stress coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education students

Stress, coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education students

February 2019
European Journal of Teacher Education 42(4):1-16

University of Barcelona

Abstract and Figures

Discover the world's research

25+ million members
160+ million publication pages
2.3+ billion citations
CURR PSYCHOL
Jessica Hughes-Nind
Minglei Wang

Dini Rakhmawati

Yovitha Yuliejantiningsih

INTERACT LEARN ENVIR
Sannyuya Liu
Yunhan Zhang

U. Baimakhanova
Nazymgul Albytova

Arooj Yaswi
Kennedy Omondi Otieno
Loishiye Lengaram Saiteu
MULTIMED TOOLS APPL

Prateek Pandey

Matti Rautiainen
Marja Mäensivu
Tiina Nikkola

Janne Pietarinen

Recruit researchers
Join for free
Login Email Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google Welcome back! Please log in. Email · Hint Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google No account? Sign up

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

How teacher and classmate support relate to students’ stress and academic achievement.

Department of Educational Science, School Pedagogy, Greifswald University, Greifswald, Germany

According to the conservation of resources theory, social support provides resources to help overcome challenges. Although some empirical findings have emphasized the pivotal role of teacher support and/or peer support for students’ stress and academic achievement, multilevel analyses that consider contextual class and individual student effects are scarce. The current study addresses this gap and further includes gender, socio-economic status, and neuroticism as covariates. Multilevel analyses in Mplus were conducted. All measures were taken at the student level and then aggregated to the classroom level to estimate class-level relationships. Results revealed that on the individual level, teacher support was related to higher ability to cope and lower levels of helplessness, while on the class level, peer support by classmates was related to higher ability to cope and academic achievement. The context effects also show that in classes with higher peer support, students are more likely to benefit in terms of coping ability and achievement, whereas in classes with higher teacher support, students tend to show less coping ability.

Introduction

Social relationships with peers and teachers play a pivotal role for students’ stress and learning outcomes as they act as resources that support learning and mitigate feelings of stress ( Cohen et al., 1983 ; Hobfoll et al., 1990 ; Wentzel et al., 2017 ). The conservation of resources theory (COR) states that “human beings’ primary motivation is to build, protect, and foster their resource pools in order to protect the self-bond and the social bond that support the self.” ( Buchwald and Schwarzer, 2010 , p. 500). Unlike previous stress theories that focus on individual appraisals of stressors, COR assumes that stress has “central environmental, social, and cultural bases in terms of the demands on people to acquire and protect the circumstances that ensure their well-being and distance themselves from threats to well-being.” ( Hobfoll and Ford, 2007 , p. 565). Hence, the perception of stress is determined to a great extent by the social environment which is linked to the protection, gain, or loss of individual resources when faced with challenges ( Hobfoll and Ford, 2007 ). COR can be applied to complex learning situations, e.g., the school context in which peers and teachers shape students’ social environment. Hence, if these relationships are perceived as supportive, students are less likely to experience stress and can invest their actual resources in the learning process which most likely increases their academic success. In contrast, if students feel a lack of support by peers and teachers, they consequently must invest more resources to handle and overcome stressful situations and be academically successful (see Hobfoll et al., 1990 ). In the current study, we define perceived stress along two dimensions, including helplessness and the ability to cope ( Klein et al., 2016 ). Thereby, perceived helplessness reflects an individuals’ reaction to stress, whereas ability to cope emphasizes the self-assessed capability to cope with stressors ( Roberti et al., 2006 ). Hence, if students feel helpless in stressful situations and exhibit low abilities to cope with stressors, chances of increased stress are high. As stress has become prevalent, particularly among the student cohort of young adolescents ( Inchley et al., 2016 ) and presents a risk for students’ personal and academic development, it is important to investigate and detect factors that are part of students’ immediate environment and promise to mitigate feelings of stress.

A promising factor in reducing stress and boosting students’ academic achievement involves students’ relationships with teachers and peers at school. Teachers’ support can be quite complex and has been viewed as a multidimensional construct consisting of emotional, instrumental, informational, and feedback-related components ( Tardy, 1985 ). Recent empirical studies show teacher-student relationships include emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support ( Downer et al., 2015 ; Hoferichter et al., 2020 ). Emotional support is characterized by emotional closeness, recognition, and interest for students’ concerns ( Hamre and Pianta, 2006 ), whereas classroom organization includes, e.g., managing the teaching environment, student activities, and providing an orderly and functional classroom setting for students to achieve their educational goals ( Creemers, 1994 ; Savage and Savage, 2009 ). Instructional support includes, e.g., helping students solve assignments, motivating students, and providing feedback on students’ learning progress ( Kilpatrick Demaray et al., 2010 ).

Peer support describes the process of giving and receiving help from a similar person (with whom one shares similar demographics or social aspects), expressing empathy, encouragement, and support within a reciprocal relationship ( Mead et al., 2001 ; Shalaby and Agyapong, 2020 ). As adolescents mature, social relationships change as they increasingly look to peers for support ( Tarrant, 2002 ; Branje, 2018 ).

In sum, to capture social support, we speak of supportive relationships when they are characterized by close ties, care, esteem, and provide help if necessary ( Sarason and Sarason, 2009 ). In this study, teacher support is conceptualized as the average of emotional and instructional support, thereby peer support relates to the positive relationship students have with their classmates. Students’ academic achievement is conceptualized by students’ grades in the subjects German, Math, and English.

So far, there have been some empirical studies investigating the single paths on how peer support and/or teacher support relate to students’ stress, while others have focused on how social support relates to students’ achievement (e.g., Tennant et al., 2015 ; Hoferichter and Raufelder, 2021 ; Hoferichter et al., 2021a ). Although COR provides a framework for how social support may be related to student stress and academic achievement, it has not been empirically quantified how peer support as well as teacher support relate to students’ stress and academic achievement on an individual (student) and contextual (classroom) level. Educational systems such as schools are multilevel systems ( Kozlowski and Klein, 2000 ) in which students are grouped into classes and share similar experiences. At the class level, perceived peer and teacher support constitute the class climate, which, when analyzed, must be treated as a class-level construct ( Lüdtke et al., 2009 ; Bardach et al., 2020 ). The classroom climate is a common characteristic that all students in a class are exposed to. In empirical studies, such as this study, students are asked to indicate their perceptions of classroom climate, which consists of interpersonal communication and interactions between students and teachers. The use of multilevel analyses has the potential to identify the effects of a supportive classroom-level climate beyond the level of individual students.

Teacher support, students’ stress, and academic achievement

Previous multilevel studies suggest that teacher support has a positive impact on student learning and behavioral outcomes. For example, Ma et al. (2021) found that perceived teacher support promoted the academic self-concept and enjoyment of learning, while Yildirim (2012) found a positive relationship between teacher support and students’ use of learning strategies in mathematics. Another multilevel study highlighted the important role of teacher support in student motivation and engagement ( Wentzel et al., 2017 ). These multilevel studies take a promising approach by viewing classrooms as complex learning environments, taking into account individual (student) perspectives and contextual (classroom) aspects. However, when it comes to teacher support, student stress, and achievement, multilevel analyses are scarce, and empirical findings are limited to correlational or longitudinal studies that do not account for student clustering in classrooms.

Investigating into the relationship of teacher support and students’ stress, Hoferichter and Raufelder (2021) found that teacher support buffered the development of students’ academic exhaustion–a symptom of stress and burnout–over 1 school year. In a sample of elementary school students, it has been found that a positive teacher-student relationship serves children in their stress regulation measured by the stress hormone cortisol ( Hughes, 2012 ). Students who rated their relationships with teachers as supportive exhibited the most optimal cortisol profiles and as such appropriately down-regulated stress compared to students with a lack of support from teachers.

Next, to the impact on students’ stress, supportive teacher-student relationships present an educational asset throughout students’ school career as they directly relate to students’ academic achievement and moreover to students’ behavioral variables that are linked to academic achievement. Empirical research indicates that students who perceive their teachers as supportive show better school adjustment ( Sabol and Pianta, 2012 ), invest more in learning ( Vansteenkiste et al., 2005 ), are more curious to learn new things ( Hoferichter et al., 2020 ), and exhibit higher great point average ( Tennant et al., 2015 ).

A wide range of empirical research that investigated the impact of teacher support on children’s’ academic achievement focused on elementary school students, while studies with secondary school students are underrepresented. This situation is particularly problematic, as studies have indicated that stress is a major problem for students during adolescence ( Inchley et al., 2016 ). In their 3-year longitudinal study with elementary students at risk, Hughes et al. (2008) found that supportive relationships with teachers predicted students’ effortful engagement which further impacted their math and reading performance positively.

Peer support, students’ stress, and academic achievement

During adolescence, peers become increasingly important as peer relationships contribute to social, emotional, and cognitive development (see Tarrant, 2002 ; Reitz et al., 2014 ). Although there are only a few studies that have investigated the direct link between peer support and students’ stress, various studies emphasize the beneficial role of supportive peer relationships for students’ mental and physical health ( Rageliené, 2016 ), including better psychological well-being ( Holt et al., 2018 ; Moore et al., 2018 ; Hoferichter et al., 2021a ), adaptive behavior ( La Greca and Harrison, 2005 ; Yeung and Leadbeater, 2010 ), and low levels of stress ( Lyons and Jiang, 2021 ). Research suggests that peer support acts as a protective factor against depression, social anxiety ( La Greca and Harrison, 2005 ), and test anxiety ( Hoferichter and Raufelder, 2015 ). Examining classroom climate in a meta-analysis, Wang et al. (2020) found that classroom climate was negatively associated with students’ socioemotional distress. On a neurobiological level, Telzer et al. (2015) detected that peer support helped students regulate their response to stressors. Meanwhile, social exclusion by peers is related to disturbed neurodevelopment ( Raufelder et al., 2021 ). In their review, Suresh et al. (2021) list the few studies that have investigated peer support as resource and summarize that in general, peer support has shown to improve the mental and physical health of students, including students’ stress and burnout, although literature, and particularly multilevel approaches, is limited.

Investigating peer support and students’ academic achievement, most studies disregard the multilevel structure of the educational context. Only a few multilevel studies have been conducted and indicate that peer support positively relates to students’ academic achievement ( Burke and Sass, 2013 ; Wentzel et al., 2017 ). Burke and Sass (2013) found significant effects of peer support on students’ academic achievement only at the class but not individual level, indicating that the experience of peer support within the shared classroom context contributes to students’ achievement. In their study, Wentzel et al. (2017) examined peer support and learning effort at the individual student level and found positive associations, suggesting that emotional support facilitates learning. In their meta-analysis, Wang et al. (2020) find that overall classroom climate is associated with academic achievement. Single-level studies on the topic support the notation that peer support relates to increased academic involvement ( Vargas-Madriz and Konishi, 2021 ) and academic achievement in Chemistry ( Uzezi and Deya, 2017 ) and helps students to pursuit their academic goals ( Patrick et al., 2004 ; Wentzel, 2005 ).

The current study and hypotheses

Previous studies that investigated teacher and/or peer support emphasize the beneficial effect for students’ stress and/or academic achievement. From a theoretical perspective, supportive relationships act as resources that help to manage and overcome challenges that require more resources to consequently ensure the well-being of the individual (COR, Hobfoll and Ford, 2007 ).

However, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have investigated both teacher support and peer support simultaneously in relation to stress and academic achievement in one model, although both teachers and peers are part of students’ social environment at school, shaping the class climate. Furthermore, to evaluate the role of teacher and peer support for students’ stress (helplessness, ability to cope) and academic achievement (final grades in German, math, English) and consider students’ classroom context, it is necessary to (a) include both support variables as predictors for students’ stress and academic achievement in one statistical model as well as (b) apply a multilevel model to identify individual and contextual effects – which are the aims of the current study.

Students in class are usually interdependent with their peers which means that they influence each other and share a similar context, e.g., same teachers, same classroom settings, and rules, which distinguishes them from students that attend different classrooms. Therefore, it may be beneficial to examine the individual’s experience of support by teachers and peers related to stress and academic achievement considering the classroom context by means of multilevel analyses ( Kozlowski and Klein, 2000 ; Bardach et al., 2020 ).

Based on the outlined research and COR, we hypothesize the following:

H1 : Individual students who experience teacher support and/or peer support are more likely to cope with stressors and are less likely to report helplessness. In addition, those students also exhibit higher academic achievement.

H2 : The average teacher and peer support in class relates to student stress perception and academic achievement. As previous analysis on the topic in light of contextual and individual effects are scarce, we follow an exploratory approach.

As students’ gender, socio-economic status as well as the personality trait neuroticism have been linked to students’ stress and academic achievement, they were included as covariates into the model. In detail, girls tend to report higher stress levels ( Salmela-Aro et al., 2009 ; Hoferichter et al., 2021b ) and exhibit higher academic achievement ( Voyer and Voyer, 2014 ) compared to boys. Furthermore, students with lower socio-economic status tend to experience more stress ( Roubinov et al., 2018 ; Tarullo et al., 2020 ) and exhibit lower academic achievement ( Sirin, 2005 ). Neuroticism was included in the analysis, as it is related to higher threat appraisals ( Schneider, 2004 ) and an intensified stress reactivity ( Suls, 2001 ) which may compromise academic achievement ( Hakimi et al., 2011 ).

Materials and methods

Participants.

The dataset used in this study is built on a large, quantitative questionnaire survey of German adolescent students in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The data were collected from 11 randomly selected secondary schools during the winter term 2018/2019 of the German school year. Schools that were located less than 2 h away from the research facility were contacted and invited to participate in the study. The 11 participating schools represent about 73% of all schools contacted of which all were located in urban areas. A total of 733 7th and 8th grade students ( M age = 13.97, SD = 0.41, 52% girls) participated in the questionnaire. They belonged to 60 classes. For the variables used in the study, the average cluster size varied between 11.60 and 12.23 (6.04 ≤ SD ≤ 6.34). As the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has only a small proportion of ethnic minority residents (4.3%; Statistisches Amt Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, 2018 ), data on ethnic background were not collected as the anonymity of the participants could become compromised.

To comply with ethical standards ( American Psychological Association, 2002 ), a strict procedure was followed prior to all data collection. First, permissions were obtained from the respective educational authorities (Ministry for Education, Science and Culture Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania). Second, informed consent and permissions were consecutively obtained from schools, parents, and students. The students were informed in written and orally about the nature of the study and its goals, the voluntary nature of participation as well as the assurance of anonymity of data collection. At least two trained research assistants were present throughout the data collection. They explained the instruments to the students and particularly, how to use the Likert scales. Furthermore, the research assistants answered any comprehension questions.

Teacher and peer support in class

Teacher and peer support in class were assessed with two subscales by Torsheim et al. (2000) . Both subscales consist of five items each with answers ranging from 1 (“not true at all”) to 5 (“completely true”). They evaluate students’ satisfaction regarding the support from teachers and peers in the classroom, as well as the availability of support and helpfulness (e.g., “Our teachers treat us fairly,” “The students in my class enjoy being together”). The teacher support scale exhibited good internal reliability (α = 0.71) as did the peer support in class scale (α = 0.78).

Perceived stress

Perceived stress was evaluated with the help of the German version of the Perceived Stress Scale ( Klein et al., 2016 ) which was originally developed by Cohen et al. (1983) . The scale consists of a two-dimensional structure with two related subscales. Both subscales consist of five items each and were measured on a five-point Likert scale from 1 (“never”) to 5 (“very often”). The subscale perceived helplessness refers to a general measurement of stress as it emphasizes individual reactions to stress (e.g., “In the last month, how often have you been upset, because of something that happened unexpectedly?”). The scale exhibited a very good internal consistency of 0.81. The subscale perceived ability to cope relates to an individual’s assessment of the ability to cope with stressors (e.g., “In the last month, have you felt that you were unable to control the important things in your life?”). This subscale achieved a good internal reliability as well (α = 0.71).

Achievement

To measure achievement, the grade point average (GPA) was assessed by students’ self-reporting on their last report card in the three main subjects Math, German, and English. In Germany, the grade scale usually ranges from “1″ (best outcome possible) to “6″ (worst outcome possible).

To rule out potential confounders for perceived stress and academic achievement, we included several covariates in our analyses. For the socio-economic status, we used the “book question” ( Nachtigall and Kröhne, 2004 ) and asked the students about the number of books that are available in their households (e.g., “How many books do you have at home?”). Answers were measured on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (“any to few books”) to 5 (“over 200 books”). Moreover, neuroticism was assessed with the help of a subscale from the Big Five Kids Inventory ( Bleidorn and Ostendorf, 2009 ), which is based on the scales developed by Mervielde and De Fruyt (1999) . The two items (e.g., “I doubt myself”) were measured on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (“hardly”) to 5 (“very”). The scale exhibited a good internal consistency of α = 0.77. Gender was also included as covariate with 0 = boys and 1 = girls.

Statistical analyses

The statistical analyses were conducted using Mplus 8.1 ( Muthén and Muthén, 1998-2017 ). All analyses were performed using robust maximum likelihood estimation and missing data were compensated for using the full information maximum likelihood approach.

As our data are hierarchically structured (i.e., students clustered in classes), we performed multilevel structural equation modeling (MLSEM) ( Hox et al., 2018 ). This approach allows to differentiate effects on the student level from those on the class level. Multilevel analyses can be further extended to subsequent hierarchical structures (e.g., schools). However, the class level was chosen as it represents the immediate context of students’ learning environment ( van Ewijk and Sleegers, 2010 ). Lüdtke et al. (2009) highlight in their study that using a multilevel approach is usually warranted when examining the impact of learning environment characteristics (i.e., teacher and classmate support). Ignoring the different levels (e.g., student vs. classroom level) leads to aggregated and biased parameter estimates (see also Marsh et al., 2009 ).

After careful consideration, we made use of parcels instead of single-item data for the scales’ indicators. Parceling is a technique widely used in psychology and social sciences to produce more stable results due to more parsimonious models ( Little et al., 2002 ; Nasser and Wisenbaker, 2003 ). Accordingly, random parcels were built meaning that the scales’ items were randomly assigned to built one parcel. In case of perceived helplessness, three random items were assigned to two parcels. For all other variables, two random items were assigned, so that each latent variable would be measured by two parcel indicators. Parceling has several advantages over item-level data. The advantages relate to psychometric characteristics, such higher reliability and a higher ratio of common-to-unique factor variance. In terms of model estimation, parceling has a lower likelihood of distributional violations and it leads to a more parsimonious model with fewer parameter estimates, a lower likelihood of correlated residuals and cross-loadings, and reduced sources of sampling error ( Little et al., 2002 , 2013 ). Achievement, neuroticism, gender, and SES were entered as manifest variables.

To test our hypotheses whether teacher as well as peer support would be related to lower stress levels and higher academic achievement among secondary school students, a MLSEM was built. This MLSEM builds upon the work of Lüdtke et al. (2011) who presented the latent-measurement/manifest-aggregation approach. This approach is referred to as a partial correction approach, as it corrects bias in the estimates due to item sampling (latent measurement), but it does not correct the estimates for bias in the sampling of individuals (manifest aggregation). The latter indicates that classroom-level constructs are based on group average of individual-level constructs. However, this approach is preferably over the doubly latent approach ( Marsh et al., 2009 ), if there is only limited information at the cluster level (e.g., few clusters or few individuals within certain clusters) ( Lüdtke et al., 2011 ). Contrarily to our dataset, doubly latent models require at least 50 clusters (preferably 100) with 10–15 individuals within each cluster. As group differences were of utmost interest in this study, we used group-mean centering for the predictors at the student level. Thereby, only in-group variance is included in the prediction meaning that the regressions at L1 represent the expected change of an outcome variable based on the increase of one within-cluster unit in the predictor ( Enders and Tofighi, 2007 ; Enders, 2013 ).

Accordingly, a null model was estimated first to confirm the factor structure of the latent constructs and to investigate their variances at the different levels (student level and class level). This separation of variance is necessary to compute the intra-class correlations (ICC). The ICC(1) provides information about potential individual variance at the two levels, whereas the ICC(2) provides an estimate of reliability of aggregated classroom mean ratings ( Snijders and Bosker, 2012 ). Particularly, ICC(1) is necessary to investigate the amount variance at L2 that can be analyzed by adding predictors at the respective levels. This examination was necessary to determine whether a multilevel approach is actually warranted for our data. To be precise, only if there were substantial differences in the dependent variables (achievement, ability to cope, and perceived helplessness), a multilevel approach should be favored over a single-level model. Subsequently, this model was extended with L1 predictors (model 1) and finally with L1 and L2 predictors (model 2; teacher support, classmate support, SES, gender, and neuroticism).

Additionally, we added parameters to the analyses that computed the context-effects. A context effect is present, if an aggregated variable at class level is still associated with the dependent variable after controlling for the same effect on the individual level. Consequently, there are context effects if the slopes of the within-group regressions are different from the between-group regressions ( Raudenbush and Bryk, 2002 ). This difference between both regressions was therefore added as an additional parameter in the model constraint option of Mplus and was further standardized to facilitate interpretation. The standardization is based on multiplying the unstandardized effect with two standard deviations of the predictor variable at L2 divided by the total variance of the L1 dependent variable. The standardized effect size can then be interpreted as the difference in the dependent variable between two L2 clusters that differ by two standard deviations on the predictor variable ( Marsh et al., 2009 ).

Evaluations of the model fit are based on the recommendations of Hu and Bentler (1999) : Consequently, we report and evaluate χ 2 test of model fit, Comparative-Fit-Index (CFI), Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI), standardized root mean square Residual (SRMR), and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) with its 90% confidence intervals.

Table 1 shows the manifest zero-order correlations of the study’s variables and Table 2 their descriptive statistics.

Table 1 . Zero-order correlation coefficients among all study variables at student and classroom level.

Table 2 . Descriptive statistics.

Multilevel structural equation modeling

Initially, we conducted a null model in which only the dependent variables were modeled. Similarly to the ICC(1) values, this model served as a reference model to examine whether there is significant variance of the dependent variables at both levels. The null model showed a good fit [χ 2 (10) = 18.89, p (χ 2 ) < 0.05; CFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.98, SRMR within = 0.02, SRMR between = 0.07, RMSEA = 0.07]. At the student level, all three dependent variables exhibited significant variances: perceived helplessness (σ 2 = 0.38, p < 0.001), ability to cope (σ 2 = 0.24, p < 0.001), and achievement (σ 2 = 0.35, p < 0.001). Similarly, all variances at the between level were significant, thus warranting a multilevel approach: perceived helplessness (σ 2 = 0.06, p < 0.01), ability to cope (σ 2 = 0.08, p < 0.001), and achievement (σ 2 = 0.18, p < 0.001).

Subsequently, we added predictors based on theory and prior empirical research to L1 (model 1). This model achieved an adequate fit: χ 2 (39) = 103.942, p (χ 2 ) < 0.001; CFI = 0.97, TLI = 0.94, SRMR within = 0.03, SRMR between = 0.30, RMSEA = 0.05 (see Table 3 ).

Table 3 . Results of multilevel structural equation modeling.

