Resilience and coping strategies among university students

Over the years, stress has become part and parcel of the academic lives of students as a result of different external and internal expectations that are commonly placed on their shoulders (Park and Kim, 2018). This stress takes a toll on the physical health of the students, their success in academics and wellbeing emotionally. The stress experienced by university students is related to lifestyle changes, new responsibilities, increased workload and interpersonal relationships. Levels of stress that are higher than normal have the capability of hindering the effectiveness of work and bringing about attrition and poor performance in academics. Those students who have been reported to have experienced life events that are stressful have also reported health outcomes that are and reduced life quality. The university students of today are reported to be more stressed out than students from previous times, with up to 55% of them claiming that the nature of their biggest stressors is academic in nature. For every 10 university students, 6 report having been so stresses to the extent that they were not able to get their work done in different occasions (Stoliker and Lafreniere, 2015). Introduction of coping strategies successfully has the capability of helping students to avoid the consequences of excessive stress which tend to be quite destructive.

Strategies for coping have a strong emphasis on a range of strategies for regulating emotions, behaviours and individual though processes. What that implies is that the foundation of coping is on the psychological responses of an individual to stress, their individual appraisal of events, the outcomes they desire, the goals they set and their attention (Anton et al., 2015). Additionally, coping is also dependent on interpersonal relationships and social contexts. Different types of coping strategies include search for support socially, solving of problems, solving of problems focused on emotions, distraction, and self-reliance among many others (Fares et al., 2016). University students are observed to have quite a number of responsibilities and a number of worries for example; the pressure to perform, fear of failure, competition for good grades, peer relationships, career choices and many other aspects of the university environment are real life challenges that would bring about mental stress. Females have reported higher levels of perceived stress in relation to men. The stress has such negative effects like sleeplessness, aggression, depression, strained interpersonal relations, jealousy, conflicts, rejection among many others.

According to Neubauer, Smyth and Sliwinski (2018), proactive coping has an impact on the likelihood of growth related to stress. An essential prerequisite for transforming coping behaviours is the sell-efficacy theory that was advanced by Albert Bandura (Schönfeld et al., 2016).

Hypotheses

1. Resilience has a positive relationship that is also predictive with problem-focused coping strategies.
2. Total resilience and its components are expected to be associated positively with problem-focused coping strategies and negatively with emotion-focused coping strategies.

There exists two major strategies for coping with stress: problem-focused coping strategies and emotion-focused strategies (Al-Dubai, 2011). The target of problem-focused coping is on the causes of the stress in ways that are tactical and which aid in tackling the stressful situation and problem that brings about the stress and this goes a long way in reducing the stress. The aim of the strategies that focus on the problem include; solving of the problem, management of time and gaining social support that is instrumental. Generally, coping that focuses on the problem is the best as it does away with the stressor and as such deals with the problems root cause and as such providing solutions that are suitable for the long term. Good examples of problems that could be solved through problem-focused strategy`s include discrimination, diabetes and HIV infections.

It is however, not always possible to use these problem-focused strategies. For instance, in the event a person passes on, the bereaved stand to gain nothing from these strategies. Emotion-focused coping would be most suitable to deal with loss feelings. This implies that approaches that focus on the problem are useless in such situations whereby, it is beyond the control of the individual to remove the stressor (Gilhhol et al., 2016). They are most suitable when the person is capable of controlling the source of the stress.

On the other hand, the target of emotion-focused coping is to try to do away with the emotional responses of an emotional nature that are related to stress for example, anxiety, fear, frustration, excitement, embarrassment and depression (Krischer, Penney and Hunter, 2010). This implies that this is the most realistic option in such situations where the stressor is beyond the control of an individual. Drug therapy which focuses on the arousal brought about by stress is a proper example of emotion focused coping as it does not focus on the problem. There are other examples of emotion focused coping techniques which include; emotional disclosure, meditation, substance abuse, meditation, eating more, that is, comfort food, consumption of alcohol, suppressing, cognitive reappraisal, journaling, distraction and praying for strength and guidance.

