Examining the relationship between university students' perceived stress levels and stress coping strategies

ABSTRACT EXAMINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' PERCEIVED STRESS LEVELS AND STRESS COPING STRATEGIES DOĞU, Meryem Master's Degree, Educational Sciences Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Demet EROL June, 2025, 132 Pages Stress has become a concept that has taken its place at the center of our lives and has become an inevitable reality of societies. One of the most intense periods of stress experienced for various reasons in every period of human life is the university years that coincide with emerging adulthood. The prevalence of stress-related mental disorders, especially among the young population in this period, indicates that it is necessary to focus on effectively coping with stress. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the perceived stress levels of university students and their coping strategies according to socio-demographic variables such as gender, grade level, department, place of residence, socio-economic level, degree of satisfaction with the university environment, having hobbies and romantic relationship status. A total of 454 university students, 319 female and 135 male, studying in the Guidance and Psychological Counseling, Classroom, Preschool, Primary Mathematics, English and Turkish Teaching Departments at the Akdeniz University Faculty of Education in 2023-2024 participated in the research. The Perceived Stress Scale(PSS), the Coping Styles Scale(WSS) and the Personal Information Form were used in the study. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), developed by Cohen, Kamarck, Mermelstein (1983) and adapted to Turkish by Eskin et al. (2013), the Ways of Coping Scale (WSS), developed by Folkman and Lazarus (1984) and adapted to Turkish by Şahin and Durak (1995), and the Personal Information Form prepared by the researcher were used as data collection tools in the study. The analysis of the research data was done using the "SPSS for Windows 27.00" statistical package program. Spearman Product Moment Correlation analysis was performed at the 0.01 significance level. Other tests were performed at the 0.05 significance level preferred in social sciences. In the analysis of the data, the Kormogorov-Smirnov Test was used to determine whether the mean, standard deviation, and the normal distribution of the research data were determined, and it was concluded that the data did not have a normal distribution. Nonparametric tests, Mann-Whitney U test was used for binary groups and Kruskal-Wallis test was used for multiple groups. In case of a statistically significant difference between multiple groups, differences between groups were determined by Dunnett's T3 post-hoc test. According to the results, it was observed that the students who participated in the study had a medium level of stress. Significant relationships were found between the perceived stress levels of university students and their stress coping strategies. When the relationships between the sub-dimensions of strategies of coping with stress and the perceived stress level are examined, the results are as follows: There was a negative moderate relationship between the perceived stress level and the problem-focused-effective coping methods of self-confident approach; a negative moderate relationship between the optimistic approach; a negative weak relationship between the social support seeking approach; a positive moderate relationship between the emotion-focused-ineffective coping methods of helpless/self-blaming approach; and a positive weak relationship between the submissive approach. No significant difference was found between the perceived stress levels and the ways of coping with stress. However, it was determined that the students' perceived stress levels and stress coping strategies differed according to socio-demographic variables such as gender, department, socio-economic level, degree of satisfaction with the university environment and having a hobby. It was also observed that stress levels differed at the class level. According to the results of the study, it was determined that female students had higher stress levels than male students; students in the 2nd and 4th grades had higher stress levels than students in the 1st; students in the English and Classroom Teaching Department had higher stress levels than students in the Psychological Counseling and Guidance Department; students with low socio-economic status had higher stress levels than students with medium socio-economic status; students who rated their satisfaction with the university environment as not good compared to students who rated their satisfaction as medium or good; and students who did not have hobbies had higher stress levels than those who did. When variables were evaluated in terms of coping strategies with stress, it was found that male students used the optimistic approach and female students used the social support seeking approach; students of the Psychological Counseling and Guidance Department used the self-confident and optimistic approach more than those of the Classroom Teaching Department and the optimistic approach more than those of the Primary School Mathematics Teaching Department; students of the Preschool Teaching Department used the submissive approach more than those of the Psychological Counseling and Guidance and Turkish Language Teaching Department; students with low socio-economic status used the helpless/self-blaming approach more than those of the middle socio-economic status; students with a good level of satisfaction used the self-confident, optimistic, social support seeking approaches; students with a low level of satisfaction used the helpless/self-blaming approach; students with hobbies used the self-confident and optimistic approach more than those of the hobby; and students without hobbies used the helpless/self-blaming and submissive approach more. The findings were discussed in the light of the literature and suggestions for future studies were presented. Keywords: Perceived stress level, stress coping strategies, university students