The Extent to Which Students at the University of Jordan Possess Life Skills Methods and Their Ability to Employ Them in Stressful Life Situations

Asre Ali Alramamna,Raed Ahmad Alkriemeen

doi:10.13189/ujer.2021.090110

Abstract

The study aimed to find out the extent to which students at the University of Jordan possess life skills and methods of employing them in stressful life situations. The study sample consisted of (1898) randomly chosen male and female students in the second semester of the academic year 2019/2020. The study adopted two scales to measure life skills and stressful life situations. The results showed that the level of stressful life situations was to a high extent, the most common of which are social situations. And students possess a moderate level of life skills, the most used of which are communication skills with others, and there are no differences in the level of life skills. It is attributed to the variable of gender, the academic year, and the existence of differences in the level of life skills attributed to the variable of the college in favor of human faculties. In addition, there was statistically significant differences in the degree of stressful life situations attributed to the variable of gender in favor of males, and to the variable of college in favor of human faculties, and the absence of statistically significant differences in the degree of stressful life situations referred to the academic level, and the presence of a positive correlation between the life skills, and their utilization in stressful life situations. The study recommends developing the skills of university students and upgrading them by encouraging students to develop their mental, social and emotional skills.

Highlights

The rapid development in digital and cognitive technological fields and the vast scientific changes in the economic, social, cultural and educational structures imposed major changes in the lifestyle on the ground in all societies, regardless of the boundaries of space and time, which highlighted the need to provide education capable of developing the life skills of the learner by diversifying stimuli in teaching and learning situations; To have an impact on increasing the learner's motivation and excitement to participate in and continue learning more
Stressful academic life is at the lowest mean of (3.70). This result appears to be justified, for when the student moves to the university, he/she interacts with a new environment, and students from different social and economic environments may be subjected to great pressure due to the lack of harmony between him/her and many of his/her colleagues who are in contact with them, in one way or another, whether in the economic level or the social environment, and even communication. This is reflected in the students’ reluctance to participate in the exchange of views or even to participate in the activities of the university’s extracurricular programs, in addition to the variation in the cultural pattern reflected on the dress as well, which represents the personal aspect, especially since the student at the university level has gone a long way in terms of maturity and morphology, and in this context, Wintre & Bowers [29] indicated that 57.9% of university students, especially freshmen, are exposed to social situations and pressures when they move to the university due to the disparity in social environments and different cultures that each has methods of verbal communication and different interaction methods
The findings of the present study are in line with the findings reported by Mekala, Aras & Jayaseelan [23], which showed improvement in communication and coexistence skills among the students of the study, and the findings reported by Al-Khazraji and Al-Nuaimi [24] who reported that university students have a good level of life skills

Summary

Introduction

The rapid development in digital and cognitive technological fields and the vast scientific changes in the economic, social, cultural and educational structures imposed major changes in the lifestyle on the ground in all societies, regardless of the boundaries of space and time, which highlighted the need to provide education capable of developing the life skills of the learner by diversifying stimuli in teaching and learning situations; To have an impact on increasing the learner's motivation and excitement to participate in and continue learning more. The changes witnessed in recent years in the scientific, technological, technical and cognitive fields led to radical changes that included all the purposes of life, which resulted in the emergence of an era of pressures and emotions that have become among the most dangerous phenomena that threaten the life of the contemporary individual, and there is no doubt that these pressures faced by the university student whether in his/her family, within the university campus, or in the society in which he/she lives, these influences cannot be ignored, denied or overlooked in any way. If the individual is unable to cope with and adapt to them, those influences resulting from social, personal, family, material or developmental sources become the beginning of many mental disorders, such as anxiety, stress and depression [1]

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