The effect of diffusion theory based hidden peer education oncoping strategies and perceived stress levels

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of diffusion theory based hidden peer education intervention on perceived stress levels and ways of coping with stress, which appear to be serious problems among university students and require effective intervention methods. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted at Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University between February 4, 2024 and April 25, 2025 and is a controlled interventional study with the participation of 324 students studying in the second year of the nursing, physiotherapy and rehabilitation, and social services undergraduate departments of the faculty of health sciences. This interventional study is a 3-group study as a diffusion theory based hidden peer education intervention group, a classical peer education intervention group, and a control group. After the pre-test in which the students' perceived stress levels and ways of coping with stress were evaluated, the students were divided into 3 groups and 12-week diffusion theory based hidden peer education and classical peer education interventions were applied to the students. After the interventions, the students' perceived stress levels and ways of coping with stress were re-evaluated with the post-test. Chi-square, repeated measures test, ANOVA, Mcnemar test were used in data analysis. Conclusion: The mean age of the students participating in the study was 19.9±1.24, and 222 (80.4%) were female. With both the diffusion theory based hidden peer education and the classical peer education intervention, the stress levels of the students decreased significantly, and the diffusion theory based hidden peer education was similar to the classical peer education in reducing stress. The effect size of both interventions on stress levels was found to be small. Diffusion theory based hidden peer education offers a more sustainable model compared to classical peer education thanks to its temporal and spatial flexibility.