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CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.0
Introduction
This chapter provides the basic indulgent of the study. As mentioned, the chapter discusses the background of the study, statement of problem, research objective, definition of terms, conceptual framework, research question, research hypotheses, significant of the study as well as the limitation of the study.
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1.1
Background of the Study
According to Kyrou and Tsigos (2009), stress has been defined as a threaten stimulus to interrupt the physiological or psychological state when facing inside or outside harmful events. Besides that, stress also defined as an unpleasant psychological or physiological state produced in responses to a stressor like a situation, individual, or object as mentioned by Malim, Birch, Hayward, and Wadeley (1998).
Medina (2008) stated that we can feel that our body responding to stress as our pulse races, blood pressures started to rises, and feels massive release of energy. Hormone called adrenaline comes in handy when it comes across the word stress. It’s stimulated into actions by our pea-size organ in the middle of our head called hypothalamus. The symptoms that need to be watch for to indicate if a person is stress is restlessness, difficulty concentrating, trouble falling asleep, obsessive thoughts about something specific, racing-heartbeat, shortness of breath and unusual sweating (Gordon, Gower, Harrar & Kelly, 2010). Stress has adverse effects on the economy, as well as people’s mental and physical health (Prochaska, Prochaska, & Evers, 2005). On certain level, when stress is not handle the way as it should be, it may lead to worst condition which has been explained by Gordon et al. (2010) that is lowers the immune system’s ability to function effectively, raises levels of stress hormones, and increase the risk of depression. Prolonged anxiety or depression can cause a state of stress that is a recognizable physiological condition, with psychological causes and results in impaired physical and psychological abilities (Malim et. al., 1998).
Depression is a medical condition in which a person feels very sad and anxious and often has physical symptoms such as being unable to sleep and other. The common depression’s triggers are mixed of factors that result in imbalance in mood-regulating chemical called neurotransmitter (Gordon et al., 2010).
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There are two ways of coping with stress that has been proposed by Lazarus and Folkman (1984) that is emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping. Emotion-focused coping is a form of coping with stress which involves attempt of reduces negative emotions which often escort stress. Problem-focused coping is explained as “an effort to reduce a stressful situation by trying to understand better its causes and to find possible courses of action”. Students in university are coming from diverse education background. They can be divided into two groups which is those that live in residential college and out-campus. Mostly, students that live out-campus are among second-year students until final-year students. Chikering (1974) and Pascarella and Terenzini (1991) conclude that students who live on campus engaged overall compared with those that stay off-campus as they take advantage of the educational resources that the institution provided. However, research from Kuh, Gonyea and Palmer (2001) shown that there are three gain factors which is gains in personal and social competence, gains in practical competence and gains in general education are the combination of several self-reported gains items on the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) instrument. The research was done to commuter students. As explained by Jacoby (2001), commuter students are classified as whose place of residence while attending college is not in the campus.
1.2
Statement of Problem
D’Zurilla and Sheedy (1991) state that college students mainly freshmen, are a group predominantly prone to stress. This condition is happens due to transition environment of college life (Towbes & Cohen, 1996). Vlisides, Eddy and Mozie (1994) found that stress negatively affecting students in higher education as they can become overwhelmed with handling all their responsibilities. As a result, they may have unfavorable effects on their academic performance (Sloboda, 1990).
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As for university student, there are some students that did not live in residential college after entering second year of academic session. Furthermore, each year university are flooded by freshman entries and it can limit the chances for seniors to stay longer in residential college without involve in any activities to gain merit needed for them to stay. As mention by Jacoby (2000), there is some stereotypical analysis towards these students. They said to be less committed to academic compared to those that stay in residential college. Staying be themselves as in other word detach from campus’s residential college would cause some problems that might contributed to stress. Stress need to be managed well as it may affect our psychological and physiological status. Besides that, for a student the obvious change that can be observed is the academic performance. Academic performance could be affected by internal and external factors such as environment. Effects of living in campus and out-campus can be reaching by observing the changes that occur in a group of students in a research. Medina (2008) explained that prolonged stress can harm learning. The effects can be observed as the stressed people do not do mathematics well, cannot process language efficiently, have poorer memories and do not generalize previous information into new scenarios compared to nonstressed individuals.
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1.3
Research Objective
This sub topic has clearly state the general and specific objectives that will aid in the process of conducting the research and act as a guideline in order to achieve the objective that has been set up.
1.3.1 General Objective The objective is to explore the stress level and coping strategies experienced and used by university student.
1.3.2 Specific Objectives Specifically, the purposes of this study are to: a) Identify the level of stress among commuter and non-commuter university students. b) Identify the differences in ways of coping used by university students. c) Identify the relationship between stress level towards coping strategies and academic achievement of university student.
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1.4
Definition of terms
1.4.1 Learners
Conceptual definition According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2011), learner is a person who is finding out about a subject or how to do something.
Operational definition Students are considered as learners as the attended class to learn what is in their course outline.
1.4.2 Stress
Conceptual definition Kyrou and Tsigos (2009) has defined stress as a threaten stimulus to interrupt the physiological or psychological homeostasis when encountering inside or outside harmful events. While Lazarus and Folkman (1984) state stress as the “relationship between environmental stimuli and biological responses to include the psychological appraisal of the stimuli”
Operational definition Stress is a condition that experienced by university student when there was difficult time for them to keep up their pace while studying. This condition could be triggered by many factors such finance, time management and others.
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1.4.3 Academic achievement
Conceptual definition According to Monk (1998), academic achievement has been defined as college grade point average (CGPA) on a 4-point scale.
Operational definition Academic achievement is the overall achievement by university students throughout their semesters that accounted as Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA).
1.4.4 Non-commuter student
Conceptual definition Stewart and Rue (1983) defined non-commuter students as those who live in institution owned on-campus student housing.
Operational definition A non-commuter student is those who live in residential college provided by the university.
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1.4.5 Commuter student
Conceptual Definition Jacoby (2001) has mentioned that commuters are those students whose place of residence while attending college in not in the campus residential hall.
Operational Definition A commuter student is that student that not lives in residential college but outside campus in the range that can be reached by foot, car, and bus.
1.4.6 Coping Strategies
Conceptual Definition Taylor (1998) refers coping strategies as the “specific efforts, both behavioral and psychological, that people employ to master, tolerate, reduce or minimize stressful events”. Menninger (1963) explains the term as “the strategies people use in order to cope with or to solve problems in their environment”. Coping has defined as a person’s behavioral and cognitive actions to handle the internal and external demands experiences during a stressful situation (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).
Operational Definition Coping strategies refers to methods used by university student to reduce and overcome their stress.
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1.4.7 Problem- focused strategies
Conceptual Definition As mentioned by Monat and Lazarus (1985), it is refer to effort to improve the trouble person-environment relationship by changing things by seeking information about what to do, holding back from impulsive and premature actions, and by confronting the person or person that responsible for one’s troubles.
Operational Definition This term representing the ways of university student cope with their stress by manipulating their environment and their relationship with other people.
1.4.8 Emotion-focused strategies
Conceptual Definition Emotion-focused strategies is the thought or action which goal is to relieve the emotional impact of stress by do not change the threatening or damaging conditions except make the person feel better (Monat & Lazarus, 1985).
Operational definition This term is refer to actions that taken by student in order to relieve their emotional impact of stress.
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1.5
Conceptual of Framework of the Study
The conceptual framework explaining the variables involve in the study as fulfilling the objective’s requirement. Independent
variables consist of
demography information of the respondent and their residential status which is commuter and non-commuter. Dependent variable of the study is the stress level experienced by the student. Both variables collaborate with the coping strategies that resulted in academic achievement.