According to Penley, Tomaka and Weibe (2012), strategies that focus on emotions tend to be less often effective in comparison to methods that focus on the problem in relation to health outcomes. Generally, poorer health outcomes have been reported in people who resort to emotion-focused strategies like taking drugs, comfort eating and consuming alcohol. The solutions provided by emotion-focused coping are not long term and may bear numerous side effects as they delay the person in facing the problem. However, even with this, in those situations when the stressor is not within the control of an individual, they are the best solutions.

Psychological Resilience provides protection from stress. This is described as a personality trait that is innate and as positive adaptation process in the face of adversities that emerges in different life situations depending on the situation facing someone (Labrague et al., 2017). Resilience comes into being whenever a person uses behaviours and mental processes in promotional of personal assets and protection of self from the stressors potential negative effects. In terms that are simpler, psychological resilience gets to develop in those individuals who develop behavioural and psychological capabilities that put them in a position to stay calm even in the face of chaos and crisis and to move on from such incidents with zero negative consequences. Generally, resilience is believed to be a positive adaptation that comes about after a situation that is adverse and stressful.

The purpose of this assignment is to examine the association between psychological resilience and the coping styles (emotion and problem-focused) in the context of an academic stressor for a group of Australian university students.

Results

Descriptive statistics of coping strategies

Each individual`s dominant style is determined by the scores they get in the triple coping styles dimensions. That implies that, the behaviour that scores higher in the scale is considered to be the most preferred style for coping for the individual. In this scenario problem-oriented strategies are the dominant coping strategies.

Discussion

There exists a strong culture of social expectation in relation to excellent academic performance in Australia. As such, University students in Australia are pressured by the competitive nature of university education. From the study, it is quite evident that those students who utilise more problem-solving coping skills report a higher level of adjustment psychologically. Positive problem solving is concerned with working on the problem and solving the problem.

Hypotheses 2 which looks into the relationship between strategies for coping and resilience is fulfilled, because it is observed that there is a negative correlation between emotion-focused coping strategies and resilience and problem-focused coping strategies and resilience, with a relationship that is negative with strategies that are focused in inhibition (isolation and emotional discharge, preparation for the worst and resigned acceptance) or cut emotions (evasive distraction). Resilience`s behavioural components like management of change, tenacity and perceived control are those that are observed to be associated with firmness, positive re-evaluations and self-intrusion behaviours (Guo et al., 2017). With that, the resilience of students in universities is confirmed and there is a positive association between it and strategies for problem-coping. This finding is an indication of resilience’s, coping strategies` behavioural support, providing evidence that is empirical for the relationship. There are only few studies that have reported on the relationship between coping strategies and resilience in the populations within universities (Li, 2018; Hartley, 2010 and Hartley, 2011).

The results are in line with other studies that have been done in the past which have shown a relationship that is negative between coping strategies and personal self-regulation and that is especially with those coping strategies whose focus is on emotions (Zhou et al., 2017). Studies conducted in the past have also clearly proven the existing relationship between personal self-regulation and resilience which also are in line with this results (Chen, 2016). Those students whose scores in global resilience were medium-high were also observed to do well in other aspects like the control perception (strongly believing that they were in control of the situation) and change (this is related to the possibility of establishment of relations onto which one can lean on and being flexible to the extent of adapting to new situations with ease). Notably, the students also stood out for adoption of strategies whose focus was on the problem. Such aspects are positive for fostering the acquisition of the problem solving responsibility and search for solutions, being aware of the stress to which they are exposed to and developing as people who are autonomous.

The results provided empirical evidence of the inherence of coping strategies in conduct that is resilient which is an indication of resilience`s protective mechanism health-wise.

