Abstract
Background: The emphasis of education within the collectivistic Malaysian culture has exposed Malaysian university students to high levels of academic stressors. The experience of stress that stems from the experience of such stressors can be positive (eustress) or negative (distress). However, the presence of adaptive abilities to academic stress may influence the experience of stress. The present study examines psychological capital as the adaptive ability to academic stress among a collectivistic Malaysian university student sample. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted with a total of 183 students from a university in Malaysia. Findings: Analyses showed that university students with high academic distress did not predict low academic performance; while, university students with high academic eustress predicted high academic performance. Psychological capital was found to mitigate the influence of academic distress on academic performance but not on the influence of academic eustress on academic performance. Conclusion: The study debunked the common misconceptions about academic stress. It highlighted that the experience of eustress and the presence of psychological capital may be an important resource for students’ stress coping.
Highlights
Education plays a vital role in facilitating personal development and providing broader career and future opportunities
All the measures used in the current study (Academic Distress Scale, Academic Eustress Scale and Psychological Capital Questionnaire) yield a Cronbach’s alpha value higher than
This study provides an understanding of the roles of psychological capital in mitigating the effects of academic tress and the types of academic stress experienced by university students in the Malaysian collectivistic culture
Summary
Education plays a vital role in facilitating personal development and providing broader career and future opportunities. The great emphasis placed on education had led to an increased experience of stress This is prevalent among university students where they were found to be exposed to high amounts of stressors [1 - 4]. They are exposed to a wide variety of academic stressors such as continuous evaluations through exams and tests, large amounts material to learn, limited time to review the learnt contents, unclear assignments, excessive homework to complete and student-teacher relationship [5 - 8] The exposure to these stressors had led them to experience high levels of academic stress. Malaysia is of a collectivistic culture which places high emphasis on academic success [14, 15] This has inadvertently caused Malaysian university students to be exposed to high levels of academic stressors that could influence their experience of stress. The failure to perform well academically would mean that they have shamed and brought down the family’s integrity [27, 28]
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