The association between perceived stress, coping styles and personality traits in a sample of Psychology Honours students

Abstract

Literature identified Psychology students to be vulnerable to the stress associated with professional postgraduate studies and the nature of multiple processes. Less research has been conducted on Honours students as a cohort. The present study attempted to examine the associations between personality traits, perceived stress and coping styles in a sample of Honours students and post-Honours interns enrolled at a historically disadvantaged university. The present study was a cross-sectional internet survey including four instruments: the Brief COPE questionnaire (coping styles), the Perceived Stress Scale (subjective stress), the Big 5 Personality Survey (BFI-10) (personality traits) and a demographic questionnaire. All participation was voluntary and general principles of ethics were adhered to. The data was analysed using frequencies, correlation matrices, coefficients of determination and and regression. Findings indicated medium levels of perceived stress in this sample including contextual factors like gender, age and race. The B.Psych students reported reduced ranges on perceived stress compared to Honours students. Personality profiles indicated the four highest ranked traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness and extraversion) closely banded. Neuroticism was ranked substantially lower in this sample. More adaptive coping styles like (planning, religion, active coping, acceptance etc.) were used than maladaptive coping styles. Associative relationships were indicated between demographic variables and coping, personality traits and perceived stress respectively. Race, Gender, relationship status, registration status and Age was found to correlate significantly with the three core constructs (perceived stress, coping and personality traits). Findings indicated predictive relationships between combinations of coping styles which could significantly predict perceived stress. Maladaptive coping significantly predicted perceived stress controlling for adaptive coping (e.g. emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping).