REVIEW RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents the existing literature relevant to the study, the theoretical

framework, conceptual framework, and hypothesis of the study.

Students consider attending college as a first step toward achieving their dreams and

passions. In an effort to have a relatively decent job and give their family a better quality of

life.

According to Sade (2000), college may be a person's first opportunity to live independently.

It's also probably the first step toward actually leaving the nest and starting a new life.

Students may want to live with relatives for an extended period of time or consider

living in a university dormitory. During that time, students are responsible for themselves.

They are compelled to do things as he or she chooses to and take actions totally on their own.

Living independently is a good thing, but the changes in environment and people can be

overwhelming, which can bring about a myriad of problems.

Dormitory

Moving away from home to live and study in a new city can be challenging to anyone

especially for college students. However, for parents and students alike, living in a dormitory

is the most cost-effective and practical option. A dormitory is a college or university facility

that provides student living quarters. It is a rental building that primarily provide sleeping and

living accommodations for large groups of people, typically boarding school, college, or

university students (uslegal.com, n.d.). Dormitory is composed mainly of bedroom units with

various shared facilities such as restrooms, toilets, showers, kitchens along with

common lounges like dining halls placed on either each  unit, floor, or block (Amole, 2009a).
 University dormitory have been considered as an important component of the

facilities given by colleges and universities in aiding students to broaden their intellectual

skills (Navarez 2017). Furthermore, it is critical for the institution to create a well-balanced

academic environment that is supportive of improving learning outcomes while keeping

students' needs in mind  (Goodman, 1993 as cited by Agolla & Ongori, 2009). However,

studies have revealed that students living in university dormitory frequently experience a

variety of stressors.

Stress

Stress has become a matter of concern both in academia and in our society (Agolla

and Ongori, 2009). Stress is an unpleasant emotion that happens when a person tries to deal

or adapt to pressure or stressors (Bernstein, D.A., Penner, L.A., Stewart, A.C. and Roy, E.J,

2008). For Campbell (2006), “stress is the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure

or other types of demands placed on them.” It is an unavoidable aspect of life and it affects

every individual regardless of age, gender, educational attainment, or socioeconomic status

(Dawit Yikealo, 2018). Also, Stress is defined as the feeling of an imbalance between

external factors (stressors) and an individual's ability to meet these demands (Vermunt and

Steensman, 2005; Topper, 2007; Ussery, 2007; Malach-Pines and Keinan, 2007). On the

other hand, stressor, as explained by OxfordLanguages, refers to anything that is either an

object or an event that generates discomfort or pressure. It can be academic, economic, and

social stressors.

Academic stressors

College students’ stress is driven by many internal and external factors and is often

linked to several contributing factors (Reddy et al., 2018; Karyotaki et al., 2020). One of the

most common stressors for college students is academic related (Misra and McKean, 2000;
Dusliselier et al., 2005; Elias et al., 2011; Bedewy and Gabriel, 2015; Hj Ramli et al., 2018;

Reddy et al., 2018; Pascoe et al., 2020).

Expectation Related Stressors

Academic stress is common among students throughout their college life. In addition,

academic stress is manifested with increase in academic workload, expectations brought by

family and teachers, as well as the pressure of graduating on time (Baskar 2015). This was

supported by the study of Kharjana et al, (2014), on “Stress Levels of College Students:

Interrelationship between Stressors and Coping Strategies” According to the findings,

academic stressors include parental and instructors' expectations, competitiveness with other

students, and too much coursework. The result demonstrated that two major stressors were

expectations from their families and those of their teachers with a rating of 52.7% and 32.4%,

respectively.

Academic Workload

Furthermore, college students are confronted with a series of academic stressors such

as unfamiliar academic pressures, enormous academic workload, conflict of schedule,

extensive studying, time management, competition, economic factors, familial

responsibilities, and the ability to adapt (Misra and Castillo, 2004; Byrd and McKinney,

2012; Ekpenyong et al., 2013; Bedewy and Gabriel, 2015; Ketchen Lipson et al., 2015;

Pedreli et al., 2015; Reddy et al., 2018; Liu, C. H., et al., 2019; Freire et al., 2020; Karyotaki

et al., 2020).