Further, we added predictors to L2 which resulted in our final model (model 2; Figure 1 ; Table 3 ). This final model achieved a good fit: χ 2 (54) = 94.90, p (χ 2 ) < 0.001; CFI = 0.98, TLI = 0.96, SRMR within = 0.03, SRMR between = 0.11, RMSEA = 0.03. In this model, the significant paths of model 1 remained robust in light of the addition of the added predictors at L2. However, as indicated by the R 2 values, significant proportions of variance were explained by classroom differences of the predictors at L2 (see Table 4 ).

Figure 1 . Final multilevel structural equation model. Note. Only significant paths are shown. Estimates are shown as first unstandardized and second as standardized estimates at * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.

Table 4 . Results of multilevel structural equation modeling.

Standardized factor loadings of the latent constructs ranged between 0.64 and 0.81 on the within level and between 0.75 and 1.00 on the between level. The model included significant correlations of the predictor variables: gender was significantly associated with peer support ( r = −0.12, p < 0.05) and neuroticism ( r = −0.35, p < 0.001). Moreover, teacher support was significantly associated with neuroticism ( r = −0.14, p < 0.01) and peer support ( r = 0.46, p < 0.001). Lastly, ability to cope was associated with perceived helplessness ( r = −0.41, p < 0.001). On the between level, average peer support was significantly associated with teacher support ( r = 0.70, p < 0.001).

At the student level, teacher support predicted perceived helplessness ( B = −0.23, β = −0.19, SE = 0 .06 , p < 0. 001) and ability to cope ( B = 0.17, β =0.18, SE = 0 .07 , p < 0. 05). Thus, if the students in our study perceived their teachers to be supportive, students indicated less perceived helplessness and more ability to cope. Moreover, gender proved to be a significant covariate, indicating that boys have a higher ability to cope ( B = 0.15, β = 0.14, SE = 0 .06 , p < 0. 01) and exhibited lower achievement than girls ( B = −0.20, β = −0.14, SE = 0.07, p < 0.01). Moreover, neuroticism negatively predicted ability to cope ( B = −0.20, β = 0.44, SE = 0 .02 , p < 0. 001), positively predicted perceived helplessness ( B = 0.34, β = 0.59, SE = 0. 03 , p < 0. 001), as well as academic achievement ( B = −0.08, β = −0.12, SE = 0.03, p < 0.01). Moreover, SES was significantly related to all three dependent variables: the higher students’ SES, the more likely they exhibited higher ability to cope ( B = 0.06, β = 0.14, SE = 0.02, p < 0.01), lower perceived helplessness ( B = −0.05, β = −0.10, SE = 0.02, p < 0.05), and higher achievement ( B = 0.19, β = 0.33, SE = 0.03, p < 0.001).

On the classroom level, average peer support by classmates significantly predicted class average ability to cope ( B = 0.54, β = 1.15, SE = 0 .15 , p < 0. 001). Additionally, average classmate support significantly predicted average achievement ( B = 0.66, β = 0.49, SE = 0.25, p < 0.01).

Three contextual effects were found to be significant: (1) the association between peer support in class and ability to cope ( B = 0.43, β = 3.97, SE = 0.17, p = 0.01) meaning that if two students who indicate equal values on peer support, the one being in a classroom with a higher average of peer support would perceive significantly more ability to cope. (2) the association between teacher support and ability to cope ( B = −0.45, β = −3.39, SE = 0.19, p < 0.05) meaning that if two students who indicate equal values on teacher support, the one being in a classroom with a higher average of teacher support would perceive significantly less ability to cope. Lastly, (3) the association between peer support and academic achievement ( B = 0.67, β = 1.18, SE = 0.26, p < 0.05) meaning that if two students who indicated equal values on peer support in class, the one being in a classroom with a higher average peer support would exhibit higher academic achievement.

The model explained 48% ( R 2 = 0.48, p < 0.001) of variation of perceived helplessness, 37% of variation of ability to cope ( R 2 = 0.37, p < 0.001), and 15% of variation of students’ academic achievement ( R 2 = 0.15, p < 0.001) on the student level. On the classroom level, the model explained 79% ( R 2 = 0.79, p < 0.001) of variation of class average ability to cope, 8% ( R 2 = 0.08, p = 0.51) of variation of class average perceived helplessness, and 31% ( R 2 = 0.31, p < 0.001) of variation of classes’ average academic achievement.

The current study investigated how perceived teacher and peer support in class relate to secondary school students’ stress, captured by ability to cope and helplessness, as well as students’ academic achievement on both the individual and the class level. Because teacher and peer support shape the class climate, which is a class-level variable, multilevel analyses were applied to detect individual student and contextual classroom effects, including gender, SES, and neuroticism as control variables.

The theoretical underpinnings of the study include COR ( Hobfoll et al., 1990 ; Hobfoll and Ford, 2007 ), which assumes that social support acts as a resource during challenges. Specifically, the investment of resources is required to successfully face and overcome challenges. Applying COR to the school context and the current study, we expected that peer and teacher support would provide resources to help students manage their stress and improve their academic performance.

The multilevel analyses partly confirmed H1 by revealing that on an individual student level, teacher support was related to higher ability to cope and lower levels of helplessness. Hence, if a student perceives teachers as supportive, this student experiences less stress, as he/she applies coping strategies to deal with stressors and reports lower helplessness. These findings are in line with previous correlational and longitudinal studies that investigated the direct paths of the predictor variables teacher support ( Hughes, 2012 ; Hoferichter and Raufelder, 2021 ) for students’ stress level. Contrary to H1, however, no significant relationship was found between teacher support and grades. This contradicts previous studies, possibly because they are all based on data from elementary school students ( Ladd and Burgess, 2001 ; Hughes et al., 2008 ; Mason et al., 2019 ). In general, teacher-student relationships are perceived as more supportive and caring in elementary schools, and the type of teaching (e.g., subject teachers; teacher-centered learning) also differs greatly in the two types of schools ( Wigfield et al., 1991 ; Anderman and Maehr, 1994 ; Midgley et al., 1995 ; Anderman and Midgley, 1997 ). In addition, the results of previous studies may differ due to different operationalization procedures.

H1 could also not be confirmed in the sense that no significant associations between perceived peer support and stress experience or grades were found at the individual level, which contradicts previous studies ( Burke and Sass, 2013 ; Uzezi and Deya, 2017 ; Vargas-Madriz and Konishi, 2021 ). Interestingly, and in line with H2, peer support within the classroom had a significant association with ability to cope and academic achievement, when analyzed on the class level. Hence, when peer support was aggregated on a class level and as such class context taken into consideration, students reported higher ability to cope in stressful situations and better GPA, when they perceived peer support by their classmates. In line with these results, Burke and Sass (2013) did also find that peer support was related to higher students’ academic achievement only on the class level. The results reveal that classmates together present a powerful context providing support to their peers which in turn is related to better coping strategies in stressful situations and better academic performance. Meanwhile, teachers who support their students may be able to help them cope with stressors and feel less helpless.

The current study also partly confirmed H2 as it was found that students’ perceived class context was related to the degree students were able to cope with stress and be academically successful. Context effects can be interpreted as a comparison between two identical students in different classes (contexts). In detail, if two students who indicate equal values regarding peer support, the one being in a classroom with a higher average of peer support would perceive significantly more ability to cope and higher academic achievement. Furthermore, the current study also revealed that students who are part of a context in which teachers are perceived as supportive tend to exhibit less ability to cope. This finding may be counterintuitive, as COR and previous studies suggest that teacher support is related to lower stress in students ( Hughes, 2012 ; Hoferichter and Raufelder, 2021 ). Therefore, this finding could lead to the conclusion that high levels of teacher support affect students’ coping skills, as excessive support can undermine self-development. Perhaps, students in classes with very high teacher support do not feel the need to expand their coping skills because the high teacher support cancels out their stressful experience. When teachers provide too much support, they can interfere with students’ autonomy and competence, which are important prerequisites for developing self-determined behaviors and skills ( Catalano et al., 2004 ; Wehmeyer, 2005 ). Self-determined behavior refers to “volitional actions that enable one to act as the primary causal agent in one’s life and to maintain or improve one’s quality of life” ( Hui and Tsang, 2012 , p. 117). In other words, students who have the opportunity to experience autonomy and competence are more likely to develop self-determined behaviors, which, in turn, can strengthen their coping skills. Future studies, however, should examine the varying degrees of teacher support from the perspective of students in order to differentiate how much support teachers should provide to help students cope with stressors.

Considering the covariates that were included in the model on the student level to rule out potential confounders, it was found that neurotic students reported less ability to cope and more helplessness as well as worse GPA compared to non-neurotic students. As neurotic individuals tend to experience higher threat appraisals and are more vulnerable to stress which compromises their academic achievement, the current studies’ findings are in line with previous research ( Suls, 2001 ; Schneider, 2004 ; Hakimi et al., 2011 ).

Furthermore, students from high socio-economic backgrounds reported higher ability to cope and less helplessness as well as better academic achievement compared to students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. This finding is in line with previous studies, indicating higher stress levels among low SES students ( Roubinov et al., 2018 ; Tarullo et al., 2020 ) as well as medium to strong SES-achievement relations ( Sirin, 2005 ). As expected, girls reported lower ability to cope with stressors and better GPA compared to boys, which was also found by Hoferichter et al. (2021b) and Salmela-Aro et al. (2009) as well as Voyer and Voyer (2014) , respectively.

In sum, the current study emphasizes the essential role of teachers and peers for students’ stress management and academic achievement. The multilevel approach allowed us to identify different effects at the individual and class levels: While on the individual level particularly teacher support was found to be positively related to students’ stress management and academic achievement, on the class level and considering context effects, peer support related to students’ ability to cope with stressors and to high academic achievement. In other words, general class climate characterized by mutual support is needed above all to reduce the experience of stress and have a positive effect on academic performance. Thereby, the role of teachers differs from peer support, as individual students who perceive their teachers as supportive exhibit better stress management in general, i.e., high ability to cope and low helplessness. On the other hand, if all teachers in a class are perceived as highly supportive, there may be a reversal effect insofar as students then tend to report fewer coping skills. By considering the hierarchical structure of students nested in classrooms, this study could give even more detailed information on how teacher and peer support relate to students’ stress and academic ability. This study reveals empirical findings that contribute to research on social resources in the frame of the conservation of resource theory ( Hobfoll et al., 1990 ), revealing that students’ stress and academic achievement to a large part are related to the quality of teacher and peer support differently on the individual and class level. Thus, while COR provides a general approach to the function of social resources as protective factors in difficult situations, our empirical study provides additional information on how classroom climate variables differentially affect student stress and academic achievement, illustrating the complex nature of social relationships and their impact on student outcomes.

Transferring the findings to the school context, school staff should be advised that their 1:1 relationship with students enhances students’ ability to deal with challenging situations and enables them to take action rather than feeling helpless. Thus, a teacher who responds to the student individually, attends to the student’s concerns and interests, and expresses a great deal of appreciation to the student plays an important role in helping the student cope with stress. Because peer support as a classroom variable plays an important role in students’ coping strategies and academic achievement, teachers can consider peers as significant protective factors that promote their classmates’ academic achievement. Collaborative classroom activities, shared learning scenarios, and peer feedback should be integrated into daily classroom routines (see Simonsmeier et al., 2020 ). In addition, school staff should understand their role in the classroom as mentors who guide learning processes while keeping a low profile rather than overemphasizing their support for students, as too much teacher support can hinder students’ personal and academic development.

Strengths, limitations, and future research

This study examined how both teacher and peer support relate to students’ stress and academic achievement by considering covariates such as gender, SES, and neuroticism. Thereby, this study investigates social resources from the immediate environment of students that can further benefit interventional programs that aim at reducing stress and increasing academic success among students. A strength of this study is the multilevel analysis that considers individual and context effects in the interplay of the variables of interest. However, as in all empirical studies, there are limitations that have to be taken into consideration when interpreting the results, such as the cross-sectional nature of data investigated. Hence, no causal relationships between the variables may be derived from the analyses. Future research should therefore investigate the longitudinal relationship between teacher and peer support on students’ stress and academic achievement over the school years, to consider long-term effects of social resources and further develop COR by adding the time factor and by covering developmental processes of students. As the school context shapes students’ stress, school engagement, and motivation ( Hoferichter and Raufelder, 2022 ), future studies are advised to investigate potential differences across students from various school types (e.g., lower- and higher track schools) and consider different age groups (e.g., elementary school students), as peer relationships and teacher-student relationships change during students’ school career as well as students’ needs for social support from different agencies ( Tarrant, 2002 ; Branje, 2018 ; Hoferichter et al., 2021a ). In addition to self-report data, future studies may include teacher and parental ratings when it comes to students’ ability to cope and helplessness as well as include competencies of students in various subjects that complement GPA.

As the current study indicates individual and group-level specifics with respect to the association of teacher and peer support for students’ stress and academic achievement, further person-oriented approaches promise to bring to light detailed information on the topic by addressing the following research questions: What would students’ profiles look like given varying degrees of teacher support, students’ coping skills, helplessness, and achievement? Would these profiles be stable across school years? How might different learning environments (e.g., teacher-centered instruction, self-directed learning) contribute to students’ coping skills and academic achievement? How do boys and girls differ in their need for peer and teacher support to develop their coping skills and succeed academically? How does differentiated teacher support, such as emotional and instructional support and classroom management, contribute to students’ stress development and academic achievement?

Data availability statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethics statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Ethikkommission der Universitätsmedizin Greifswald. Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin as well as by students themselves.

Author contributions

FH and SK designed the study. FH wrote the theoretical part and discussion, while SK did the statistical analyses and wrote the methods and results sections. DR acted as consultant and edited the MS. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This research was funded by the “Anschubfinanzierung” of the University of Greifswald. We acknowledge support for the Article Processing Charge from the DFG (German Research Foundation, 393148499) and the Open Access Publication Fund of the University of Greifswald.

Acknowledgments

We thank all school students, teachers, and principals for supporting our research.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary material

The Supplementary material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.992497/full#supplementary-material

American Psychological Association (2002). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. Am. Psychol. 57, 1060–1073. doi: 10.1037/0003-066x.57.12.1060

CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar

Anderman, E. M., and Maehr, M. L. (1994). Motivation and schooling in the middle grades. Rev. Educ. Res. 64, 287–309. doi: 10.3102/00346543064002287

Anderman, E. M., and Midgley, C. (1997). Changes in achievement goal orientations, perceived academic competence, and grades across the transition. Contemp. Educ. Psychol. 22, 269–298. doi: 10.1006/ceps.1996.0926

PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar

Bardach, L., Yanagida, T., and Lüftenegger, M. (2020). Studying classroom climate effects in the context of multi-level structural equation modelling: an application-focused theoretical discussion and empirical demonstration. Int. J. Res. Meth. Edu. 43, 348–363. doi: 10.2307/2136404

Bleidorn, W., and Ostendorf, F. (2009). Ein big five-Inventar für kinder und Jugendliche [a big five inventory for children and adolescents: the German version of the hierarchical personality inventory for children (HiPIC)]. Diagnostica 55, 160–173. doi: 10.1026/0012-1924.55.3.160

Branje, S. J. (2018). Development of parent–adolescent relationships: conflict interactions as a mechanism of change. Child Dev. Perspect. 12, 171–176. doi: 10.1111/cdep.12278

Buchwald, P., and Schwarzer, C. (2010). “Impact of assessment on students’ test anxiety,” in International encyclopedia of education . 3rd Edn . eds. P. Peterson, E. Baker, and B. McGaw (Amsterdam: Elsevier), 498–505.

Google Scholar

Burke, M. A., and Sass, T. R. (2013). Classroom peer effects and student achievement. J. Labor Econ. 31, 51–82. doi: 10.1086/666653

Catalano, R. F., Berglund, M. L., Ryan, J. A. M., Lonczak, H. S., and Hawkins, J. D. (2004). Positive youth development in the United States: research findings on evaluations of positive youth development programs. Ann. Am. Acad. Pol. Soc. Sci. 591, 98–124. doi: 10.1177/0002716203260102

Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., and Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. J. Health Soc. Behav. 24:385. doi: 10.2307/2136404

Creemers, B. P. M. (1994). The effective classroom . London: Cassell; London; New York, NY: Continuum Intl Pub Group.

Downer, J. T., Stuhlman, M., Schweig, J., Martínez, J. F., and Ruzek, E. (2015). Measuring effective teacher–student interactions from a student perspective: a multi-level analysis. J. Early Adolesc. 35, 722–758. doi: 10.1177/0272431614564059

Enders, C. K. (2013). “Centering predictors and contextual effects” in The SAGE handbook of multilevel modeling . eds. M. A. Scott, J. S. Simonoff, and B. D. Marx (Los Angeles, CA: SAGE), 89–108.

Enders, C. K., and Tofighi, D. (2007). Centering predictor variables in cross-sectional multilevel models: a new look at an old issue. Psychol. Methods 12, 121–138. doi: 10.1037/1082-989X.12.2.121

Hakimi, S., Hejazi, E., and Lavasani, M. G. (2011). The relationships between personality traits and students’ academic achievement. Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 29, 836–845. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.11.312

Hamre, B. K., and Pianta, R. C. (2006). “Student-teacher relationships,” in Children’s needs III: Development, prevention and intervention . eds. G. Bear and K. M. Minke (Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists), 49–60.

Hobfoll, S. E., and Ford, J. S. (2007). “Conservation of resources theory,” in Encyclopedia of stress . 2nd Edn. ed. G. Fink (Cambridge, MA: Academic Press), 562–567.

Hobfoll, S. E., Freedy, J., Lane, C., and Geller, P. (1990). Conservation of social resources: social support resource theory. J. Soc. Pers. Relat. 7, 465–478. doi: 10.1177/0265407590074004

Hoferichter, F., Hirvonen, R., and Kiuru, N. (2021b). The development of school well-being in secondary school: high academic buoyancy and supportive class-and school climate as buffers. Learn. Instr. 71:101377. doi: 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2020.101377

Hoferichter, F., Kulakow, S., and Hufenbach, M. C. (2021a). Support from parents, peers, and teachers is differently associated with middle school students’ well-being. Front. Psychol. 12:758226. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.758226

Hoferichter, F., Kulakow, S., and Raufelder, D. (2020). “Die Bedeutung von sozio-emotionaler Unterstützung und akademischer Lernunterstützung für epistemische Neugier [the meaning of socio-emotional and academic support from teachers for epistemic curiosity]” in Emotionen in Schule und Unterricht . eds. C. Rubach and R. Lazarides (Opladen: Budrich), S.155–S.174.

Hoferichter, F., and Raufelder, D. (2015). Examining the role of social relationships in the association between neuroticism and test anxiety – results from a study with German secondary school students. Educ. Psychol. 35, 851–868. doi: 10.1080/01443410.2013.849326

Hoferichter, F., and Raufelder, D. (2021). Kann erlebte Unterstützung durch Lehrkräfte schulische Erschöpfung und Stress bei Schülerinnen und Schülern abfedern? [Can experienced support from teachers buffer school exhaustion and stress in students?]. Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychol. 36, 101–114. doi: 10.1024/1010-0652/a000322

Hoferichter, F., and Raufelder, D. (2022). Biophysiological stress markers relate differently to grit and school engagement among lower-and higher-track secondary school students. Br. J. Educ. Psychol. 1–21. doi: 10.1111/bjep.12514

Holt, L. J., Mattanah, J. F., and Long, M. W. (2018). Change in parental and peer relationship quality during emerging adulthood: implications for academic, social, and emotional functioning. J. Soc. Pers. Relat. 35, 743–769. doi: 10.1177/0265407517697856

Hox, J. J., Moerbeek, M., Schoot, R., and v. d., (2018). Multilevel analysis: Techniques and pplications (3rd ed ). New York, NY: Routledge.

Hu, L. T., and Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Struct. Equ. Model. Multidiscip. J. 6, 1–55. doi: 10.1080/10705519909540118

Hughes, J. N. (2012). Teacher-student relationships and school adjustment: progress and remaining challenges. Attach Hum. Dev. 14, 319–327. doi: 10.1080/14616734.2012.672288

Hughes, J. N., Luo, W., Kwok, O. M., and Loyd, L. K. (2008). Teacher-student support, effortful engagement, and achievement: a 3-year longitudinal study. J. Educ. Psychol. 100, 1–14. doi: 10.1037/0022-0663.100.1.1

Hui, E. K., and Tsang, S. K. (2012). Self-determination as a psychological and positive youth development construct. Sci. World J. 2012:759358. doi: 10.1100/2012/759358

Inchley, J., Currie, D., Young, T., Samdal, O., Torsheim, T., Augustson, L., et al. (2016). Growing up unequal: Gender and socioeconomic differences in young people’s health and well-being. Health behaviour in school-aged children (HBSC) study: International report from the 2013/2014 survey. World Health Organization.

Kilpatrick Demaray, M., Malecki, C., Jenkins, L. N., and Cunningham, C. M. (2010). “Social support: how to assess and include it in research on prevention and youth outcomes,” in Handbook of youth prevention science . eds. B. Doll, W. Pfohl, and J. Yoon (Oxfordshire: Routledge), 165–178.

Klein, E. M., Brahler, E., Dreier, M., Reinecke, L., Muller, K. W., Schmutzer, G., et al. (2016). The German version of the perceived stress scale - psychometric characteristics in a representative German community sample. BMC Psychiatry 16:159. doi: 10.1186/s12888-016-0875-9

Kozlowski, S. W. J., and Klein, K. J. (2000). “A multilevel approach to theory and research in organizations: Contextual, temporal, and emergent processes” in Multilevel theory, research and methods in organizations: Foundations, extensions, and new directions . eds. K. J. Klein and S. W. J. Kozlowski (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass), 3–90.

La Greca, A. M., and Harrison, H. M. (2005). Adolescent peer relations, friendships, and romantic relationships: do they predict social anxiety and depression? J. Clin. Child Adolesc. Psychol. 34, 49–61. doi: 10.1207/s15374424jccp3401_5

Ladd, G. W., and Burgess, K. B. (2001). Do relational risks and protective factors moderate the linkages between childhood aggression and early psychological and school adjustment? Child Dev. 72, 1579–1601. doi: 10.1111/1467-8624.00366

Little, T. D., Cunningham, W. A., Shahar, G., and Widaman, K. F. (2002). To parcel or not to parcel: exploring the question, weighing the merits. Struct. Equ. Model. Multidiscip. J. 9, 151–173. doi: 10.1207/s15328007sem0902_1

Little, T. D., Rhemtulla, M., Gibson, K., and Schoemann, A. M. (2013). Why the items versus parcels controversy needn't be one. Psychol. Methods 18, 285–300. doi: 10.1037/a0033266

Lüdtke, O., Marsh, H. W., Robitzsch, A., and Trautwein, U. (2011). A 2 x 2 taxonomy of multilevel latent contextual models: accuracy-bias trade-offs in full and partial error correction models. Psychol. Methods 16, 444–467. doi: 10.1037/a0024376

Lüdtke, O., Robitzsch, A., Trautwein, U., and Kunter, M. (2009). Assessing the impact of learning environments: how to use student ratings of classroom or school characteristics in multilevel modeling. Contemp. Educ. Psychol. 34, 120–131. doi: 10.1016/j.cedpsych.2008.12.001

Lyons, M. D., and Jiang, X. (2021). School-related social support as a buffer to stressors in the development of adolescent life satisfaction. J. Appl. Sch. Psychol. 38, 21–38. doi: 10.1080/15377903.2021.1895397

Ma, L., Luo, H., and Xiao, L. (2021). Perceived teacher support, self-concept, enjoyment and achievement in reading: a multilevel mediation model based on PISA 2018. Learn. Individ. Differ. 85:101947. doi: 10.1016/j.lindif.2020.101947

Marsh, H. W., Lüdtke, O., Robitzsch, A., Trautwein, U., Asparouhov, T., Muthen, B., et al. (2009). Doubly-latent models of school contextual effects: integrating multilevel and structural equation approaches to control measurement and sampling error. Multivar. Behav. Res. 44, 764–802. doi: 10.1080/00273170903333665

Mason, B. A., Hajovsky, D. B., McCune, L. A., Turek, J. J., and Curby, T. (2019). Conflict, closeness, and academic skills: a longitudinal examination of the teacher–student relationship. Sch. Psychol. Rev. 46, 177–189. doi: 10.17105/SPR-2017-0020.V46-2

Mead, S., Hilton, D., and Curtis, L. (2001). Peer support: a theoretical perspective. Psychiatr. Rehabil. J. 25, 134–141. doi: 10.1037/h0095032

Mervielde, I., and De Fruyt, F. (1999). Construction of the hierarchical personality inventory for children (HIPIC). In I. Mervielde, I. Deary, F. FruytDe, and F. Ostendorf (Eds.), Personality psychology in Europe. Proceedings of the eighth European conference on personality psychology (Vol. 7). Tilburg, Netherlands: Tilburg University Press.

Midgley, C., Anderman, E., and Hicks, L. (1995). Differences between elementary and midle school teachers and students: a goal theory approach. J. Early Adolesc. 15, 90–113. doi: 10.1177/0272431695015001006

Moore, G. F., Cox, R., Evans, R. E., Hallingberg, B., Hawkins, J., Littlecott, H. J., et al. (2018). School, peer and family relationships and adolescent substance use, subjective wellbeing and mental health symptoms in Wales: a cross sectional study. Child Indic. Res. 11, 1951–1965. doi: 10.1007/s12187-017-9524-1

Muthén, L. K., and Muthén, B. O. (1998-2017). Mplus user’s guide (8th ed.) Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.

Nachtigall, C., and Kröhne, U. (2004). Landesbericht Thüringer Kompetenztests 2004 [state report Thuringia competence tests 2004]. Available at: https://www.db-thueringen.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/dbt_derivate_00028635/Kompetenztest2008-Landesbericht.pdf

Nasser, F., and Wisenbaker, J. (2003). A Monte Carlo study investigating the impact of item parceling on measures of fit in confirmatory factor analysis. Educ. Psychol. Meas. 63, 729–757. doi: 10.1177/0013164403258228

Patrick, H., Anderman, L. H., and Ryan, A. M. (2004). “Social motivation and the classroom environment,” in Goals, goal structures, and patterns of adaptive learning . ed. C. Midgley (Malwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), 85e108.

Rageliené, T. (2016). Links of adolescents identity development and relationship with peers: a systematic literature review. J. Can. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 25, 97–105.

PubMed Abstract | Google Scholar

Raudenbush, S. W., and Bryk, A. S. (2002). Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods 2nd ed. Vol. 1). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Raufelder, D., Neumann, N., Domin, M., Romund, L., Golde, S., Lorenz, R., et al. (2021). Do belonging and social exclusion at school affect structural brain development during adolescence? Child Dev. 92, 2213–2223. doi: 10.1111/cdev.13613

Reitz, A. K., Zimmermann, J., Hutteman, R., Specht, J., and Neyer, F. J. (2014). How peers make a difference: the role of peer groups and peer relationships in personality development. Eur. J. Personal. 28, 279–288. doi: 10.1002/per.1965

Roberti, J. W., Harrington, L. N., and Storch, E. A. (2006). Further psychometric support for the 10-item version of the perceived stress scale. J. Coll. Couns. 9, 135–147. doi: 10.1002/j.2161-1882.2006.tb00100.x

Roubinov, D. S., Hagan, M. J., Boyce, W. T., Adler, N. E., and Bush, N. R. (2018). Family socioeconomic status, cortisol, and physical health in early childhood: the role of advantageous neighborhood characteristics. Psychosom. Med. 80, 492–501. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000585

Sabol, T. J., and Pianta, R. C. (2012). Recent trends in research on teacher-child relationships. Attach Hum. Dev. 14, 213–231. doi: 10.1080/14616734.2012.672262

Salmela-Aro, K., Kiuru, N., Leskinen, E., and Nurmi, J.-E. (2009). School burnout inventory (SBI): reliability and validity. Eur. J. Psychol. Assess. 25, 48–57. doi: 10.1027/1015-5759.25.1.48

Sarason, I. G., and Sarason, B. R. (2009). Social support: mapping the construct. Journal of social and. Pers. Relat. 26, 113–120. doi: 10.1177/0265407509105526

Savage, T. V., and Savage, M. K. (2009). Successful classroom management and discipline: Teaching self-control and responsibility . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Schneider, T. R. (2004). The role of neuroticism on psychological and physiological stress responses. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 40, 795–804. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2004.04.005

Shalaby, R., and Agyapong, V. (2020). Peer support in mental health: literature review. JMIR Ment. Health 7:e15572. doi: 10.2196/15572

Simonsmeier, B. A., Peiffer, H., and Flaig, M. (2020). Peer feedback improves students’ academic self-concept in higher education. Res. High. Educ. 61, 706–724. doi: 10.1007/s11162-020-09591-y

Sirin, S. R. (2005). Socioeconomic status and academic achievement: a meta-analytic review of research. Rev. Educ. Res. 75, 417–453. doi: 10.3102/00346543075003417

Snijders, T. A. B., and Bosker, R. J. (2012). Multilevel analysis: An introduction to basic and advanced multilevel modeling (2nd Edn ). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Statistisches Amt Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. (2018). Statistisches Jahrburch Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Available at: https://www.laiv-mv.de/static/LAIV/Statistik/Dateien/Publikationen/Statistisches%20Jahrbuch/Z011%202018%2000.pdf

Suls, J. (2001). “Affect, stress, and personality,” in Handbook of affect and social cognition . ed. J. P. Forgas (New York, NY: Psychology Press), 392–409.

Suresh, R., Alam, A., and Karkossa, Z. (2021). Using peer support to strengthen mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a review. Front. Psychol. 12:714181. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.714181

Tardy, C. H. (1985). Social support measurement. Am. J. Community Psychol. 13, 187–202. doi: 10.1007/BF00905728

Tarrant, M. (2002). Adolescent peer groups and social identity. Soc. Dev. 11, 110–123. doi: 10.1111/1467-9507.00189

Tarullo, A. R., Tuladhar, C. T., Kao, K., Drury, E. B., and Meyer, J. (2020). Cortisol and socioeconomic status in early childhood: a multidimensional assessment. Dev. Psychopathol. 32, 1876–1887. doi: 10.1017/S0954579420001315

Telzer, E. H., Fuligni, A. J., Lieberman, M. D., Miernicki, M. E., and Galván, A. (2015). The quality of adolescents' peer relationships modulates neural sensitivity to risk taking. Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci. 10, 389–398. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsu064

Tennant, J. E., Demaray, M. K., Malecki, C. K., Terry, M. N., Clary, M., and Elzinga, N. (2015). Students’ ratings of teacher support and academic and social-emotional well-being. Sch. Psychol. Q. 30, 494–512. doi: 10.1037/spq0000106

Torsheim, T., Wold, B., and Samdal, O. (2000). The teacher and classmate support scale: factor structure, test-retest reliability and validity in samples of 13-and 15-year-old adolescents. Sch. Psychol. Int. 21, 195–212. doi: 10.1177/0143034300212006

Uzezi, J. G., and Deya, G. D. (2017). Relationship between peer group influence and students’ academic achievement in chemistry at secondary school level. Am. J. Educ. Res. 5, 350–356. doi: 10.12691/education-5-4-2

van Ewijk, R., and Sleegers, P. (2010). Peer ethnicity and achievement: a meta-analysis into the compositional effect. Sch. Eff. Sch. Improv. 21, 237–265. doi: 10.1080/09243451003612671

Vansteenkiste, M., Simons, J., Lens, W., Soenens, B., and Matos, L. (2005). Examining the motivational impact of intrinsic versus extrinsic goal framing and autonomy-supportive versus internally controlling communication style on early adolescents' academic achievement. Child Dev. 76, 483–501. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2005.00858.x

Vargas-Madriz, L. F., and Konishi, C. (2021). The relationship between social support and student academic involvement: the mediating role of school belonging. Can. J. Sch. Psychol. 36, 290–303. doi: 10.1177/08295735211034713

Voyer, D., and Voyer, S. D. (2014). Gender differences in scholastic achievement: a meta-analysis. Psychol. Bull. 140, 1174–1204. doi: 10.1037/a0036620

Wang, M. T., Degol, J. L., Amemiya, J., Parr, A., and Guo, J. (2020). Classroom climate and children’s academic and psychological wellbeing: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Developmental Review 57:100912.

Wehmeyer, M. L. (2005). Self-determination and individuals with severe disabilities: re-examining meanings and misinterpretations. Res. Pract. Pers. Sev. Disabil. 30, 113–120. doi: 10.2511/rpsd.30.3.113

Wentzel, K. R. (2005). “Peer relationships, motivation, and academic performance at school” in Handbook of competence and motivation . eds. A. J. Elliot and C. S. Dweck (New York, NY: The Guiliford Press), 279e295.

Wentzel, K. R., Muenks, K., McNeish, D., and Russell, S. (2017). Peer and teacher supports in relation to motivation and effort: a multi-level study. Contemp. Educ. Psychol. 49, 32–45. doi: 10.1016/j.cedpsych.2016.11.002

Wigfield, A., Eccles, J. S., Mac Iver, D., Reuman, D. A., and Midgley, C. (1991). Transitions during early adolescence: changes in children's domain-specific self-perceptions and general self-esteem across the transition to junior high school. Dev. Psychol. 27, 552–565. doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.27.4.552

Yeung, R., and Leadbeater, B. (2010). Adults make a difference: the protective effects of parent and teacher emotional support on emotional and behavioral problems of peer-victimized adolescents. J. Community Psychol. 38, 80–98. doi: 10.1002/jcop.20353

Yildirim, S. (2012). Teacher support, motivation, learning strategy use, and achievement: a multilevel mediation model. J. Exp. Educ. 80, 150–172. doi: 10.1080/00220973.2011.596855

Keywords: teacher support, peer support, helplessness, ability to cope, academic achievement, multilevel analysis

Citation: Hoferichter F, Kulakow S and Raufelder D (2022) How teacher and classmate support relate to students’ stress and academic achievement. Front. Psychol . 13:992497. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.992497

Received: 12 July 2022; Accepted: 10 November 2022; Published: 28 November 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Hoferichter, Kulakow and Raufelder. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Frances Hoferichter, [email protected]

† These authors have contributed equally to this work

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

DOI: 10.1080/02619768.2019.1576629
Corpus ID: 151265895

Stress, coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education students

Josep Gustems-Carnicer , C. Calderón , Diego Calderón-Garrido
Published in European Journal of Teaching… 15 February 2019
Education, Psychology

148 Citations

Level of stress, coping strategies and academic achievement of college students during hyflex learning, influence of stress and coping strategies on undergraduate students' performance, psychological distress and students’ academic achievement in the colleges of education: does gender matter, coping strategies and self-efficacy in university students: a person-centered approach, assessing stress levels and coping strategies in the new normal among students of magsaysay college, confidence, academic stress, coping strategies as predictors of student academic achievement in physical education classes during covid-19, emotional competence within the stress coping strategies of music education students, a mixed-method study of stress and coping strategies among university social work students in the united states, a typology of student-teachers’ coping with stressful classroom events, student-teachers’ emotionally challenging classroom events: a typology of their responses, 60 references, under stress: the concerns and coping strategies of teacher education students, students perceived stress in academic programs: consequences for its management., coping strategies and psychological well-being among teacher education students, motivation and coping with the stress of assessment: gender differences in outcomes for university students, student teachers’ proactive strategies for avoiding study-related burnout during teacher education.

Highly Influential
14 Excerpts

STUDENT TEACHER STRESS AND PHYSICAL EXERCICE

Experienced stress, psychological symptoms, self-rated health and academic achievement: a longitudinal study of swedish university students., coping with examinations: exploring relationships between students' coping strategies, implicit theories of ability, and perceived control., psychological distress and coping amongst higher education students: a mixed method enquiry.

12 Excerpts

Social and study related stressors and resources among university entrants: Effects on well-being and academic performance

Stressors and coping strategies: The case of teacher education students at University of Ghana

Cite this article
https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2020.1727666

2. Literature review

3. methodology, 4. results and discussion, 5. differences between resident and non-resident teacher education students on stressors, 6. differences among resident and non-resident students on the type of coping strategies they might employ, 7. conclusion and recommendation, additional information.

Full Article
Figures & data
Reprints & Permissions
View PDF PDF View EPUB EPUB

This research examined the stressors that teacher education students of the University of Ghana usually encounter and the coping stratagems that they frequently embrace. Random sampling technique was employed to select 270 s and third year undergraduate students in 2018/2019 academic year to answer a survey questionnaire with closed-ended and open-ended questions. Dental Environmental Stress (DES) questionnaire on stressors was adapted whereas coping stratagems that might be utilised by students to minimise stress was measured using an adapted form of the Brief COPE. The outcomes of the research revealed that ‘working to meet scholastic requirements”, “inadequate supply of power and water in halls”, and “changes in eating and sleeping habits”, were three major stressors experienced by teacher education students. Furthermore, learners utilised numerous approaches, such as praying or meditating, and self-diverting actions as coping strategies. Learners also used more adaptive coping strategies, than maladaptive and avoidance coping strategies. Overall, resident students were found to be more stressed than non-resident students. Again, this study revealed that resident students are more prayerful and easily get help and advice from lecturers or teaching assistants but deeply averse with substance abuse such as using tobacco/alcohol/drug to feel better compared with their non-resident counterparts. It was recommended that the Department of Teacher Education should establish a counselling centre to assign academic counsellors to learners and organise frequent stress management programmes for them.

teacher education students
stress coping strategies
university students

PUBLIC STATEMENT INTEREST

1.1. Background of the study

Learners are exposed to diverse types of stressors, such as academic burden, financial constraints and a host of difficulties as well as future uncertainties and having opportunities for social mobility in the system. Learners go through these stressors with a responsibility to excel. Individuals could be lethargic and indifferent beings if they do not experience some form of stress as it has been observed that stress is an indispensable and unavoidable aspect of one’s daily life. Stress is inescapable as it associates with any peripheral occurrence that could be enjoyable or intimidating (Yikealo & Tareke, Citation 2018 ). An occurrence could be assessed as an obstacle or a risk depending on a person’s response to stress (Lazarus & Folkman, Citation 1984 as cited in Yikealo & Tareke, Citation 2018 ). According to Rheinberg and Engeser ( Citation 2018 ), thought-provoking circumstances could bring about positive impact like motivation and performance enhancement, intimidating and agonizing situations could also end up in anxiety, depression, societal dysfunction to the level of suicidal intent (Tang, Byrne, & Qin, Citation 2018 ). Stress has been in public linguistic use historically for the past four centuries and has been utilised to solve deprivation, calamity, or misery (Bamuhair et al., Citation 2015 ). In any case, stress is best portrayed as a situation where normal requirements exceed the limit concerning the prevailing response by a person and might perchance have physical and mental results (Rout & Rout, Citation 1993 ). Managing stress, on the other hand, is crucial for human endurance and can be characterised as the way toward taking care of outside or inside burdens that are affirmed as challenging on individual abilities and assets (Rout & Rout, Citation 1993 ).

Over the years, academic stress encountered by college learners as a result of the transition from high school has been a focus of attention by researchers (Shields, Citation 2001 ). New challenges are faced by students who gain admission into tertiary education; the switch from high school to university frequently comes with new stressors and needs suitable coping techniques. It is anticipated that students handle academic stressors as well as incorporating scholastic and medical assignments; stressors experienced by individuals that encompass cope with balancing the mission of that stage of existence with wide-ranging college-related stressors, such as retrieving funds as well as stressors related to peers (Bamuhair et al., Citation 2015 ). According to Kwaah and Essilfie ( Citation 2017 ) and Soliman ( Citation 2014 ), regardless of age, race and socio-economic background, stress emanates in several ways and might disturb an individual’s state of healthiness. Even though there be incalculable reasons for stress, the degree harps on one’s physical wellbeing, interconnection with other people, requirements of work, the degree of desire and dependence, as well as different types of obligations (Soliman, Citation 2014 ).

Coping has been viewed as a stabilization viewpoint that could help a person in psychosocial adjustment over the span of stressful occasions. Coping strategies utilised more than once by learners to minimise levels of stress include effectual time management, social help, constructive reassessment and commitment in comfortable interests. Tolerating responsibility and self-blame are also coping stratagems useful in the first year of medical school tertiary education. The pattern is shifted to challenging, intellectual, and strategic problem-solving in the later years (Ahmadi et al., Citation 2018 ). Similarly, in order to endeavour to overcome, reduce or permit stress and disagreement, it is imperative that the individual consciously puts in enormous efforts in order to solve private and relational challenges (Weiten & Lloyd, Citation 2008 ). The efficacy of the coping endeavour is contingent on the type of stress, the person involved, and the situations at hand. Reactions to coping are partially managed by one’s disposition and the social setting, especially the inherent features of the stressful atmosphere (Brannon & Feist, Citation 2009 ; Carver & Connor-Smith, Citation 2010 ). Thus, learners with an engagement coping approach can change the circumstances, bringing about an increasingly versatile result, thereby reporting fewer symptoms of depression (Tobin, Holroyd, Reynolds, & Wigal, Citation 1989 ).

1.2. Statement of the problem

Stress is viewed as an important part of life towards self-improvement. In any case, not all learners can adapt sufficiently. This study, therefore, seeks to explore stressors and coping approaches adopted by undergraduate students pursuing teacher education programmes in the school of education and leadership of the University of Ghana.

Proof from past investigations proposes that learners experience stress in one way or the other, subsequently credited to numerous emotive and bodily symptoms such as exhaustion, cerebral pains, and melancholy to stress among university learners. Consequently, stress is part of learners’ survival and might have a consequence of just how learners adapt to the challenges of college life (Kwaah & Essilfie, Citation 2017 ; Ramos, Citation 2011 ). Research has shown that difficulties such as poor scholastic excellence, school dropout, addictions, and crime are as a result of extreme stress experienced by learners (Kwaah & Essilfie, Citation 2017 ). Further, Soliman ( Citation 2014 ) additionally indicated that extreme levels of stress do not just prompt uneasiness and lack of impartiality, however, they might likewise prompt amplified occurrence of blunders and inappropriate conduct like examination malpractices, scam, and carelessness. Accordingly, Dusselier, Dunn, Wang, Shelley, and Whalen ( Citation 2010 ) suggested that an extreme level of stress and its control might influence learners’ essential learning. Nevertheless, how learners adapt to these stressors depends generally on their character, discernments, and past involvements (Amponsah & Owolabi, Citation 2011 ; Kwaah & Essilfie, Citation 2017 ). Besides, there have been several studies and empirical evidence on levels of stress and coping stratagems in different areas of academic endeavour, such as education, health and psychology. In all these studies, the researchers noted that university learners encounter extreme levels of academic, psychosocial and health stresses and employ similar approaches to cope with stress, such as adaptive strategies (Amponsah & Owolabi, Citation 2011 ; Bamuhair et al., Citation 2015 ; Govender, Mkhabela, Hlongwane, Jalim, & Jetha, Citation 2015 ; Kwaah & Essilfie, Citation 2017 ; Yikealo & Tareke, Citation 2018 ).

An analysis of the various literature demonstrates that most of the studies on stressors and coping approaches had been done in developed countries, and the few done in Ghana were mostly related to distance education students whose natural disposition is different from regular undergraduate students (Amponsah & Owolabi, Citation 2011 ; Gyambrah, Sesay, & Amponsah, Citation 2017 ; Kumi-Yeboah, Citation 2010 ; Kwaah & Essilfie, Citation 2017 ; Torto, Citation 2009 ; William, Rebecca, & Joseph, Citation 2010 ). Thus, this research focused on regular undergraduate teacher education students in a university that is not traditionally aligned to teacher education. The teacher education programme introduced in the university in the 2014/2015 academic year is unique in the sense that it has a different focus because it is the first department established in the university to train teachers for high schools in Ghana compared with the traditional mandate (train professionals in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and health) of the university.

Again, Ghanaian universities have traditionally given accommodation to all students admitted until the late 1980s when the growing demand for tertiary education by students could not meet the very limited residential facilities on campus thereby eroding most tertiary students’ dream of becoming residential students in Ghanaian public universities. A study to explore “the predicaments of non-residential students in Ghanaian institutions of higher education: a micro-level empirical evidence” was conducted by Addai ( Citation 2015 , p. 1). Although there has been private–public partnership in the provision of residential accommodation to students, the astronomical increase in student numbers have made it impossible to offer accommodation to all students on campus. The study concluded that non-residential student housing projects in the future should be made a vital part of the academic community by taking realistic measures to alleviate the challenges and difficulties non-resident students encounter at their various places of residence. The researchers of the current study observed from the foregoing that it will be expedient to explore the differences in the stressors encountered by residential and non-residential students as well as the coping strategies they might adopt to manage stress.

In as much as individuals need to comprehend the influences of students’ stress, it is also vital to appreciate the effectiveness of coping strategies and refining stress management programmes. Thus, examining stressors and coping techniques teacher education students employ will enable them to minimise their strain to empower them to accomplish meritoriously in their academic endeavours. Consequently, this has prompted the present research to explore the stressors encountered and coping maneuvers utilised by learners in the department of teacher education.

1.3. Purpose of the study

The research explored stressors experienced by teacher education learners of the University of Ghana, Legon, and coping stratagems they might adopt to manage stress.

To recognise stressors encountered by teacher education students.

To ascertain whether there are differences in stressors encountered by resident and non-resident teacher education students.

To evaluate the stress-coping approaches utilised by teacher education students to minimise stress.

To ascertain whether there are differences in the coping approaches that resident and non-resident teacher education students adopt in managing stress.

2.1. Conceptual framework

The Transactional Model of Stress and Coping Theory is a framework which highlights a formal assessment to appraise harm, danger and challenges, as consequences in the process of coping with stressful episodes (Lazarus, Citation 1966 ; Lazarus & Folkman, Citation 1984 ). The extent of stress encountered in the form of opinions, emotional state, sentiments and deeds, as a result of outside stressors, depends on evaluations of the state of affairs which involves an assessment about whether internal or external demands surpass resources and ability to cope when demands surpass capitals (Lazarus & Folkman, Citation 1984 ).

Figure 1. Model of the conceptual framework

Miles and Huberman ( Citation 1994 ) defined a conceptual framework as a “visual or written product, one that explains, either graphically or in narrative form, the main things to be studied-the key factors, concepts, or variables-and the presumed relationships among them” (p. 18).

Research has shown that students experience stressors such as academic-related stressors, health-related stressors and psychosocial-related stressors in the course of their academic pursuit (Ganesan, Talwar, Norsiah, & Oon, Citation 2018 ; Okoro, Citation 2018 ). Most of the studies indicate that distance education students experience diverse stressors and utilise different coping strategies as opposed to regular students (Gyambrah et al., Citation 2017 ; Kumi-Yeboah, Citation 2010 ; Kwaah & Essilfie, Citation 2017 ; Panchabakesan, Citation 2011 ; Ramos, Citation 2011 ). Similarly, majority of research was also conducted on the coping stratagems adopted by these students to manage stress (Ganesan et al., Citation 2018 ; Govender et al., Citation 2015 ; Mathew, Citation 2017 ; Okoro, Citation 2018 ). Additionally, a few studies on stressors and coping techniques adopted by residential and non-residential college students suggest that residential students face more stress than non-residential students (Kabir et al., Citation 2018 ; Parveen, Citation 2016 ), although Addai ( Citation 2015 ) found otherwise.

2.2. Causes/sources of stress (Stressors)

A stressor is any issue that activates a reaction to stress. Previous studies (Govender et al., Citation 2015 ; Robotham, Citation 2008 ) have acknowledged that stressors encountered by students are grouped into three, namely, individual, scholastic and college-related stressors. Examples of individual stressors encountered by learners consist of physical issues or hindrances, family troubles, money-related challenges, resource accessibility, social problems, and the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Scholastic stressors encountered by learners comprise high scholarly expectations, thorough class plans, incorporation of the classroom and medical learning, examinations and assessments, the measure of classwork and horrible scores, managing time, and fieldwork on clinical, as well as student–supervisor relationships. Similarly, stressors associated with the college comprised a change following college life, access to assets for example library assets and friend or partner contention. Because of the ceaselessly changing nature of the college condition learners can conceivably encounter significant levels of pressure that can influence their wellbeing and scholarly performance (Govender et al., Citation 2015 ).

Correspondingly, Okoro ( Citation 2018 ) categorised stressors into two broad categories, namely, academic and non-academic stressors. Consequently, the underlisted have been distinguished to be related to scholarly stress grounded on previous research: scholastic workload, lecture attendance, assessments, school curriculum and insufficient learning materials, subject-related projects and unfriendly scholarly environmental factors, for instance, poor illumination, outrageous temperature, and uncomfortable sound might increase the threat of harm and resultant increase of musculature and skeleton syndromes. Bodily stress forced on the physique comprises improper sitting arrangement and inappropriate posture on chairs in congested classrooms, which could cause great damage to muscles and joints. This might be a usual phenomenon, prompting increasingly incessant, recurrent discomfort and incidents of pain (Ekpenyong, Daniel, & Aribo, Citation 2013 as cited in Okoro, Citation 2018 ).

Notwithstanding, non-scholastic stressors involve different stressors aside from scholarly stress that disturbs individuals’ day by day operations by coercing them to make adjustments. They comprise relationship stressors, for example, trust issues, unfaithfulness, lack of self-confidence and relationship exploitation; financial stressor, for example, tuition fees, unsettled bills, danger of account going to collection and piling on unpaid liability through loans and credit card liability; unhealthy eating habits (foods that can activate stress comprise nourishment high in caffeine, fat, refined starches, and sugar); and employment.

2.3. Stress coping strategies

Coping is perceived as an important variable during the time spent in limiting, decreasing or enduring stress (Gustems–Carnicer & Calderón, Citation 2013 ). Coping alludes to the opinions and actions individuals utilise to deal with the interior and exterior requests of traumatic occasions (Folkman, Citation 2010 ).

Coping has been characterised by Lazarus and Folkman ( Citation 1984 ) as a procedure of continually changing one’s intellectual and demeanour endeavours to oversee precise outer or inner challenges that are assessed as burdening or surpassing the assets of the individual. Coping methodologies are viewed as those endeavours, both conduct and mental, that a person utilises to suppress, diminish or limit and endure distressing occasions (Sreeramareddy et al., Citation 2007 ). Correspondingly, Lazarus and Folkman ( Citation 1984 ) also defined eight comprehensive kinds of coping stratagems that people may utilise in traumatic circumstances. These eight categories of coping approaches are additionally categorised into emotion-focused and problem-focused coping techniques. Whereas emotion-focused coping techniques comprise concentrating on the positive, self-criticism, unrealistic reasoning, minding your own business, separation, and decrease in anxiety, problem-focused coping techniques consist of looking for social help (Lazarus, Citation 1993 ).

Besides, problem-focused coping is the point at which a person connects with the surrounding through direct activity, critical thinking, and dynamic fundamental leadership. Holland ( Citation 2001 ) indicated that immediate action includes changing the circumstance/occasion or changing oneself to eradicate the stressors. In general, problem-focused coping procedures are planned for diminishing the anxieties of the circumstance or stressor. This is done by increasing the resources for managing the stressor, which is regularly utilised when the individual accepts that the stressor can be altered (Lazarus & Folkman, Citation 1984 ). Consequently, problem-focused stratagems and confident thoughtful techniques of coping are adaptive coping tactics that lessen stress experienced by individuals.

On the contrary, endeavours focused on exchanging emotional reactions to stressful situations are termed as emotion-focused coping approaches (Robotham, Citation 2008 ). These endeavours are aimed at limiting the negative impacts of the stressor; in this way, the person feels much improved, yet the issue is not resolved (Holland, Citation 2001 ). Accordingly, emotion-focused coping techniques are planned for lessening the effect of the apparent stressor if the stressor cannot be changed or maintain a strategic distance from, or if a person sees the cause of stress as very intimidating, unalterable and overwhelming (Lazarus & Folkman, Citation 1984 ).

Emotion-focused stratagems, for example, evasion and negative thoughtfulness in light of a stressor are maladaptive strategies for coping. Even though these techniques for coping may diminish a person’s feelings of anxiety, it encourages long-term wellbeing (Shaheen & Alam, Citation 2010 ). Furthermore, the outcomes of maladaptive coping may cause diminished confidence, increased liquor utilization and smoking, decreased working of the immune framework, increased self-destructive propensities, poor scholarly achievement, and dropouts (Mosley et al., Citation 1994 ; Sarid, Anson, Yaari, & Margalith, Citation 2004 ).

2.4. Empirical literature review

Yikealo and Tareke ( Citation 2018 ) investigated stress coping procedures among undergrads of the College of Education (CoE) in Eritrea Institute of Technology, Mainefhi. One hundred and twenty-three learners were randomly selected to participate in the research. A 15 item Self–created College Students Coping Strategies Scale (CSCSS) was utilised for the research. The findings suggest that the learners utilise more positive stress coping approaches than negative ones.

The result of a study by Ganesan et al. ( Citation 2018 ), to explore the degree of stress as well as the coping stratagems encountered by undergraduates indicated that the many university students have a moderate level of stress. This investigation was motivated by considering the connection between stress and coping procedures between undergraduates. The findings also suggested a substantial reverse association between the degree of stress and coping approaches by undergraduates to manage stress. The investigation infers that a few amounts of stress can be great, as the correct sort of stress inspires them towards change and progress. Nonetheless, learners can be burdensome if they cannot adapt to stress. The investigation prescribed that learners ought to be urged to participate in extra-curricular exercises, for example, sports to decrease pressure.

So also, Okoro ( Citation 2018 ) evaluated the issues related to stress and tactics for dealing with stress among undergrads. Using descriptive statistics, the investigation uncovered that scholastic/coursework demands were the greatest perceived cause of stress among the students. Postponement, study/life equalization, funds, and cash issues were additionally recognised to have caused a significant amount of stress within the study period. The most widely recognised adapting stratagem among the students was active coping. However, denial was the least basic technique utilised.

Similarly, Kwaah and Essilfie ( Citation 2017 ) researched stress and adaptation schemes among learners pursuing distance education. The consequences of the investigation demonstrated that scholarly workload, high recurrence of assessments, budgetary issues and family/marriage issues were the significant reasons for stress among the learners. Students utilised numerous techniques, principally praying/meditating, self-diverting exercises, for example, sitting in front of the TV and tuning in to music to adapt to stress.

Further, Mathew ( Citation 2017 ) assessed stress and adapting techniques among undergrads. This investigation surveyed the degree of stress encountered by undergrads and the adapting stratagems they utilise to manage stress. The research findings demonstrated that the mean of 26.94 for stress level suggests that the average number of participants has a reasonable degree of stress. Similarly, a mean of 48.40 for adapting stratagems suggests that the average number of participants have an average level of adapting approaches.

Likewise, Govender et al. ( Citation 2015 ) investigated the cause of stress and coping stratagems utilised by undergraduate occupational therapy students at a tertiary institution in South Africa. This was to decide the sorts and recurrence of stressors and adapting styles utilised. The study revealed that individual stressors were the most momentous overall stressor amongst first-year students, whereas scholastic stressors were the most highly ranked stressors among continuing undergraduate students. Emotion-focused and problem-focused coping were employed by students to manage stress.

A study was conducted between Commerce and Law students in Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh (UP), India. This research found the pervasiveness of stress in college students and its relationship with academic life, intrapersonal life and social life (Parveen, Citation 2016 ). The findings indicated that resident students experienced more stressors than non-resident students. Similarly, a study was conducted on evaluation of stress, loneliness and depression among residential and non-residential students of Dhaka University (Kabir et al., Citation 2018 ). The results reveal that residential students encountered more stressors, loneliness and depression than non-residential students.

3.1. Research design

Descriptive cross-sectional design was utilised in this research to investigate the stressors encountered and coping stratagems employed by undergraduates offering teacher education programmes at the University of Ghana. The purpose of using the survey design was to explore the stressors experienced by teacher education students, and the adapting stratagems they employ to offset or minimise the stress. A Self-Report Questionnaire with closed-ended and open-ended questions was designed and administered to the students to ascertain the stressors they encounter in their academic pursuits.

3.2. Population of the study

The target population for this research comprised all undergraduates offering teacher education programmes at the University of Ghana. However, the accessible population was all the undergraduate teacher education students in the 2018/2019 academic year studying secondary education programmes in the department of Teacher Education. Other characteristics of the learners include age, employment status, gender, level, marital status, religious affiliation, cumulative grade point average (CGPA) and residential status of the respondents.

3.3. Sample and sampling procedure

The sample consisted of Levels 200 and 300 students offering secondary education programmes in the department of teacher education. These students were selected because they have had at least one year transition from the high school to the university level. At the time of the research, the pioneers were the students in Level 300 and there were no students in Level 400. Additionally, Level 100 students were not used because they had not yet spent a year at the university. The department of teacher education was purposively selected because this department is new (4 years) and its focus is different from the focus of the traditional programmes of the University of Ghana. Two hundred and seventy students were selected for the study out of a population of 450 students using the sampling technique to determine the sample size in didactic and psychological measurement activities in research (Yamane, Citation 1973 ). Stratified random sampling was the sampling technique that was used in selecting the students who participated in the study by initially grouping them into different classifications such as level, residential status, and area of study. Then, the researchers randomly selected the final list of students from the different strata. The researchers used a confidence level of 95%, meaning the real value is within ±5% of the surveyed value. Although the value obtained was 208, indicating that 208 or more surveys are needed to have the 95% confidence level, the researchers decided to increase the number of respondents to 270.

3.4. Instruments

A Self-Report Questionnaire with closed-ended and open-ended questions was designed and administered to undergraduate teacher education students to ascertain the causes of stress they experience as well as copping tactics utilised by the learners to manage stress. The questionnaire consists of three sections. Section A elicited the respondents’ data and background information. On personal data, students provided their ages, gender and indicated their cumulative grade point average (CGPA). The rest is the background information about students such as their marital status, employment status, residential status, and religious denomination. Section B consists of 18 statements about the causes of stress experienced by the students. Students were given a 5-point Likert scale of strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree, or strongly disagree to choose from. Similarly, Section C consists of 12 statements about the coping approaches teacher education students employed in managing stress. Similarly, students were given a 5-point Likert scale of strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree, or strongly disagree to make a choice.

The questionnaire was designed by adapting Garbee’s Dental Environment Stressors (DES) questionnaire that was modified by Westerman, Grandy, Ocanto, and Erskine ( Citation 1993 ), and Polychronopoulou and Divaris ( Citation 2005 ). In the adaptation process, some items were selected from DES, and the others developed by the researchers after a review of the revised forms of DES to examine the stressors experienced by the learners (Cohen, Kamarch, & Mermelstein, Citation 1983 ). Similarly, the Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (Brief COPE) inventory was adapted and used to measure the coping approaches undergraduates used to minimise stress (Folkman & Lazarus, Citation 1980 ). In the adaptation process, some items were selected from the Brief COPE, and the others developed by the researchers after a review of the revised forms. In the validation process, face validity was established, pilot tested and the dataset cleaned where appropriate. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) was then performed and Cronbach’s Alpha established.

3.5. Data collection procedure

Data were collected in April 2019 from undergraduates offering teacher education programmes at the University of Ghana through permission obtained from the Head of the Department. The researchers made personal contacts with the respondents, who are their students, during the lecture period to give advance information to them and to make the necessary arrangements for the administration of the instruments. The second meeting was the administration of the instrument and collection of the data at scheduled lecture periods. An introductory letter from the Head of Department of Teacher education was used to explain the purpose of the study to them. Levels 200 and 300 students pursuing undergraduate education programmes were used for the study.

3.6. Data analysis procedure

Data on background information were analysed using frequencies, percentages and means. The stressors encountered by students and the coping techniques, they might adopt were analysed using means and standard deviations. The Independent Samples t-test was used to find out whether resident teacher education students differed from non-resident teacher education students on the stressors they experience as well as coping strategies they might adopt.

4.1. Demographic information

Table 1. demographic distribution of teacher education students.

From Table 1 , the number of males who participated in the study is 126 (46.7%) and that of females is 144 (53.3%). The mean age of learners presented for this study is 20.98 years. Also, most of the participants are unmarried (95.2%), followed by those who are unemployed (89.3%), and then those with CGPA more than 2.5 (85.2%). The rest are Christians (80.0%), residential students (74.4%), BA Education students 68.9%, Level 200 students (65.2%) and females (53.3%).

4.2. Stressors among teacher education students

Table 2. mean ratings of stressors among teacher education students by residential status.

The findings are consistent with outcomes of comparable studies that cited “academic workload”, “difficulty in reading textbooks” as part of stressors encountered by undergrads (Al-Sowygh, Citation 2013 ; Amponsah & Owolabi, Citation 2011 ; Chao, Citation 2012 ; Kwaah & Essilfie, Citation 2017 ; Saklofske, Austin, Mastoras, Beaton, & Osborne, Citation 2012 ).

From Table 2 , the only psychosocial stressors, that were identified are “conflict in time management” (M = 3.51, SD = 1.21) and “Dealing with roommates” (M = 3.40, SD = 1.31). Surprisingly, “Lack of time for relaxation” (M = 3.24, SD = 1.37), “Religious activities” (M = 3.31, SD = 1.19), “Loneliness” (M = 2.87, SD = 1.38), “Rejection from friends and colleagues” (M = 2.77, SD = 1.29), and “Relationship problems” (M = 3.04, SD = 1.27) were all reported as not being stressors by teacher education students. This is surprising as research has rated these as very high psychosocial stressors on university students. The findings are inconsistent results reported in similar studies (Kumi-Yeboah, Citation 2010 ; Panchabakesan, Citation 2011 ; Torto, Citation 2009 ; William et al., Citation 2010 ). With regards to health-related problems, “changes in eating and sleeping habits” (M = 3.73, SD = 1.21), was identified as a high stressor. However, most students were undecided as to whether they were stressed with “illness/health problems” (M = 2.89, SD = 1.55). Overall resident students (M = 60.3, SD = 23.0) were more stressed than non-resident students (M = 59.7, SD = 21.7). This finding is consistent with studies conducted by various researches at specific universities on stressors encountered by university students (Kabir et al., Citation 2018 ; Parveen, Citation 2016 ).

Objective two sought to find out whether there are differences in the stressors encountered by residential and non-residential teacher education students. Table 2 presents the outcome of the responses based on residential status as provided by the participants. Additionally, an independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare the causes of stress affecting residential and non-residential teacher education students. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the overall stressors encountered by residents (M = 60.3, SD = 23.0) and non-residents (M = 59.7, SD = 21.7). However, there were significant differences in some specific stressors residential and non-residential teacher education students experienced: residents (M = 4.29, SD = 0.92) and non-residents (M = 4.55, SD = 0.76) on the causes of stress with respect to “working to meet academic requirements” as an academic-related issue; t (268) = −2.141, p = 0.033, with non-residents strongly agreeing to that assertion; “inadequate supply of power and water in the halls”, t (268) = 2.547, p = 0.011, with residents (M = 4.00, SD = 1.18) being more affected compared with non-residents (M = 3.58, SD = 1.18); residents (M = 3.56, SD = 1.35) and non-residents (M = 4.07, SD = 1.06) on “congested lecture theatres” (t (268) = −2.847, p = 0.005; residents (M = 3.22, SD = 1.29) and non-residents (M = 3.59, SD = 1.31) on “inadequate course materials for assessments” (t (268) = −2.073, p = 0.039); and residents (M = 2.80, SD = 1.40) and non-residents (M = 2.42, SD = 1.25) on ‘apathy received from other “departments where courses are borrowed” (t (268) = 1.996, p = 0.047); residents (M = 3.62, SD = 1.19) and non-residents (M = 3.20, SD = 1.23) on the causes of stress concerning “conflict in time management” as a psychosocial issue, t (268) = 2.501, p = 0.013. This result suggests that residents have a challenge when it comes to time management compared with their non-resident counterparts. This is not surprising as non-residential students in Ghana still have access to parental control and support and are likely able to manage their time better than their counterparts who have left home to live on their own for the first time. Furthermore, there was a significant difference between residents (M = 3.49, SD = 1.36) and non-residents (M = 3.13, SD = 1.12) on the psychosocial causes of stress concerning “dealing with roommates”; t (268) = 1.994, p = 0.047, with residents complaining more than non-residents. Issues concerning conflicts between roommates in Ghanaian Universities cannot be overemphasized and the University of Ghana is neither an exception as roommate conflicts have been topical over the years, with some students being expelled from the halls.

Finally, results on residents (M = 3.00, SD = 1.37) and non-residents (M = 2.59, SD = 1.24) showed a significant difference in the causes of stress with respect to “illness/health problems” as a health-related issue; t (268) = 2.143, p = 0.033. Lectures begin at 7.30 am and end at 7.20 pm at the University of Ghana. For the non-resident student, this poses a great challenge due to the traffic situation in the city of Accra. A non-resident student will have to leave home very early to avoid traffic and might get home late as a result of the traffic, which can trigger stressful situations and corresponding effects. However, non-resident students seem to disagree with the assertion that they might experience illness/health issues compared with their counterparts.

5.1. Coping strategies employed by teacher education students

Table 3. mean ratings of coping strategies employed by teacher education students by residential status.

Table 3 shows that majority of learners were using positive coping approaches such as self-distraction, that is “Doing something like watching TV, movies, going shopping, listening to music to take my mind off the condition” (M = 4.11, SD = 0.99), with residents obtaining the highest mean (M = 4.8, SD = 0.85) and non-residents having the lowest (M = 3.91, SD = 1.31). It is therefore not surprising that students disagreed on the notion of giving up coping, such as “Giving up the attempt to do anything about the situation” (M = 2.69, SD = 1.27), with residents’ disagreeing (M = 2.65, SD = 1.28) more than non-residents (M = 2.83, SD = 1.24).

The rest are active coping like “Doing something about the situation, act to neutralize stressor” (M = 3.82, SD = 1.22), with residents (M = 3.84, SD = 1.17) being more active than their non-resident counterparts (M = 3.77, SD = 1.35). On positive refraining such as “Learning from experience by seeing something good in the current situation” (M = 3.87, SD = 1.20), residents were more positive (M = 3.90, SD = 1.17) than non-residents (M = 3.81, SD = 1.22) although there was no significant mean difference between them. Furthermore, on religion like “Praying/meditating” (M = 3.87, SD = 0.94), residents (M = 3.95, SD = 0.93) prayed and meditated more than their non-resident counterparts (M = 3.62, SD = 0.93). This is not surprising as religion plays an important role among Ghanaians when it comes to solving problems that confront them especially with problems that do not have communal structures to alleviate its undesirable consequences. Similarly, it is also not startling that residents are praying more than non-resident students as the former has a well-structured routine relative to participating in religious activities. This finding is consistent with the results obtained by Kwaah and Essilfie ( Citation 2017 ) on the stressors encountered by students enrolled in the distance education programme at the University of Cape Coast (Gyambrah et al., Citation 2017 ). Ghanaians, in general, are highly religious and a bit superstitious and give a spiritual connotation to issues that tend to confront them if they seem not to have any solution at hand.

This study showed that teacher education students do not indulge in drugs (M = 1.78, SD = 1.23) and that residents are more unenthusiastic to using a drug to feel better (M = 1.69, SD = 1.18) than their non-resident counterparts (M = 2.06, SD = 1.33). Contrary to popular belief that students use substance abuse such as “Using tobacco/alcohol/drug to feel better”, this study revealed otherwise. These outcomes substantiate research conducted by Sideridis ( Citation 2008 ) that revealed five important stress coping stratagems: browsing the internet, sleeping and resting, watching TV or movies and instant messaging as frequently used coping strategies by students.

Objective four sought to explore how resident students differ from non-resident students on the type of coping approaches they utilise to manage stress. An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare coping stratagems adopted by resident and non-resident learners. Generally, there was no significant difference in the coping strategies adopted by residents (M = 39.5, SD = 16.8) and non-residents (M = 38.4, SD = 15.1). However, specifically, there was a significant difference between the resident (M = 1.69, SD = 1.18) and non-resident (M = 2.06, SD = 1.33) on the coping strategies they might employ concerning substance abuse such as using tobacco/alcohol/drug to feel better; t (268) = −2.182, p = 0.030. The result suggests that resident students are more opposed to using tobacco/alcohol/drugs to feel better compared to non-resident students, even though all of them denied substance abuse. Similarly, there was a significant difference between residents (M = 3.57, SD = 1.28) and non-residents (M = 3.12, SD = 1.28) on the coping strategies they might employ concerning emotional support such as “Friends and family giving advice/emotional support”; t (268) = 2.557, p = 0.011. As explained previously, resident students have access to their lecturers and TAs more than non-resident student students because they are always on campus and accessibility is not restricted by location compared to non-residents. Correspondingly, there was a significant difference between residents (M = 3.95, SD = 0.93) and non-residents (M = 3.62, SD = 0.93) on the coping strategies they might employ with respect to religion such as “praying/meditating”; t (268) = 2.521, p = 0.012. As discussed earlier, residents have a well-structured system concerning religion compared with non-residents.

7.1. Conclusion

Questions have been raised concerning the effectiveness of existing programmes at colleges as a result of presumed lack of the integration of academic and emotional support resulting in the continuous mental misery that learners suffer in their academic pursuit. When a learner encounters high degrees of stress or lingering stress, irrespective of the age or grade, it can inhibit one’s capability to learn, remember, and make decent grades as well as lead to poor physical, emotional, and mental health.

The major causes of stress identified during the study concerning academic-related issues were, “working to meet academic requirements”, “inadequate supply of power and water in halls”, “congested lecture theatres” and “facing financial pressure”. Likewise, major psychosocial stressors identified are “conflict in time management”, and “dealing with roommates”. Finally, about health-related problems, “changes in eating and sleeping habits” were identified as a high stressor.

While majority of the students were using positive coping strategies such as “doing something like watching TV, movies, going shopping, listening to music to take my mind off the condition”, “praying or meditating”, “doing something about the situation, act to neutralise stressor”, “learning from experience by seeing something good in the current situation” and “friends and family giving advice or emotional support”, many were also getting help from lecturers and Teaching Assistants (TAs). However, it came to light that students disagreed with the notion of using tobacco/alcohol/drugs to address stressful situations, which is very encouraging for health reasons.

Finally, the findings on stressors suggest that resident teacher education students were stressed by “inadequate supply of power and water in the halls”, “conflict in time management”, “dealing with roommates” and ‘changes in eating/sleeping habits. On the other hand, non-resident students were stressed by “working to meet academic requirements”, “congested lecture theatres”, “inadequate course materials for assessments”, “apathy received from other departments where courses are borrowed” and “facing financial pressure”. On differences in coping strategies, this study has revealed that resident students are more prayerful and easily get help and advice from Lecturers or TAs but deeply averse with substance abuse compared with their non-resident counterparts.

The research findings will add to the extant body of literature related to stress and could help the students in finding an answer to their issues and assist them with enjoying their schooling in a stress-free and tension-free environment.

7.2. Recommendation

We recommend that the department of teacher education sets up a counselling unit to organise stress management programmes for teacher education students. This can be done when every student has been assigned a counsellor who can contact the learners at the office or through e-mails and mobile phones.

The department of teacher education should establish a students’ support services unit that will develop policies to help ease the stress encountered by learners in the department.

Notes on contributors

stress coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education students

Kwaku Darko Amponsah

Kwaku Darko Amponsah is a Lecturer in the Department of Teacher Education, School of Education and Leadership, College of Education, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana. He holds a Ph.D. Degree in Chemistry Education from the University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa.

Grace Sintim Adasi

Grace Sintim Adasi, a Presbyterian, is a Research Fellow in the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon. She earned her PhD in the Study of Religions from the University of Ghana, Legon. Apart from Dr. Ernest Ampadu, who is a Senior Lecturer, Dr. Abraham Okrah and Dr. Salifu Mohammed are all Lecturers in the Department of Teacher Education in University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana. Dr. Ampadu obtained his PhD in Education (Mathematics) from Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom whereas Dr. Mohammed holds a PhD in Science Education from the University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana. Dr. Okrah also received his PhD (Curriculum and Teaching) from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana.

Addai, I. (2015). The predicaments of non-residential students in Ghanaian institutions of higher education: A micro-level empirical evidence. Journal of Education and Practice , 6(1), 110–17. Google Scholar
Ahmadi, F., Khodayarifard, M., Zandi, S., Khorrami-Markani, A., Ghobari-Bonab, B., Sabzevari, M., & Ahmadi, N. (2018). Religion, culture and illness: A sociological study on religious coping in Iran. Mental Health, Religion & Culture , 21 ( 7 ), 721–736. doi:10.1080/13674676.2018.1555699 Web of Science ® Google Scholar
Al-Sowygh, Z. H. (2013). Academic distress perceived stress and coping strategies among dental students in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Dental Journal , 25 ( 3 ), 97–105. doi:10.1016/j.sdentj.2013.05.002 PubMed Google Scholar
Amponsah, M., & Owolabi, H. O. (2011). Perceived stress levels of fresh university students in Ghana: A case study. British Journal of Educational Research , 1(2), 153–169. Google Scholar
Bamuhair, S. S., Al Farhan, A. I., Althubaiti, A., Agha, S., Rahman, S., & Ibrahim, N. O. (2015). Sources of stress and coping strategies among undergraduate medical students enrolled in a problem-based learning curriculum. Journal of Biomedical Education , 2015 ( 1 ), 1–8. doi:10.1155/2015/575139 Google Scholar
Brannon, L., & Feist, J. (2009). Personal coping strategies. In L. Brannon and J. Feist (Eds.), Health Psychology: An Introduction to Behavior and Health (7th ed.), 121–123. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Google Scholar
Carver, C. S., & Connor-Smith, J. (2010). Personality and coping. Annual Review of Psychology , 61 , 679–704. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.100352 PubMed Web of Science ® Google Scholar
Chao, R. C. L. (2012). Managing perceived stress among college students: The roles of social support and dysfunctional coping. Journal of College Counselling , 15 , 5–22. doi:10.1002/j.2161-1882.2012.00002.x Google Scholar
Cohen, S., Kamarch, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior , 24 , 385–396. doi:10.2307/2136404 PubMed Web of Science ® Google Scholar
Dusselier, L., Dunn, B., Wang, Y., Shelley, M., & Whalen, D. (2010). Personal, health, academic and environmental predictors of stress for residence hall students. Journal of American College Health , 54 ( 1 ), 15–24. doi:10.3200/JACH.54.1.15-24 Google Scholar
Ekpenyong, C. E, Daniel, N. E, & Aribo, E. O. (2013). Association between academic stressors, reaction to stress, coping strategies, and musculoskeletal disorders among college students. Ethiopian Journal Of Health Sciences , 23(2), 98-112. PubMed Google Scholar
Folkman, S. (2010). Stress, coping, and hope. Psycho-Oncology , 19 ( 9 ), 901–908. doi:10.1002/pon.1836 PubMed Web of Science ® Google Scholar
Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1980). An analysis of coping in a middle-aged community sample. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour , 21 , 219–239. doi:10.2307/2136617 PubMed Web of Science ® Google Scholar
Ganesan, Y., Talwar, P., Norsiah, F., & Oon, Y. B. (2018). A study on stress level and coping strategies among undergraduate students. Journal of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development , 3 ( 2 ), 37–47. doi:10.33736/jcshd.787.2018 Google Scholar
Govender, P., Mkhabela, S., Hlongwane, M., Jalim, K., & Jetha, C. (2015). OT student’s experiences of stress and coping. South African Journal of Occupational Therapy , 45 ( 3 ), 34–39. doi:10.17159/2310-3833/2015/v45n3/a7 Google Scholar
Gustems–Carnicer, J., & Calderón, C. (2013). Coping strategies and psychological wellbeing among teacher education students. European Journal of Psychology of Education , 28 ( 4 ), 1127–1140. doi:10.1007/s10212-012-0158-x Web of Science ® Google Scholar
Gyambrah, M., Sesay, R. M., & Amponsah, M. O. (2017). Stress levels and management strategies among distance education students. International Review of Social Sciences and Humanities , 12(2), 33–51. Google Scholar
Holland, K. (2001). A study to identify stressors perceived by health science lecturing staff within a school at a South African University . Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10413/5683 Google Scholar
Kabir, A., Sultana, F., Ibrahim, M., Islam, M., Rahman, M., Islam, J., & Bayen, S. (2018). Evaluation of stress, loneliness and depression among residential and non- residential students of Dhaka University: Case-control study. Pharmaceutical Science and Technology. , 2 ( 1 ), 1–6. doi:10.11648/j.pst.20180201.11 Google Scholar
Kumi-Yeboah, A. (2010). A look at the trend of distance and adult education in Ghana. International Forum of Teaching and Studies , 6(1), 19–28. Google Scholar
Kwaah, C. Y., & Essilfie, G. (2017). Stress and coping strategies among distance education students at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE , 18 ( 3 ), 120–134. doi:10.17718/tojde.328942 Web of Science ® Google Scholar
Lazarus, R. S. (1966). Psychological stress and the coping process . New York: McGraw-Hill. Google Scholar
Lazarus, R. S. (1993). Coping theory and research: Past, present, and future. Psychosomatic Medicine , 55 , 234–247. doi:10.1097/00006842-199305000-00002 PubMed Web of Science ® Google Scholar
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping . New York: Springer. Google Scholar
Mathew, C. P. (2017). Stress and coping strategies among college students. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) , 22(8), 40–44. Google Scholar
Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Google Scholar
Mosley, T. H., Perrin, S. G., Neral, S. M., Dubbert, P. M., Grothues, C. A., & Pinto, B. M. (1994). Stress, coping and well-being among third-year medical students. Academic Medicine , 69 ( 9 ), 765–767. doi:10.1097/00001888-199409000-00024 PubMed Web of Science ® Google Scholar
Okoro, E. (2018). Assessment of stress related issues & coping mechanisms among college students (Unpublished Maters Thesis). Minnesota State University, Mankato, Minnesota. Google Scholar
Panchabakesan, S. (2011). Problems and prospective in distance education in India in the 21st century. Problems of Education in the 21st Century , 30, 113–122. Google Scholar
Parveen, S. (2016). Stress management and its contributing factors among post-graduate students- A comparative analysis. Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review , 6(4), 27–37. Google Scholar
Polychronopoulou, A., & Divaris, K. (2005). Perceived sources of stress among Greek dental students. Journal of Dental Education , 69(6), 687–692. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/LF6oyy PubMed Google Scholar
Ramos, J. A. (2011). A comparison of perceived stress levels and coping styles of nontraditional graduate students in distance learning versus on-campus programmes. Contemporary Educational Technology , 2(4), 282–293. Google Scholar
Rheinberg, F., & Engeser, S. (2018). Intrinsic motivation and flow. In J. Heckhausen & H. Heckhausen (Eds.), Motivation and action (pp. 579–622). Cham: Springer International Publishing. Google Scholar
Robotham, D. (2008). Stress among higher education students: Towards a research agenda. Higher Education , 56 ( 6 ), 735–746. doi:10.1007/s10734-008-9137-1 Web of Science ® Google Scholar
Rout, U., & Rout, J. K. (1993). Stress and general practitioners . London: Kluwer. Google Scholar
Saklofske, D. H., Austin, E. J., Mastoras, S. M., Beaton, L., & Osborne, S. E. (2012). Relationships of personality affect emotional intelligence and coping with student stress and academic success: Different patterns of association for stress and success. Learning and Individual Differences , 22 ( 2 ), 251–257. doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2011.02.010 Web of Science ® Google Scholar
Sarid, A., Anson, O., Yaari, A., & Margalith, M. (2004). Academic stress, immunological reaction and academic performance among students of nursing and physiotherapy. Research in Nursing and Health , 27 ( 5 ), 370–377. doi:10.1002/nur.20028 PubMed Web of Science ® Google Scholar
Shaheen, F., & Alam, S. (2010). Psychological distress and its relational to attributional styles and coping strategies among adolescents. Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology , 36(2), 231–238. Google Scholar
Shields, N. (2001). Stress, active coping and academic performance among persisting and non-persisting college students. Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research , 6 , 65–81. doi:10.1111/j.1751-9861.2001.tb00107.x Web of Science ® Google Scholar
Sideridis, G. (2008). The regulation of affect, anxiety, and stressful arousal from adopting mastery-avoidance goal orientation. Stress & Health , 24 , 55–69. doi: 10.1002/smi.1160 Web of Science ® Google Scholar
Soliman, M. (2014). Perception of stress and coping strategies by medical students at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Journal of Taibah University Medical Sciences , 9 ( 1 ), 30–35. doi:10.1016/j.jtumed.2013.09.006 Google Scholar
Sreeramareddy, C. T., Shankar, P. R., Binu, V. S., Mukhopadhyay, C., Ray, B., & Menezes, R. G. (2007). Psychological morbidity, sources of stress and coping strategies among undergraduate medical students of Nepal. BMC Medical Education , 7. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17678553 PubMed Google Scholar
Tang, F., Byrne, M., & Qin, P. (2018). Psychological distress and risk for suicidal behavior among university students in contemporary China. Journal of Affective Disorders , 228 , 101–108. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2017.12.005 PubMed Web of Science ® Google Scholar
Tobin, D. L., Holroyd, K. A., Reynolds, R. V., & Wigal, J. K. (1989). The hierarchical factor structure of the coping strategies inventory. Cognitive Therapy and Research , 13 , 343–361. doi:10.1007/BF01173478 Web of Science ® Google Scholar
Torto, B. A. (2009). Problems of part-time students in Ghana: Implications for distance education. Google Scholar
Weitin, W, & Lloyd, M. A. (2008). Psychology applied to modern life: adjustment in the 21st century . (9th.ed). Australia; Belmont:CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Google Scholar
Westerman, G. H., Grandy, T. G., Ocanto, R. A., & Erskine, C. G. (1993). Perceived sources of stress in the dental school environment. Journal of Dental Education , 57(3), 225–231. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/Q7dnCk PubMed Google Scholar
William, O., Rebecca, E., & Joseph, M. (2010). The challenges distant students face as they combine studies with work: The experience of teachers pursuing tertiary distance education at The University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Malaysian Journal of Distance Education , 12(1), 13–35. Google Scholar
Yamane, T. (1973). Statistics: An introductory analysis (3rd ed.). New York: Harper and Row. Google Scholar
Yikealo, D., & Tareke, W. (2018). Stress coping strategies among college students: A case in the college of education, Eritrea Institute of Technology. Open Science Journal , 3(3), 1–17. Google Scholar
Back to Top

Related research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations. Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.

People also read
Recommended articles

To cite this article:

Download citation, your download is now in progress and you may close this window.

Choose new content alerts to be informed about new research of interest to you
Easy remote access to your institution's subscriptions on any device, from any location
Save your searches and schedule alerts to send you new results
Export your search results into a .csv file to support your research

Login or register to access this feature

Coping strategies and psychological well-being among teacher education students

Coping and well-being in students

Published: 05 October 2012
Volume 28 , pages 1127–1140, ( 2013 )

Cite this article

Josep Gustems-Carnicer 1 &
Caterina Calderón 2

5801 Accesses

94 Citations

Explore all metrics

The coping strategies used by students play a key role in their psychological well-being. This study examines the relationship between coping strategies and psychological well-being in a sample of 98 undergraduates aged between 19 and 42 years. Coping strategies were evaluated by means of the CRI-A (Moos, 1993 ), while psychological well-being was assessed using the BSI (Derogatis and Spencer, 1982 ). The results show a relationship between coping style and psychological well-being. Approach coping strategies as problem solving in teacher education students had a beneficial effect on symptoms of depression, phobic anxiety and overall level of psychological distress. In contrast, cognitive avoidance coping are associated with greater presence of psychological symptoms indicating distress. And behavioural avoidance strategies (search for alternative rewards and emotional discharge) were associated with negative psychological well-being. Coping strategies may help to reduce psychological distress in university students. Specifically, approach-oriented coping is associated with positive scores for psychological well-being, and avoidant emotion-focused coping—above all, behavioural avoidant coping—may be a strong predictor of psychological distress.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save.

Get 10 units per month
Download Article/Chapter or eBook
1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
Cancel anytime

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

Coping and Cultural Context: Implications for Psychological Health and Well-Being

Construction and validity evidence of a scale for coping with difficult social academic interpersonal situations

Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: a theory of development from the late teen through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55 , 469–480.

Article Google Scholar

Beck, R., Taylor, C., & Robbins, M. (2003). Missing home: sociotropy and autonomy and their relationship to psychological distress and homesickness in college freshmen. Anxiety, Stress and Coping, 16 , 155–162.

Google Scholar

Bobek, B. L. (2002). Teacher resiliency: a key to career longevity. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 75 (4), 202–205.

Canrinus, E. T., Helms-Lorenz, M., Beijaard, D., Buitink, J., & Hofman, A. (2012). Self-efficacy, job satisfaction, motivation and commitment: exploring the relationships between indicators of teachers’ professional identity. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 27 , 115–132.

Carr, S., Colthurst, K., Coyle, M., & Elliott, D. (2012). Attachment dimensions as predictors of mental health and psychosocial well-being in the transition to university. European Journal of Psychology of Education . doi: 10.1007/s10212-012-0106-9 .

Chan, K. B., Lai, G., Ko, Y. C., & Boey, K. W. (2000). Work stress among six professional groups: the Singapore experience. Social Science & Medicine, 50 , 1415–1432.

Chandavarkar, U., Azzam, A., & Mathews, C. A. (2007). Anxiety symptoms and perceived performance in medical students. Depression and Anxiety, 24 (2), 103–111.

D’Zurrilla, T. J., & Nezu, A. M. (2007). Problem-solving therapy: a positive approach to clinical intervention (3rd ed.). New York: springer.

Dahlin, M., Joneborg, N., & Runeson, B. (2005). Stress and depression among medical students: a cross-sectional study. Medical Education, 39 (6), 594–604.

De Jorge, J., Gil, L., Merino, F., & Sanz, M. (2011). Evidencia empírica de los motivos del absentismo en los estudiantes universitarios. Revista de Investigación en Educación, 9 (2), 76–90.

Derogatis, L. R. (1993). BSI Brief Symptom Inventory. Administration, scoring, and procedures manual (4th ed.). Minneapolis: National Computer Systems.

Derogatis, L. R., & Spencer, P. M. (1982). The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI): administration and procedures manual—I . Baltimore: Clinical Psychometric Research.

Donaghy, M. (2004). Symptoms and the perception of disease. Clinical Medicine (London, England), 4 (6), 541–544.

Dwyer, A. L., & Cummings, A. L. (2001). Stress, self-efficacy, social support, and coping strategies in university students. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 35 (3), 208–220.

Dyson, M. (2005). Australian teacher education: although reviewed to the eyeballs is there evidence of significant change and were to now? Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 30 (1), 36–54.

Dyson, R., & Renk, K. (2006). Freshmen adaptation to university life: depressive symptoms, stress and doping. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62 , 1231–1244.

Eisenberg, D., Gollust, S. E., Golberstein, E., & Hefner, J. L. (2007). Prevalence and correlates of depression, anxiety, and suicidality among university students. The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 77 , 534–542.

Gardner, S. (2010). Stress among prospective teachers: a review of the literature. Australia Journal of Teacher Education, 35 (8), 18–28.

Garlow, S. J., Rosenberg, J., Moore, J. D., Haas, A. P., Koestner, B., Hendin, H., & Nemeroff, C. B. (2008). Depression, desperation, and suicidal ideation in college students: results from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention College Screening Project at Emory University. Journal of Depression and Anxiety, 25 (6), 482–488.

Griffith, M. A., Dubow, E., & Ippolito, M. F. (2000). Developmental and cross-situational differences in adolescents coping strategies. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 29 (2), 183–204.

Hativa, N., Barak, R., & Simhi, E. (2001). Exemplary university teachers: knowledge and beliefs regarding effective teaching dimensions and strategies. Journal of Higher Education, 72 (6), 699.

Hollingshead, A. B. (1975). Four factor index of social status . New Haven: Department of Sociology, Yale University.

Informe Belmont. (1978). Comisión Nacional para la Protección de los sujetos humanos de investigación biomédica y del Comportamiento. El informe Belmont, Principios y guías éticos para la protección de los sujetos humanos de investigación. www.bioeticayderecho.ub.es . Accessed 10 February 2012.

Kappe, R., & van der Flier, H. (2012). Predicting academic success in higher education: what’s more important than smart? European Journal of Psychology of Education . doi: 10.1007/s10212-011-0099-9 .

Khalil, A. A., Hall, L. A., Moser, D. K., Lennie, T. A., & Frazier, S. K. (2011). The psychometric properties of the brief symptom inventory depression and anxiety subscales in patients with heart failure and with or without renal dysfunction. Archives Psychiatry Nursery, 25 (6), 419–429.

Khramtsova, I., Saarnio, D. A., Gordeeva, T., & Williams, K. (2007). Happiness, life satisfaction and depression in college students: relations with student behaviours and attitudes. American Journal of Psychological Research, 3 (1), 8–16.

Kirchner, T., Forns, M., Amador, J. A., & Muñoz, D. (2010). Stability and consistency of coping in adolescence: a longitudinal study. Psicothema, 22 (3), 382–388.

Kirchner, T., Forns, M., Muñoz, D., & Pereda, N. (2008). Psychometric properties and dimensional structure of the Spanish version of the Coping Responses Inventory—Adult Form. Psicothema, 20 (4), 902–909.

Kjeldstadli, K., Tyssen, R., Finset, A., Hem, E., Gude, T., Gronvold, N. T., Ekeberg, & Vaglum, P. (2006). Changes in depression awareness and attitudes in Australia: the impact of beyondblue: the national depression initiative. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 40 , 42–46.

Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1986). Estrés y procesos cognitivos . Madrid: Martínez Roca Ediciones.

Leung, T., Siu, O., & Spenctor, P. E. (2000). Faculty stressors, job satisfaction, and psychological distress among university teachers in Hong Kong: the role of locus of control. International Journal of Stress Management, 7 , 121–138.

Mattlin, J., Wethington, E., & Kessler, R. C. (1990). Situational determinants of coping and coping effectiveness. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 31 , 103–122.

Moos, R. H. (1993). Inventario de Respuestas de afrontamiento para adultos . Madrid: Tea Ediciones, S.A.

Moriana, J. A., & Herruzo, J. (2004). Estrés y burnout en profesores. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 4 (3), 597–621.

Morrison, R., & O’Connor, R. C. (2005). A meta-analysis for exploring the diverse causes and effects of stress in Teacher. Canadian Journal of Education, 28 (3), 458–486.

Murray-Harvey, R., Slee, P., Lawson, M., Silins, H., Banfield, G., & Russell, A. (2002). Under stress: the concerns and coping strategies of teacher education students. European Journal of Teacher Education, 23 (1), 19–35.

Newbury-Birch, D., Lowry, R. J., & Kamali, F. (2002). The changing patterns of drinking, illicit drug use, stress, anxiety and depression in dental studens in a UK dental school: a longitudinal study. British Dental Journal, 192 (11), 646–649.

OECD. (2008). Education at a glance . Paris: OECD

Parker, J. D. A., & Endler, N. S. (1992). Coping with coping assessment. European Journal of Personality, 6 , 321–344.

Parsons, A., Frydenberg, E., & Poole, C. (1996). Overachievement and coping strategies in adolescents males. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 66 , 109–114.

Putwain, D. (2007). Researching academic stress and anxiety in students: some methological considerations. British Educational Research Journal, 33 , 207–219.

