 3 55 61
Student 4 69 76
Student 5 74 74
Student 6 46 52
Student 7 42 46
Student 8 42 38
Student 9 58 55
Student 10 65 57
Student 11 84 83
Student 12 68 43
Student 13 48 47
Student 14 79 67
Student 15 83 51
Student 16 76 85
Student 17 84 70
Student 18 75 75
Student 19 64 68
Student 20 65 64

Statistical Information:

1.Mean: 64.30 (Before the treatment)
61.25 (After the treatment)
2. Median: 63.00 (Before the treatment)
61.50 (After the treatment)
3. Mode: 55.00, 42.00, 65.00 (Before the treatment)
57.00 (After the treatment)
4. Range: 42.00 (Before the treatment)
47.00 (After the treatment)
5. Standard Deviation: 13.84 (Before the treatment)
13.32 (After the treatment)

Discussion:

The result of the experiment turned out as we had predicted. The general data indicated that the stress level was indirectly proportional to the effect of our shouting treatment. However, there were some confounding variables which may have possibly altered our results. The biggest confounding variable was the participants' pre-knowledge in the effect of the treatment. This may have induced an expected outcome in the patient and caused inaccurate results. If the participants had not known our objective was to test their levels of stress perhaps they would have answered their surveys slightly differently.