This was supported by a study conducted by Agolla and Ongori (2009) titled “An

assessment of academic stress among undergraduate students: The case of University of

Botswana.” In this study, Agolla and Ongori found out that, “academic workload, inadequate
resources, low motivation, poor performance in academic, continuous poor performance in

academic, overcrowded lecture halls, and uncertainty of getting job after graduating from the

university” bring about stress to students.

Another related study among first year college students of Cagayan State University

Andrews campus revealed that respondents’ stressors are aligned with the complexity of

subject, amount of school work and their “inability to concentrate” (Tattao, 2016).

Furthermore, academic stress can undermine the student’s motivation, impede academic

performance and accomplishments which gives rise to higher drop rate among college

students (Pascoe et al., 2020)

Subject Related Stressors

Students indicated that there is a specific time in each semester when they are more

stressed out. The major contributor of academic stress, according to students, are completing

and preparing for examinations, competing for grades, and having a lot of information to

master in a short period of time (Abouserie, 1994; Archer& Lamnin, 1985; Britton & Tesser,

1991, Kohn & Frazer, 1986). Other academic stressors for college students include

congested classroom settings, the semester schedule, and a lack of resources for

accomplishing schoolwork (Awino, and Agolla 2008)

Moreover, college students are stressed on the pressures of obtaining high scores in exam as

well as the time allocated to complete it (Erkutlu and Chafra, 2006).

Economic stressors

Aside from academic stress, students identified lack of resources and financial

concerns as stressors (Agolla & Ongori, 2009). As explained in www.brown.edu, economic

stress is defined as tension caused by the present situation of one's own finances and/or

anxiety about the economy.

College students are confronted with different financial situations, which can result in

economic stress (Worthy,Blinn-Pike and Jonkman, 2010). Economic stress has been reported

to be common among college students and studies indicated that up to 71% of students are

stressed by personal financial matters (Heckman, Lim, and Montalto, 2014). In fact, the

results of a 2020 nationwide research on college students and financial wellbeing conducted

by Ohio State University, 74% of respondents strongly agreed that they were anxious about

their own money in general. Another study on the 2012 National Survey of Student

Engagement (NSEE, 2012) shows three out of five first year students are worried of not

having enough finances for school and daily expenses.

As Trombitas (2012) stated, the need to settle debts, costs of education, loan to

support college education, and uncertainties about future employment are the five most

common stressors experienced by college students. As per Asselton (2012), financial

problems were a major source of stress for college students, as they indicated concerns about

their family's capacity to afford college expenditures and employment choices shortly after

graduating.

Social/environmental stressors

According to Klinic Community Health Centre (2010), a person may suffer

environmental stress when confronted with intense and challenging situations such as unsafe

and substandard housing, noise, crowding, pollution, traffic, and crime.

Issues concerning dorm life for college students become apparent when they share a room

with others when respect for personal space, privacy, and property is compromised.
Additionally, problems are more likely to occur when students come from different

backgrounds and have different beliefs (Langlois, 2018).

According to Paddock (1990) there are difficulties which the students confront in their

respective units. One is the size of the dorm room, wherein majority of students complain

about the size of the room.  As seen on the findings of Yikealo et al., (2018) on their work,

"The Level of Stress among College Students: A Case in the College of Education, Eritrea

Institute of Technology," majority of participants reported moderate to high levels of stress

on environmental factors. Environmental stressors such as electricity and water supply issues,

insufficient and low-quality latrines and showers, limited computer and internet access,

recreational facilities, quality health care, and study rooms were shown to be increased

stressors among students.

Gender

Stressors experienced by college students varies among different groups (Lee et al.,

2021). Findings of research studies on the impact of gender on stress have different

outcomes (Azila-Gbettor et al., 2015). For instance, Sulaiman, Hassan, Sapian, and Abdullah

(2009) discovered that female students experience more stress than male students as they are

more emotional and sensitive to stressors. This is similar to Stevenson and Harper (2006),

female college students have greater levels of stress than male students. Given the many

responsibilities and activities that are expected of them, some college students experience

higher levels of stress. Compared to male college students, female students are even more

vulnerable to greater levels of stress. This frequently has an effect on both students' academic

achievement and health (Magill et al., 2017). Moreover, as stated by Stevenson and Harper

(2006), “Women usually report a higher level of self-imposed stress and report more
physiological reactions to stressors than males, while males report lower stress levels

because they are taught to be masculine and not show emotional weakness”.