Ruipérez, M. A., Ibáñez, M. I., Lorente, E., Moro, M., & Ortet, G. (2001). Psychometric properties of the Spanich version of the BSI: contributions to the relationship between personality and pychopathology. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 3 , 241–250.

Salami, S. O. (2008). Psychopathology and academic performance among Nigerian high school adolescents: the moderador effectos of study behaviour, self-efficacy and motivation. Journal of Social Sciences, 16 (2), 155–162.

Salami, S. O. (2010). Emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, psychological well-being and students attitudes: implications for quality implications. European Journal of Education Studies, 2 (3), 247–257.

Schaufeli, W. B., Martínez, I., Marqués-Pinto, A., Salanova, M., & Bakker, A. B. (2002). Burnout and engagement in university students: a cross-national study. Journal of Cross-cultural studies, 33 (5), 71–92.

Selye, H. (1956). The stress of life . New York: McGraw-Hill.

Travers, C. J., & Cooper, C. L. (1996). Teacher under pressure. Stress in the teaching profession . Londres: Routledge.

Umbach, P. D., & Wawrzynski, M. R. (2005). Faculty do matter: the role of college faculty in student learning and engagement. Research in Higher Education, 46 (2), 153–184.

Universitat de Barcelona. (2010). Código de Buenas Prácticas en Investigación de la UB . Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona.

Vaughn, A. A., & Roesch, S. C. (2003). Psychological and physical health correlates of coping in minority adolescents. Journal of Health Psychology, 8 (6), 671–683.

Vitalino, P. P., Russo, J., Carr, J. E., Maiuro, R. D., & Becker, J. (1985). The ways of coping checklist: revision and psychometric properties. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 20 , 3–26.

Wang, P. S., Simon, G. E., Avorn, J., Azocar, F., Ludman, E. J., Petukhova, M. Z., & Kessler, R. C. (2007). Telephone screening, outreach and care management for depressed workers and impact on clinical and work productivity outcomes. Journal of the American Medical Association, 298 (12), 1401–1411.

Watson, D. C., & Sinha, B. (2008). Emotion regulation, doping, and psychological symptoms. International Journal of Stress Management, 15 (3), 222–234.

Werch, C., Bian, H., Moore, M., Ames, S., DiClemente, C., & Weiler, R. (2007). Brief multiple behaviour interventions in a college student health care clinic. Journal of Adolescent Health, 41 (6), 577–585.

Wong, J. G. W. S., Bheung, E. P. T., Chan, K. K. C., Ma, K. K. M., & Tang, S. W. (2006). Web-based survey of depression, anxiety and stress in first-year tertiary education students in Hong Kong. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 40 (9), 777–778.

Zajacova, A., Lynch, S. M., & Espenshade, T. J. (2005). Self-efficacy, stress, and academic success in college. Research in Higher Education, 46 (6), 677–706.

Download references

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by grants from the Programa de Recerca en Docencia Universitaria (REDICE-10 and ARCE 2010), University of Barcelona, 2010–2012, awarded to the project ‘Ethical competencies in music and movement teaching on the Bachelor of Education degree offered by the University of Barcelona: Evaluation and proposals for the curriculum’.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of didactics of Corporal Expression and Music, Faculty of Teacher Training, University of Barcelona, Passeig de la Vall d’Hebron, 171, 08035, Barcelona, Spain

Josep Gustems-Carnicer

Department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Passeig de la Vall d’Hebron, 171, 08035, Barcelona, Spain

Caterina Calderón

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Josep Gustems-Carnicer .

Additional information

Josep Gustems-Carnicer. Department of didactics of Corporal Expression and Music, Faculty of Teacher Training, University of Barcelona, Passeig de la Vall d’Hebron, 171, 08035 Barcelona, Spain. Email address: [email protected]. Web site institution: www.ub.edu

Current themes of research:

Coping strategies among students. Creativity. Restructuring teacher education.

Caterina Calderón. Department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment. Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Passeig de la Vall d’Hebron, 171. 08035 Barcelona, Spain. Email address: [email protected]

Coping strategies among students and social-psychological aspects of education.

Calderón, C. (2004). El auto-control: hacia el aprendizaje de la responsabilidad. AULA, innovación educativa, 137 , 57–61.

Calderón, C. (2001). Resultados de un Programa de Tratamiento Cognitivo-Conductual para niños con Trastorno por Déficit de Atención con Hiperactividad. Anuario de Psicología, 32 (4), 79–98.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Gustems-Carnicer, J., Calderón, C. Coping strategies and psychological well-being among teacher education students. Eur J Psychol Educ 28 , 1127–1140 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-012-0158-x

Download citation

Received : 13 April 2012

Revised : 25 July 2012

Accepted : 12 September 2012

Published : 05 October 2012

Issue Date : December 2013

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-012-0158-x

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

University student
Coping strategies
Psychological well-being
Teacher education
Find a journal
Publish with us
Track your research

Teacher Stress: 6 Coping Strategies

High stress levels are plaguing the teaching profession, but one factor makes a big difference in terms of whether teachers are still satisfied with their job: their ability to cope with the stress.

A team of researchers from the University of Missouri analyzed survey data of 2,300 teachers from Missouri and Oklahoma who were asked to rate their levels of work stress, job satisfaction, and how well they feel they can cope with work stress. They found that teachers who say they are not coping well with work stress report far lower job satisfaction compared to teachers who say they have found ways to manage workplace pressures.

“In my experience as an educator, we don’t spend a lot of time talking about stress management and coping, but the findings of the research show that stress is bad for everyone,” said Seth Woods, a co-author of the study and the principal at Beulah Ralph Elementary School in Columbia, Mo. “But it is less negatively impactful if you have strong coping mechanisms.”

The study points to the need for more of an emphasis on stress management in professional development or teacher preparation, Woods said. Other research shows that high stress levels negatively affect not only teachers’ own well-being, but the well-being and academic achievement of their students . Stress is also one of the main reasons why teachers quit.

“There has to be a more intentional focus on recognizing the need to teach coping skills to the adults in the education system, because it’s not something that’s systematically taught,” Woods said. “I’m not saying it’s a magic solution, but it certainly would not hurt.”

After all, he said, much of what makes teaching stressful, like inadequate resources to do what needs to be done, is sometimes beyond the control of school leaders. But helping his staff develop healthy coping mechanisms is “a part that I could help bring some modicum of control to,” Woods said.

Woods and Keith Herman, a professor at Missouri and a co-author of the study, shared six positive, healthy coping strategies teachers can use to manage stress.

1. Write down what you’re grateful for

Keeping a gratitude or affirmation journal can be a simple way to positively alter your mindset, the researchers said.

“It’s easy to get stuck on the things that don’t go well on a school day,” Woods said, adding that the positive moments can sometimes become routine.

Taking the time to jot down the good things that happened—a positive interaction with a parent, a lightbulb moment for a student—can be a healthy coping mechanism for stress, he said.

Rebecka Peterson, a high school math teacher in Tulsa, Okla., who was named the 2023 National Teacher of the Year, credits this practice of intentional gratitude to saving her career. She was overwhelmed and stressed her first year teaching K-12, but her perspective shifted when she started contributing to a collaborative blog called, “ One Good Thing .”

“I’m naturally a glass-half-empty type of gal, so this really did rewire brain into seeing the beautiful, small, everyday, moments that were happening in the classroom,” she told Education Week in an interview last month . “It helped me tuck those away away, and then they sustained me.”

Woods also recommended writing a short letter of gratitude to a colleague or a family member. Whether you deliver that letter or not, it can still help reduce your stress, he said.

2. Pay attention to your mood

Herman said he recommends teachers make a practice of monitoring their mood at least once a day and writing down circumstances that are associated with a negative or positive mood.

“It sets us up to be more mindful and aware of how we’re feeling throughout the day,” he said.

The practice can help you uncover patterns, which can then help you better manage your emotions. (Here’s a mood monitoring form that Herman developed.)

3. Avoid workplace gossip and venting sessions

It can be tempting to commiserate with colleagues, Herman said. But spending too much time ruminating on workplace frustrations can have a negative, enduring effect on your mood, he said.

“Think about who you are spending time with,” Herman said. “Does that feel like good social support? Does it feel like it’s enriching you, or making your mood better?”

In 2016, elementary teacher Lauren Powell wrote an essay for Education Week, titled “ Why I Avoid the ‘Teachers’ Lounge’ and You Should, Too .” In it, she argued that gossiping and complaining with her colleagues brought everyone down.

“The problem with being a part of the teachers’ lounge is that it breeds negativity,” she wrote. “As that negativity festers, it spreads like the plague, polluting the minds of an entire team of teachers.”

4. Practice adaptive behaviors and thinking

Adaptive coping means changing your behavior or way of thinking to manage stressful conditions or emotional distress. Some examples of this coping strategy include changing expectations or taking actions to reduce stress.

It doesn’t mean ignoring the problem: “We don’t encourage teachers to put on rose-colored glasses and say everything’s OK,” Herman said.

But it could mean thinking about the problem in a different way. For example, imagine that your administrator is not providing you with enough resources or support before or during classroom observations, Herman said.

“Think about: Am I willing to live with this? Can I change the way I think about it, [so it will be] less upsetting?” he said.

If not, then it could be time to have a conversation with the administrator and tell them how you feel and what you need, Herman said. If you don’t feel comfortable having that conversation—or you do, and it doesn’t go anywhere—Herman suggests seeking out other workplace allies to get the positive feedback and support you need.

5. Seek out professional development

Competence at work is linked to occupational stress, Herman said. If you’re not able to effectively manage your classroom, for example, you’re more likely to be stressed. And student behavior has been a major challenge for teachers since the start of the pandemic.

“It can become an awful cycle,” Herman said. “You tend to have conflicted relationships with students—that’s not why teachers got in the profession. It also makes you feel bad and [have] negative thoughts of work.”

But when teachers have more positive interactions with students, it creates a healthy cycle of, “I feel better about my students; I feel better about my work,” Herman said.

Receiving feedback or professional development on skills that you struggle with can help, he said: “There’s not a simple solution to any of this, but set goals around different areas that you’d like to get better in and see how much of a difference it makes in your stress level.”

6. Have a book club

Herman also recommended having weekly or biweekly meetings with colleagues to learn about evidence-based practices on stress management. Ideally, this would be facilitated or organized by a school leader, he said, since the act of intentionally setting aside time during a busy school day to focus on coping strategies sends an important message to staff.

In 2019, a team of researchers (including Herman) studied the effect of a stress management program for teachers, in which the participants read the self-help book Stress Management for Teachers: A Proactive Guide , written by Herman and Wendy Reinke, a professor in school psychology at the University of Missouri.

In addition to reading a few chapters of the book each week, the teachers went through one in-person training and three additional online webinars that complemented the books. The researchers found that by the completion of the program, teachers had lower stress, improved coping strategies, and reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety.

One of the researchers adapted the program into a free online webinar series that can be completed without the book or the in-person training.

Sign Up for EdWeek Update

Edweek top school jobs.

Sign Up & Sign In

Stress, coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education students

Chat with paper, most frequently asked questions, 1. what are the contributions in "stress, coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education students" , 2. what are the future works mentioned in the paper "stress, coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education students" .

Table 3. Regression model to study the link between stress, coping strategies and academic achievement.

Motivation of UK graduate students in education: self-compassion moderates pathway from extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation

Cross-sectional study of resilience, positivity and coping strategies as predictors of engagement-burnout in undergraduate students: implications for prevention and treatment in mental well-being., teachers' personality, perfectionism, and self-efficacy as predictors for coping strategies based on personal resources., analysis of contexts of coping with occupational stress: subjective experiences of educational support and social welfare professionals, an empirical study of the influence of individual-related factors on undergraduates' academic burnout: malaysian context, teaching motivations in different countries: comparisons using the fit-choice scale, coping with examinations: exploring relationships between students' coping strategies, implicit theories of ability, and perceived control, students perceived stress in academic programs: consequences for its management., coping response inventory: assessing coping among iranian college students and introductory development of an adapted iranian coping response inventory (cri), psychometric properties and dimensional structure of the spanish version of the coping responses inventory - adult form, related papers (5), study of the relationship between coping with stress skills and academic achievement of undergraduate students in relation to some demographic factors, faculty perceptions of stress and coping strategies in the teaching of business and professional writing., coping with college and work: teacher education students and their part‐time employment, effective teacher behaviors that contribute to students' academic success., dealing with graduate students who have difficulties..

Open access
Published: 27 September 2024

The correlation between social adaptability and academic procrastination of undergraduate nursing students: the mediating role of resilience

Yang Guo 1 ,
Fangfang An 2 ,
Anqi Li 3 ,
Jie Yao 4 &
Xiaojie Sun 5

BMC Medical Education volume 24 , Article number: 1052 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

Metrics details

How to mobilize nurses students' learning initiative, reduce the incidence of academic procrastination, and improve their social adaptability is a key factor in lowering nursing brain drain and improving nursing quality.

To explore the mediating role of resilience in the correlation between social adaptability and academic procrastination of undergraduate nursing students.

This study is a cross-sectional survey. The researchers conducted an electronic questionnaire survey of 962 nursing undergraduates in Guanzhong District, Shaanxi Province from November 2022 to April 2023, and adopted the intention sampling method. And make the following assumptions: (1) There is a significant negative correlation between academic procrastination and social adaptability. (2) Academic procrastination can directly affect the social adaptability of undergraduate nursing students, and it has a significant negative predictive effect. (3) Resilience can directly affect academic procrastination and social adaptability. At the same time, resilience plays an intermediary role between the two. In this study, the Aitken procrastination scale, the resilience scale, and the social adaptability diagnostic scale were used to evaluate undergraduate nursing students. SPSS27.0 software is used to analyze the data statistically, and the Hayes PROCESS Macro method is used to test the model.

The study's findings are as follows: 1) Academic procrastination significantly and negatively impacts social adaptability (c = -0.292, t = -6.407, p < 0.001). 2) Even when accounting for resilience, academic procrastination still significantly predicts lower social adaptability (c′= -0.204, t = -4.338, p < 0.001). 3) The Bootstrap method test of percentile bias correction indicates that resilience serves as a significant mediator between academic procrastination and social adaptability. Bootstrap SE = 0.018, 95% CI = (-0.124, -0.055). The indirect effect contributes to 29.79% of the total effect.

Resilience not only directly affects the academic procrastination and social adaptability of nursing students, but also partially intermediate the relationship between academic procrastination and social adaptability.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

Social adaptability refers to an individual's ability to actively adapt to the environment (natural, social, cultural, and expectation), learn to choose and avoid behaviors in activities such as life, learning and interpersonal communication, regulate and change the environment, and make social expectations and requirements that are consistent with their age [ 1 ]. Its development and changes are also a response to the level of resilience and are directly affected From the perspective of constituent factors [ 2 , 3 ], social adaptability includes four factors: interpersonal adaptability, psychological sense of advantage, resilience and psychological energy [ 4 ]. In previous theoretical studies, it has been found that the self-response model in social adaptability research suggests that individuals facing nerve-wracking situations develop psychological defense mechanisms to reduce anxiety. As individuals mature, their psychological defense mechanisms also mature, which helps them adapt to their environment and maintain mental health [ 5 ]. Research on social adaptability includes primary and secondary school students, college students, graduate students, teachers, athletes, and patients with diseases. However, researchers have mainly focused on college students, and there are two main research trends in this area [ 6 ]: (1) adaptation problems when new students enter school. (2) Social adaptation problems when college students graduate. Many Chinese scholars have highlighted in their research that the challenge of adjusting to society after graduation mainly affects work, life, and interpersonal relationships. This is often accompanied by negative emotions like disappointment and self-denial. Various studies have demonstrated that societal maladjustment can lead to increased levels of anxiety and depression in college students, which can indirectly impact their sleep [ 7 ]. It can also result in harmful behaviors such as Internet addiction [ 8 ], leading to a range of psychological issues that ultimately affect career development [ 9 ]. Social adaptability plays a crucial role in the performance of medical students during their internships and post-graduation work. For instance, nursing students who lack social adaptability are more likely to make mistakes at work, leading to strained relationships with colleagues and patients, heightened stress, and a negative approach to nursing tasks [ 10 ]. During their school years, nursing students face pressure to learn, adapt to the environment, build interpersonal relationships, and prepare for employment. After completing their internships and entering the workforce, they encounter high-intensity nursing work and intense doctor-patient relationships, which can lead to poor psychological resilience and difficulty adapting to society [ 11 ]. Surveys indicate that undergraduate nursing students [ 12 , 13 ] are more likely to experience adaptation problems, with their social adaptability at a medium level and showing a downward trend in development. Simultaneously, the increasing demand for nursing professionals has led to challenges in recruiting and retaining nurses worldwide [ 14 , 15 ]. Addressing how to enhance the social adaptability of undergraduate nursing students and alleviate the global shortage of nursing human resources is an urgent problem that needs to be addressed.

The importance of academic procrastination

Procrastination is the act of unconsciously delaying scheduled plans without a clear reason [ 16 ]. Academic procrastination specifically relates to postponing learning tasks within a school setting [ 17 ]. Some scholars argue that academic procrastination is a conscious decision to delay completing tasks within a specified timeframe, despite its potentially harmful impact [ 18 ]. Academic procrastination is quite prevalent among medical students, with approximately 13.8% to 49.9% of them experiencing procrastination in their study tasks [ 19 , 20 ]. This behavior not only leads to a decline in academic performance but also triggers negative emotions such as depression, anxiety, and shame. These emotions can disrupt interpersonal relationships among students, leading to conflicts between peers and mistrust between students and teachers [ 21 ] and may even contribute to suicidal thoughts [ 22 , 23 ]. The Hemingway App helps writers make their writing more concise and grammatically correct. Research indicates that over 90% of medical students experience some level of procrastination, with about 45.3% facing moderate to severe procrastination [ 24 ]. Approximately 95% of nursing students also exhibit varying degrees of academic procrastination [ 25 ]. A 2019 Chinese research report found that 78.3% of nursing students experience moderate to high levels of academic procrastination, which hinders their acquisition of nursing and professional knowledge [ 26 , 27 ]. This, in turn, impacts their performance in clinical settings and their social adaptation. Currently, most research on academic procrastination among nursing students focuses on junior college students, with less emphasis on undergraduate nursing students, despite notable differences in their learning foundations, independent learning abilities, and self-management skills [ 28 ]. The academic procrastination of nursing undergraduates has been studied internationally, but there is limited research on Chinese nursing undergraduates. In China, there is a high demand for nurses with advanced diplomas or bachelor's degrees to work in health care and primary health care departments at all levels. The undergraduate stage is crucial for the development of nursing students' professional concepts, values, and abilities [ 29 ].

The potential mediating role of resilience

Resilience is defined as "the behavioral tendency of individuals to adapt to a changing environment and the ability to recover from stressful situations" [ 30 ]. According to the theory of psychological stress, internal psychological activities of individuals play a significant role in regulating stress sources and behavioral changes [ 31 ]. Richardson's resilience model suggests that resilience is influenced by individual cognition and behavior, and also has a protective effect on cognition and behavior [ 32 ]. Further research has introduced resilience models by scholars such as Masten and Tellegen, the Kumpfer resilience model, and the dynamic model of resilience [ 33 , 34 , 35 ]. The Kumpfer resilience model proposes that resilience involves three aspects: environmental factors, personal processes, and the overall environment. The second aspect includes individual resilience characteristics such as cognition, spirit, behavior, and so on. The third aspect involves the process of protective factors, risk factors, and individual interaction when facing pressure and challenges. The process of change occurs when individuals encounter environmental changes. Resilience, as a positive individual feature, enables individuals to mobilize their protective resources and carry out resilience reorganization, helping them better cope with unfavorable situations, maintain a positive emotional state [ 36 ], effectively resist the negative effects of pressure, and adapt to poor reorganization. It is a successful response of the "self-adjustment mechanism" [ 32 , 37 ]. Studies have shown that psychological resilience can reduce the risk of individual psychological problems and is a protective factor for maintaining mental health status [ 38 ]. In previous studies, researchers have often examined resilience as a key factor affecting mental health [ 39 , 40 , 41 ]. Some studies have shown that resilience can directly impact the academic procrastination of undergraduate nursing students, enhance the emotional intelligence of nursing students, and reduce their levels of academic procrastination [ 42 ]. Therefore, it is important for nursing students to focus on developing their resilience in order to effectively cope with environmental pressures and challenges. By internally adjusting and reorganizing their resilience, nursing students can successfully manage and maintain a dynamic and balanced social adaptation.

Currently, there is a global shortage of nursing professionals, and researchers around the world are increasingly focusing on the quality of education for undergraduate nursing students. Academic procrastination and social adaptive capacity are closely linked to this issue. This study aims to thoroughly explore the impact of academic procrastination on the social adaptive capacity of undergraduate nursing students from a positive psychology perspective. The study utilizes the Kumpfer model of resilience as the theoretical framework and the mediating effect model, as shown in Figure 1 . The research methodology involves a questionnaire survey to assess the current status of academic procrastination, resilience, and social adaptive capacity among undergraduate nursing students. The study investigates the relationship between academic procrastination, resilience, and social adaptability. Three hypotheses were formulated: Hypothesis 1: Academic procrastination is negatively correlated with social adaptability. Hypothesis 2: Academic procrastination directly affects the social adaptability of undergraduate nursing students. Hypothesis 3: Resilience serves as a mediator in the relationship between academic procrastination and social adaptability.

The theoretical model of this study

A cross-sectional survey was conducted from November 2022 to April 2023.

Participants

Please note the following criteria for selecting undergraduate nursing students from colleges and universities in the Guanzhong region of Shaanxi Province:

Inclusion criteria

Students enrolled in 2019 or later who have been registered.

Students who have voluntarily signed the informed consent form and are able to truthfully fill out the questionnaire.

Exclusion criteria

Students who have been on leave of absence for over a year.

Students with significant psychological disorders such as depression, etc.

Students with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, mania, etc.

In order to calculate the sample size, we will follow Kendall's method. The sample should contain 5 to 10 times the number of independent variables, so the formula to calculate the sample size is N = 56×(5 to 10), which gives a range of 280 to 560 people. However, to account for potential errors and sample loss, we will consider a 20% sample loss rate. Therefore, the final sample size is calculated using the formula N = Item×m (1+δ), where Item is the maximum number of variable dimensions, m is the multiplier, and δ is the sample loss rate. Plugging in the numbers, we get N = 56×(5 to 10)×(1+20%), resulting in a final sample size range of 336 to 672 people.

Data collection and ethical considerations

Stage 1: establishment of a research team and literature review.

(1) A research group was formed, consisting of one faculty member and three postgraduate students. The team consulted a large amount of literature to determine the research theme and content based on the current situation of undergraduate nursing education in Shaanxi Province. They then used databases such as Weipu, Wanfang, PubMed, and others to gather relevant research materials on topics including undergraduate nursing students, medical students, nursing majors, academic procrastination, resilience, and social adaptability. Finally, they determined the research types and methods. (2) Select Instruments: Based on the literature review, search for research instruments that align with the variables of the study. Evaluate the suitability of research institute scales based on the research purpose and the scope of application of the research instruments. Finally, integrate the self-designed general data questionnaire of the survey object with the scales used for each variable to create the final questionnaire."

