ORIGINAL PAPER
Gender as a factor in differentiating strategies of coping with stress used by physical education students
| 1 | Department of Socio-cultural Foundations of Tourism, The Jozef Piłsudski University of Physical
Education, Warsaw, Poland |
| 2 | Department of Psychology, The Faculty of Physical Education, The Jozef Pilsudski
University of Physical Education, Warsaw, Poland |
Submission date: 2015-11-10
Final revision date: 2016-01-11
Acceptance date: 2016-01-11
Online publication date: 2016-02-10
Publication date: 2016-02-22
Health Psychology Report 2016;4(3):237–245
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Background
Students are exposed to numerous stressors associated with their integration into their university education, their relationships with friends, and anxiety about the future. Given that stress may be related to university students’ academic performance, understanding the coping strategies used by students may be important in facilitating a positive transition to a university setting. The aim of this study was to determine the gender-based variation of strategies for coping with stress used by students, as well as to determine the correlation between these strategies and the students’ academic achievements.
Participants and procedure
The study design was cross sectional and included 376 first-year undergraduate students (227 men and 149 women) enrolled in the physical education and sport programme at the University of Physical Education in Warsaw. The Polish adaptation of Carver, Scheier and Weintraub’s Multidimensional Inventory for Measuring Stress Coping – COPE and the mean grade from all first-year university courses (the indicator of academic achievements) were used.
Results
Men definitely preferred task-oriented strategies, while women preferred to look for support (instrumental and emotional) and placed higher importance on the focusing on and venting of emotions. Academic achievement correlated positively with task-oriented strategies and negatively with avoidance-oriented strategies. These relationships were partly confirmed by regression analyses.
Conclusions
The results of the study provide support for sex differences in the most frequently applied coping strategies. The results also suggest that avoidance-oriented strategies do not facilitate academic achievement, while active coping strategies correlate with greater success in studies.
Students are exposed to numerous stressors associated with their integration into their university education, their relationships with friends, and anxiety about the future. Given that stress may be related to university students’ academic performance, understanding the coping strategies used by students may be important in facilitating a positive transition to a university setting. The aim of this study was to determine the gender-based variation of strategies for coping with stress used by students, as well as to determine the correlation between these strategies and the students’ academic achievements.
Participants and procedure
The study design was cross sectional and included 376 first-year undergraduate students (227 men and 149 women) enrolled in the physical education and sport programme at the University of Physical Education in Warsaw. The Polish adaptation of Carver, Scheier and Weintraub’s Multidimensional Inventory for Measuring Stress Coping – COPE and the mean grade from all first-year university courses (the indicator of academic achievements) were used.
Results
Men definitely preferred task-oriented strategies, while women preferred to look for support (instrumental and emotional) and placed higher importance on the focusing on and venting of emotions. Academic achievement correlated positively with task-oriented strategies and negatively with avoidance-oriented strategies. These relationships were partly confirmed by regression analyses.
Conclusions
The results of the study provide support for sex differences in the most frequently applied coping strategies. The results also suggest that avoidance-oriented strategies do not facilitate academic achievement, while active coping strategies correlate with greater success in studies.
REFERENCES (48)
1.
Anshel, M. H., & Delany, J. (2001). Sources of acute stress, cognitive appraisal, and coping strategies of male and female child athletes. Journal of Sport Behavior, 24, 329–353.
2.
Anshel, M. H., Jamieson, J., & Raviv, S. (2001). Cognitive appraisals and coping strategies following acute stress among skilled competitive male and female athletes. Journal of Sport Behavior, 24, 75–94.
3.
Brougham, R. R., Zail, C. M., Mendoza, C. M., & Miller, J. R. (2009). Stress, sex differences, and coping strategies among college students. Current Psychology, 28, 85–97. doi: 10.1007/sl12144-009-9047-0.
4.
Carver, C. S., Scheier, M. F., & Weintraub, J. K. (1989). Assessing coping strategies: A theoretically based approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 267–283.
5.
Chew-Graham, C. A., Rogers, A., & Yassin, N. (2003). ‘I wouldn’t want it on my CV or their records’: medical students’ experiences of help-seeking for mental health problems. Medical Education, 37, 873–880.
6.
