STESS AND COPING BEHAVIORS AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS (Dissertation Sample)

Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Stress In our daily life, every person has to face stress which is defined in different ways. In most general terms, it is defined that when the demand often crosses the resources of a person. There are various kinds of stress that people has to bear during their whole life. Physical stress often deals with the physical injuries, heat and extreme cold. There are also some issues related to the social environment of a person that cause stress (Chao, 2012). This type of stress is called as Psycho social stress. Some of the common examples of these types of stresses are: death and loss of job. There are also certain universal stresses that everyone has to face. Those stresses are: war, earth quack, imprisonment and illness. Stress can be due to any internal and external factor that often makes vulnerability difficult. Stress often affects the equilibrium state of the individuals (VanKim& Nelson, 2013). There is continuous debate on the effects of stress on human life. Researchers have been conducted to find the reasons of stress and its impact on daily activities of life. The role of stress in educational performance and in academics has been widely discussed by the scholars. Nowadays, students have to face various type of stresses in their daily life. The stress factor has become prominent among college students(Mahmoud, Staten, Hall & Lennie, 2012). College students often face stress due to several stressful academic drills. They often face stress due to financial issues. Relationship has become important factor of stress among the college students. There are certain negative and positive impacts of stress on students' performance. This study is aimed to analyze the stress and coping behaviors among college students. 1 Stress among students During studies, a person has to face several problems. He has to compete with the rest of fellows and to show exceptional performance. Due to this competition, students have to put extraordinary efforts(Brannan, Biswas-Diener, Mohr, Mortazavi& Stein, 2013). This increases stress among them and their performance is also affected. It is observed that most of the students fail to face the challenges and remain unsuccessful while some of them, take positive impact from stress and work hard to achieve their goal. If students are unable to cope with stress, then their mental health is also affected. 2 Type of stressor among students Pakistan's education system is full of complexities and moreover, teaching methodologies are even more complex. Medical undergraduates have to face several challenges and stressor. These stressor are: lack of free time, tough competition and emotional pressure. These stressors often affect the professional development of the students. 3 Stress among genders Level of stress can be different for both genders. It is observed from previous studies that the cases of depression and anxiety among females is greater than males. Reason behind this can be find through investigation and profile of the patients. 4 Causes of stress Teenage is very challengingperiod as students are passing through mental and physical development. If there is any imbalance between physical and social development, then they often face severe problems. Stress is a common nowadays. There can be negative and positive effects of stress on every person, however, mostly negative impacts are emerged. Stress reduction activities can't be successful without adopting healthy life style. If pressure is higher than a person's ability to bear, then it is called as stress. Response of any physical, environmental and psychological change is called as stress. If a person is stressed, it can also affect his belonging. 5 Contribution of student stress There are several factors that cause stress among students. Some of them are: time management, performance pressure, tough schedules, financial problems, social issues, biasedness from teachers and lack of interaction with teachers. Stress up to a certain limit can encourage a person to achieve its goal, however, increased stress can cause severe problems. External stress is not a stress actually a stress, it is the reaction of a person to any external event. It also depend upon every person's perception that how he take stress either positive or not. There are three different types of stress that a person often face. These are: psychological, physiological and behavioral stress. There are certain symptoms of stress. These symptoms are: under eating, over eating, sleeplessness, alcohol consumption, smoking, loneliness, drug abuse and absenteeism. 2 Coping Coping is commonly used terms in psychology. Coping is effort of a person to resolve his problems that are causing stress for him. Through coping, a person tries to minimize or bear the stress(Serido, Shim, Xiao, Tang & Card, 2014). Coping is dependent upon the circumstances, individual or on various kinds of stress. In Psychology, coping is termed as coping skills or coping strategies. There are different types of coping strategies. Adaptive strategies are used to lessen the level of stress. Maladaptive strategies are considered as non-coping strategies. 6 Relationship between stress and coping Stress in most of times is harmful for everyone especially for students. It often affects the body's equilibrium. A person is mentally, emotionally and physically affected by the stressor. Whenever, a person face any stressor, then he tries to find particular solution for that stressor. . The way a person deals with stress is called as coping. Commonly there are two methods used for coping the stress. First of all, it is necessary to change yourself. Secondly, environment should be changed. The effective effort of a person to solve his problems is called as coping. Therefore, stress and coping are linked. 7 Coping strategies It is difficult for the students to face the stress, however, with effective coping strategies, then can surely tackle the stressor. It can also improve their performance in college and also encourage them to face challenges. Stress factor become common problem during examination session as the students are not prepared for the exams. Common types of stresses among students are: lack of time management, financial issues, interaction in the class room and fear of low grades. Expectations from parents and family members often affect cause stress among students. Due to these stresses, students are often unable to perform effectively in the exams and various types of emotional problems are emerged. This often leads to suicide attempts as numbers of college suicides are increasing with the passage of time. 8 Coping strategies by students Coping strategies are often dependent on the type of stress. If stress is nor severe, then it can be managed and handled. If it is of acute level, then it is difficult to tackle. Coping behaviors can be observed through development perception. There are various type of coping levels. These levels are: social, cognitive and emotional(Soliman, 2014). Emotional responses are developed through behaviors at the age of 2 or 3. Those behaviors are categorized in five categories. These categories are: distraction, visual avoidance, problem-oriented, self-soothing and care. At one point coping strategies can be effective, however, at one other, these strategies can be ineffective. It is necessary to observe the problem and its severity and policies should be framed for those who are unable to tackle the stress. 3 Motivation of research Stress is common phenomenon that can affect every person. His reaction and behavior to tackle the stress can also be different. Several researches were done at various educational level and even for measuring stress in professional life. However, in Pakistan, there are few studies about stress among students and numbers of studies about stress factor at college level are negligible. Intermediate students have to face various types of stress i.e. competition and financial stress. This has motivated me to find the stress among both genders of private and public colleges. I was also motivated to find stress among science and arts students and their coping behavior. 4 Literature Review Rachel Dedeyn (2008) explored in the research that the stress level between international students and the stress level between Australian students was not same. Previously Misra and Castillo (2004) took 85 students who came from 21 different countries and analyzed them under Student life stress inventory of Gadzella. From their study they concluded that there was no difference between the stress of international students and the Australian students. In contrast to their study Rachel Dedeyn's research found out that the Australian students have more pressure of stress than the international students. Kumar &Bhukar (2013) explored that there was difference in stress level of students who were studying Engineering and the students of Physical Education. A specimen of 60 subjects was arbitrarily chosen from the Physical Education and Engineering Institute, India. Every gathering had 30 subjects (15 young men and 15 young ladies) with age scope of 21±3 years. Anxiety scores because of: 1) disappointment and restraint, 2) over-burden and 3) habitual, time-earnest and forceful conduct were measured for the chosen subjects utilizing the poll grew by Daniel (1979). The second poll grown by George and Everly and utilized by Heyward (1991) was likewise directed to the students to measure their adapting system. Information was examined utilizing SPSS 17 form. Two route investigation of change (ANOVA) demonstrated that stretch because of all the boosts was altogether higher among young ladies in examination to young men of their calling. Adapting procedure was higher in young men than young ladies of their indivi...