The relationship of stress coping mechanisms of the PLM senior nursing students and their academic performance : a basis for developing stress management guidelines / prepared by Christine Joyce D. Abitan, Dennis Gonzales Duran, Camille M. Mangundayao, Rachelle Bernadette O. Quiros, Anna Theresa Simon Tan. 6

Thesis (Undergraduate) -- Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, Intramuros, Manila, 2009.;A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Nursing, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila in partial fulfillment of the requirements in Introduction of Nursing Research. 56

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ABSTRACT. The main goal of this study is to find the relationship of stress coping mechanisms of the PLM Senior Nursing students and their academic performance that will serve as the basis for developing stress management guidelines. It seeks to determine the profile of the respondents in terms of gender and socio-economic status, the stressors, the respondents commonly encounter in terms of their academics and personal life, the common methods the respondents use among the following type of coping mechanisms; physical, social, and spiritual and it also seeks to determine if there is a significant relationship between the Stress Coping Mechanism of the PLM Senior Nursing students and their Academic performance. Out of the results of the study, a stress management guideline will be formulated. The samples used in this study are 4th year BSN students of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila. The researchers used the random sampling technique in selecting the sample. The researchers made use of the questionnaire as the main instrument for data gathering. The questionnaires were patterned by the researchers to the tool used by Abuel et al. (2006), on their thesis entitled Stressors and Coping Mechanism of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila Second Year Nursing Students under General Education Program: A Basis for a Wellness Program. Results that were gathered from the questionnaires were tallied and organized into figures and tables, and was interpreted and analyzed using the PSW predictive analytics software (formerly SPSS) which is a computer program used for statistical analysis. Majority of the respondents are female delineating that most of the PLM nursing students are female frequency of 99 and a percentage of 74% and male with a frequency of 35 and gathering a percentage of 26%. Most of the respondents belong to the families who have 30,000 above income with a frequency of 58 and a percentage of 43% followed by those families who have income of 20,000-29,999 with a frequency of 26 and a percentage of 20% next will be the 10,000-19,999 with a frequency of 36 and a percentage of 27%. The last will be the 10,000-below income with a frequency of 14 and a percentage of 20%. This claims that majority of the respondents belong to high income families delineating that most of them have increased ability to cope. Moreover, the majority of the respondents consider lots of tests and lots of deadlines to meet as their major academic stressor with a frequency of 123 and a percentage of 13% followed by class presentations/defenses/case presentations with a frequency of 108 and a percentage of 12%. The next would be the requirements that needs to be accomplished immediately and unpreparedness in taking exam with a frequency of 107 and a percentage of 12%. The least of all the stressors is the extracurricular activities with a frequency of 32 and a percentage of 3%. The most frequently identified source of stress was examinations. The students stated that often their examinations did not coincide with their clinical experiences and seemed not to relate to actual nursing practice. The students also stated that their examinations were stressful because failure could lead to expulsion from the program. Most of the respondents considered death of a family member as the most personal stressor they experienced with a percentage of 18% followed by too much expectation other put on them with a percentage of 13%. It is then followed by the lack of money with a percentage of 12% and the feeling of being incompetent with 11%. Among all the items, having a part time job got the least frequency with a percentage of 1%. These means that most of the respondents do not study and work partially at the same time, most them do not have the need for a part time job. In addition, most of the respondents physically cope up by watching movies/ TV's with a percentage of 25% followed by munching on food with a percentage of 23%. Smoking and taking alcohol got the least number of frequencies with a percentage of 1 and 5%. This claims that most of the respondents uses positive coping instead of the negative coping. Most of the respondents considered talking to a friend as the common way used to socially cope up with a percentage of 24%, followed by going out with them with 23%. Surprisingly, only 14% socially cope up by conducting discussions through social network. Among the items, talking to a professor got the least number of frequencies with a percentage of 1%. This claims that the most of the respondents uses interpersonal communication, such as having a talk with a friend to lessen the emotional distress they felt. When it comes to spiritual coping, majority of the respondents answered going to church to attend a mass and pray as their common way to cope up spiritually, it garnered a percentage of 39%. It is then followed by doing meditation with a percentage of 14%. Among the items, joining church organization and seeking guidance from a priest/pastor got the least frequencies with a percentage of 6%. It may be inferred from the results that the most of the respondents commonly use the Social coping among other given coping mechanism. It garnered the highest frequency of 461. It is then followed by the Physical coping with a frequency of 431 and the Spiritual coping with a frequency of 227. With regards to the effect of stress to Senior Nursing students' academic performance, the perceived score of the whole population in each item was computed for the weighted mean. Ranking the items, Item # 18 ranked 1st, with the rate of 1.7687. It shows that whenever students experience stress, it drives them to strive harder to achieve excellence in their studies. Using 0.05 level of significance and 4 as the degree of freedom, the critical value is 9.488. Since the computed value for all the items is greater than the tabulated value, the researchers have rejected the null hypothesis indicating that there is a significant relationship between the stress-coping mechanisms of Senior PLM Nursing Students and their academic performance. This shows that coping mechanisms could greatly affect the Academic Performance of the Nursing students. Based on the above results, the majority of the respondents are female. This means that the most of the stresses that are experienced are dominant by female-related stresses. Research has also shown that it is of no surprise that females feel more stressed than males do. Moreover, people of lower socio-economic status may experience greater levels of stress and poorer health outcomes for several reasons namely: higher-paying jobs bring greater personal control, those in higher socio-economic levels make healthier choices, and higher socio-economic status brings greater resources for health. Moreover, the result of the study delineated that most of the stresses experienced by the respondents are more on the academic aspect. College students have many obstacles to overcome in order to achieve their optimal academic performance. It takes a lot more than just studying to achieve a successful college career. Different stressors such as time management, financial problems, sleep deprivation, social activities, and for some students even having children, can all pose their own threat to a student's academic performance. All individuals are challenged with personal difficulties throughout life and generally learn to adapt and cope up in the face diversity. However, on occasions when personal support systems may prove inadequate and ineffective, distress may result. The results showed that there is a significant relationship between the stress coping mechanism of PLM senior nursing students and their academic performance. Based on the findings of the study, the researchers' recommendations would be: gender related considerations must not be overlooked in formulating the stress management guidelines because of gender-related differences. Future researchers might make use of other demographic profiles in conducting the study. It is revealed in the study that academic are the major stressors of the respondents when compared to personal stressors. With this perspective, the guidelines will be based upon these academic stressors taking much less focus on the personal stressors experienced by the respondents.

Furthermore, the researchers recommended that future researchers focused on different stressors other than academic and personal one. Social coping mechanisms will be a great importance as basis for focus. Future researchers might make use of other coping mechanisms other than the three coping mechanism to other's performance like clinical performance instead of academic performance. Researchers have related coping mechanisms to academic performance because they have noticed that in senior students achieving optimal level of academic performance is of great importance.

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