Contrary to these findings, Khan et al. (2015) on their study on “The Level of Stress in

Male and Female School Students Journal of Education and Practice” discovered that male

students seem to be more anxious than female students which can be attributed to

parental expectations and responsibilities for males, along with the high priorities that men

seek to achieve in their lives (Khan et al., 2015). Similarly, in a study undertaken in Ghana,

male students proved to be more stressed than female students (Azila-Gbettor et al., 2015).

However, the study of Yumba (2008), demonstrates that there was no statistically

significant difference between undergraduate males and females. University students reported

the highest levels of stress due to the increased class workload, followed by pressure and long

hours of studying, economic challenges, and even technological problems. The gender

difference appears primarily in relation to a few stressors. Female students appeared to be

more stressed than their men counterparts as a result of class excessive workload, long hours

of study, pressure, and economic difficulties, issues with a partner, low socioeconomic status,

lack of education assistance, and medical conditions.

Coping mechanisms

Students experience a variety of stressors, and in one way or another, adapt coping

mechanisms to deal with these stressors. A coping mechanism, according to dictionary.com,

is a response to stressful conditions that is based on either conscious or subconscious

decisions that improves control over actions or provides psychological comfort. Therefore,

mechanism relates to a technique or process, and coping pertains to "dealing with problems

or difficulties,” so a coping mechanism is a way of dealing with stressors. The most

influential model of psychological stress response is that of Lazarus and Folkman (1984).
Stress management strategies

Carver, Scheier, and Weintraub (1989), constructed a multidimensional coping

inventory to assess the various ways people respond to stress. Generally, it composed of three

subscales which identifies the coping styles of an individual. First, problem-focused coping

which includes active coping, planning, suppression of competing activities, restraint coping,

seeking of instrumental social support. Another one is emotional-focused coping (seeking of

emotional social support, positive reinterpretation, acceptance, denial, turning to religion) and

last is avoidant coping which is characterized by the facets of self-distraction, denial,

substance use, and behavioral disengagement.

Problem-Focused Approach

Problem-focused approach for managing stress intends to modify the stressors in a

particular situation that can be improved (Satterfield, 2008), or its actual cause (Saigal, 2018).

It   involves learning important information about the situation, planning action to deal with

it, or analyzing the possible positive and negative outcomes of the options that are available

(Saigal, 2018).

Emotional-Focused Approach

As described by the Center for Studies on Human Stress (CSHS) (2017), Emotional

focused approach is used mainly to reduce the feeling of distress rather than taking an action

(CSHS, 2017). “Venting emotions, fantasy or wishful thinking, seeking emotional support,

placing blame on oneself or others, and focusing and controlling emotions (such as fear,

anxiety, worry, depression, crying, and others) are some of the emotionally focused

approaches to stress management” (King et al., 2012). Stanton, Kirk, Cameron, and Danoff-

Burg (2000) discovered that female students used emotion-focused coping more than male
students in stress management. Emotional support, expressing one's feelings, acceptance, and

positive reframing were used.

Avoidant Approach

An avoidant approach is more about diverting oneself. This kind of coping

mechanism typically entails disengaging from the stressor and altering one's thinking (Saigal,

2018). Sideridis (2008) discovered that students frequently engage in avoidant coping

activities such as denial while watching television or movies, surfing the internet, sleeping,

and relaxing. Avoiding the problem by doing nothing about it may result in increased stress

because the problem is not resolved. Brougham et al (2009), demonstrated that after taking

part in these activities, students are still anxious, depressed, and stressed, suggesting that

avoidant coping is ineffective as a stress management.

Theoretical Framework

This chapter presents the theory which served as the basis of this study.

To guide the study in examining the stressors and coping mechanisms of college

students living in Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) Dormitory, the Transactional

Model of Stress and Coping Theory of Lazarus and Folkman (1984) will be utilized in this

study.

According to Lazarus and Folkman, the transactional model of stress and coping has

two cognitive appraisal processes; the primary and secondary appraisal. Primary appraisal

involves events that are stressful for individuals. When people perceive stressful events, they

assess their own ability to cope in these circumstances. This is the secondary appraisal

process also known as coping mechanism. Demands that are viewed as difficult or exhausting

lead to stress, which is why coping mechanisms are used. Also, the impact of stressors also

depends on the individuals’ coping resources and strategies, which means that no two

individuals have the same way of coping.

