Abstract
This study analyzed stress adaptation in university students, considering the role of cognitive appraisal in the relationship between stress and burnout during the testing season. A total of 187 students from a university in the northern region of Portugal participated in the study. In the total sample, 154 were female (82.4%) and 32 males (17.1%), aged between 17 and 41 years old (M = 20.72; SD = 3.28). The evaluation protocol included a Sociodemographic Questionnaire, the Stress Questionnaire for Students, the Primary and Secondary Cognitive Appraisal Scale, and the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure. The results showed that 55.6% of the students perceived high-stress levels, mainly derived from academic evaluation and work overload. Cognitive appraisal mediated the relationship between the overall level of students’ academic stress and the experience of burnout, mostly regarding physical fatigue and cognitive weariness. These findings reinforce the importance of considering the role of cognitive appraisal processes in understanding the dynamics of stress adaptation among university students. To promote healthy educational environments, we must attend to these effects regarding occupational safety and hygiene interventions within the academic context.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Acharya, L., Jin, L., Collins, W.: College life is stressful today—emerging stressors and depressive symptoms in college students. J. Am. Coll. Health 66(7), 655–664 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2018.1451869
Allen, M.: The Sage Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods, vols. 1–4. Sage (2017). https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483381411.n111
Alrawwad, T.M., Alrfooh, A.E.: Causes of students’ violence at AL-hussein bin talal university. Int. Educ. Stud. 7(3), 30–39 (2014). https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v7n3p30
Bentler, P.M.: Comparative fit indexes in structural models. Psychol. Bull. 107(2), 238–246 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.107.2.238
Bentler, P.M., Bonett, D.G.: Significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis of covariance structures. Psychol. Bull. 88(3), 588–606 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.88.3.588
Böke, B.N., Mills, D.J., Mettler, J., Heath, N.L.: Stress and coping patterns of university students. J. Coll. Stud. Dev. 60(1), 85–103 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2019.0005
Britt, S.L., Ammerman, D.A., Barrett, S.F., Jones, S.: Student loans, financial stress, and college student retention. J. Stud. Financ. Aid. 47(1), 25–37 (2017). http://publications.nasfaa.org/jsfa/vol47/iss1/3
Buchanan, J.L.: Prevention of depression in the college student population: a review of the literature. Arch. Psychiatr. Nurs. 26(1), 21–42 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2011.03.003
Eaves, J.L., Payne, N.: Resilience, stress, and burnout in student midwives. Nurse Educ. Today 79, 188–193 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2019.05.012
Enns, A., Eldridge, G.D., Montgomery, C., Gonzalez, V.M.: Perceived stress, coping strategies, and emotional intelligence: a cross-sectional study of university students in helping disciplines. Nurse Educ. Today 68, 226–231 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2018.06.012
Farrell, S.M., Moir, F., Molodynski, A., Bhugra, D.: Psychological wellbeing, burnout and substance use amongst medical students in New Zealand. Int. Rev. Psychiatry 31, 630–636 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1080/09540261.2019.1681204
Flanagan, J.C.: The critical incident technique. Psychol. Bull. 51(4), 327–358 (1954). https://doi.org/10.1037/h0061470
Frazier, P., Gabriel, A., Merians, A., Lust, K.: Understanding stress as an impediment to academic performance. J. Am. Coll. Health 67(6), 562–570 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2018.1499649
Gibbons, C.: Stress, coping and burnout in nursing students. Int. J. Nurs. Stud. 47(10), 1299–1309 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2010.02.015
Gomes, A.R.: Positive human functioning in stress situations: an interactive proposal. In: Gomes, A.R., Resende, R., Albuquerque, A. (eds.), Positive Human Functioning from a Multidimensional Perspective: Promoting Stress Adaptation, vol. 1, pp. 165–194. Nova Science (2014)
Gomes, A.R., Fontes, L., Maciel, T., Simães, C., Resende, R.: Treino de competências de vida: Uma proposta teórica e desafios futuros [Life skills training: A theoretical proposal and challenges for the future]. In: Aroni, A., Fernandes, A., Ferreira, F.,Bortolai, L. (eds.), Pensando a Educação na atualidade: Olhares múltiplos, pp. 137–152. Itapetininga: Edições Hipótese.
