Relationship Between Perceived Stress and Depression in College Students
Relationship Between Perceived Stress and Depression in College Students

Author: Katherine Skipworth

Publisher:

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 95

ISBN-13:

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Other studies have previously demonstrated that perceived stress and maladaptive stress management can lead to harmful outcomes including depression, morbidity, and mortality. College students (especially freshmen) have more difficulty dealing with stress, which can increase their susceptibility to engage in high risk behaviors. The importance of conducting this research is to discover the effects that perceived stress levels may have on depression outcomes in college students, and to evaluate the influence of health related behaviors on this relationship. This study used a retrospective cross-sectional correlational design to examine correlations between perceived stress, physical activity, and other health behaviors on clinical and perceived depression in college students. A random sample of 20,000 students was drawn from 62,476 students enrolled at Arizona State University (ASU). Participants included 2,238 students who volunteered to take the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA) in spring 2009. Supplemental questions for ASU students were developed by ASU Wellness and administered as a part of the ACHA-NCHA II. The university sent an invitation email, wherein students were directed through a hyperlink to the survey website. ACHA provided institutional survey data in an SPSS file for analysis. The data were evaluated with Spearman Rho Correlation Analysis and Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test. There were more female participants (n = 580) than males (n = 483), both averaged 23 years of age. Men had greater height, weight, and body mass index than females, all were significant mean differences. There were more significant correlations between health factors and having perceived depression than with having real or diagnosed depression. Logistic regression showed that out of all variables and behaviors studied, only high levels of stress, poor general health, substance use, and gender (female) resulted in significant odds in predicting that a participant would be in one of the depression categories. This research suggests that addressing these factors may be important to prevent and reduce depression among college students. This study provides empirical evidence that there is a significant relationship between perceived stress and depression among college students, and that health behaviors such as substance abuse have a negative mediating effect on this relationship.

Relationships Between Coping Mechanisms and Perceived Stress of Portland State University Community Members Amidst COVID-19
Relationships Between Coping Mechanisms and Perceived Stress of Portland State University Community Members Amidst COVID-19

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 33

ISBN-13:

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The purpose of this study was to assess the coping mechanisms used by the Portland State University (PSU) community and their relationships to perceived stress. A virtual survey composed of demographic questions, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS10), the Brief COPE, and two open-ended questions was distributed to the community. Data were collected from 231 respondents, mostly PSU students. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to compute mean PSS score, adaptive coping score, and avoidant coping score. Pearson correlations and t-tests were run to explore the relationship between perceived stress and coping data. Perceived stress of the study population was higher than normative college student values. Greater use of adaptive coping mechanisms than avoidant coping mechanisms were reported by participants. A positive correlation between the use of avoidant coping and perceived stress was found, while adaptive coping and perceived stress were found to have a negative correlation. While female respondents were found to have higher perceived stress levels than males, gender was not found to be a moderator in the relationship between stress and coping. Specific coping mechanisms were reported by participants to be effective for them including physical activity and social support. The COVID-19 pandemic increased the stress of many of the respondents. Mind-body practices and physical activity may act as adaptive coping mechanisms that can aid in decreasing perceived stress. These strategies should be encouraged on college campuses especially considering the detrimental effects the pandemic has had on mental health and wellbeing.

Perceived Stress, Stress Management, and Vigorous Physical Activity Among College Students
Perceived Stress, Stress Management, and Vigorous Physical Activity Among College Students

Author: Camille E. Yingling

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 62

ISBN-13:

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Obesity is a public health concern and obesity rates increase from adolescence to adulthood. Therefore, the period between 18-24, known as emerging adulthood, may be a crucial period in the development of obesity. Physical activity (PA) is one component of obesity and levels of physical activity decline significantly during emerging adulthood. Additionally, stress is inversely associated with PA, with greater levels of PA associated with lower levels of stress. While most research has focused on whether or how PA may improve stress, much less has focused on how the experience of stress may be related to levels of PA. The limited existing research with a focus on the latter has found that stress negatively impacts PA. However, even less research has examined the associations between stress and vigorous PA (VPA) in emerging adulthood, a crucial period in the development of obesity. Additionally, research as not explored the potential role of perceived stress management ability in the relationship between perceived stress and VPA. Linear regression analyses were run to examine the relationship between perceived stress and days and minutes of past week VPA among first-year college students and to test whether the relationship between perceived stress and VPA was moderated by perceived stress management ability. In unadjusted models, perceived stress was significantly negatively associated with both minutes and days of VPA, indicating that perceived stress may be a barrier to VPA, but in models adjusted for gender and body mass index (BMI), these associations were no longer significant, indicating that there was no association between perceived stress and VPA taking into account gender and BMI. Moderation of the relationship between perceived stress and VPA was not found, indicating that and that the relationship between perceived stress and VPA did not differ by perceived stress management ability in this population. These results are inconsistent with previous research that has found a significant negative relationship between perceived stress and physical activity. Additionally, gender was significantly associated with minutes of VPA. Possible reasons for the inconsistency of these findings and previous research, along with limitations of the current study and future directions are discussed.

The Stress Problem
The Stress Problem

Author: Dawn L. Rendell

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13:

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College students over the last three decades have reported increasing levels of stress (Astin A. W., 1998; Twenge, 2006). As students come to college feeling overwhelmed, student affairs professionals must prepare to address the issue of stress and explore possible interventions and program. Previous research on college student stress has tended to focus on bivariate relationships. Researchers have explored how technology, gender, race, and problem-solving confidence are related to perceived stress. Many studies have focused on the relationship between problem-solving efficacy and stress, as well as problem-solving skill development as an intervention to help manage stress. Participants in this study were 627 undergraduate students at a four-year, highly residential, primarily White, public University in the Northeast who were involved in student government, residence hall associations, Greek letter organizations, and identity based cultural organizations. The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the relationship between problem-solving confidence and students' perceptions of their stress, while controlling for race, gender, technology use, and involvement. Participants were asked to complete on online survey that included questions about their technology use, extracurricular involvement, perceived stress, and problem-solving confidence. I utilized bivariate statistical analysis, one-way analysis of variance, and linear regression to analyze relationships and differences between sub-groups Significant findings include the absence of a difference between stress and problem-solving confidence among men and women involved in leadership positions. Results of this study confirm a negative relationship between perceived stress and problem-solving self-efficacy, even after controlling for other factors contributing to stress. Furthermore, this dissertation contains implications for student affairs practitioners and directions for future study. Implications for student affairs professionals include designing intentional programmatic and advising interventions aimed at developing problem-solving confidence and efficacy to help student leaders better manage stress and increase student wellness and success. Areas of future study include gaining further understanding of female student leaders as well as expanding research to include a variety of organization types.