Common problems and coping style of working and non-working college students and their relation to academic performance / Vanessa Cosette L. Maño. 6

Thesis (M.A.) -- Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, 2004.;A thesis presented to the faculty of Graduate School of Arts, Sciences and Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology Major in Industrial Psychology. 56

5

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this research was to determine the common problems and coping styles of working and non-working college students and their relation to academic performance. Also, it is an attempt to test the following: If there is no significant difference between working and non-working college students when grouped according to problem, coping style and academic performance; if academic performance does not significantly relate with problems and coping style and if there is no significant correlation between problems and coping style of both respondents. The descriptive normative survey method of research was employed in this study using fish bowl sampling technique to evaluate the common problems and coping styles of working and non-working college students. Two hundred fifty (250) students were selected as the participants or respondents of the study. They are representative subjects from the four curricular programs of CAS, namely: B.S Industrial Psychology, B.S. Computer Science, B.S. Mathematics and B.S. Applied Physics coming from different year levels. The main instruments used were the Mooney Problem Checklist (College Form), and the Coping Mechanism Inventory (CMI). Test administration was initiated using the two standardized test mentioned above and test results were scored, tallied, analyzed and interpreted by the researcher. The frequency and percentage were used to describe the data gathered. Z-test of proportion, Chi-square and Spearman rho were also utilized. Results revealed that problems on finance, living and employment (FLE), adjustment to college work (ACW), home and family (HF), Personal Psychological Relation (PPR), and Social Recreational Activities (SRA) are the top five problems of the working college students based on the nine problem areas. On the other hand, problems on adjustment to college work (ACW), Social and recreational activities (SRA), Home and Family (HF), Social Psychological Relation (SPR), and Personal Psychological Relation (PPR) are the top five problems of the non-working college students. The top five coping styles used by the working college student in general are atonement, compensation, faith, sublimation and withdrawal. While non-working college students used atonement, compensation, withdrawal, faith and denial as coping styles. The academic performance of the working college students falls under the level of Very Good and Satisfactory. However, the academic performance of the non-working college students fall under the level of Good. There is a significant difference found between working and non-working college students on the problems such as unsure of future financial support, wanting to improve appearance, sickness in the family, parents sacrificing too much, worried about a member of the family, not going to church often enough and not spending enough time in study. There is a significant difference found between working and non-working college students when grouped according to the following coping styles. Sour-graping in relation to Health and Physical Development (HPD), compensation and sour-graping in relation to Social Psyshological Relation (SPR), Sublimation in the areas of Home and Family (HF), and Faith and Sublimation in relation to Moral and Religion (MR). No correlation was found between problems and coping styles of working college students. However, there is a significant correlation found between problems and coping styles of non-working college students. It is recommended that EARIST should have a centralized guidance center, which is accessible to all college students. Likewise, the school should strengthen its guidance center by establishing a long-term program like academic intervention, counseling services and placement program, which will cater to the needs of the students so that these students will reap the benefit of college education.

5