Determining the effectiveness of teaching coping skills and stress management on increasing the academic performance of Islamic Azad University nursing students

Continued master's thesis in the field of psychology (M.A.)

Tension: educational

Abstract:

     The purpose of this research was to determine the effectiveness of teaching coping skills and stress management on increasing the academic performance of nursing students of Islamic Azad University. For this purpose, 32 nursing students were randomly selected and placed in two experimental and control groups. Coping and stress management skills were conducted during 8 weekly sessions in Bandar Abbas city. Coping and stress management skills and academic performance were measured in two phases: pre-test and post-test. Finally, the collected data were analyzed using spss18 software.

The results of the covariance analysis showed that the training of coping skills and stress management was effective on the academic performance of male students (P<.001, F=32.62) and female students (P<.001, F=26.18). Also, coping skills training was able to create a significant difference between the experimental and control groups and increase the academic performance of the experimental group (p=.001, F=7.67). Next, the effectiveness of stress management training was also investigated and it was found that the average academic performance of the experimental group increased and this difference was statistically significant (p=.002, F=8.78).

Key words: coping skills training, stress management, academic performance

Today, stress is considered as a risk factor for health. Many studies have shown that people with high stress have raised more complaints in both physical and mental levels (Amiri, Aghaei and Abedi, 2019). Programs that are directly related to stress are effective (Peralta, Ramirez, Robles, Navrit [1], 2009).

During their growth, adolescents and young people experience various types and a wide range of stresses, and sometimes these stresses are so intense that they make their daily life and studies difficult. Recently, there has been a lot of evidence that stress and anxiety are not transitory, and if not addressed and evaluated, they will continue into puberty and adulthood in most people. It seems that the reason for academic failure in many students is not the inability to learn or weak intelligence, but the high level of stress may be considered as the reason for the decline or efficiency in exams and studies. Also, studies indicate that personality, family and school factors play a major role in causing stress. Also, the results of various studies indicate that the epidemic of stress in girls is more than boys and they experience stress more intensely and nearly 20-30% of cases of academic failure are due to stress. And it is a concern (Abul Qasmi and Saeedi, 2013).

In fact, every person who studies in higher education, sooner or later will ask themselves whether obtaining a degree will provide them with all the benefits and social opportunities they expected? The findings of numerous researches have shown that time constraints, the amount of homework, financial problems, career prospects and personal problems with classmates, roommates in the dormitory, university staff and other related people can be the source of stress during university studies (Rochasing [2], 1994). In general, according to the findings obtained recently through research among students, it shows that the lack of successful use of coping methods with stress leads to fatigue and emotional exhaustion, and one of the most important consequences will be academic failure (Khair and Saif, 2013). Hembery [5], 1988), indicates the fact that there is a positive correlation between increased stress and decreased academic performance. Spiel Bergervog (1995), and Zahar (1998) have noted in their research that students with high exam anxiety, compared to students with lower exam anxiety, usually tend to perceive exams as a dangerous or threatening situation (Abolghasmi and Saeedi, 2011).  

It should be said that academic progress is one of the most important criteria that plays a significant role in evaluating students' ability to complete university studies and reach the graduation stage.. This concept is one of the most important parameters that is used in predicting the future situation of learners in terms of acquiring the necessary scientific and practical qualifications and skills (Suarez, Gossand, Almeda and Paramo [6], 2009; Davis, Winsler Middleton [7], 2006). Academic progress is usually measured by various methods, among which one can point out the amount of progress in each of the educational courses, the progress achieved in the set of educational courses, the annual academic average, the academic average of an educational program, and specialized tests to obtain job stabilization permits or professional qualification such as the RN test (officially licensed nurse) in nursing or tests such as medical assistants (Pitt, Powis, Lute Johns and Heventer [8], 2012). Academic grade point average or GPA is one of the most common indicators of academic performance. Many faculties consider the minimum level as a criterion for passing exams or as the required number of students to continue their studies (Bahman, Alassim, Al Zakari, Al Mansir and Sharif [9], 2012). The amount of this criterion in Iranian universities, this scale is graded from zero to 20 and usually a score higher than 14 is considered as a passing score. This is while, for example, in the University of Houston in the United States, obtaining a score of 2 out of 4 is considered as a passing score and a score of 3 and above is indicated as an indicator of appropriate academic progress (Sansgiri, Bossel and Sail[10], 2006). The problem is the stress and anxiety of the exam. Some of these patterns can be taught through some short-term educational programs that, while being low-cost, do not interfere with students' curricula, thereby increasing students' coping efficiency and reducing their negative attributions. By examining the coping strategies of successful and unsuccessful people, researchers have achieved very basic results; And these studies show that those who successfully deal with problems are people who have equipped themselves with a set of coping skills (Abolghasmi and Saeedi, 2013).

Stress coping strategies consist of cognitive and behavioral efforts to master stressful conflicts, reduce or tolerate them. In other words, the effectiveness of stress coping strategies in the treatment of many psychological problems, including problems related to stress and anxiety, has been confirmed. Davis and Lisaker [11] have shown the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral techniques in improving the metacognitive skills of people suffering from stress (Abolghasmi and Saeedi, 2013).

1-2 Statement of the problem:

Stress has been called one of the natural and inevitable aspects of contemporary human life, which has been defined in different ways (Hokhli [12], 1983). Some have defined it in one word as mental pressure or tension, and some have considered it as the physiological response of humans to threatening environmental stimuli (Le Dax [13], 1986). This issue that stress has a physical, cognitive or emotional nature has been discussed by thinkers for a long time. Cognitivists, as the dominant approach in contemporary psychology, considers the body, mind, and emotion to be inseparable parts of human existence, each of which consists of multiple and interconnected parts and forms behavior in an interactive network (Lazarus [14], 1999).

Education is the transmission of information, enabling a person to do something or change his thoughts and feelings. The purpose of education is to facilitate learning and create pleasant experiences for the individual (Esadi Naqbi, Zandi and Nazari, 2010). The mission of educational systems is to nurture hard-working people who want to be freed from the countless and diverse limitations of their existence and pave the way for their development (Sabrian and Haji Aghaei, 2006). In the professions of medical sciences that deal with human lives, medical science students, especially nursing and midwifery students, face many stressful factors due to the high psychological demands and low scope of decision-making in their profession and the need to acquire multiple knowledge and skills for their various and extensive roles (Rezaei and Hosseini, 2015).

In addition to the stresses caused by the educational environment, the students of this field are also exposed to the stresses of the clinical environment because almost 50% of the time of these students is dedicated to clinical activities (Abaziri, Arab, Abbaszadeh and Rashidinejad, 2018).