Independent Variables
Demography Residential status Coping with stress
Academic Achievement
Dependent Variables
Stress level
Figure 1.0: The research framework
1.6
Research Questions
The research questions that appear in this study are: 1. What is the level of stress experienced by commuter and non-commuter higher educational students? 2. What are the differences between university students upon their way of coping towards stress? 3. What is the relationship between ways of coping towards stress and academic achievement of university students?
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1.7
Research Hypotheses
These are the following hypothesis that uses to support the objectives of the study:
H01
:
There is no significant difference in stress level among commuter and
non- commuter students of university student. H02
: There is no significant difference in ways of coping with stress among university students.
H03
: There is no relationship between stress level towards coping strategies and academic achievement.
1.8
Significant of Study
The significant of the study is to throw in some lights on the impact of the stress towards academic achievement. Besides that, after the study has been done, we are able to detect the stress level that experienced by students of university student and the preferences of their coping strategies.
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1.9
Limitation of the Study
The results that obtain from the study will identify does stress level and management could bring any effects towards academic performance. However, there still has some limitation upon this study. There are only several percentages of student which is 3% from the whole population of the selected university are taken as the respondents. The results obtained might not representing the students preferences on coping strategies, their stress level as well as effect of coping strategies towards academic achievement. The respondents are selected from second and third year students. There is reason behind this selection is that these groups already have their pattern on how to handle their task as well as have the understanding on how university students lives with their commitment towards assignment and other activities.
1.10 Chapter Summary
This chapter explained the term of stress, effects of stress, the background of study, statement of problem, objectives of study, definition of terms, conceptual framework of the study, research hypotheses, significant and limitation of the study. This study will help to increase the awareness of stress among students as they also can gain knowledge more on strategies to cope with stress.
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CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
Literature as explained by Rusli Ahmad and Hasbee Usop (2011) is the main source of ideas for shaping a research direction, methodology, procedures, as well as discussion about the results of data analysis. This chapter will discuss about the previous study that has been done toward factors of stress, stress level, coping strategies and its effect on academic performance as well as to human.
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2.1 Model of stress To have further understanding towards stress, Palmer and Strickland (1996) has constructed a model of stress. This model consists of 3 stages which explain thorough, inform and emphasize the choices of techniques. MODEL OF STRESS 1: External pressure or life event
2: Perceived as stressful
3: Stress response: psychological, behavioral & physiological
4: Reappraisal of the situation
5: Stress response fail to remove of modify causal factor
6: Physical and/or psychological illness
Figure 2.0: A model of stress. Adapted from Palmer and Strickland (1996).
There are 6 stages explains by the model. The first stage stated that a life event or external pressure which have come to be primary attention to a person (Palmer & Copper, 2009). Growth of workload, suffer from illness, pressure attending to a dateline of any important project and sorrow will produce attention on increasing pressure. The stress level might vary according to the exposure of pressure among individual (Palmer & Copper, 2009). In stage 2, as a person perceived any events as stressful, it has trigger a ‘fight or flight’ response which composed of biological responses of human’s part in the brain (Palmer & Dryden, 1995).
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For the next stage, stage 3. In this stage, there are 3 key responses to stress are activated. Those keys are psychological, behavioral and physiological. Psychological responses include the release of hormones like adrenaline that prepare human’s body to proceed to any relevant action. Behavioral responses are composed with passive behavior, aggressive behavior, and poor time management and reduced in performance. Psychological symptoms are like dry mouth, migraines, backache, constipation, and asthma. For stage 4, an individual usually reviewed the original state and make decision either they have successfully resolved it or not. As the situation has been resolved, it indicates that the stress responses are switched off. In stage 5, it explained whether a person has been tailored, detached or else overcome with the external cause (s) that trigger stress over a period of time that proceeding to stage 6.
2.2 Factors of stress
Cox and Mackay (1976) suggested that stress is due to a dynamic transaction between the individual and the environment. There are several numbers of factors that contributing to stress and cause people to experience and respond to it differently. As stated by Malim et al. (1998), personality, race and gender may influence the way which a person respond to stress. In research done by Yusoff, Rahim, and Yaacob (2010), there is a list of 10 sources of stress that was identified from medical students and those stressors include test and examination, the big collection of content to be learnt, time lacking to do revision, poor marks, having self-expectation, inadequate skills in medical practice, fail to follow the reading schedule, heavy workload, having problem in understanding the content and fail to give answers to lecturer’s questions.
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2.3 Effects of stress toward human
Medina (2008) stated that when stress is too severe or hold for a long period, it can begin to harm learning. It is obviously shown in our everyday lives as stressed people cannot do calculation very well, and don’t process language very capably. They tend to have poor memories, both short-term and long-term memory. Plus, stressed individual do not become accustomed old piece of information into new scenarios and they cannot concentrate well in their task. Medina (2008) also mentioned that stress hurts our declarative memory and executive function. One study showed that adults with high stress levels performed 50% worse on certain cognitive tests than adults with low level of stress. Abransom, Alloy, Hankin, Haeffel, MacCoon and Gibb (2002) mentioned that “an excess of stress can lead to negative emotions and feeling of helplessness and hopelessness.” Frankenhauser (1983) suggests that there are gender differences in stress responses which are women shows a higher increased in responses compared to male, nevertheless women tend to return stable more quickly. In a research done by Japanese researcher towards participants with normal, low-risk, and high-risk depression groups under stress or no-stress by measuring their psychophysiological responses (H. P. Lin, H. Y. Lin, W. Lin, and Andrew, 2011 ). The results from the test are stress affects sympathetic, rather than parasympathetic activity. Depression and the interaction between stress and depression originally associated with the sympathetic division and are then correlated with parasympathetic activity.
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Palmer and Copper (2009), stated the cost of stress towards humans are including ulcers, diabetes, angina, cancer, heart attack, and the rheumatoid arthritis. As stress attack immunity system of a person, it could affect their performance as well. Absenteeism and truancy might increase as these problems arise. Absenteeism might occur as an effect of increasing of risk of getting an infection. Besides that, important cognitive function might be distorting academic performance (Medina, 2008). Medina (2008) did mention that prolonged stress lead people into depression. Depression is a term which a deregulation of thought processes, including memory, language, quantitative reasoning, and fluid intelligence and spatial intelligence. On other term, depression can be explained by “a medical condition in which a person feels very sad and anxious and often has physical symptoms such as being unable to sleep, etc.” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 2011).
2.4 Theory of Stress
According to Malim et al. (1998), there is several theories of stress have been produced to explain individual stages of stress. Commonly used model is the physiological model, psychosocial stimuli model, transactional model and interactional model.
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2.4.1 Systemic Stress: Selye’s Theory.
In physiological model, it explain the body’s response towards stress however, does not distinguish responses into specific stressor. It detects the physiological changes occurs within an individual. Selye (1956) has suggested the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) which is describes the physiological state of human body responses to stress. There are three stages of responses which are alarm, resistance and exhaustion. Alarm is the first stage when the body ‘flight or fight’ responses area activated against the perceived threats. If the stressors did not removed, some of responses decrease and this is when stage two, resistance start to act to control the immune system as it is responsible for warding-off attack from external sources. The last stage is exhaustion which is occurs when the body’s resources are used up. Depletion of immune system results in disease which may lead to the psychosomatic illness such as cancer, heart attack, asthma and hypertension.
