Stress experienced by students of Mykolas Romeris University and strategies for coping with it

Aim of the article – to evaluate stress experienced by Mykolas Romeris University students and to identify stress coping strategies. Methods. The study was carried out in September-December of 2012 at Mykolas Romeris University. The questionnaire was used as the survey method. The sample consisted of randomly selected 450 students. The students of all courses – both undergraduates and postgraduates – participated in the survey. The age of students was from 19 to 25 years old. The following data analysis methods were used: Cronbach’s alpha index, Pearson’s χ2 test, Spearman’s correlation, factor analysis with Varimax rotation. Results and conclusions. The data show that 90 percent of respondents feel stress. Women tend to feel more stress than men. More than a half of the women (51.8 percent) indicated that they feel stress often or very often, while the same answer was given by less than a quarter of men (23.6 percent). Factor analysis revealed that all stress factors can be grouped into three main factors: social relationships (difficulties in communicating with boyfriend/girlfriend, disagreements with friends, emotional, physical or sexual abuse, bullying, serious illness and accidents of family members or of close friends); everyday stress (lack of sleep, fatigue, rush); study problems (high load training, exams, competition between students, odds with professors). It was found that Mykolas Romeris University students have three main stress coping strategies: positive self-help (listening to music, going to sleep, engaging in any physical activity or other enjoyable activities, dancing, going for a walk, interacting with animals, trying to look at the problematic situation differently, looking for support, trying to resolve the problem, trying to look to the situation in a positive way); looking for support in others or elsewhere: in humans, God or medicine (going to a psychologist or psychotherapist, praying, meditating, using sedatives, drinking soothing tea), negative self-help (smoking, alcohol, drugs, overeating).Tyrimo tikslas – nustatyti, kokias streso įveikos strategijas taiko Mykolo Romerio (MRU) universiteto studentai. Tyrimo imtis: atsitiktiniu būdu atrinkti MRU visų kursų studentai. Imties dydis – 450 respondentų. Rezultatai ir išvados. Tyrimo duomenys rodo, kad 90 proc. respondentų patiria stresą. Moterys linkusios stresą jausti dažniau nei vyrai. Daugiau nei pusė respondenčių (51,8 proc.) nurodė, kad stresą jaučia dažnai arba labai dažnai, tuo tarpu taip atsakė mažiau nei ketvirtadalis vyrų (23,6 proc.). Stresą lemiančių veiksnių faktorinė analizė atskleidė, kad studentams dažniausiai stresą sukeliančius veiksnius galima sugrupuoti į tris faktorius: socialiniai santykiai; kasdienė įtampa; studijos. Nustatyta, kad MRU studentams būdinga trijų faktorių streso įveikos strategijų struktūra: pozityvi savipagalba; ieškojimas kitų pagalbos – žmonių, Dievo, medicinos; negatyvi savipagalba