Running head: STRESS MANAGEMENT

Research Paper:

Coping Strategies That Are Associated with College Students Stress Management

Lexi Beckstead

Salt Lake Community College

Submitted as partial fulfillment for PSY 1010 Spring 2017

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Research Paper: Coping Strategies That Are Associated with College Students Stress
Management

Introduction

College Students face enormous amounts of stress throughout their educational

experience. Coping strategies are necessary for students to move through school and stay

productive, but what are some of the mechanisms available for students? How can you apply this

mechanisms in real-life stressful situations? Research has shown that positive stress coping

strategies are associated with lower stress levels in college students. This paper will discuss a

few stressors faced by college students and the most applicable coping strategies available to

them.

Perceived Student Stressors

First and foremost, Students face multiple and occasionally severe perceived stressors

while in school. A lot can contribute to stress levels. Financial situations, workload, family and

peer influences and obligations, and personal expectations are a few. As stated by Sladek, Doane,

Luecken, Eisenberg (2016) in Perceived Stress, Coping, and Cortisol Reactivity in Daily Life: A

Study of Adolescents During the First Year of College, even relatively minor stressful events

can contribute to psychological problems. Students not acquisited can more easily become

overwhelmed over students who have been in college for years.

Students with high amounts of stress tend to have high levels of the hormone cortisol,

which is a reaction to stressors and stimulants. When timing is carefully measured in a

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controlled lab environment, cortisol peaks in saliva approximately 2025 min following discrete

stressor but may take up to one hour to return to baseline (as cited in Sladek, Doane, Luecken,

Eisenberg, 2016). Normally a productive function, but repeated stressors and stimulants lead to a

more constant activation of cortisol, which tends to have harmful consequences.

In the article Perceived Stress and Coping Strategies Among Newly Nurse Students in

Clinical Practice, nursing students 21 to 23 years old experience moderate to high levels of

stress, with not one student experiencing low levels of stress, (Rasha Mahfouz, Haya Alsahli,

2016 p.123). These stressors specifically include inability to control important things in life,

feelings of nervousness and stress, inability to cope, exhibiting anger. Additionally, higher

amounts of stress were associated with parents without any higher education, a father with a

government job, and a non-working mother (Rasha Mahfouz, Haya Alsahli, 2016 p.125).

In another study, Students Stress (Shirom, 1989 p.672) undergraduates were asked to

rate basic school related stressors on a scale. The most relevant stressors were

examination-related, meeting class assignments, teaching processes, and university-work and

university-family related. This study excludes perceived stressors from other parts of life, but

shows the effect of school work on students milieu. Here they identify stress as a conceptual

definition of a persons perception of an environmental demand, addressed to him/her, which

taxes or exceeds that persons adaptive resources (as cited in Shirom,1989 p.674), and then goes

on to describe stress to include any situation in which a persons capabilities are perceived by

him/her to exceed environmental demands made upon him/her.

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Stress Management and Coping Strategies

In order to have a healthy and functioning college experience, students must learn and

develop coping strategies and stress management. According to Sladek, Doane, Luecken,

Eisenberg (2016), high amounts of stress may result in psychological distress, physical

complaints, behavior problems, and poor academic performance. Furthermore, as cited in

Sladek et al. (2016), coping is defined as conscious volitional efforts to regulate emotion,

cognition, behavior, physiology, and the environment in response to stressful events or

circumstances.

There are a few coping mechanisms the article goes into. Additionally, both Sladek, et

al. (2016) and American Psychology Associations (APA n.d.) Five Tips to Help Manage Stress,

Agree that Social Support is a relevant factor relating to stress. 51 undergraduate nursing

students rated social support highly in overcoming stress. Seeking diversions and

self-reliance were also ranked notably (Sladek, et al. 2016 p.126). Whether strong social

support comes from family or friends, when you share your concerns or feelings with another

person, it does help relieve stress (APA n.d.)

Another positive coping strategy is using humor to achieve less stress and seeking

diversions from stressful situations. Laughing or smiling while under stress can relieve some of

the negative feelings. Our faces tend to externally reflect and represent our internal emotions, we

are able to alleviate tension in our brains by easing tension in our bodies (APA n.d.).

Through research, these article have shown concise and similar coping mechanisms and

stress management techniques. Social support, seeking diversions, and being humorous were all

common and recurring tactics explored. Students are able to diverge some perceived daily
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stressors by laughing, smiling, exercise, and socialising (APA n.d.). Additionally, findings

revealed that American adolescents to be the most stressed-out age group in the country, and

female students have the likelihood for stress to increase 50% by the age of 21 (Mahfouz, Alsahli

2016 p. 126), making it imperative for undergraduates to use the tactics explored in order to stay

productive throughout their college experience.

Conclusion

Research and findings from the articles Perceived Stress and Coping Strategies Among

Newly Nurse Students in Clinical Practice (Mahfouz, Alsahli, 2016), Five Tips to Help Manage

Stress (APA n.d.), and Perceived Stress, Coping, and Cortisol Reactivity in Daily Life (Sladek,

Doane, Luecken, Eisenberg 2016) all shared applicable and relevant coping strategies and

statistics regard stress levels in adolescents and undergraduates. I found it eye-opening the

amount of perceived stress endured by young adults in America going to school, which was more

than the perceived stress of working adults in the US (Mahfouz, Alsahli, 2016). APA (n.d.)

management techniques were easy to understand and extremely helpful. I enjoyed reading the

article and am excited to implement their techniques in my own life. Students Stress (Shirom,

1989), was only helpful in identifying stresses of college students only school related, which was

helpful, but I feel like the research was not complete nor all the information I required.
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References

Five Tips to Help Manage Stress. (n.d.) retrieved from

http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/manage-stress.aspx

Mahfouz, R. & Alsahli, H. (2016). Perceived Stress and Coping Strategies Among Newly Nurse

Students in Clinical Practice. Journal of Education and Practice, vol 7. No.213. pp.118 - pp.128

Sladek, M.R., Doane, L.D., Luecken, L. J., & Eisenberg, N. (2016) Perceived Stress, Coping, and

Cortisol Reactivity in Daily Life: A Study of Adolescents During the First Year of College.

Biological Psychology, Volume 117, pp.8 - pp.15 doi:10.1016

Shirom, A. (1986). Students Stress. Higher Education, vol 15. No.6. pp. 667-676. retrieved from

http://www.Jstor.org/stable/3447049