2.4.2 Transactional model
Cox and Mackay (1975) have explained that stress is due to a vibrant transaction between the individual and the environment. The significance of the model is the individual’s cognitive assessment of the perceived demands made on that person, and that individual’s perceived capability to handle those demands. This perception is affected by several factors like personality, situational demands, previous experiences and any current stress circumstances that already existing. Figure 2 explained graphically the overall process occurs in the model.
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Actual demand
Perceived capability
Perceived demand
Feedback
Actual capability
Feedback
Feedback
Imbalance = stress
Emotional experience
Stress response
Psychological response
Cognitive defense
Physiological response
Behavioral response
Figure 2.1: Transactional model of stress. Source: Cox (1978).
2.5 Coping with Stress
Coping is a dynamic process that swings over time in response to changing load and judgment of the situation (Moos & Holahan, 2003). Usually the main purpose of coping is to protect the individual against pessimistic physical or psychological consequences which may harm themselves (Odaci & Cukrikci, 2012).
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Lazarus and Folkman (1984) propose that there are two main forms of coping with stress which is emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping. Emotion-focused coping is a structure of coping with stress which including efforts to reduce the negative emotions which often escort stress. Next, problemfocused coping is a way to reduce stress by trying to understand better the causes and try to find possible actions to solve it. Takenaka (2005) suggested that undertaking any type of activity to control stress in daily life is crucially for reducing stress-related problem. Emotion-focused coping involves attempt to reduce the disturbing emotions which regularly accompany the experience of stress. Examples of emotionfocused coping are social support, defense mechanism, and maladaptive coping methods. Folkman and Lazarus (1980) explained that emotion-focused coping engaged efforts to standardize the emotional penalty of stress or potentially stressful events. Problem-focused coping involves attempt to understand the problem situation better and taking action to handle it. This kind of coping usually considered as maladaptive when there is no personal control (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Forms of stress management for this type of coping strategy are cognitive appraisal, time management, assertiveness, relaxation and meditation, exercise and biofeedback. Besides that, problem-focused coping said to be as the effort to do something active to lighten stressful condition (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980). An important finding by using this kind of coping was responsible on increasing in positive mood during the weeks when a caregivers are leading up to the partner’s death, a period of intense lack of control (Moskowitz et al., 1996). Carver, Scheier and Weintraub (1989) states that some emotion-focused responses involved “positive reinterpretation of events and still others involve seeking out of social support” while problem-focused does potentially involve several discrete activities which is planning, taking direct action, seeking assistance, screening out other activities and sometimes even forcing someone else to wait before acting.
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Table 2.5.1: Emotion and Problem-focused coping strategies Emotion-focused
Problem-focused
Denial, acceptance, search for religion, Adaptation
of
active
actions,
positive interpretation and search for suspension of competitive activities, emotional social support.
suspension of coping behaviors and search for tools of social support.
Coping with stress are determined by two restrictions which is personal and environment. Personal constraints include the psychological strengths and internalized cultural values and beliefs that influences the ways of behaving. While, the environment constraints involves demands that compete for the same resource that prevent coping efforts (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Roth & Cohen, 1986). A questionnaire has been developed by Lazarus and Folkman (1988) as a way to explore the cognitive and behavioral processes that and individual possess during the management of life events that trigger distress. The questionnaire known as Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ) and been developed based on the principle that daily internal and external strain needs to use coping resources (Folkman & Lazarus, 1988).
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2.6 Living in residential college or out-campus and academic achievement
Student the lives outside campus is called commuter. Commuter is usually defined as those students whole place of residence while attending college is not in a campus residence hall or in a fraternity or sorority house as explained by Jacoby (2000). Jacoby (2000) also explained that there is some misunderstanding towards commuter students as these students being said that are less committed to academic pursuits compared to those live on campus. Those that lives in residential college provided inside the campus would experience that it is easy to manage their life and time as they are closer to the campus facilities. Pascarella (2001) stated that commuter students have been given a stereotypical view upon them as a problem. It is because what students gain from their college experience depends a lot on how much time and effort that they put into their studies and other educationally purposeful activities. Kuh, Gonyea, and Palmer (2001) found that commuter students that drive to campus do really have less engagement with their teachers or lecturers especially seniors and do not involve themselves into co-curricular activities, community service, internships and others social engagement. In a research done by Pedro de Araujo and Murray (2010), they found that living in campus does cause a statistically significant increase in semester and cumulative GPA (CGPA). Pike and Kuh (2005) described that residence is crucial as they examine the experiences first-generation students and shown low level of academic engagements and having lower educational inspiration. Pascarella, et al. (1993) reveal that students that live in campus achieved larger gains from college as measured from critical thinking and cognitive skills. However, there is less impact when it comes to direct measure of reading comprehension and mathematical skills.
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2.7 Level of stress among commuter and non-commuter students
In a research done by Zajacova, Lynch and Espenshade (2005), stress refer to the internal perceived emotions and cognitions. Kearns and Gardiner (2007) stated that non-traditional college student have lower level of academic stress and higher level of satisfaction with their academic experience as well as could manage their time fine. Non-traditional students term refers to commuter students as they less participate into various college social activities compared to noncommuter students (Forbus, Newvold, & Mehta, 2009). Commuter students said to be presented with stressful situations more frequently during their higher education accomplishments because of less involvement in the campus life and additional time constraint as everything is squeeze together in one time (Forbus, Newvold, & Mehta, 2009).
2.8 Differences in ways of coping with stress by higher institution students
According to research that conducted by Carver and Scheier (1994) on university students, it showed that exam is labeled as the source of stress and considered as threatening and harmful. Besides that, the result of the research revealed that the students tend to use problem-focused coping. The university education period which related to ages 18 until 25 years old is which said to have rapid psychological and social development to be seen as the physiological development completed which occupied various developmental assessment and expresses the passage to adulthood (Renk & Creasey, 2003; Dyson & Renk, 2006).
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Lee and Chen (2004) found that university senior students preferred a passive coping strategy when they faced a high level of stress. Meanwhile, if the stress level is mild, they preferred a more active strategy such as seeking emotional and social support which can improve their physical and mental health. From research by Odaci and Cikrikci (2012), found that medicine and education students tend to use problem-focused coping strategy which was considered as the most effective and healthiest method. From a study done by Mustafa Kemal Alimoglu, Erol Gurpinar, Sumer Mamakli, and Mehmet Aktekin (2010), majority of the medical students in Akdeniz University adopted a problem-focused coping strategy as shown in the finding when they achieved higher problem-focused coping scores compared to emotional-focused coping. Same goes to Turkish medical students as they predominantly adopted problem-focused coping ways (Kaya, Genc, Kaya & Pehlivan, 2007).
2.9 Effect of coping with stress towards academic achievement
Evidence found from a research done by Aspinwall and Taylor (1992) that using an active coping approach can generate healthy life however, certain studies shown that active cooping have side effects when one is dealing with a crucial stressor. Bolger (1990) explained that problem-focused coping during exam preparation can direct to higher anxiety just before the exam but Carver and Scheier (1994) have different view which problem-focused coping can lead to higher anxiety after grades were posted.
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As stated by Ong, Bessie and Cheong (2009), the academic achievement is dependent on student’s performance during classroom activities, assignment, presentation and assessment as they will be evaluated on what have they learn throughout the semester. As discovered by Elliot et al. (2005) and Choi, Abbott, Arthur and Hill (2007), it is found that stress could affect student’s academic performance. The academic performance is a matter that can be observed from students throughout their learning process. This statement has been supported with evidence from students that complained of feeling stressed academically when they need to encounter exams and grade competition and yet still too much information need to study in an insufficient time to understand the knowledge (Carveth, Gesse & Moss, 1996). In a research done by Habibah, Ping, and Maria (2011) has concluded that final year students were more likely to experience higher level of stress compared to other students.