Stage 2: Distribution and recovery of questionnaires

At the pre-survey stage: 200 undergraduate nursing students from a medical school in Shaanxi Province were selected for participation. The investigators obtained approval from the director of the nursing faculty before distributing the questionnaires. The questionnaire was then reviewed and approved by nursing faculty experts. The questionnaire was distributed to the students via QR code, and anonymity and voluntariness were ensured during the data collection process. Through the pre-surveys, issues with the initial general information questionnaire were identified and amended, and experiences from the distribution and collection process were used to revise the survey program for the formal surveys. Two invalid and two unreasonable general information items were deleted or modified, resulting in 12 retained general information items. It was observed during the pre-survey that students had poor compliance in filling out the questionnaire, which was attributed to a lack of explanation by the class teacher regarding the purpose of the questionnaire. To address this, the research team decided to include an informed consent form at the beginning of the electronic questionnaire to help students better understand the study and increase their compliance.

Formal survey: (1)The study uses intentional sampling to select undergraduate nursing students in the Guanzhong region of Shaanxi Province. This includes four undergraduate nursing colleges: Shaanxi University of International Trade & Commerce, Shaanxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xijing College, and Peihua College. These colleges are located in different areas of Guanzhong region, covering the east, south, west, and north. The survey aims to encompass the entire Guanzhong region, ensuring the sample's universality and representativeness. (2)Before issuing the questionnaire, the research team contacts the nursing department heads in the four colleges and universities. The questionnaire is sent to them for review via email, WeChat, QQ, etc. They can provide feedback and suggest modifications, which the research team will then discuss and implement. After any necessary changes, the questionnaire is sent for review again. (3)Once approved, an electronic questionnaire is used for online distribution, including an informed consent form. Participants are informed and voluntary when completing the questionnaire, which is anonymous and confidential. The data collected is solely for academic research purposes. Additionally, the researchers contacted the nursing college that had conducted a pre-survey and excluded the 200 students who had already participated, ensuring the reliability of the survey results.The questionnaires were collected from November 2022 to April 2023. The study was reviewed and approved by the Shaanxi University of International Trade &Commerce Ethics Committee, and was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Stage 3: Analysing the data

The results of the General Information Questionnaire, Aitken Procrastination Scale, Resilience Scale and Social Adaptability Diagnostic Scale were analysed statistically by the research team using the SPSS27.0 software, comparing the results with the evidence obtained from the literature review, and summarising the results in order to draw conclusions.

Instruments

Demographic information. It was designed by the research team according to the purpose of the study and with reference to domestic and international literature. It contains 12 entries, including gender, age, grade, place of origin, relationship with parents, and academic ranking.

The Aitken Procrastination Scale, developed by Aitken (1982) and later revised by Chen Xiaoli et al. [ 43 ], consists of 19 one-dimensional items rated on a five-point scale. The scale is administered to college students to assess procrastination tendencies, with a Cronbach's coefficient of 0.83. The scoring range is 19 to 95 points, with 9 questions (e.g., 2, 4, 7, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, and 18) scored in reverse. The higher the score, the more serious the delay in schooling. This study used SPSS27.0 software and the exploratory factor principal component analysis method to test the credibility and validity of the scale. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for this study was 0.783, and the retest validity was 0.876.

The Resilience Scale, developed by Connor and Davidson and revised by scholars Zhang Xinjian and Yu Xiaonan [ 44 ], consists of three dimensions: self-improvement, optimism, and resilience, with a total of 25 items. A 5-point Likert scale was used, leading to a total score range of 1 to 125. This scale is commonly used to measure resilience, with higher scores indicating greater resilience. In our study, the theoretical median of the resilience scale was calculated to be 75, and the Cronbaneh’ɑ coefficient was found to be 0.91, indicating good reliability and validity. To further test the credibility and validity of the scale, we used the exploratory factor principal component analysis method and the maximum variance orthogonal rotation method in SPSS 27.0 software. The Cronbaneh’ɑ coefficient for this scale in our study was 0.935, with a retest validity of 0.952.

The "Social Adaptability Diagnostic Measure" [ 45 ] was developed by Professor Zheng Richang of Beijing Normal University. It consists of 20 questions, scored using "yes," "no," and "unsure," including 10 reverse-scored questions. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the entire questionnaire is 0.837. When scoring the questionnaire, odd-numbered questions are scored positively, with a "yes" response receiving -2 points, an "unsure" response receiving 0 points, and a "no" response receiving 2 points. Even-numbered questions are reverse-scored. The lowest possible score is -28, and the highest possible score is 40. A higher score indicates stronger social adaptability, while a lower score indicates weaker social adaptability. The score breakdown is as follows: ① 35 to 40 points: strong ability. ② 29 to 34 points: good ability. ③ 17 to 28 points: average ability. ④ 6 to 16 points: poor ability. ⑤ Less than 5 points: very poor ability. In this study, we used the exploratory factor principal component analysis method and the maximum variance orthogonal rotation method in SPSS 27.0 software to evaluate the internal consistency and structural validity of the scale. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for this study was 0.768, and the test-retest reliability was 0.869.

Statistical analyses

The data collected for this study were organized in an Excel spreadsheet and entered by two individuals to ensure accuracy. The error-free data were analyzed using SPSS 27.0 with a significance level of α=0.05, considering statistical significance at P<0.05. Continuous variables were tested for normality using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The survey data, which consisted of count data, conformed to a normal distribution and were statistically described using χ±s, frequency counts, and constitutive ratios. The study analyzed the academic procrastination, resilience, and social adaptability of nursing students using ANONA analysis. The data, which were linear and continuous, were analyzed for correlation using Pearson correlation to explore the relationship between academic procrastination, psychological resilience, and social adaptability among undergraduate nursing students. The study utilized the PROCESS plug-in for SPSS to construct structural equations for analyzing the mediating effect of resilience as a mediating variable. This analysis provided additional useful statistics and safeguards for irregular sampling distributions, including ordinary least squares, regression-based path analysis, and Bootstrap confidence intervals to meet the analytical needs of the study.

Validity and reliability/rigour

All instruments used in the study were adapted and validated for Chinese culture and had good validity and reliability. In addition, all investigators were trained in registration, checking the completeness of the questionnaires, and the ethical principles of conducting research prior to the formal survey. To reduce the risk of self-reporting bias, the identities of all participants were kept strictly confidential. Finally, to ensure the rigor and accuracy of the statistical analyses, a statistician was asked to check the data processing.

Common method bias test

The Harman one-way test extracted 29 factors with eigenvalues greater than one. The first factor explained 16.89% of the total variance, which is below the recommended threshold of 40%[ 32 ]. It indicates that common method bias is unlikely to confound the interpretation of the data analysis results [ 46 ].

Participants’ characteristics

For the study conducted from December 2022 to February 2023, a sample size of 600 was required, and 962 samples were collected. Out of these students, 812 were female, which accounted for 84.4% of the total. Only 34 (3.5%) were younger than 18 years of age, and 579 (60.2%) were between 18 and 20 years of age. The majority (81.2%) of students hailed from rural areas, while 1.8% were estranged from their parents. Additionally, 89.8% of the nursing students were ranked as good in their studies. A significant 75.7% of the students reported having parents with democratic parental styles. Furthermore, 199 (20.7%) students were only children, and 832 (86.5%) students chose to continue in the nursing profession. Lastly, 834 (86.7%) students recognized themselves as nursing students, whereas 27 (2.8%) did not.

Analysis of the current status of academic procrastination, resilience, and social adaptability

The average score on the academic procrastination ability scale for undergraduate nursing students in the Guanzhong region was (46.36±8.92) points, which was lower than the expected median value of 57 points, indicating mild academic procrastination. The students' resilience score was (81.88±14.18) points, higher than the expected median value of 75 points, indicating a high level of resilience. The total score for the nursing students' social adaptability was (18.49±12.74) points, and based on the grade distribution, their social adaptability was rated as average, as shown in Table 1 .

ANONA results of academic procrastination, resilience, and social adaptability

The study's results indicated that several factors influenced academic procrastination, resilience, and social adaptability among undergraduate nursing students. These factors included gender, relationship with parents, academic performance status, social practice experience, parenting style, willingness to continue in the nursing profession, difficulty of learning tasks, and recognition of the nursing profession. The study found that the relationships with parents, academic performance status, social practice experience, difficulty of learning tasks, recognition of the nursing profession, and parenting style significantly influenced resilience. Furthermore, the study revealed that academic performance status, parenting style, being an only child, difficulty of academic tasks, and recognition of the nursing profession were significant factors affecting social adaptability ( P <0.01), as shown in Table 2 .

Correlation analysis of academic procrastination, resilience, and social adaptability

Based on the study results, it's evident that academic procrastination is significantly and negatively correlated with resilience (r=-0.321, P <0.01) and its dimensions. Additionally, academic procrastination shows a significant negative correlation with social adaptability (r=-0.196, P <0.01) and its dimensions, confirming Hypothesis 1. On the other hand, resilience is significantly and positively correlated with social adaptability (r=0.238, P <0.01) as well as with all dimensions of social adaptability.

Multifactorial analysis of social adaptability

Multiple analyses were performed with the total score of social adaptability as the dependent variable. The independent variables included the nursing students' relationship with their parents, academic performance status, parenting style, only child status, academic procrastination, and resilience. The values assigned to each variable are displayed in Table 2 . The analyses revealed that parenting style, the difficulty of academic tasks, academic procrastination, and resilience were the main factors affecting social adaptability, as shown in Table 3 .

The mediating role of resilience in academic procrastination and social adaptability

The results of the analysis revealed that parenting style and difficulty of academic tasks had a significant impact on social adaptability. These factors were included in the moderated mediation analysis as covariates. The study then examined the mediating role of resilience using the Process Macro model 4. It was found that academic procrastination significantly and negatively predicted social adaptability, even after controlling for parenting style and academic task difficulty (c=-0.292, t=-6.407, p <0.001). Further analysis confirmed that academic procrastination remained a significant predictor of social adaptability even when resilience was taken into account (c′=-0.204, t=-4.338, p <0.001).

Additionally, academic procrastination was found to be a significant negative predictor of resilience (a=-0.503, t=-10.187, p <0.001), while resilience was a significant positive predictor of social adaptability (b=0.174, t=5.936, p <0.001). These results suggested that resilience partially mediated the relationship between academic procrastination and social adaptability, supporting Hypotheses 2 and 3.

The percentile bias-corrected Bootstrap method test confirmed that resilience significantly mediated the relationship between academic procrastination and social adaptability, with an indirect effect of -0.087 and a 95% confidence interval of (-0.124, -0.055). The indirect effects accounted for 29.79% of the total effect, indicating that psychological resilience serves as an intermediary in 29.79% of the relationship between academic procrastination and social adaptability, supporting hypothesis 3. Figure 2 and Table 4 present a visual representation of the direct, indirect, and total impact. As shown in Table 4 .

Mediating effect of resilience

After controlling for age and gender, the results of the three models are presented in Table 5 . In Model 1, it was found that academic procrastination had a significant negative impact on social adaptability (β=-0.290, t=-6.422, p<0.001). In Model 2, academic procrastination showed a significant negative correlation with resilience. In Model 3, the interaction between resilience and academic procrastination had a significant effect on social adaptability. Academic procrastination had a negative effect on social adaptability, and resilience partially mediated this relationship.

Academic procrastination, resilience and social adaptability status quo

The results of this survey show that, first of all, the overall mean score of academic procrastination of undergraduate nursing students in the Guanzhong region is (46.36±8.92), which can be compared with the theoretical median of 57 points to know that the academic procrastination of nursing students is at a relatively low level, which is different from the results of the research of domestic scholars Chen Li [ 47 ], He Lantian [ 48 ], and Liu Yongli [ 49 ], but is in line with the results of the research of Mana [ 50 ] and others. Through reviewing the literature, it was found that the academic procrastination scale used in previous studies was different from the research instrument in this study, there were some differences in the division of the scoring criteria, and the regions where the research subjects were located were not the same, which produced differences due to the influence of geography. Secondly, the optimism dimension of resilience was (13.69±2.54) points, the self-improvement dimension was (25.75±4.98) points, and the resilience dimension was (43.24±8.31) points, which were slightly higher than the theoretical median of 12, 24, and 3 points for the dimensions and were at an intermediate level, and the results of the study are in agreement with the findings of Wang Chuning [ 51 ] and Kim J et al [ 52 ]. The reason may be that most of the objects of this investigation are students aged 18 to 20 years old, the body and mind belong to a mature stage, and the ability of self-regulation is better. At the same time, parents, schools, and society pay more and more attention to the physical and mental health of nursing students, not only focusing on students' performance but also paying more attention to the comprehensive quality of the students, and when the nursing students are under too much pressure due to a variety of factors, they will maintain the optimistic psychological feelings by adjusting their thinking. In addition, the social adaptability of the nursing students was (18.49±12.74) points, which was at an average level according to the scoring criteria. This may be due to the fact that the nursing profession, compared to other non-medical professions, has more content to study and requires a higher level of professionalism, which causes nursing students to invest a lot of time and energy in their studies, resulting in a limited amount of time at their disposal and a decrease in social events, which results in a certain degree of impact on the cultivation of their social adaptability.

Differences in demographic factors in academic procrastination, resilience and social adaptability

Academic procrastination: Firstly, due to gender role differentiation, male students are more independent and autonomous than female students. During university, many male students no longer focus on their studies, and they spend more time on social activities to gain a sense of personal achievement and the respect of others through their social activities[ 53 ], whereas female students are more submissive and conscientious and are able to take the initiative to actively complete the study tasks. In addition, many students are more likely to want to gain a sense of personal achievement and recognition from others through good academic performance. Secondly, the relationship with parents and parenting styles reflect parents' parenting concepts, parenting behaviors, and emotional expressions towards their children, which have a significant impact on children's academic performance and academic motivation [ 54 ]. Previous studies have found that parenting styles are significantly related to academic procrastination and that "democratic" parenting styles negatively predict academic procrastination. Appropriate relationships with parents and appropriate parenting styles give students more independent thinking, and students are more reflective and self-disciplined, thus avoiding academic procrastination. Finally, in the theory of temporal motivation proposed by Steel et al[ 55 ], which is expressed by the formula Utility=E×V/(I×D) (Utility stands for utility, E stands for the individual's subjective expectation of the task, V stands for the value of the task, I stands for the individual's susceptibility to procrastination, and D stands for the time limit), the higher the value of the task, the higher the utility, and the lower the risk of academic procrastination, in which the value of the task is mainly related to the nature of the task. On the other hand, nursing students find that the profession they study is different from what they imagined after entering the university, and there is resistance to the nursing profession, which leads to lower interest in professional learning, lower recognition of the nursing profession, reduced willingness to engage in the nursing career in the future, unwillingness to participate in apprenticeships or internships, a lack of social experience, and therefore academic procrastination [ 56 ].

Resilience: Family support plays a positive role in relieving work pressure and maintaining psychological health. Children who have a close relationship with their parents can get more attention and warmth from their parents, have more adequate family support, and mobilize more external resources when necessary to cope with difficulties and setbacks in a more positive and rational way [ 57 ]. Professional identity can be accompanied by active learning behaviors [ 58 ], which will directly affect students' professional learning attitudes and effects. Nursing students with better academic performance indicate that they have clearer goals in completing their learning tasks, have better time management ability, are more optimistic, actively participate in various social activities related to the nursing profession, and improve their practical ability, while clinical learning is an important part of nursing professional education. Clinical learning is an important part of nursing professional education and is a key step to achieving the transformation of nursing students' knowledge into competence, which puts forward new requirements and challenges to the learning tasks of nursing students. By learning in the clinical environment, nursing students can better combine theory and practice, develop interpersonal communication and problem-solving skills, and then improve their psychological adaptability in the face of difficulties and setbacks.

Social adaptability: harmonious family relationships and appropriate parenting styles play a positive role in the development of nursing students' social adaptability [ 59 , 60 ]. Those who have a good relationship with their parents will express their problems of social adaptation more clearly when they seek help from their parents, and parents of only children will listen to them more wholeheartedly so that they can express themselves completely and thoroughly and get effective help. Appropriate parenting style will make the nursing students more courageous to express themselves, dare to communicate with others when they have different ideas, and also receive other fresh ideas, which can speed up the process of social adaptation. High academic achievers have stronger self-restraint in time management, self-management, etc. Early studies have shown that [ 61 ] students with strong time management abilities also have a higher level of social adaptability. The degree of difficulty of learning tasks determines the students' different attitudes towards their solutions, solution paths, solution resources, etc. Those who think that learning tasks are difficult tend to adopt negative attitudes and may even choose to give up directly. And since the sample size of students who disapprove of the nursing profession is only 9 cases, its representation is small, so only students who approve of the nursing profession are analyzed. Recognition of the profession, nursing students show positive attitudes when entering and integrating into society in the future and will plan for their future career as early as possible, study hard for their professional knowledge and skills, increase the opportunities to communicate with people from different professions, improve their interpersonal communication skills, and learn about the employment prospects of different professions so as adapt to the changes in society as early as possible.

Academic procrastination, resilience and social adaptability correlation

The results of this study showed that academic procrastination was significantly and negatively correlated with resilience (r=-0.321, P <0.01), resilience was significantly and positively correlated with social adaptability (r=0.238, P <0.01), and academic procrastination was significantly and negatively correlated with social adaptability (r=-0.196, P <0.01) and also (r= -0.196, P < 0.01). This suggests that the more serious the academic procrastination, the lower the social adaptability of nursing students. Firstly, undergraduate nursing students inevitably encounter difficulties and challenges during their study. In order to maintain a positive learning state, they need not only a strong internal learning motivation, but also good self-control, especially resilience [ 62 ]. Nursing students with higher levels of resilience are able to flexibly adjust their coping strategies when facing different social situations, face events in their lives with a more positive mindset, take the initiative to plan their own development routes, perceive and realise their own self-worth, and arrange their lives and studies independently and autonomously, which can lead to individuals adopting positive attitudes in the process of adapting to the society, reducing the occurrence of negative emotions, and thus showing more adaptive social behaviours [ 63 , 64 ]. Furthermore, undergraduate nursing students with high levels of resilience are able to regulate their emotions in a positive manner and cope efficiently with the difficulties they encounter, which significantly affects their performance in academics [ 8 ]. Finally, this study confirms that there is a significant and negative correlation between academic procrastination and social adaptability, adding to the important data results that students with higher levels of academic procrastination have problems with future social adaptability, which may be rooted in the fact that the process of learning in school is a manifestation of social adaptation, and that students are not able to optimise their learning styles in accordance with changes in the surrounding environment, resources, social skills, and so on. Students are unable to optimise their learning methods, coping resources and social skills according to the changes in the surrounding environment and things, and when they encounter learning problems, they treat them negatively, resulting in poor learning results, declining social skills, and not being able to better integrate into university life, and their social adaptability is not high.

Mediating role of resilience

This study showed that academic procrastination had a direct negative effect on social adaptability (c = -0.292, t = -6.407, p <0.001), and that resilience partially mediated the effect of academic procrastination on social adaptability among undergraduate nursing students. Specifically, academic procrastination not only directly affects social adaptability, but also indirectly affects social adaptability through the mediating role of resilience. Hypotheses 2 and 3 were tested, and Cleary et al. [ 62 ] suggested that nursing students are at an important developmental stage, and that resilience is a necessary trait for their success in learning and practice. In the actual work and study, nursing undergraduates often have to complete a large amount of theoretical knowledge and technical operations to learn and perform all the tasks of the clinic, daily learning and life and interpersonal interaction process will inevitably encounter difficulties and setbacks in the face of the possibility of negative withdrawal from the high load of workload tasks, and the gradual formation of chronic stress. It is more likely to choose to procrastinate to avoid the implementation of the learning task, which leads to the refusal to integrate into the social groups. In this case, in order to maintain a positive psychological state, it is not only necessary for nursing students to have better learning and living environments, but also for them to have positive psychological resources, especially resilience[ 65 ], and resilience is considered to be a protective factor for individuals' psychology and behaviours [ 65 ], as well as an effective resource for coping with stressful situations, which reflects an individual's social adaptability [ 17 ]. Therefore, increasing the resilience of nursing students is effective in reducing the level of academic procrastination as it improves students' self-esteem and self-efficacy, enhances their resilience and ability to resist the temptation of short-term gain, thus allowing more psychological resources to be devoted to learning. Nursing students with high resilience are not only less affected by stress, more likely to recover as soon as possible, flexibly adjust their learning strategies, and have a high commitment to learning, but also can quickly regulate themselves in the face of adversity, fight difficulties with a positive mindset, and face the trials and tribulations of the society with an optimistic attitude, and even stimulate their own potential and enhance their social adaptability in difficult situations [ 62 , 66 ].

Implications for nursing education

The results of this study have important theoretical significance and practical value for improving undergraduate nursing students' academic procrastination and social adaptability. In order to reduce the risk of academic procrastination, the study puts forward the following suggestions: First, nursing educators should pay attention to the impact of gender differences so that students can develop good study habits and enhance their time management skills. In the face of heavy learning tasks, nursing students should learn to break down tasks scientifically, breaking down large, high-difficulty tasks into a number of small, low-difficulty tasks and completing them one by one. Secondly, from the perspective of positive psychology, nursing educators should pay more attention to the harmonious development of nursing students' mental health, encourage nursing students to actively science the setbacks and challenges in learning and life, establish an optimistic attitude towards learning, increase coping resources, optimize coping, and at the same time,appropriately regulate their emotions through listening to music, physical exercise, and other activities to reduce the negative impact of stress and enhance medical students' social adaptability. The study of the relationship between academic procrastination, resilience, and social adaptability, especially the analysis of resilience as a mediator variable detailed in the mediating effect between academic procrastination and social adaptability, to a certain extent, to make up for the shortcomings of the existing research, provides important research data. This mediating effect model can be used by first-line nursing teachers in the future teaching process, academic procrastination, and resilience training interventions with a view to improving nursing students' social adaptability. This mediation effect model can be used by frontline nursing teachers to intervene in the future teaching process of academic procrastination and resilience, with a view to enhancing the social adaptability of nursing students and promoting their psychological health development.

Limitations

Although this study is important for improving academic procrastination and social adaptability among undergraduate nursing students, there are some shortcomings. Firstly, this study was a cross-sectional study, and therefore, further longitudinal studies are needed to investigate causality. Secondly, the data used in this study were self-reported by the respondents, which may be affected by subjective factor bias. Although this study did not find bias from commonly used methods, a variety of data collection methods (e.g., a combination of self and others' reports) could still be used in future studies to ensure the reliability of the findings. Finally, the participants in this study only came from undergraduate colleges and universities in the Guanzhong region, which hinders the generalization of the findings to some extent. Future studies could expand the sample source and explore the differences in results across cultural backgrounds and educational levels.

