Perceived stress as a determinant of resilience among selected first-year students of the Psychology Department

ABSTRACT: Adolescence is the phase whereby major transition in many aspects occurs. It is characterized as a complex development in which teenagers strive to depart from their parents to search for their own selves. As their journey begins, they are bound to experience many complexities in life which eventually turn out to be the root of their stresses. The stress they experience is a condition perceived to be present in the lives of human beings. It is simply inevitable for someone who faces the everyday demands of the society, may it be small or big. In terms of sex, studies have shown that females tend to be more stressed than males, encouraging the researcher to utilize female participants for this study. A correlational design is used to measure the relationship between the level of perceived stress and resilience of female students. Questionnaires were administered among 181 first-year female college students to measure one’s level of perceived stress and resilience. The scales used were a 10-item Perceived Stress Scale and a 25-item The Resilience Scale. The participants were also administered with a demographic profile questionnaire only top indicate some characteristics of the respondents such as age, contributing factors to their stress, and the place where they experience stress the most. However, information from the demographic profile were not subjected to correlation together with their levels of stress and resilience. Pearson’s correlation (two-tailed) has shown that there is a significant moderate negative correlation between stress and resilience (r=-.482, n=181, p<.01). Therefore, as the participants level of perceived stress increases, their level of resilience eventually decreases. The more they tap a situation as stressful, the lesser is the enhancement of their resilience.

Filipiniana