The Impact of Stress, Social Support, Self-Efficacy and Coping on University Students, a Multicultural European Study

Abstract

The present study is a follow up study of 562 University students during a 12 month period, at Universities from the UK, France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, and Greece. The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of stress, social support and self-esteem on university students. To our knowledge, it is one of the very few, if not the only study, that examines those particular variables in a multicultural sample. The students completed at the beginning of the 12 month period a self reported scale about stress (the Daily Hassles questionnaire), self-esteem, and social support. During the second time the participants have also completed sections about University Satisfaction, and Coping Styles of Stress. The statistical analysis afterwards has shown that the levels of stress have been significantly reduced after the passing of the 12 month period (p < .001), as it was hypothesised. On the other hand Social Support has been significantly reduced during the passing year (p = .049), which confirmed the Null-Hypothesis. Furthermore the research has shown that the levels of stress are negatively correlated with the positive ways of coping, the levels of social support, self-esteem and University Satisfaction. On the other hand the levels of stress are positive correlated with the negative ways of coping, all above correlation have been proven to be significant (p < .005). Finally the country of studies has shown some differences in the levels of stress and in the rest of the variables of interest, particularly between the UK students and the rest of the other countries.