In the context of the global nursing shortage, reducing nursing turnover and improving the quality of nursing education have become key measures, and it is an urgent task to reduce nursing students' academic procrastination, improve their social adaptability, and cultivate excellent nursing talent for clinical practice. This study found that resilience not only directly affects nursing students' academic procrastination and social adaptability but also partially mediates the correlation between academic procrastination and social adaptability. This suggests that it is necessary for nursing educators to develop a set of strategies to reduce nursing students' academic procrastination, improve their mental health, and reduce academic procrastination in order to enhance nursing students' social adaptability.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the first and corresponding author on reasonable request.

Mahoney JL, Bergman LR. Conceptual and methodological considerations in a developmental approach to the study of positive adaptation. J Appl Dev Psychol. 2002;23(2):195–217.

Article Google Scholar

Waugh CE, Koster EH. A resilience framework for promoting stable remission from depression. Clin Psychol Rev. 2015;41:49–60.

Chen JW, Huang XT. Social Adaptability of Second School Students: Theoretical Construct and Scale Development. J Psychol Sci. 2004;27(1):182–4.

Google Scholar

Chen JW, Wang T. On Social Adaptation: Mental Mechanism, Structure and Function. J Educ Sci Hunan Normal University. 2003;2(4):90–4.

Vaillant G .The Wisdom of the Ego. Cambridge: MA (Harvard University Press)1993; 2015.

Wang LP. Research and Analysis of College Students’Social Adaptability under the Theory of Emotional Intelligence. J Military Phys Educ Sports. 2019;38(3):65–9.

Zhang K, Mi Z, Parks-Stamm EJ, Cao W, Wan JC, Ji Y, Jiang R. Adaptability protects university students from anxiety, depression, and insomnia during remote learning: A three-wave longitudinal study from China. Front Psychiatr. 2022;13:868072.

Jia Yl, An L, Jia YM. Social Competence and Internet Addiction: Chain Mediation of Social Adaptation and Inferiority. Chin J Clin Psychol. 2019;27(1):103–7.

Wu WJ, Zhang YT. A Study on College Students’ Psychological Health: From the Perspective of the Social Development. J Henan University (Social Science Edition). 2017;57(2):124–30.

Shao SH, Zhao ST, Pang YC. Research on the evaluation of health technical talents under the background of"breaking the five only". Chin J Hospital Stat. 2021;28(6):481–4.

Yuan JL. Research on the relationship between self-efficacy, psychological resilience and social adaptability of nursing vocational students. Shenzhen: Shenzhen Universitiy; 2019.

Jarrar M, Rahman HA, Minai MS, AbuMadini MS, Larbi M. The function of patient-centered care in mitigating the effect of nursing shortage on the outcomes of care. Int J Health Plann Manage. 2018;33(2):e464-73.

Yu JF, Ding YM, Jia RY, Liang DD, Wu Z, Liu GL, et al. Professional identity and emotional labour affect the relationship between perceived organi-sational justice and job performance among Chinese hospital nurses. J Nurs Manag. 2022;30(5):1252–62.

Rong XX, Gan Y, Chen JY. A study related to professional identity and social adaptability of full-time nursing undergraduates. Harbin Med J. 2021;41(6):109–11.

Zhang LN, Zhang XM, Gong TA. Survey on the status quo of social adaptability and its relationship with mental health among third-year medical students in medical schools-Take Baotou Medical College as an example. J Chifeng Univer(Natural Science Edition). 2018;32(16):79–81.

Johansson F, Rozental A, Edlund K, Côté P, Sundberg T, Onell C, et al. Associations between procras-tination and subsequent health outcomes among university students in Sweden. JAMA Network Open. 2023;6(1): e2249346.

Huang H, Ding Y, Liang Y, Zhang LM, Peng QW, Wan X, et al. The mediating effects of coping style and resilience on the relationship between parenting style and academic procrasti -nation among Chinese undergraduate nursing students: A cross-sectional study. BMC Nursing. 2022;21(1):351.

Gustavson DE, Miyake A. Academic procrastination and goal accomplishment: A combined experimental and individual differences investigation. Learn Individ Diff. 2017;54:160–72.

Madhan B, Kumar CS, Naik ES, Panda S, Gayathri H, Barik AK. Trait Procrastination among Dental Students in India and Its Influence on Academic Performance. J Dent Educ. 2012;76:1393–8.

Mortazavi F, Mortazavi S, Khosrorad R. Psychometric Properties of the Procrastination Assessment Scale-Student (Pass) in a Student Sample of Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences Iran Red. Crescent Med J. 2015;17: e28328.

Hope V, Henderson M. Medical Student Depression, Anxiety and Distress Outside North America: A Systematic Review. Med Educ. 2014;48:963–79.

Huang H, Ding Y, Zhang Y, Peng QW, Liang LY, Chen CR, et al. Resilience and positive coping style affect the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and academic procrastination among Chinese undergraduate nursing students. Front Psychol. 2022;13:1014951.

Yang L, Liu Z, Shi S, Dong Y, Chen HJ, Li TJ. The mediat-ing role of perceived stress and academic procrastination between physical activity and depressive symptoms among Chinese college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022;20(1):773.

Wu JD, Xiong F, Fang SC. A survey on procrastination in medical students and path analysis on its influencing factors. Chin J Behav Med Sci. 2015;24(3):244–6.

Li RL. Analysis of the current status of nursing students’ learning delays and the factors influencing them. Chongqing medicine. 2015;44(1):80–3.

Zhao BX, Zhao HF, DaI SS. A study on the correlation between academic procrastination and learning anxiety among nursing interns. Modern Nurse. 2019;26(8):29–32.

Shaw M, Burrus S, Ferguson K. Factors that influence student attrition in online courses. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration. 2016;19(3):211–31.

Walsh JJ, Ugumbaagwunobi G. Individual Differences in Statistics Anxiety: the Roles of Perfectionism, Procrastination and Trait Anxiety. Pers Individ Differ. 2002;33(2):239–51.

Guo M, Yin X, Wang C, Nie L, Wang DC. Emotional intelligence a academic procrastination among junior college nursing students. J Adv Nurs. 2019;75:2710–8.

Bhatnagar S. Rethinking stress resilience. Trends Neurosci. 2021;44(12):936–45.

Liu F, Zhang YC, Tang YX. Moderating effect of psychological resilience between bullying behaviors and academic investment of nursing undergraduates. Journal of Nursing (China). 2023;30(10):58–62.

Richardson GE. The metatheory of resilience and resiliency. J Clin Psychol. 2002;58:307–21.

Masten AS. Ordinary magic: resilience processes in development. American Psychologist. 2001;56(3):227–38.

Kumpfer KL. Factors and processes contributing to resilience: The resilience framework.In M.D.Glantz & J.L.Johnson(Eds), Resiliency and development:Positive life adaptations. NewYork:Kluwer Academic. 1999; 179-224.

Mandleco BL, Peery JC. An organizatioal framework for conceptualizing resilience in children. J Child Adolesc Psychiatr Nurs. 2000;13(3):99–111.

Klika JB, Herrenkoh TI. A review of developmental research on resilience in maltreated children. Trauma Violence Abuse. 2013;14:222–34.

Luthar SS, Cicchetti D. The construct of resilience: Implications for interventiond and social polices. Dev Psychopathol. 2002;12(4):857–85.

Fan F. Preliminary study on psychosocial factors and psychological elastic development plans for left-behind children’s concerns/depressive moods. Changsha: Central South University; 2008.

Hao YH, Wang DF, Yang XH. Psychological Resilience Serves as a Moderator between Childhood Trauma and Psychotic-like Experiences in Adolescents. Chin J Clin Psychol. 2019;27(3):476–80.

Zhang DF, Gao XM, Lu Y. Exploring the Mechanism of Negative Life Events on the Mental Health in Medical Students:The Mediating Role of Mental Resilience. J Nanjing Univer Traditional Chinese Med(Social Science Edition). 2021;22(1):30–5.

Li JQ. A Study on the Relationship among Resilience. Life Events and Social Adaptation of the New Citizens’ Children: Ningbo University; 2017.

Zhang B. Study on the relationship between emotional AL intelligence, resilience and academic procrastination in nursing students. Yanbian University. 2020.

Chen SL, Dai XY, Dong Q. A Research of Aitken Procrastination Inventory Applied to Chinese College Students. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology. 2008; 16:22-23.

Yu XN, Zhang JX. A Comparison between the Chinese Version of Ego-Resiliency Scale and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. Psychol Sci. 2007;5:1169–71.

Zheng RC. Psychological diagnosis of college students . Shandong Education Press. 2003.

Podsakoff PM, MacKenzie SB, Lee J-Y, Podsakoff NP. Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology. 2003;88(5):879.

Chen L, Yang M, Ding H. Current Status of Academic Procrastination in Nursing Undergraduates and Postgraduates and Its Influence Factorss. J Nurs. 2020;27(17):39–44.

He LT, Li HX, Ji XG. The mediating role of positive coping styles in perfectionism and academic procrastination among undergraduate nursing students. Chinese General Practice Nursing. 2023;21(6):746–50.

Liu YL. The effects of time management tendency and self-control on academic procrastination among undergraduate nursing students at a university . Changchun University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. 2019.

Ma N, Yu CF, Liao ZH. Proactive personality and academic procrastination of undergraduates: Mediating effect of achievement motivation and regulating function of future time perspective. China Journal of Health Psychology. 2020;28(1):129–33.

Wang CN, HU SZ. Current situation and influencing factors of psychological resilience of higher vocational nursing students. Med Higher Vocational Edu Modern Nursing. 2023;6(2):113–7.

Kim J. Nursing students’ relationships among resilience, life satisfaction, psychological well-being, and attitude to death. Korean J Med Educ. 2019;31(3):251–60.

Prohaska V, Morrill P, Atiles I. Academic Procrastination by Nontraditional Students. J Soc Behav Pers. 2000;15(5):125–34.

Li Y, Dong W, Tang H, Guo X, Wu S, Lu G, et al. The effect of parenting styles on Chinese undergraduate nursing students’ academic procrastination: the mediating role of causal attribution and self-efficacy. Front Psychol. 2023;14:1167660.

Steel P, KÖNIG CJ. Integrating Theories of Motivation. Acad Manage Rev. 2006;31(4):889–913.

Oxford RL, Rubin J, Chamot AU. The Learning Strategy Prism: Perspectives of Learning Strategy Experts. System. 2014;43:30–49.

Sala V, Petrucci L, Monteleone S, Dall’Angelo A, Toffola ED. Oxygen saturation and heart ratemonitoring during asing lesession of rarly rehabilitation after cardiacs urgery. Eur J Phys Rehabil Med. 2016;52(1):12–9.

Block J, Kremen AM. IQ and ego-resiliency:Conceptual and empirical connections and separateness. J Personaliity & Soc Psychol. 1996;70(2):349–61.

Wang Y, Liu W, Wang WW, Lin S, Lin DH, Wang HL. Left-behind children’s social adjustment and relationship with parental coping with children’s negative emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. Int J Psychol. 2021;56(4):512–21.

Chodura S, Lohaus A, Symanzik T, Heinrichs N, Konrad K. Foster Parents’ Parenting and the Social-Emotional Development and Adaptive Functioning of Children in Foster Care: A PRISMA-Guided Literature Review and Meta-Analysis. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev. 2021;24(2):326–47.

Garner JK. Conceptualizing the relations between executive functions and self-regulated learning. J Psychol. 2009;143(4):405–26.

Cleary M, Visentin D, West S, Lopez V, Kornhaber R. Promoting emotional intelligence and resilience in undergraduate nursing students: an integrative review. Nurse Educ Today. 2018;68:112–20.

Wang L. Research on the relationship between general self-efficacy, resilience and social adaptation of freshmen in high school and educational countermeasures Research. Shaanxi University of Science and Technology. 2022.

Flett AL, Haghbin M, Pychyl TA. Procrastination and depressionfrom a cognitive perspective: an exploration of the associations among procrastinatory automatic thoughts, rumination, and mindfulness. J Ration-Emot Cogn-Behav Ther. 2016;34(3):169–86.

Klibert J, Langhinrichsen-Rohling J, Luna A, Robichaux R. Suicide proneness in college students: relationships with gender, procrastination, and achievement motivation. Death Stud. 2011;35:625–45.

Dong Z, Wei C, Lan X, Mo L. The mediating effect of resilience on gratitude and academic procrastination among left-behind children in eastern Guangxi. Chin J School Health. 2017;38(4):598–600.

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors thank all the participants and research assistants involved with this study.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Shaanxi University of International Trade &Commerce of Pharmacy College, Xianyang, China

Department of Medicine and Nursing, Xijing College, Xi‘an, China

Fangfang An

Department of Nursing, Xi’an Peihua College, Xi’an, China

College of Nursing, Shaanxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xianyang, China

Spinal Ward of Orthopedic Hospital, The Affiliated Hospital of Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine, Xianyang, China

Xiaojie Sun

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

YG and XJS designed the content of this study, YG wrote the main manu-script text, FFA, AQL, and JY participated in data collection and made adjustments to the format of themanuscript. The manuscript was examined by all the authors, and all authors are responsible for the content and have approved this final version of the manuscript. The author(s) read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiaojie Sun .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

This study has been reviewed and approved by Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate. This study was approved by Shaanxi University of International Trade & Commerce Ethics Committee and was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants voluntarily provided written informed consent before participating in the study. All methods were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Supplementary material 1., rights and permissions.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Guo, Y., An, F., Li, A. et al. The correlation between social adaptability and academic procrastination of undergraduate nursing students: the mediating role of resilience. BMC Med Educ 24 , 1052 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-06033-6

Download citation

Received : 13 November 2023

Accepted : 16 September 2024

Published : 27 September 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-06033-6

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Undergraduate nursing students
Academic procrastination
Social adaptability

BMC Medical Education

ISSN: 1472-6920

General enquiries: [email protected]

IMAGES

(PDF) Academic Stress and Coping Strategies of Students in Flexible
(PDF) ACADEMIC STRESS COPING STRATEGIES USING SPIRITUAL APPROACHES TO
Stress, coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education
Stress Management for Teachers: Coping with the Challenges of Education
(PDF) How teacher and classmate support relate to students’ stress and
Pearson correlation between academic stress and coping strategies

VIDEO

How To Manage Stress For Teachers/Teachers Stress Management
Learn at Home help for Teachers: Motivation for secondary students when learning asynchronously
Mindset Mastery: Overcoming College Anxiety
Stress Triggers and Boundaries
Effective Stress Coping Strategies
Most Important Stress Management Tip for Students #SHORTS

COMMENTS

Stress, coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education
ABSTRACT. University students experience stress, and how they cope with this stress affects their academic achievement. This study examined stress in teacher education students and had three objectives: to describe different degrees of stress and coping styles; to study the relationship between stress, coping strategies and academic achievement; and to examine whether increased age can ...
Stress, coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education
Stress, coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education students, European Journal of Teacher Education, DOI: 10.1080/02619768.2019.1576629 To link to this article: https://doi.or ...
Stress, coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education
Source: European Journal of Teacher Education, 42:3, 375-390 (Reviewed by the Portal Team) This study focuses on stress, coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education students and has three objectives: to describe different degrees of stress and coping styles; to examine the relationship between stress, coping strategies and academic achievement; and to examine whether ...
Advances in understanding and intervening in teacher stress and coping
Teacher stress can also have an impact on students in the classroom. A recent study found differences in a biological indicator of stress (salivary cortisol) in elementary school students in classrooms with teachers who reported higher symptoms of burnout (Oberle & Schonert-Reichl, 2016).Additionally, a separate study found teachers reporting higher stress and burnout along with low coping had ...
PDF Academic Progress, Coping Strategies and
Academic Progress, Coping Strategies and Psychological Distress among Teacher Education Students Josep Gustems-Carnicer1, Caterina Calderon1, Diego Calderon-Garrido1, Carolina Martin-Piñol1 ... Keywords: academic progress ,teacher training coping strategies stress. IJEP - International Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 9 ...
Stressors and coping strategies: The case of teacher education students
Keywords: stressors; teacher education students; stress coping strategies; university students 1.1. Background of the study Learners are exposed to diverse types of stressors, such as academic burden, financial constraints and a host of difficulties as well as future uncertainties and having opportunities for social mobility in the system.
Coping strategies and psychological well-being among teacher education
Keywords University student • Coping strategies • Psychological well-being • Teacher education • Students Introduction Stress is common among students in the academic context (Zajacova et al. 2005). As a result, the ability of the individual student to prevent psychological distress is closely related to his or her personal resources ...
PDF Stressors, Coping Strategies, and Achievement during Teaching ...
teacher stress, coping strategies, and academic achievement. Results showed that academic achievement among these teacher trainees was a function of how they perceived and coped with stressors. These results are consistent with those of Gustems and Calderon (2013), Pietarinen et al. (2013), and Deasy et al. (2014a).
How teacher and classmate support relate to students' stress and
Introduction. Social relationships with peers and teachers play a pivotal role for students' stress and learning outcomes as they act as resources that support learning and mitigate feelings of stress (Cohen et al., 1983; Hobfoll et al., 1990; Wentzel et al., 2017).The conservation of resources theory (COR) states that "human beings' primary motivation is to build, protect, and foster ...
Stress, coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education
ABSTRACT University students experience stress, and how they cope with this stress affects their academic achievement. This study examined stress in teacher education students and had three objectives: to describe different degrees of stress and coping styles; to study the relationship between stress, coping strategies and academic achievement; and to examine whether increased age can moderate ...
Stressors and coping strategies: The case of teacher education students
5.1. Coping strategies employed by teacher education students. Objective three sought to find out the various coping strategies teacher education students employ when stressed. Table 3 presents the outcome of the responses based on residential status as provided by the respondents. Handling stress is very crucial to preventing any undesirable ...
Coping strategies and psychological well-being among teacher education
Stress is common among students in the academic context (Zajacova et al. 2005).As a result, the ability of the individual student to prevent psychological distress is closely related to his or her personal resources, and specifically to the effective use of coping strategies (Khramtsova et al. 2007; Salami 2008). Stress is an adaptive reaction of the organism to the demands of the environment ...
PDF Stress And Coping Strategies And Academic Performance Of Teacher
that guide the learners to be financially literate. Also, the students must learn the most effective stress management strategies and coping mechanisms that are suitable and appropriate to the causes of their stress. Keywords: Stress, coping strategies, academic performance, teacher education students INTRODUCTION
Teacher Stress: 6 Coping Strategies
Woods and Keith Herman, a professor at Missouri and a co-author of the study, shared six positive, healthy coping strategies teachers can use to manage stress. 1. Write down what you're grateful for
Coping strategies and psychological well-being among teacher education
The coping strategies used by students play a key role in their psychological well-being. This study examines the relationship between coping strategies and psychological well-being in a sample of 98 undergraduates aged between 19 and 42 years. Coping strategies were evaluated by means of the CRI-A (Moos, 1993), while psychological well-being was assessed using the BSI (Derogatis and Spencer ...
Stress, coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education
University students experience stress, and how they cope with this stress affects their academic achievement. This study examined stress in teacher education students and had three objectives: to d...
Raise The Bar: Strategies to Improve Student Achievement
A once-in-a-generation pandemic has had a once-in-a-generation impact on our nation's children and youth. That is why, since day one, the Biden-Harris Administration has worked aggressively to safely reopen schools and keep them open, help students recover academically, support their mental health and well-being, and address teacher and staffing challenges many communities face.
Determinants of academic achievement from the middle to secondary
Because it is crucial for psychosocial adjustment and lifelong learning, education is the most relevant tool for ensuring inclusion and reducing inequalities. Due to its relationship with positive outcomes, such as life satisfaction, mental health, job performance or SES, academic achievement is a significant phenomenon that impacts students, families, and educational institutions. The present ...
Workplace learning: the bidirectional relationship between stress and
The present study focused on the relationships between various aspects of self-regulated learning (SRL) and stress among undergraduate health science students in workplace settings. Although both constructs are associated with academic achievement (Ahmady Set al., in J Educ Health Promotion 10:32, 2021, Cho KK et al., in BMC Med Educ 17:112, 2017), it is still unclear how they influence each ...
Stress, coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education
University students experience stress, and how they cope with this stress affects their academic achievement. This study examined stress in teacher education students and had three objectives: to describe different degrees of stress and coping styles; to study the relationship between stress, coping strategies and academic achievement; and to examine whether increased age can moderate the ...
The correlation between social adaptability and academic
Background How to mobilize nurses students' learning initiative, reduce the incidence of academic procrastination, and improve their social adaptability is a key factor in lowering nursing brain drain and improving nursing quality. Objective To explore the mediating role of resilience in the correlation between social adaptability and academic procrastination of undergraduate nursing students ...

Stress, coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education students

Abstract and Figures

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Introduction

Teacher support, students’ stress, and academic achievement

Peer support, students’ stress, and academic achievement

The current study and hypotheses

Materials and methods

Teacher and peer support in class

Perceived stress

Achievement

Statistical analyses

Multilevel structural equation modeling

Strengths, limitations, and future research

Data availability statement

Ethics statement

Author contributions

Acknowledgments

Conflict of interest

Publisher’s note

Supplementary material

Stress, coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education students

148 Citations

STUDENT TEACHER STRESS AND PHYSICAL EXERCICE

Social and study related stressors and resources among university entrants: Effects on well-being and academic performance

Stressors and coping strategies: The case of teacher education students at University of Ghana

2. Literature review

PUBLIC STATEMENT INTEREST

1.1. Background of the study

1.2. Statement of the problem

1.3. Purpose of the study

2.1. Conceptual framework

2.2. Causes/sources of stress (Stressors)

2.3. Stress coping strategies

2.4. Empirical literature review

3.1. Research design

3.2. Population of the study

3.3. Sample and sampling procedure

3.4. Instruments

3.5. Data collection procedure

3.6. Data analysis procedure

4.1. Demographic information

4.2. Stressors among teacher education students

5.1. Coping strategies employed by teacher education students

7.1. Conclusion

7.2. Recommendation

Notes on contributors

Kwaku Darko Amponsah

Grace Sintim Adasi

Related research

To cite this article:

Login or register to access this feature

Coping strategies and psychological well-being among teacher education students

Cite this article

Access this article

Similar content being viewed by others

Coping and Cultural Context: Implications for Psychological Health and Well-Being

Construction and validity evidence of a scale for coping with difficult social academic interpersonal situations

Acknowledgement

Author information

Corresponding author

Additional information

Rights and permissions

About this article

Share this article

Teacher Stress: 6 Coping Strategies

1. Write down what you’re grateful for

2. Pay attention to your mood

3. Avoid workplace gossip and venting sessions

4. Practice adaptive behaviors and thinking

5. Seek out professional development

6. Have a book club

Sign Up for EdWeek Update

Sign Up & Sign In

Stress, coping strategies and academic achievement in teacher education students

Motivation of UK graduate students in education: self-compassion moderates pathway from extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation

The correlation between social adaptability and academic procrastination of undergraduate nursing students: the mediating role of resilience

Introduction

The importance of academic procrastination

The potential mediating role of resilience