2.10 Coping with stress strategies, commuter and non-commuter students and their academic achievement Academic stress has been studied broadly as it is an important factor of college adjustment (Gall, Evans & Bellerose, 2000). Stress has been found to give negative influences on academic performance (Zajacova, Lynch, & Espenshade, 2005) as supported by Pritchard and Wilson (2003) and Sandler (2000) which stated that there is no effect of stress on determination. Non-commuter and commuter students have differences in term of coping strategies that been used by them. Commuter student that has the tendencies in using supported learning, goals and utilized task-oriented coping method (Forbus, Newvold, & Mehta, 2009).
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2.11 Chapter Summary
This chapter comprises the previous research upon stress level, factors of stress, and effects of stress toward human, models of stress, and way of coping with stress. The previous research is used as guideline to conduct the study and assessing into the limitation that a research have in order to improves and strengthen the study.
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CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
Research methodology is a matter that important for a researcher to plan the studies and design the guidelines to achieve the purposes of the research. This chapter discusses about the method used in this study to collect data and other needed information in order to achieve the main purposes of the research. This chapter also comprises the research design, population sample, instrument, and data collection procedure and data analysis statistical method.
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3.1 Research Design
Research design is needed to guide the researcher to collect data correctly according to the objectives of the study. It also can ensure that the researchers are providing good answers to their research questions (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe and Lowe, 2002). This study is focusing on non-experimental design study as it represent a wide range of research design especially in social sciences (Rusli Ahmad & Hasbee Usop, 2011). In order to collect the data, this study used crosssectional study method by using questionnaires. Through the data collected, it can be used to differentiate people into different groups (Rusli Ahmad & Hasbee Usop, 2011). Non-experimental design is used in this study as there is no manipulation of variables by the researcher because this study is carried out in the natural settings or environment. The categories of non-experimental design that are used are correlation study and surveys through questionnaire. Therefore, the research design for this study supported by a survey which is mainly defines with a quantitative mode of inquest. The research design is important to provide solutions to the research question would need comparison between an independent variable which is stress level as well as the dependent variables that is the demography information, residential status. Both variables are resulted in academic achievement. All selected participants answered the questionnaire and statistical measures were conducted to check the data collected through the instrument to make sure that the result would be reliable.
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3.1.1 Survey
Surveys are used in this research to collect information from students in university student using interview in form of questionnaire. Information gathered will be used to draw conclusions upon effects of stress level and coping strategies of the students towards their academic achievement. Participants are selected randomly across university to represent the whole population of the students. But, a survey still has some leaking in the reliability of the answers given as the participants cannot be force to provide a truthful answers and it may reflect artificial sentiments of population (Rusli Ahmad & Hasbee Usop, 2011).
3.1.2 Cross-sectional study
Participants are divided into two groups which is students that lives in residential college and those that lives out-side campus. Process of collecting data will be done at a single time for both groups and be analyzing using IBM Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20.0 for Windows. As all the related evidence has been collected, the results can be used to construct relationship between the dependent variables and independent variables. The relationship that could exist is the indirect causal relationship which is level of stress of university students can be influenced by other external factors.
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3.2 Data Analysis Techniques.
Once the data collection has been done, it will be run through the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 for Windows. The data will be analyzed using the techniques used in inferential statistics as it used to test the data collected from quantitative research.
Table 3.2.1: Data Analysis Techniques NO 1
2
HYPOTHESES
TEST
There is no significant difference of stress level of commuter and non-commuter of university student There is no significant differences between coping strategies university students
Independent T-Test
Independent T-Test
There is no relationship in between stress level of 3
university student (commuter and non-commuter)
Pearson Correlation
towards way of coping with stress and academic
Test
achievement.
Independent T-test is used to compare the mean between two samples (Rusli Ahmad & Hasbee Usop, 2011). The samples regarding the study are commuter and non-commuter students from a local university at Kota Samarahan. As the samples being selected randomly, so it is appropriate to choose Independent T-test. The significant (2-tailed) values is observed to determine whether there is significant difference or not between the commuter and noncommuter towards their stress level and coping strategies.
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Pearson Correlation test has been used to identify the strength of the relation between two variables which is coping strategy and academic achievement. Correlation as been explained by Rusli Ahmad and Hasbee Usop (2011) is a technique for examining the relationship between two quantitative variables. Correlation coefficient (r) is the value which is used to measure the strength of relationship between two variables. The r-value has the range between +1.00 and -1.00. Table 3.2.2 Strength value of Correlation Coefficient Size of correlation coefficient
Strength of correlation
.91 until 1.00 or -.91 until -1.00
Very strong
.71 until .90 or -.71 until -.90
Strong
.51 until .70 or -.51 until -.70
Moderate
.31 until .50 or -.31 until -.50
Weak
.01 until .30 or -.01until -.30
Very weak
.00
No correlation
3.3 Population Sample
Population is a complete set of individuals, objects, or events whose characteristics are being analyzed as explained by Johnson and Kuby (2004). The populations for this study that are selected randomly are consisting of undergraduate students from seven faculties of a local university. The faculties that selected are Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development (FSCHD), Faculty of Resources Sciences and Technology (FRST), Faculty of Economy and Business (FEB), Faculty of Applied and Creative Arts (FACA), Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS),Faculty of Engineering (FE) and Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology (FCSIT). A total number of 312 questionnaires were distributed randomly among these seven faculties. Participants are given a week to return the questionnaire to the assigned person.
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3.4 Instrumentation
The source of information that support the research topic is obtain from books, journals, and trusted articles that available either in the internet or published books. The statement for each section of the questionnaire has been prepared with two languages which are in English and Bahasa Malaysia. This closed-ended questionnaire is provided to the participants to be filled in and they need to make only one choice for each statement. Table 3.4.1: Division of the questions Section
Item
A
Demography
B
Measurement level of stress
C
Coping Strategies
3.4.1 Section A: Demographic Information
Demography section is important for research as it could be used a supportive variable to construct a solution or conclusion. This section consists of questions that concerning the age, gender, faculty, year of study, education background, Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA), and their status of residential.
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3.4.2 Section B: Measurement Levels of Stress
This section consists of questions that relates to measuring level of stress of students in university student. The statement is mixed up to be answered by both students that stay in residential college and those that stay out-campus. The questionnaire is adapted from Ministry of Social Security, National Solidarity and Reform Institutions. The data will analyze by following the interpretation of scores guideline: Table 1.4.2.1: Stress level scores 0-20
Good control over stress
21-40
Low level of stress
41-60
Medium level of stress: Should reconsider means of coping with stress
61-80
High level of stress: Needs counseling
This section has provided choices of answer in form of scale like following: Table 3.4.2.2: Likert Scale 0
1
2
3
4
Never
Rarely
Sometimes
Often
Very Often
33
3.4.3 Section C: Coping Strategies
This section comprises of statement that can be used to determine types of coping with stress strategy used by university students. Each respondents need to respond to the statement in this section by choosing between two option which is Yes or No by ticking ( / ) on the space given. This 12-items questions on this section has been adapted from Lazarus and Folkman (1984) used to measure the strategies used a person whether it is correspond to the emotion-focused coping strategy or problem-focused coping strategy. First six items with label 1 until 6 is related to emotional-focused coping and the other six items concerns on problem-focused coping.