Gomes, A. R., Simães, C., Morais, C., Couto, A.: Occupational stress and cognitive appraisal profiles as predictors of students’ burnout. In: Arezes, P.M., et al. (eds.), Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health III: Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, vol. 406, pp. 505–520. Springer, Cham, (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89617-1_45
Gomes, A.R., Teixeira, P.: Stress, cognitive appraisal, and psychological health: testing instruments for health professionals. Stress. Health 32, 167–172 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2583
Hair, Jr. J.F., Black, W.C., Babin, B.J., Anderson, R.E.: Multivariate data analysis (7th ed.). Pearson Prentice Hall (2009)
Hudd, S., Dumlao, J., Erdmann-Sager, D., Murray, D., Phan, E., Soukas, N., Yokozuka, N.: Stress at college: effects on health habits, health status, and self-esteem. Coll. Stud. J. 34(2), 217–227 (2000)
Jordan, R.K., Shah, S.S., Desai, H., Tripi, J., Mitchell, A., Worth, R.G.: Variation of stress levels, burnout, and resilience throughout the academic year in first-year medical students. PLoS ONE 15(10), e0240667 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0240667
Karaman, M.A., Lerma, E., Vela, J.C., Watson, J.C.: Predictors of academic stress among college students. J. Coll. Couns. 22(1), 41–55 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1002/jocc.12113
Labrague, L.J., McEnroe-Petitte, D.M., Gloe, D., Thomas, L., Papathanasiou, I.V., Tsaras, K.: A literature review on stress and coping strategies in nursing students. J. Ment. Health 26(5), 471–480 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2016.1244721
Lazarus, R.S.: Emotion and adaptation. Oxford University Press (1991)
Lazarus, R.S.: Stress and Emotion: A New Synthesis. Springer (1999)
Leppink, E.W., Odlaug, B.L., Lust, K., Christenson, G., Grant, J.E.: The young and the stressed. J. Nervous Mental Disease 204(12), 931–938 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0000000000000586
Marôco J (2014) Análise de equações estruturais: fundamentos teóricos, software & aplicações (2ªed.). ReportNumber
Maslach, C., Leiter, M.P.: Understanding the burnout experience: Recent research and its implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry 15(2), 103–111 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20311
Muzafar, Y., Khan, H.H., Ashraf, H., Hussain, W., Sajid, H., Tahir, M., Rehman, A., Sohail, A., Waqas, A., Ahmad, W.: Burnout and its associated factors in medical students of Lahore, Pakistan. Cureus, 7(11):e390 (2015). https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.390
Pitt, A., Oprescu, F., Tapia, G., Gray, M.: An exploratory study of students’ weekly stress levels and sources of stress during the semester. Act. Learn. High. Educ. 19(1), 61–75 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787417731194
Ramaprabou, V., Dash, S. K.: Effect of academic stress on achievement motivation among college students. J. Educat. Psychol. 11(4), 32–36 (2018). https://doi.org/10.26634/JPSY.11.4.14219
Reddy, K.J., Menon, K.R., Thattil, A.: Academic stress and its sources among university students. Biomed. Pharmacol. J. 11(1), 531–537 (2018). https://doi.org/10.13005/bpj/1404
Shdaifat, E., Jamama, A., Al-Amer, M.: Stress and coping strategies among nursing students. Global J. Health Sci. 10(5), 33–41 (2018). https://doi.org/10.5539/gjhs.v10n5p33
Shirom, A., Melamed, S.: A comparison of the construct validity of two burnout measures in two groups of professionals. Int. J. Stress. Manag. 13(2), 176–200 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.13.2.176
Singer, J.D., Willett, J.B.: Methodological issues in the design of longitudinal research: principles and recommendations for a quantitative study of teachers’ careers. Educ. Eval. Policy Anal. 18(4), 265–283 (1996). https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737018004265
Steiger, J.H.: Structural model evaluation and modification: an interval estimation approach. Multivar. Behav. Res. 25(2), 173–180 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr2502_4
Vizoso, C., Arias-Gundín, O., Rodríguez, C.: Exploring coping and optimism as predictors of academic burnout and performance among university students. Educ. Psychol. 39(6), 768–783 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2018.1545996
Wahed, W.Y.A., Hassan, S.K.: Prevalence and associated factors of stress, anxiety, and depression among medical fayoum university students. Alexandria J. Med. 53(1), 77–84 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajme.2016.01.005
Weber, J., Skodda, S., Muth, T., Angerer, P., Loerbroks, A.: Stressors and resources related to academic studies and improvements suggested by medical students: a qualitative study. BMC Med. Educ. 19(1), 1–14 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-019-1747-z
World Health Organization: ICD-11 International classification of diseases for mortality statistics (2019). https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en#/http://id.who.int/icd/entity/129180281
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Simães, C., Costa, A., Morais, C., Gomes, A.R. (2023). Adaptation to Stress in Psychology Graduate Students. In: Arezes, P.M., et al. Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health IV. Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, vol 449. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12547-8_27
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12547-8_27
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-12546-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-12547-8
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)