Clifton, R. A., Perry, R. P., Roberts, L. W., & Peter, T. (2008). Gender, psychosocial dispositions, and the academic achievement of college students. Research in Higher Education, 49, 684–703.
7.
Dunkley, D. M., Blankstein, K. R., Halsall, J., Williams, M., & Winkworth, G. (2000). The relation between perfectionism and distress: Hassles, coping, and perceived social support as mediators and moderators. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 47, 437–453.
8.
Dwyer, A., & Cummings, A. L. (2001). Stress, self-efficacy, social support, and coping strategies in university students. Canadian Journal of Counseling, 35, 208–220.
9.
Dyson, R., & Renk, K. (2006). Freshmen adaptation to university life: Depressive symptoms, stress, and coping. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62, 1231–1244. doi: 10.1002/jclp.20295.
10.
Eaton, R. J., & Bradley, G. (2008). The role of gender and negative affectivity in stressor appraisal and coping selection. International Journal of Stress Management, 15, 94–115.
11.
Endler, N. S., & Parker, J. D. (1990). Multidimensional assessment of coping: A critical evaluation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 844–854.
12.
Fish, C., & Nies, M. A. (1996). Health promotion needs of students in a college environment. Public Health Nurse, 13, 104–111.
13.
Gan, Q., & Anshel, M. H. (2006). Differences between elite and non-elite, male and female Chinese athletes on cognitive appraisal of stressful events in competitive sport. Journal of Sport Behavior, 29, 213–228.
14.
Gomathi, K. G., Ahmed, S., & Sreedharan, J. (2013). Causes of stress and coping strategies adopted by undergraduate health professions students in a University in the United Arab Emirates. Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal, 13, 437–441.
15.
Goyen, M. J., & Anshel, M. H. (1998). Sources of acute competitive stress and use of coping strategies as a function of age and gender. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 19, 469–486.
16.
Guszkowska, M. (2003). Osobowość studentek pedagogiki (na przykładzie Wyższej Szkoły Pedagogicznej TWP) [Personality of pedagogy female students (on example of the Higher School of Pedagogy)]. Warszawa: Wyd. WSP TWP.
17.
Guthrie, E. A., Black, D., Shaw, C. M., Hamilton, J., Creed, F. H., & Tomenson, B. (1995). Embarking upon a medical career: psychological morbidity in first year medical students. Medical Education, 29, 337–341.
18.
Hammermeister, J., & Burton, D. (2004). Gender differences in coping with endurance sport stress: Are men form Mars and women from Venus? Journal of Sport Behavior, 27, 148–164.
19.
Juczyński, Z., & Ogińska-Bulik, N. (2009). Narzędzia pomiaru stresu i radzenia sobie ze stresem [Psychometric tests measuring stress and coping with stress]. Warszawa: Pracownia Testów Psychologicznych PTP.
20.
Kao, P. C., & Craigie, P. (2013). Coping strategies of Taiwanese university students as predictors of English language learning anxiety. Social Behavior and Personality, 41, 411–420.
21.
Kausar, R. (2010). Perceived stress, academic workloads and use of coping strategies University students. Journal of Behavioural Sciences, 20, 31–45.
22.
Kaya, M., Genç, M., Kaya, B., & Pehlivan, E. (2007). Prevalence of depressive symptoms, ways of coping, and related factors among medical school and health services higher education students. Türk Psikiyatri Dergisi, 18, 137–146.
23.
Lane, A. W., Jones, L., & Stevens, M. J. (2002). Coping with failure: The effects of self-esteem and coping on changes in self-efficacy. Journal of Sport Behavior, 25, 331–345.
24.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Psychological stress and the coping process. New York, NY: Springer.
25.
Lumley, M. A., & Provenzano, K. M. (2003). Stress management through written emotional disclosure improves academic performance among college students with physical symptoms. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95, 641–649.
26.
Moffat, K., McConnachie, A., Ross, S., & Morrison, J. M. (2004). First year medical student stress and coping in a problem-based learning medical curriculum. Medical Education, 38, 482–491.
27.
Niemi, P. M., & Vainiomaki, P. T. (1999). Medical students’ academic distress, coping and achievement strategies during the pre-clinical years. Teaching and Learning in Medicine, 11, 125–134.
28.
Park, C. L., & Adler, N. E. (2003). Coping styles as a predictor of health and well-being across the first year of medical school. Health Psychology, 22, 627–631.