3.5 Pilot Test
3.5.1 Validity Rusli and Hasbee (2011) refer validity as “the degree to which a study accurately reflects or assesses the specific concepts that the researcher is attempting to measure”
3.5.2 Reliability Rusli and Hasbee (2011) conclude that reliability is how consistent a measuring device as the measurement are through the similar results produces throughout several assessments.
34
3.5.3. Cronbach’s Alpha Table 3.5.3.1: Cronbach’s Alpha Value Cronbach’s alpha
Internal consistency
α ≥ 0.9
Excellent
0.8 ≤ α < 0.9
Good
0.7 ≤ α < 0.8
Acceptable
0.6 ≤ α < 0.7
Questionable
0.5 ≤ α < 0.6
Poor
α < 0.5
Unacceptable
Cronbach’s alpha is a measure of internal consistency, which is to see how closely, related a set of items are a group (Introduction to SAS, 2013). Cronbach’s alpha is also “an index of reliability associated with the variation accounted for by the true score of the underlying construct” (Hatcher, 1994).
3.5.4 Reliability and Validity Testing 3.5.4.1 Section B: Measurement of Stress Level Cronbach’s alpha has been to test the reliability of questionnaire of stress level. The alpha coefficient for coping strategies questions are 0.756. Total questions was tested are 20 questions by using 30 respondents. The questions are reliable as the value of Cronbach’s alpha exceeding the value needed for it to be reliable that is 0.7.
35
Table 3.5.4.1.1: Reliability Testing for Measurement of Stress Level Questions Reliability Statistics
Cronbach's Alpha N of Items .756
20
Item-Total Statistics
I cannot pay attention in class
Scale Mean if
Scale Variance if
Corrected Item-
Cronbach's Alpha
Item Deleted
Item Deleted
Total Correlation
if Item Deleted
24.9000
125.197
.471
.737
25.1667
122.144
.778
.725
25.0667
127.306
.479
.739
My attendance is poor
25.9333
132.961
.210
.753
I often late for class
25.7000
128.700
.512
.741
I have too many assignments
24.7333
141.030
-.148
.773
24.8667
128.189
.528
.740
25.3333
132.092
.278
.750
25.5000
131.155
.322
.748
25.7000
134.631
.138
.756
26.2333
132.254
.371
.748
26.0000
135.793
.065
.760
24.8667
128.120
.320
.746
24.7667
104.599
.641
.711
24.8667
126.395
.410
.741
24.7667
125.082
.599
.734
24.8000
92.993
.361
.803
I do not understand what my teacher teaches I am not sure if I am able to do well in class
I feel i have to much pressure to do with tuition and school homework I do not get enough pocket money I do not have enough money to pay for my basic expenses My parent control on how much I spend my money I have trouble getting along with my family members i have no friends / I feel lonely I feel insecure because of too much competition in getting good grade and a good job I feel i am felt with hardly any time for exercise I have gained / lost weight I am tired and sleeping more / less than normal I feel sad / depressed
36
I feel nobody cares for me
25.5000
124.741
.497
.736
25.0333
126.861
.460
.739
25.0333
128.585
.317
.746
i feel I have too much pressure because of my studies and examinations I no longer do things once I very much liked to do
3.5.4.2 Section C: Coping Strategies Cronbach’s alpha has been used widely in research to test the reliability of their measurement medium which is questionnaire. This test also was made used by researcher to test the reliability of coping strategies. The alpha coefficient for coping strategies questions are 0.32. Total questions was tested are 12 questions upon detecting coping strategies as proposed by Folkman and Lazarus (1988) onto 30 respondents.
The result produces shows that the questions are not reliable as the value are below 0.7 as it is the point for questions to be reliable. This can be explained as the answers are only consisting of two options which is yes (Y) and no (N). Thus, the decision of respondents would be restricted into 2 options only. This questionnaire is the original version from Ways of Coping Checklist (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980) as it response format was Yes / No and has been revised in 1985 in the public domain.
Table 3.5.3.2.1: Reliability Testing for Coping Strategies Questions Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha .320
37
N of Items 12
Item-Total Statistics
Emotion-focused strategy
Scale Mean if
Scale Variance if
Corrected Item-
Cronbach's Alpha
Item Deleted
Item Deleted
Total Correlation
if Item Deleted
13.0339
2.033
.062
.316
12.9492
1.773
.252
.247
13.0678
2.099
.000
.323
12.7288
1.684
.151
.281
12.9153
2.010
-.041
.361
12.7797
1.761
.107
.304
12.8983
1.921
.033
.333
13.0508
1.980
.278
.286
13.0000
2.000
.048
.320
12.8644
1.981
-.041
.369
12.5424
1.528
.254
.216
12.9153
1.700
.283
.226
Evaluate the situation by trying to step back and look at it objectively Used prayer for guidance and strength Took out my feelings on other people when I became angry or depressed Tried to keep my mind off the situation by busying myself with other things Adopted the philosophy that everything should work itself out and decided not to worry about it Tried to take things one step at a time Looked at several different alternatives ways that the problem could be solved Looked at how I had handled similar situation previously and used that experience to help solve the problem Sought a solution by talking to friends or relatives Sought hep about the problem from a professional person such as doctor, teacher, or counsellor Tried to solve the problem by taking action
38
3.6
Summary of the research instrument
Table 3.6.1: Summary of the research instrument Section
Measures
Number of
Sources/ contents
items A
Demographic
10
Gender, age, ethnicity,
information of the
year of study, current
respondents
CGPA, educational background, and residential status
B
Level of stress
20
Ministry of Social Security, National Solidarity and Reform Institutions
C
3.6
Coping strategies
12
Lazarus (1978)
Chapter Summary
This chapter comprises the method use in collecting data that will be used to assist in this research as well as the sources that involve in obtaining information. Research design plays important roles in determining the correct research framework to conduct research actions. All the data collected are used to support the facts and theory upon coping strategies.
39
CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND FINDING
4.0 Introduction This chapter will discussed the results from the study that has been analyzed and followed by the discussion towards the objective of this research which is to inspect the coping strategies used by commuter and non-commuter students in university student and its relationship towards student’s academic achievement. The analysis of all data has been done by using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20.0 for Windows. Independent T-test and Pearson Correlation test has been used to explore whether there was a significant relationship between residential status, stress coping and academic achievement.
40
4.1 Number of Respondents The population of a local university which is at Kota Samarahan, Sarawak are around 11, 200 as far as earlier 2013. There are 312 sets of questionnaire which has been distributed randomly throughout university student but only 269 set of questionnaire are returned and being completed. The respondents have been given freedom to join voluntarily in this study and they allowed withdrawing at any time from this study.
4.2 Respondent’ Demography In the questionnaire, there are questions that regarding to their demography information which is their gender, age, faculty, Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA), educational background and residential status.
4.2.1 Gender The number of respondent according to gender are not pre-determine as the questionnaire are distributed randomly throughout the university.
41
227
85
Figure 4.2.1.1: Gender of respondents
Table 4.2.1.1: Analysis of gender of the respondents
Frequency
Percent
Valid Percent
Cumulative Percent
Female Valid
227
72.8
72.8
72.8
Male
85
27.2
27.2
100.0
Total
312
100.0
100.0
Based on the collected data, there are 227 respondents (72.8%) which are female and 85 respondents male (27.2%). These amounts of respondents are representing the student’s population.
4.2.2 Age The respondents are varied in categories of ages. They are classes into 4 classes which are 20 years old, 21 years old, 22 years old, and others (for those who are more than 22 years old).
