Coping Strategies Employed by Malaysian Pre-University Gifted Students to Manage Examination Stress
<p><strong>ABSTRACT</strong></p> <p>Different age group experiences different level of stress due to different causes all together. The main cause of stress experienced by students is academic tests and examinations (Kai-Wen, 2009). If students are not able to manage examination stress accordingly, it may lead them to serious psychological, physical, and mental problems.This study generally attempts to determine the causes of stress among a group of gifted and talented pre-university students in Malaysia.The study also attempts to evaluate the most frequent coping strategies used by ASASIpintar students to manage exam stress and also to identify the predominant type of coping strategies used by ASASIpintar students to cope with exam stress.Questionnaires were distributed randomly to students of Malaysian Pre-University gifted students situated in the Pusat PERMATApintar™ Negara (National Gifted Centre) in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (the National University of Malaysia). All the sixty-eight respondents were from different ethnicity and religion background. The findings showed that the highest percentage recorded for cause of stress among the students is school factor with 50%. Regardless, religion marked as the most frequently used coping strategy by ASASIpintar students by 84%. Another major finding was that ASASIpintar students tend to use emotion-focused coping to manage examination stress more (32%) than problem solving focused coping strategy (26.9%) by 5.1%.It is of utmost importance for gifted and talented students to have ability to use appropriate coping strategies so that the stress is not detrimental to them and their well-being.</p> <p>Keywords: Gifted Students, Examination Stress, Coping Strategies</p>