Undergraduate’s Coping-Stress Strategies Implemented in Facing Sudden Education System Remodelling Caused by Pandemic in Brunei Darussalam and Indonesia

Abstract

The pandemic has changed the education system to online learning. The accelerated change raised many stressors that affect students’ psychological stability. Coping stress strategies are implemented to deal with the stress. The strategies are divided into problem-focused and emotional-focused coping. This study aims to investigate the coping stress strategies of undergraduates in Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam. This study is a quantitative cross-sectional survey design. The data is gathered from 498 undergraduates from Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam. The results present that the sections have different conventional coping stress strategies implemented by the respondents. Indonesia’s undergraduates prefer to use emotional-focused coping while Brunei’s use problem-focused coping. Moreover, both sections have different prominent sub-coping strategies: Indonesia’s undergraduates more often use positive reappraisal while Brunei’s tend to apply escape avoidance. The differences are affected by many factors such as personal responses toward unexpected events based on their experience and awareness, gender-biased choice, sociocultural phenomenon, belief in positive personal development, level of education, and financial condition.