42
131
114
53 14
Figure 4.2.2.1: Age of the respondents
Table 4.2.2.1: Analysis of age of the respondents
Frequency
Percent
Valid Percent
Cumulative Percent
Valid
20 years old
14
4.5
4.5
4.5
21 years old
53
17.0
17.0
21.5
22 years old
131
42.0
42.0
63.5
More than 22 years old
114
36.5
36.5
100.0
Total
312
100.0
100.0
There are 14 respondents (4.5%) which is 20 years old, 53 respondents (17.0%) that age 21 years old, 131 respondents (42.0%) age 22 years old and 114 respondents (36.5%) whose more than 22 years old.
43
4.2.3 Faculty There are seven (7) faculties that has been chose for this study. It is Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development (FCSHD), Faculty of Resource Sciences and Technology (FRST), Faculty of Economy and Business (FEB), Faculty of Computer Sciences and Information Technology (FCSIT), Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS), Faculty of Engineering (FENG), and Faculty of Applied and Creative Arts (FACA).
123
50 48 6
27
31
27
Figure 4.2.3.1: Faculty of respondents Table 4.2.3.1: Analysis of faculty of the respondents Frequency
Percent
Valid Percent
Cumulative Percent
FCSHD
123
39.4
39.4
39.4
FSTS
48
15.4
15.4
54.8
FEB
27
8.7
8.7
63.5
6
1.9
1.9
65.4
FSS
31
9.9
9.9
75.3
FENG
27
8.7
8.7
84.0
FACA
50
16.0
16.0
100.0
Total
312
100.0
100.0
FCSIT Valid
44
The table shows the amounts of students that are from FCSHD makes up 39.4% (123 respondents), FTST makes up 15.4% (48 respondents), FEB makes up 8.7% (27 respondents), FCSIT makes up 1.9% (6 respondents), FSS makes up 9.9% (31 respondents), FENG makes up 8.7% (27 respondents), and FACA makes up 16.0% (50 respondents).
4.2.4 CGPA Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) has been collected as a demographic data from all respondents. The ranking has been determines as below: Table 4.2.4.1: Cumulative Grade Average Point (CGPA) 1
1.51-2.00
2
2.01-2.50
3
2.51-3.00
4
3.01-3.50
5
5.51-4.00
45
131
129
13
38
1
Figure 4.2.4.1: CGPA of the respondents Table 4.2.4.2: Analysis of CGPA of the respondents Frequency
Percent
Valid Percent
Cumulative Percent
Valid
1.51-2.00
1
.3
.3
.3
2.01-2.50
13
4.2
4.2
4.5
2.51-3.00
131
42.0
42.0
46.5
3.01-3.50
129
41.3
41.3
87.8
3.51-4.00
38
12.2
12.2
100.0
312
100.0
100.0
Total
Based on the analysis done on CGPA of university students, there is a respondent which score 1.51-2.00 (3%), 13 respondents score 2.01-2.50 (4.2%), 131 respondents scores 2.51-3.00 (42.0%), 129 respondents (41.3%) score 3.013.50, and another 38 respondents (12.2%) score 3.51-4.00.
46
4.2.5 Educational Background Respondents which came from various educational backgrounds which can be classified into 4 classes; Diploma, Matriculation, STPM and others qualification.
117
128
47 20
Figure 4.2.5.1: Educational background of the respondents Table 4.2.5.1: Analysis of gender of the respondents Frequency
Percent
Valid Percent
Cumulative Percent
Diploma
Valid
47
15.1
15.1
15.1
Matriculation
117
37.5
37.5
52.6
STPM
128
41.0
41.0
93.6
Others
20
6.4
6.4
100.0
312
100.0
100.0
Total
Based on the table above, 47 respondents (15.1%) are coming from diploma background, 117 respondents (37.5%) coming from matriculation background, 128 respondents (41.0%) are coming from Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM), and 20 respondents (6.4%) coming from other educational background.
47
4.2.6 Residential Status Residential status of university students can be break into 2 groups which is commuter and non-commuter.
187 125
Figure 4.2.6.1: Residential status of the respondents
Table 4.2.6.1: Analysis of residential status of the respondents Frequency
Percent
Valid Percent
Cumulative Percent
Valid
Commuter
187
59.9
59.9
59.9
Non-commuter
125
40.1
40.1
100.0
Total
312
100.0
100.0
The table shows that there is 187 respondents (59.9%) which are commuter students and another 125 students (40.1%) are non-commuter which is staying in residential college.
48
4.3 Inferential Data Analysis towards Hypotheses 4.3.1 Testing the hypotheses by using Independent T-test H01
:
There is no significant difference in stress level among commuter
and non-commuter students of university student. Group Statistics Residential Status
N
Mean
Std. Deviation
Std. Error Mean
Commuter
161
1.8634
.61742
.04866
Non-commuter
108
1.8704
.61283
.05897
Stress level
Table 4.3.1.1: Independent sample T-test between stress level and residential status. Levene's
t-test for Equality of Means
Test for Equality of Variances F
Sig.
T
df
Sig. (2-
Mean
Std. Error
Difference Difference
tailed)
95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower
Equal variances assumed
.037
.847
.092
267
.927
-.00702
.07657
230.770
.927
-.00702
.07645
.15777
Upper
.14374
Stress level
Equal variances not
.092
.15765
.14362
assumed
The result shows that the study is not significant (t=-0.092, df =267, p>0.05). There are also no differences shows on both groups of students that consist of commuter and non-commuter students in term of stress level. The mean difference value is -0.00702. So, the hypothesis is failed to be rejected as there is no significant difference in stress level among commuter and non-commuter.
49
H02
: There is no significant difference in ways of coping with stress
among university students. Group Statistics Residential Status
N
Mean
Std. Deviation
Std. Error Mean
Commuter
163
2.0245
1.09967
.08613
Non-commuter
111
2.1712
.81880
.07772
Coping strategy
Table 4. 3.1.2: Independent sample T-test between ways of coping among university students. Independent Samples Test Levene's
t-test for Equality of Means
Test for Equality of Variances F
Sig.
t
df
Sig. (2-
Mean
Std. Error
Difference Difference
tailed)
95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower
Equal variances assumed
.396
.530
1.197
272
.232
-.14663
.12253
269.796
.207
-.14663
.11601
.38786
Upper
.09459
Coping strategy
Equal variances not
1.264
.37504
.08177
assumed
Based on the table above, commuter and non-commuter group are representing the portion of university student population. The finding from the test conducted (Independent T-test) shows that there is no significant on the findings of the study (t= -1.197, df =272, p>0.05) as the p-value is 0.232. There is no significant difference in ways of coping with stress among students. The value of mean difference is -0.14663. So, the hypothesis is failed to be reject.
50
4.3.2 Testing the hypothesis using Pearson Correlation Test.
H03
: There is no relationship between stress level towards coping
strategies and academic achievement Table 4.3.2.1: Pearson correlation between stress level towards coping strategies and academic performance Correlations Coping strategy Pearson Correlation Coping strategy
CGPA
1
Sig. (2-tailed)
CGPA .017 .781
N
274
274
Pearson Correlation
.017
1
Sig. (2-tailed)
.781
N
274
312
From the table above, Pearson correlation, which is the value of r, is 0.017. The value of r is close to 0. The result shows that the relationship between both variable (coping strategies and academic performance) are positively very weak. So, we could conclude that the variables are very weak positive correlated. Whereas, the significant value (2-tailed), p-value is larger than 0.05 which is 0.781, it means that there is no statistically significant correlation between both variables. So, there are very weak positive relationship between coping strategies and academic performance. As a conclusion, the null hypothesis (H03) is failed to be rejected.
