Mental strain at school and its management in relation to self-efficacy in secondary school students

This diploma thesis deals with the topic of mental strain at school and its management in relation to self-efficacy of secondary school students. It is divided into two parts - the theoretical and the empirical. The theoretical one presents the issues of mental strain and stress through the basic terms, concepts and theories of psychology. Primarily it focuses on the context of school environment: namely the classification of stressors, sources and modifiers of school stress - that is manifestations and consequences of stress events. Next, it deals with the stress management illustrating coping strategies. Furthermore, the work puts emphasis on personality determinants of perception and coping with mental strain. This theoretical part is concluded by the chapter which describes characteristics of adolescents in relation to taking mental strain. The empirical part aims at the research of mental strain in the secondary school environment that intends to prove the existence of a relationship between the evaluation of mental strain of secondary school students, preferred coping strategies and self-efficacy (general self-efficiency). A partial objective is to explore the relationship of presented variables with other demographic determinants (age, gender, field of study). The intention is to map the occurrence of school stressors in the research set of secondary school students in terms of assessing their incidence and intensity of emotional assessment and to find out whether there is a link between these two aspects (frequency of occurrence and intensity of stress). The research is carried out through a quantitative research strategy. The questionnaire battery includes three questionnaires: Stress Management Strategy (SVF 78), Stress Situation Questionnaire (DSS 47), General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES). The research sample consists of 212 students of secondary technical school. In our research findings, a significant positive relationship between the rate of school stressors and the intensity of perceived mental strain was confirmed. The results showed statistically significant relationships between stress intensity, self-efficacy and preferred coping strategies. The empirical part lists all the results of our research including their discussion and limitations