Abstract
The coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic has brought about significant changes in the lifestyle of students. However, despite an extensive study of students’ life stress using a non-comprehensive scale and variable-centered approach, it has been little studied with a comprehensive scale and person-centered approach. Using the Student-Life Stress Inventory-revised (SSI-R), we analyzed students’ latent stress profiles and examined differences in psychological resilience and emotional intelligence by comparing stress profiles from a sample of 418 undergraduate and graduate students (aged 18–36) in various departments of eight universities in Turkey. We identified five distinct stress profiles, defined as an extremely low stress group (ELSG), a low stress group (LSG), a medium stress group (MSG), a high stress group (HSG), and an extremely high stress group (EHSG). We found that (1) MSG and HSG were similar in terms of emotional intelligence, resilience, and possession of high standards, and they reported higher levels of physiological, emotional, and behavioral reactions than ELSG and LSG; (2) MSG felt more pressure than HSG; (3) ELSG reported higher levels of emotional intelligence (wellbeing, self-control, and emotionality) than others. Also, EHSG reported lower levels of emotional intelligence (specifically self-control) than others; (4) whereas resilience was highly positively correlated to wellbeing, resilience and wellbeing were moderately negatively correlated to stress. Extremely low stress group and LSG reported higher levels of resilience than others. Medium stress group, HSG, and EHSG did not differ with regard to resilience and wellbeing. Our results suggest that, university students are able to maintain their functionality by coping up with stress in some ways, no matter how stressful they are. These findings are discussed in relation to the relevant literature.
Highlights
After the outbreak of coronavirus/COVID-19, in-person learning has been suspended in schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education and universities in Turkey as of March 14, 2019, and the educational process has been resumed with distance learning systems (Eken et al, 2020)
Psychological resilience was moderately negatively correlated with total stress
While resilience and EI were negatively correlated with reactions to stressors, they were moderately positively correlated with cognitive reactions
Summary
After the outbreak of coronavirus/COVID-19, in-person learning has been suspended in schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education and universities in Turkey as of March 14, 2019, and the educational process has been resumed with distance learning systems (Eken et al, 2020). Resilience, EI and Stress Profiles of students were not familiar with distance learning systems at the beginning of the pandemic period. This situation has become even more challenging when combined with problematic home environments and the lack of access to academic resources. If the situation includes harm/loss, threat, and challenge, the stressful category is selected While negative emotions such as fear and anxiety are at the center of threat appraisals, challenge appraisals focus on the potential for gain or growth, and they are characterized by pleasurable emotions such as eagerness, excitement, perseverance, hope, and confidence. A person decides whether they have resources and effective strategies to cope with a stressful situation (pp. 31–33)
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