Relationship between Emotional Maturity and Perceived Stress Regarding Life among Nursing Students: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Nursing students experience high levels of perceived stress as they interact with a wide variety of individuals including colleagues, clients and families in a high stress environment. The ability to cope with stress inducing stimuli and manage emotions is referred to as emotional maturity. An emotionally mature person has full control over the expression of his feelings. Data on the correlates of emotional maturity and perceived stress among nursing students remains limited hence there was the need of this study. Aim: To study the correlation between emotional maturity and perceived stress regarding life among nursing students. Materials and Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional study carried out in April 2021. Data were collected from 205 first year Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) nursing students selected purposively from Athena, Yenepoya, Dr MV Shetty and Laxmi Memorial College of Nursing, Mangalore, Karnataka, India. A predesigned, semi structured proforma was used to collect demographic details from the participants. Emotional maturity scale was used to assess their emotional maturity and perceived stress scale developed by Cohen was used to assess their perceived stress. Data were analysed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0. Data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Karl Pearson correlation coefficient was used to find the correlation between the variables. Results: Majority of the students were in the age group of 17-19 years (96.1%). The ratio of males to female was 1:11.8. Majority (87.3%) of the participants had experienced moderate perceived stress. Mean scores of emotional maturity were 19.13 (±4.287) and that of perceived stress scores were 102.902 (±25.93). Emotional maturity positively correlated to perceived stress of nursing students (r=0.275, p<0.05). Significant association was found between emotional maturity and perceived stress of nursing students with their place of residence. Conclusion: Emotional maturity was found to be correlated with perceived stress of nursing students.