Differences in Perceived Stress and Coping Styles Between First- and Fourth- Year Undergraduate Students - Shaelynn Cross (2023, HBSc)

There are conflicting research results on whether first year undergraduate students or fourth year undergraduate students experience more perceived stress and there is a lack of literature on the difference of coping styles between these two groups. It is important to understand stress and coping in the first and fourth year undergraduate populations because emerging adulthood is a psychologically fragile developmental period (Schiller, Hammen, & Shahar, 2016), and starting and finishing university are two stressful transitions within that developmental period (Boke et al., 2019; Gall et al., 2000; Geng & Midford, 2015). The research questions of do first year or fourth year undergraduates experience more stress, and will there be a difference between coping styles used by first and fourth year students were examined. A sample of 197 first year undergraduate students and 93 fourth year undergraduate students from Lakehead University completed a survey containing the Perceived Stress Scale and the Brief COPE. Fifteen one-way ANOVAs were conducted. Results suggest that first year undergraduate students experience more perceived stress on average than fourth years. Results also suggest that aside from first year students using behavioural disengagement, self-blame, and humor more than fourth years, a statistically significant difference was not seen between first and fourth years on the other coping styles. Further research is needed to determine the factors contributing to these differences and if there is a correlation between coping style and perceived stress level.