Detalle Publicación

CAPÍTULO DE LIBRO

Effects of level of personal self-regulation and different contexts of stress on coping strategies in higher education

Libro: Academic Performance: Student Expectations, Environmental Factors and Impacts on Health
Autores: de la Fuente Arias, Jesús; Zapata Sevillano, Lucía; Martínez Vicente, José Manuel
Lugar de Edición: NEW YORK
Editorial: NOVA PUBLISHER
Fecha de publicación: 2015
Página Inicial - Final: 77-89
ISBN: 978-1-63484-031-6
Resumen: Introduction: In this chapter, we want to examine certain variables typical of clinical perspectives, but applying them within the sphere of educational psychology to the teaching-learning process. Personal self-regulation is a construct which is defined as a person¿s ability to plan, monitor and direct his or her behavior in changing situations. Coping strategies can be defined as behavioral and cognitive efforts that are carried out in order to deal with stress, so as to resolve both external and internal stress-generating demands. Context of stress refers to different situations that contextualize the teachinglearning process: university students and professional exam candidates. The objective of the present research is to establish how personal self-regulation and different contexts of stress produce differences in the coping strategies used by students, whether university students or guaduates who are preparing for competitive exams. Method: A total of 243 students from the University of Almeria (Spain) or who were preparing for competitive exams participated in the study. The measures used were: (1) Personal self-regulation, through the Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire SSRQ in its Spanish version; (2) Coping strategies, through the Coping Strategies Spanish Scales, in Complimentary Contributor Copy 78 Jesús de la Fuente, Lucía Zapata Sevillano and José Manuel Martínez-Vicente their original version. The analyses made were association analysis, though Pearson bivariate correlations, cluster analysis, and MANOVAs with an ex post-facto design. Results: The context of stress has an effect on coping strategies, but it depends on the student¿s level of self-regulation. In this study, the university students use more problemfocused strategies (positive reappraisal and firmness) and the competitive exam candidates use more emotion-focused strategies (reduction of anxiety and avoidance and emotional venting and isolation). Conclusion: Evidence is offered to defend that the competitive exam situation produces strong emotional reactions that must be dealt with effectively in order to enable one to study more successfully. With this result we can focus intervention strategies on different kinds of students, whether university students or professional exam candidates.