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4.4 Summary of Hypotheses Results Table 4.4.1: Summary results of inferential statistics Hypotheses Statements (Ha)
Result
H01: There is no significant difference in stress level among commuter and non-commuter
Sig. value = 0.847 Sig. (2-tailed) = 0.927 Ha1 is failed to reject
students of university student.
Test
Independent T-test
H02: There is no significant difference in ways of coping with stress among university students (commuter and non-
Sig. value = 0.530 Sig. (2-tailed) = 0.232 H02 is failed to reject
commuter) towards the
Independent T-test
academic achievement. H03: There is no relationship in stress level towards stress level and academic achievement
r = 0.017
Pearson
Sig. (2-tailed) = 0.781
correlation
H03 is failed to reject
Test
4.5 Conclusion All the results of the test are proven with the IBM SPSS software version 20.0. The analysis of the data collected has been done by using Independent T-test and Pearson Correlation Test. Chapter 5 will discuss on the limitation and recommendation for future research.
52
CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
5.0 Introduction This chapter wills summaries the findings of the study in term of wrapping up. This chapter also will clarify the implication and limitations of the study as well as suggestion for enhancement and upcoming research.
53
5.1 Discussion An independent T-test has been conducted to test the first and second hypotheses. According to the analysis, the first hypothesis has been failed to reject and revealed that the p-value is exceeding 0.05 which is 0.927. This indicated that there is no significant difference. As conclusion, the stress level of commuter and non-commuter students does not show any differences. In research previously, commuter students said to be presented with stressful situations more frequently during their higher education accomplishments because of less involvement in the campus life and additional time constraint as everything is squeeze together in one time (Forbus, Newvold, & Mehta, 2009). This happen as in other countries, commuters students need to maintain themselves fit into the situation for them to keep survive by taking part time job to support their daily expenses. Frankly, commuter students does have little differences upon the number of respondents whose score low level of stress which is 97 respondents compared to non-commuter that is 66 respondents. Living outside campus does have challenges such as financial, safety, daily expenses as well as time management and these factors does explain the slight differences upon the values. Thus, it indicates that living environment and constraint upon living far from campus does not bring huge impact towards their level of stress. Table 5.1.1: Summary on value of level of stress among commuter and noncommuter student
Commuter
Non-commuter
Good level of stress
43
28
Low level of stress
97
66
Medium level of stress
21
14
High level of stress
0
0
54
The second hypothesis is there is no significant difference in ways of coping with stress among university students. The significant 2-tailed value is 0.232 which is exceeding the p-value (0.05). This value determines that the hypothesis is failed to reject. The respondents seem to cope with stress in both ways which is emotion-focused and problem-focused. Past research done to Turkish medical students which they predominantly adopted problem-focused coping ways (Kaya, Genc, Kaya & Pehlivan, 2007). Odaci and Cikrikci (2012) found that medicine and education students tend to use problem-focused coping strategy which was considered as the most effective and healthiest method. Most of commuter students choose problem-focused while non-commuter chooses both coping strategies (emotion-focused and problem-focused). As in preparing for examination, students tend to engage more in problem-focused coping which is the active ones such as planning and studying earlier to the exam (Folkman & Lazarus, 1985; Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004). As for the respondent used in this study, they tend to use both of the coping strategies as they encountered different kind of situation at the moment they answered the questions.
Table 5.1.2: Summary on the ways of coping used by commuter and noncommuter students
Count
Commuter
Coping strategy
emotion-focused
51
problem-focused
67
both
45
emotion-focused
29
problem-focused
34
both
48
Residential Status Non-commuter
Coping strategy
55
For the third hypothesis, it is failed to reject the hypothesis as there is no significant relationship in coping strategies towards academic achievement of university students. The results shows the value hold for significant 2-tailed is more than 0.05 which is 0.781. The r-value is 0.017. This value explained that there is very weak correlation between these two variables. This result obtained from the analysis using Pearson Correlation test. Very weak correlation between the variable can be explained as commuter and non-commuter’s preference towards coping strategies did not show any effect on their academic achievement. Adaptation could help in adjusting themselves into the situation. This might be supported as the respondents which is among second-year and final-year students are able to control their things to run smoothly as they know their weakness point and avoid stressful event as much as possible. Final-year students are more flexible as they are reaching their graduation day and finishing their study. As they able to control their stress level, it happens to be no differences among their CGPA towards the coping strategies that they preferred. Student’s coping strategies are fundamental in the academic setting as they influences approaches to studying during examination preparation (Moneta, Spada, & Rost, 2007).
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Table 4.5.3: Summary of effects of coping strategies toward academic achievement
Coping strategy emotion-
problem-
focused
focused
both
1.51-2.00
0
1
0
2.01-2.50
1
5
2
CGPA 2.51-3.00
20
26
23
3.01-3.50
27
26
15
Residential
3.51-4.00
3
9
5
Status
1.51-2.00
0
0
0
2.01-2.50
1
0
1
CGPA 2.51-3.00
10
18
19
3.01-3.50
14
11
17
3.51-4.00
4
5
11
Commuter
Noncommuter
5.2 Limitation of the study There is some limitation regarding to this study. Respondents are selected randomly which might be bias towards certain aspect. Those aspects might be their faculty, or their age. Besides that, the numbers of the respondents are small as compared to the huge population which university student holds in. The information gathered might not represent the whole population of university students. Most of the respondents selected from second year and third year students as they has experienced years of study in university student. Furthermore, time taken to completing the data collection process is a constraint as it only takes one week which might cause the respondents to provide unreliable answers.
57
The questionnaires are the only technique of data collection and the findings collected might be disturbed by honesty of the respondents in giving their reaction towards the questions prepared. Respondents might see this study as meaningless and wasting time, so, the result will only is valid if the respondents involved with their own willing to give their co-operation throughout the study.
5.3 Recommendation For further study in the future, the researcher could increase the number of participants to increase the validity and reliability of the data collected. Besides that, by suggesting more than 2 coping strategies could help to broaden the view of how university students cope with stress in the questionnaire. There are more than 2 coping strategies available in order to overcome and control the stress level. The coping strategies are like aroma-therapy, mini-meditation, Progressive Muscle Reaction (PMR) and others. Therefore, the dependency on problem-focused as well as emotion-focused coping by itself is not enough to determine the coping strategies taken by higher educational students.
5.4 Conclusion The findings of the study can help the society to determine their level of stress according to their daily activities and pressure experienced day by day. As they experienced a lot of pressure and hectic day, their might know that they are in medium or high level of stress. To overcome that, based on their preferences, they would used emotion-focused or problem-focused to adapt themselves into the situation.
58
5.5 Chapter Summary This chapter functions to highlight the research objectives, hypotheses and summarize all the findings obtained after the analysis using appropriate tests. Besides that, some recommendations that to be considered upon future research is included in this chapter. As to society, it helps to determine the level of stress experienced by society and assists them to overcome it according to suggested coping strategies (emotion-focused and problemfocused). Well-managed stress level could help to maintain focus on our goals.
