The Nexus between Stress Level and Internship Performance: Evidence from Accountancy Interns from a Selected State University in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This research was undertaken with the purpose of assessing the level of stress and determining the nexus between gender, professional courses, internship stressors and internship performance of accountancy interns at the University of Kelaniya. The data was collected from 93 respondents through a self-developed questionnaire survey. This study was being conducted at the end of the internship program. The gathered data were keyed and analyzed by using SPSS. The obtained results were valid and reliable for all items in the questionnaire. Independent sample test and regression analysis were applied for this study. R-square was signposted by 58.2% of variation of gender, professional course and internship stressors. The results showed non-significant difference between gender and internship performance. Internship stressors were negatively related to internship performance whereas professional courses did not influence the internship performance while other factors were constant. Another finding of the research is that the escalation of accountancy interns’ stress levels had less impact on internship performance than expected.