Status of Stress and Coping Strategies among Sandwich Students in University of Nigeria, Nsukka

Abstract

The study investigated status of stress and coping strategies among sandwich students in University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. A descriptive cross-sectional survey design was adopted. The population of the study consisted of 3,200 sandwich students in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to select 640 sandwich students for the study. The instrument for data collection was a self-structured Questionnaire. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while one-way Analysis of Variance was used to test the null hypotheses at .05 level of significance. Findings of the study revealed that some sources of stress experienced by sandwich students apply to a high level while sandwich students utilize and adopt the coping strategies to a high extent more than the others. Male and female sandwich students significantly differed in their level of stress and did not differ in the extent of their use of coping strategies for stress. However, special public sensitization programmes, seminars and workshops on emotional health issues should be organized at more regular intervals for sandwich students, especially to those with higher pre-dispositions and also to create more awareness on the consequences of stress, ways of coping with stress and avoiding stressors.