 The framework for this study's analysis of the relationship or variables is provided by

Lazarus and Folkman's Transactional Model of Stress and Coping. Since the respondents are

college students, it is expected that they are capable of assessing any situation, particularly if

the demands are excessive and go beyond their capacity. In this study, this describes the

stressors experienced by college students living in the university dormitory.

According to the theory's central tenet, college students who live on university

dormitory face a number of stressors related to their academic, economic, and social

environments. Therefore, it is presumed that college students, as young adults, have the

capacity to analyze their situations and utilize coping mechanisms to deal with their stressors.

Conceptual Framework

This study assumes that there are factors affecting the stressors and coping

mechanisms of students living in Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) dormitory.

The independent variables are the socio-demographic characteristics of the

respondents which includes their personal characteristics such as age, sex, course and year

level, and religion, distance from place of residence to MMSU, the number of roommates on

their respective unit, and the number in months or years of living at the MMSU dormitory as

well as the familial characteristics such as family size and family type. Furthermore,

economic characteristics namely; parents’ occupation, parents’ monthly gross-income, and

weekly allowance while the dependent variable are the stressors and coping mechanisms of

students living in university dormitory.

 As shown in Research paradigm, this study assumes that there is a significant

difference between male and female stressors and coping mechanisms. It is assumed that

female students living in university dormitory experiences more stressors than male students.

Furthermore, female students have a higher capability to cope with stressors than male

counterparts.

Moreover, this study assumes that the personal characteristics of the respondents such

as course and year level, distance from place of residence to MMSU, the number of

roommates on their respective unit, and the number in months or years of living at the

MMSU dormitory affects the stressors of the respondents. It is assumed that respondents who

travel long distances from their place of origin to the MMSU has experienced more stressors

than those who travel short distances.

Also, this study assumes that the respondents’ familial profile such as family size and

family type affect their stressors. It is assumed that respondents that belongs to large family

experiences more stressors than the respondents who belong to a small family.

Furthermore, this study assumes that the respondents’ economic characteristics such

as parents’ occupation, parents’ monthly gross income, and weekly allowance affect the

respondents when it comes to their stressors. It is assumed that students belonging to low-

income family are more susceptible to stressors than those from high-income family.

Additionally, this study assumes that the socio-demographic characteristics of the

respondents which include the personal characteristics such as age, sex, course and year level,

religion, distance from place of residence to MMSU, the number of roommates on their

respective unit, and number of years or months living in the MMSU dormitory as well as

familial characteristics such as family size, family type, and economic characteristics
including parents’ occupation, parents’ monthly gross-income, and weekly allowance, affects

the stressors and coping mechanisms of students living in university dormitory.

In terms of the relationship of variables, this study assumes that the socio-

demographic characteristics of the respondents which includes their personal characteristics,

familial characteristics, and economic characteristics is related the stressors and coping

mechanisms of students living in MMSU dormitory.

Research Framework

INDEPENDENT VARIABLES DEPENDENT VARIABLES

PERSONAL
CHARACTERISTICS STRESSORS ENCOUNTERED
 Age BY STUDENTS LIVING IN
CAMPUS DORMITORY
 Sex
 Course and Year level  Academic
 Religion  Economic
 Place of Residence  Social/Environmental
 Number of roommates
in their respective unit
 Number in months or
years of living in the
MMSU dormitory
 COPING MECHANISMS OF
STUDENTS LIVING IN
CAMPUS DORMITORY

 Problem-focused
approach
 Emotion-focused
approach
 Avoidant approach

Research Paradigm

Hypothesis of the Study

Based on the research framework, the study is guided by the following hypothesis;

1. There is a significant relationship between the socio-demographic characteristics of

the respondents and their stressors in terms of:

a. Academic aspects,

b. Economic aspects,

c. Social aspects.
2. There is a significant relationship between the respondents’ sociodemographic

characteristics and their coping mechanisms in terms of:

a. Problem-focused approach,

b. Emotional-focused approach,

c. Avoidant approach.

3. There is a significant difference between male and female respondents in terms of:

a. Academic stressors

b. Economic stressors

c. Social stressors

4. There is a significant difference between male and female coping mechanisms in

terms of:

a. Problem-focused approach

b. Emotion-focused approach

c. Avoidant-focused approach

5. There is a significant relationship between the respondents’ stressors and coping

mechanisms.