Experiences and Coping Strategies of College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

AbstractBackgroundAffected by a Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, Since December 2019, there have been more than 76,000 cases of COVID-19 in China, causing more than 3,000 medical staff infections. Due to COVID-19 spreads quickly, is highly contagious, and can be fatal in severe cases, and there are no specific medicines, it poses a huge threat to the life and health of nurses and has a large impact on their emotional responses and coping strategies.MethodsThis study conducted an online questionnaire survey from February 1 to 9, 2020 to investigate the current state of emotional responses and coping strategies of nurses and college nursing students in Anhui Province. This study used a modified Brief COPE (Carver, 1997) and a emotional responses scale.ResultsThe results found that women showed more severe anxiety and fear than men. Participants from cities showed more anxiety and fear than participants from rural, but rural participants showed more sadness than urban participants. The closer COVID-19 is to the participants, the stronger the anxiety and anger. Compared with Nursing college students, nurses have stronger emotional responses and are more willing to use Problem-focused coping. People may have a cycle of “the more fear, the more problem-focused coping”. And people may “The more angry, the more emotion-focused coping”, “the more problem-focused coping, the more anxious, the more angry, the more sadness”.ConclusionCOVID-19 is a pressure source with great influence, both for individuals and for the social public groups. Different individuals and groups may experience different levels of psychological crisis, and those nurses at the core of the incident are affected. Hospitals should focus on providing psychological support to nurses and providing timely psychological assistance and training in coping strategies.Improving nurses’ ability to regulate emotions and effective coping strategies, providing a strong guarantee for resolutely winning the battle against epidemic prevention and control.

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Gender differences in perceived stress and coping among college students

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0255634 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (8) ◽

pp. e0255634

Author(s):

B. Sue Graves ◽

Michael E. Hall ◽

Carolyn Dias-Karch ◽

Michael H. Haischer ◽

Christine Apter

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Gender Differences ◽

Coping Strategies ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Perceived Stress ◽

Educational Interventions ◽

Work Lives ◽

Brief Cope ◽

And Gender ◽

And Coping

Background Many college students register each semester for courses, leading to productive careers and fulfilled lives. During this time, the students have to manage many stressors stemming from academic, personal, and, sometimes, work lives. Students, who lack appropriate stress management skills, may find it difficult to balance these responsibilities. Objectives This study examined stress, coping mechanisms, and gender differences in undergraduate students towards the end of the semester. Design and method University students (n = 448) enrolled in three different undergraduate exercise science courses were assessed. Two instruments, the Perceived Stress Scale and Brief Cope, were administered during the twelfth week of the semester, four weeks prior to final exams. T-tests were used to detect gender differences for the stress levels and coping strategies. Results Overall, females indicated higher levels of stress than their male counterparts. Gender differences were evident in both coping dimensions and individual coping strategies used. Females were found to utilize the emotion-focused coping dimension and endorsed the use of four coping strategies more often than males. These included self-distraction, emotional support, instrumental support, and venting. Conclusions This research adds to the existing literature by illuminating the level of perceived stress and different coping strategies used by undergraduate female and male students. In turn, students may need educational interventions to develop effective and healthy coping strategies to last a lifetime. Faculty and other university officials may want to highlight and understand these various factors to protect the students’ wellbeing in their classes.

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Problematic Facebook use and coping strategies among college students

Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology ◽

10.1002/pra2.384 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 57 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Yalin Sun

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Coping Strategies ◽

Facebook Use ◽

And Coping

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Coping and Suicide in College Students

Crisis ◽

10.1027/0227-5910/a000662 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-8 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Shangwen Yi ◽

Edward C. Chang ◽

Olivia D. Chang ◽

Noelle J. Seward ◽

Leah B. McAvoy ◽

...

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Coping Strategies ◽

Suicide Risk ◽

Dispositional Optimism ◽

Hierarchical Regression ◽

Regression Analyses ◽

Reasons For Living ◽

College Life ◽

And Coping

Abstract. Background: Transitioning to college life in young adulthood can represent a challenging developmental period and college students are at heightened risk for engaging in suicidality. Aims: We aimed to investigate the roles dispositional optimism and coping strategies play in suicide risk (viz., suicidality) and suicide protection (viz., reasons for living) in college students. Method: A sample of 252 American college students were surveyed using anonymous questionnaires and hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to analyze the data. Results: Coping strategies, as a set, played an important role in both suicidality and reasons for living, after controlling for demographic factors (age and sex). When dispositional optimism was entered into the model, it was found to account for a significant amount of additional unique variance in both suicidality and reasons for living, even after accounting for coping. Limitations: It is unknown whether optimism remains meaningful in its association with suicide risk and protection beyond coping in other populations. Conclusion: Effective coping and optimism are associated with decreased suicide risk and increased suicide protection. Our findings point to the consistent role of dispositional optimism, over coping, in both suicide risk and protection.

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