It is evident that the effect of coping thoughts and behaviour on well-being is dependent on the resilient personality of an individual. Whenever students report levels of resilience that are lower; the adoption of problem-oriented coping styles boosts their satisfaction with life. Whenever students are in higher levels of resilience, use of problem-oriented styles foe coping do not boost their satisfaction with life in any way. These reasons are quite reasonable. When people are poor in recovering from situations that are stressful and difficult, planning to solve the problem and to alter the situation could bring about to an evaluation of their lives that is satisfactory. When people are highly resilient, they have the tendency of adopting problem oriented coping styles to tackle heir adversities (Garity, 1997). As such, the positive relationship between satisfaction in life and problem oriented coping styles could not possibly be boosted under high resilience conditions.

When working together, coping styles and resilience have the potential of improving the quality of life of a student. Resilience directly positively predicts the satisfaction with one`s academic progress and positive affect; has a relationship that is negative with negative affect through coping styles that are emotion-oriented (Smith et al., 2016). These results are to a large extent consistent with the findings of previous studies on the negative and positive association between resilience to satisfaction in academic progress and negative affect (JOWKAR et al., 2014). Generally, what is conveyed by these results is that resilience and coping strategies play a huge role in maintaining the mentall well-being of students.

This study goes a long way to demonstrate the effect that the combination of coping styles and resilience has on the life of students. The relationship between coping styles and resilience is consistent with the findings of previous studies that resilience is positively associated with problem oriented coping and negatively associated with emotion-oriented coping styles (Crego et al., 2016). Those students who are more resilient have a higher likelihood of being self-controlled, competent, and tolerant of negative affect and accepting those changes that are associated with positive attitudes. As such, whenever faced with adversities and difficulties, they have a higher likelihood of altering those situations they find themselves in and moving forward to take actions to solve the problems that they are faced with instead of becoming tense, blaming themselves for being too emotional or even daydreaming.

It is not supported that resilience has the capability of influencing the satisfaction of a student with life and positive affect through coping styles that are focused on the problem. Rather, resilience is observed to have a direct effect on these aspects. There are two lines of thought that could explain this result. First, problem-oriented coping styles and resilience could have a direct impact on the quality of life of a student. Resilience which relates to a student`s capabilities to quickly recover from tough situations and difficulties, would most probably facilitate an individual to evaluate their lives, while coping styles that are focused on the problem are more closely related to the individual`s mood and emotion in that when solutions to problems are found, people would be happier and more relaxed.

Second, these results could be specific for the current sample in that there are limitations to the relevant research in the mediating function of styles for coping in the relation between well-being and resilience. As such, additional research would be required so as to draw conclusions that are more general.

Conclusion

The findings of this study establish the multidirectionality that is predictive and associative of different variables in prediction of the quality of life students live in universities and their performance academically. As such, the type pf coping strategies and type of approach for learning is determined by resilience. When these three are combined, they predict multidirectionality and performance in academics. What makes this directionality novel is that it establishes the effect of resilience empirically on coping strategies and the adopted strategies for learning. Additionally, the empirical validation advances previously conducted studies, because it is based on linear structural methodologies that are more robust and that is especially related to resilience`s value and how it relates to stress in academics through coping strategies.

There are however limitations presented by this study, because it is necessary that it is borne in mind that the variables which we worked with are personal in nature. Additionally, the previous learning the students went through before they joined university is not explored, in relation to the context of the stresses they face in university. In future studies, it will be necessary to revalidate some of the instruments to ensure adequacy structurally and factorial invariance as a step that is preliminary to their adoption, given that these results contain several inconsistencies, for example the university samples Spirituality Scale (resilience) low reliability.

Evaluating coping strategies and resilience could be helpful in the selection of programs for intervention for alleviation of negative emotionality among students in universities, even adopting interventions that are mindful. Additionally, another important implication would be the need to adopt on-line tools for screening for first approaches to help students in universities. De la Fuente et al., (2015) propose an e-Coping with Academic Stress tool that facilitates evaluation of self and further facilitates the improvement of those factors within the students. Moving towards such technological developments is very necessary today.

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