Gender Differences in Perceived Illness, Stress, and Coping in Undergraduates

Abstract

The study was designed to explore gender differences in perceived illness, stress level, and coping style. Participants were 236 male and female undergraduates who completed surveys assessing their experienced stressors, coping style, and number of illnesses experienced in the past 12 months. Negative coping, stress, and gender were significant predictors of differences between participants with high and low levels of self-reported physical symptoms. In addition, discriminant function analyses indicated that negative coping was associated with high or low level of illness for both genders, but stress was also a significant predictor for females. Limitations and implications of the findings are discussed.