How Students Cope with Academic Stress

What is it about?

What keeps one student motivated and persistent and what prevents another from thriving? It may have as much or more to do with how well students regulate the emotions of learning, such as anxiety and stress, as factors such as academic preparedness, socioeconomic status, or curriculum design. Research has shown that as student fears escalate, so does stress, which interferes with learning in significant cognitive and biological ways. High levels of academic stress are common in students and when stress levels are lowered, academic performance and retention rates increase. It follows that helping students more effectively cope should help more of them succeed and persist. But not much is known about how schools and educators are helping students deal with this affective side of learning and little is known about how students cope. To explore this emerging academic topic, the researchers set up a small study to ask students what they are actually doing to manage their stress and anxiety. Their responses indicated that they managed in three main ways: (a) through self-help methods such as meditation and self-talk, (b) through their support systems of friends, family, and, in a few instances, faculty, and (c) through action strategies such as video gaming, music, sports, and participating in school activities. How effectively they were coping was beyond the scope of the study. There was not a strong connection between the students’ coping methods and involvement from the institution or educators. Students seemed to indicate they needed to work out their problems on their own – though research has shown that many students are not that emotionally self-aware and may choose maladaptive coping methods like drinking alcohol just as easily as adaptive methods. The researchers have concluded that the rich comments from the students in this study illustrates and supports the need for more research on the connections between academic stress, student coping, student learning, and effective teaching.

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