29.
Pierceall, E. A., & Keim, M. C. (2007). Stress and coping strategies among community college students. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 31, 702–712.
30.
Pritchard, M. E., & Wilson, G. (2006). Do coping styles change during the first semester of college? Journal of Social Psychology, 146, 125–127.
31.
Pritchard, M. E., Wilson, G., & Jamnitz, B. (2007). What predicts adjustment among college students? A longitudinal panel study. Journal of American College Health, 56, 15–21.
32.
Renk, K., & Creasey, G. L. (2003). The relationship of gender, gender identity, and coping strategies in late adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 26, 159–168.
33.
Robinson, M. D., & Johnson, J. T. (1997). Is it emotion or is it stress? Gender stereotypes and the perception of subjective experience. Sex Roles, 36, 235–258.
34.
Romanowska-Tołłoczko, A. (2011). Styl życia studentów oceniany w kontekście zachowań zdrowotnych [University students’ lifestyles in the context of their health behaviors]. Hygeia Public Health, 46, 89–93.
35.
Rosołowska, J. (2003). Przyczyny stresu u studentów Wydziału Nauk o Zdrowiu Akademii Medycznej w Poznaniu [Causes of stress among Health Academy students in Poznan]. Pielęgniarstwo Polskie, 15, 82–87.
36.
Sasaki, M., & Yamasaki, K. (2007). Stress coping and the adjustment process among university freshmen. Counseling Psychology Quarterly, 20, 51–67.
37.
Shankar, P. R., Balasubramanium, R., Ramireddy, R., Diamante, P., Barton, B., & Dwivedi, N. R. (2014). Stress and Coping Strategies among Premedical and Undergraduate Basic Science Medical Students in a Caribbean Medical School. Education in Medicine Journal, 6, e48–e56.
38.
Silver, H. K., & Glicken A. D. (1990). Medical student abuse. Incidence, severity, and significance. Journal of the American Medical Association, 263, 527–532.
39.
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, 26.
40.
Stanton, A. L., Kirk, S. B., Cameron, C. L., & Danoff-Burg, S. (2000). Coping through emotional approach: Scale construction and validation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 1150–1169.
41.
Strelau, J., Jaworowska, A., Wrześniewski, K., & Szczepaniak, P. (2005). Kwestionariusz Radzenia Sobie w Sytuacjach Stresowych CISS. Podręcznik [Questionnaire coping with stressful situations CISS. Textbook]. Warszawa: Pracownia Testów Psychologicznych PTP.
42.
Struthers, C. W., Perry, R. P., & Menec, V. H. (2000). An examination of the relationship among academic stress, coping, motivation, and performance in college. Research in Higher Education, 41, 581–592.
43.
Tamres, L. K., Janicki D., & Hedgeson V. S. (2002). Sex diffrerences in coping behavior: A meta-analytic review and an examination of relative coping. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 6, 2–30.
44.
Thornton, B., Pickus, J., & Aldrich, M. (2005). Ways of coping in relationship and achievement situations: Further consideration of gender and gender-role typing. Journal of Worry and Affective Experience, 1, 60–70.
45.
Vitaliano, P. P., Russo, J., Carr, J. E., & Heerwagen, J. H. (1984). Medical school pressures and their relationship to anxiety. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 172, 730–736.
46.
Wilczek-Rużyczka, E., & Jabłeka, M. (2013). Job burnout syndrome and stress strategies of academic students. Zdrowie Publiczne, 123, 241–246.
47.
Yussuf, A. D., Issa, B. A., Ajiboye P. O., & Buhari O. I. (2013). The correlates of stress, coping styles and psychiatric morbidity in the first year of medical education at a Nigerian University. African Journal of Psychiatry, 16, 206–215.
48.
Zafar, N., & Mubashir, T. (2012). Emotional distress and coping strategies in university students after the death if parental figure. Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 22, 90–103.
We process personal data collected when visiting the website. The function of obtaining information about users and their behavior is carried out by voluntarily entered information in forms and saving cookies in end devices. Data, including cookies, are used to provide services, improve the user experience and to analyze the traffic in accordance with the Privacy policy. Data are also collected and processed by Google Analytics tool (more).
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.
You can change cookies settings in your browser. Restricted use of cookies in the browser configuration may affect some functionalities of the website.