59
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APPENDIX
FACULTY OF COGNITIVE SCIENCES AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT UNIVERISITI MALAYSIA SARAWAK
STRESS AND COPING STRATEGIES AMONG COMMUTER AND NONCOMMUTER STUDENTS TEKANAN DAN STRATEGI DAYA TINDAK DALAM KALANGAN PELAJAR YANG BERULANG-ALIK DARI KEDIAMAN DAN YANG TIDAK BERULANG-ALIK Dear Mr. / Ms, You have been selected as a respondent in this study. This study is conducted by Third Year Cognitive Sciences student. The purpose of distributing this questionnaire is to gain data about stress level and the preferences of university students upon stress coping. All the information given by the respondents will be confidential. Thank you for all the cooperation given. Tuan / Encik / Cik / Puan, Anda telah dipilih sebagai responden dalam kajian ini. Kajian ini dikendalikan oleh Pelajar Tahun 3 jurusan Sains Kognitif. Tujuan borang soal selidik ini diedarkan adalah untuk mengumpulkan maklumat mengenai tahap tekanan dan daya tindak terhadap tekanan oleh pelajar univerisiti. Segala maklumat yang diberikan oleh responden adalah sulit. Kerjasama yang diberikan amat dihargai. Prepared by / Disediakan oleh: Nurul Muizzah binti Johari (27875)
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This questionnaire is divided into two sections. The first section is about the demographic information of the respondent and the other section comprises the questions that related to stress level and management and stress coping strategies.
Borang soal selidik ini dibahagikan kepada dua bahagian. Bahagian yang pertama merangkumi soalan mengenai maklumat demografik respondent dan bahagian seterusnya mengandungi soalan yang berkaitan dengan tahap tekanan dan strategi daya tindak terhadap tekanan.
SECTION A: DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
Please tick (/) the suitable answer. / Sila tanda (/) pilihan jawapan yang sesuai. 1.
Gender / Jantina : Male / Lelaki Female / Wanita
2.
Age / Umura : 20 years old / 20 tahun 21 years old / 21 tahun 22 years old / 22 tahun Others / Lain-lain : ___________
3.
Ethnicity / Etnik : Malay / Melayu Chinese / Cina Indian / India Others / Lain-lain : ____________
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4.
Faculty / Fakulti : FCSHD / FSKPM FEB / FEP FSS / FSS FCSIT / FIT FRST / FSTS FACA / FSGK FE / FK
5.
Year of Study / Tahun pengajian : 2nd Year / Tahun 2 3rd Year / Tahun 3
6.
CGPA / PNGK: 1.51 - 2.00 2.01 - 2.50 2.51 - 3.00 3.01 - 3.50 3.51 - 4.00
7.
Educational background / Latar belakang pendidikan : Diploma / Diploma Matriculation / Matrikulasi STPM / STPM Others / Lain-lain: ____________
8.
Residential status / Status Kediaman : Commuter / Menetap di luar Non- commuter / Menetap di Kolej Kediaman
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SECTION B : LEVEL OF STRESS QUESTIONNAIRE Please read carefully at each statement below. This section consists of statements that are related to the measurement of stress level experienced by an individual. Please tick ( / ) in the space provided according to the given scale.
Sila baca setiap pernyataan di bawah dengan teliti. Bahagian ini mengandungi pernyataan yang berkaitan dengan tahap tekanan yang di alami oleh seseorang individu. Sila tandakan ( / ) pada ruang yang disediakan berdasarkan skala yang telah diberikan.
0
1
2
Never /
Rarely /
Sometimes /
Tidak pernah
Jarang-
Kadang-
jarang
kadang
No
Statement / Pernyataan
1
I cannot pay attention in class 1
Saya tidak dapat menumpukan perhatian di dalam kelas I do not understand what my teacher
2
teaches Saya tidak dapat memahami apa yang diajar oleh pensyarah I am not sure if I am able to do well in class
3
Saya tidak pasti jika saya dapat melakukan yang terbaik di dalam kelas
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3
4
Often /
Very Often /
Selalu
Sangat kerap
2
3
4
5
My attendance is poor 4
Kehadiran saya dalah kurang memuaskan
5
I am often late for class Saya selalu terlambat ke kelas I have too many assignments
6
Saya mempunyai terlalu banyak tugasan I feel I have too much pressure to do with tuition and school homework
7
Saya berasa mempunyai terlalu banyak tekanan dengan kelas tambahan dan kerja rumah. I do not get enough pocket money
8
Saya tidak mempunyai wang belanja yang mencukupi. I do not have enough money to pay for
9
my basic expenses Saya tidak mempunyai wang yang mencukupi untuk perbelanjaan asas. My parent control how much money I
10
spend Ibu bapa saya mengawal perbelanjaan saya. I have trouble getting along with
11
family members Saya mempunyai masalah untuk bergaul dengan ahli keluarga I have no friends / I feel lonely
12
Saya tidak mempunyai kawan / Saya kesunyian.
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I feel insecure beacuse of too much competition in getting good grades and a good job 13
Saya berasa kurang selesa kerana terlalu banyak persaingan untuk mendapat gred dan pekerjaan yang baik. I fell I am felt with hardly any time for
14
exercise Saya berasa saya tidak mempunyai masa untuk bersenam. I have gained/ lost weight
15
Berat badan saya telah berkurangan /bertambah. I am tired and sleeping more/ less than
16
normal Saya berasa letih dan mengantuk lebih / kurang daripada biasa.
17
I feel sad /depressed Saya berasa sedih / tertekan. I feel nobody cares for me
18
Saya berasa tiada yang mengambil berat terhadap saya. I feel I have too much pressure because of my studies and examinations
19
Saya berasa mempunyai terlalu banyak tekanan disebabkan pengajian dan peperiksaan.
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I no longer do things once I very much 20
liked to do Saya tidak lagi melakukan perkara yang saya sangat suka sebelum ini
SECTION C : COPING STRATEGIES
Below are the statements about coping strategies regarding your way to cope. Please tick ( /) either Yes (Y) or No (N) to answer. Berikut adalah keterangan tentang strategi daya tindak terhadap tekanan anda. Sila tandakan sama ada Yes / Ya (Y) atau No / Tidak (N) untuk menjawab.
No. Items 1.
Yes / Ya
Attempt to look at the positive aspect of the situation Cuba melihat situasi dari aspek positif
2.
Evaluate the situation by trying to step back and look at it objectively Melihat situasi dengan berhenti seketika dan menilainya secara objektif
3.
Used prayer for guidance and strength Berdoa untuk meminta petunjuk dan kekuatan
4.
Took out my feelings on other people when I became angry or depressed Melepaskan perasaan saya pada orang lain apabila saya matah atau kecewa
5.
Tried to keep my mind off the situation by busying myself with other things Cuba mengalihkan tumpuan dari situasi tersebut dengan
melakukan
kerja-kerja
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lain
No / Tidak
6.
Adopted the philosophy that everything should work itself out and decided not to worry about it Menerima falsafah yang menyatakan setiap perkara akan selesai
dan memutuskan untuk
tidak bimbang tentangnya 7.
Tried to take things one step at a time Cuba melakukan perkara selangkah pada satu masa
8.
Looked at several different alternative ways that the problem could be solved Melihat kepada beberapa pilihan alternatif yang dapat menyelesaikan masalah tersebut.
9.
Looked at how I had handled similar situation previously and used that experience to help solve the problem menyelesaikan
Melihat kembali bagaimana saya masalah
sebelum
ini
dan
menggunakan pengalaman itu untuk membantu saya menyelesaikan masalah itu 10.
Sought a solution by talking to friends or relatives Mencari jalan penyelesaian dengan bercakap kepada kawan atau saudara-mara
11.
Sought
help
about
the
problem
from
a
professional person such as doctor, teacher, or counselor Mencari jalan penyelesaian berkenaan masalah itu daripada orang yang professional seperti doktor, guru atau kaunselor 12.
Tried to solve the problem by taking action Cuba
menyelesaikan
masalah
mengambil tindakan
74
itu
dengan
