Maladaptive Coping Mechanisms to Stress Among University Students From an Integrative Review

Introduction

Maladaptive coping mechanisms are emotion based and attempt to reduce negative emotional states when an individual feels that a situation is out of one’s control. Strategies include avoiding, distancing, and selective attention (Scott, 2012). An example of maladaptive coping is a college student who plays video games to escape from working on a difficult assignment. Adjusting to new academic environments in universities remains a critical challenge for first year students. The first year is more complicated than the following years, as students may face challenges that are associated with being separated from their family, living with new people, and encountering new academic and financial problems that they were not exposed to in high school (Khan, 2016). Aloka, et al., (2023) argues that most students have unrealistic expectations and that the university culture often presents new and confusing expectations to the majority of first-year students. Moreover, many students are still starting their experience with either high or unrealistic expectations for what to expect during their first year of university. Moreover, Ang, et al., (2022) found that gratitude, hope, and COVID-19 protective self-efficacy were associated with improved psychological well-being over time. Specifically, first-year college students with low levels of COVID-19 protective self-efficacy and low levels of hope experienced greater loneliness over time. In contrast, we found that gratitude enhanced the benefits of having high levels of COVID-19 protective self-efficacy. Among those with high levels of gratitude, COVID-19 protective self-efficacy was associated with lower depressive symptoms over time, but this relationship was not significant among those with low levels of gratitude. The university students undergo numerous adjustment challenges. For example, Zhuhra, et al., (2022) argues that students at university face academic, social and personal-emotional components of adjustments. There is, however, a considerable difference between being a student at school and at university, and previous research has highlighted the difficulties faced by university students during their transition phase. Aloka, (2023) argues that younger freshmen had poor adjustments to university as compared to older freshmen at the university. This implies that age is a very significant factor which affects adjustments among freshmen at the university.

According to Selye (1984), stress is the state manifested by a specific syndrome which consists of all the nonspecifically induced changes within a biologic system. This means that stress is a condition where something causes a change in our state of being. More specifically, “perceived stress” is a condition when individuals label life situations “as taxing or exceeding personal resources” (Errisuriz, et al., 2016, p. 211). Stress derives from a stressor, an event or occurrence affecting one’s life that requires a response. The response warranted by these stressors creates the varying levels of stress. The severity of this stress is predicted by the individual’s capability to maintain a strong psychological well-being and an awareness of the social aspects of life and their ability to avoid harmful situations (Dinzeo, et al., 2013). This demonstrates that effective coping is partially dictated by a person’s lifestyle and social competency making it crucial to examine the background of individuals to determine some of the pre-existing factors that may contribute to their current stress levels. Coping involves strong attempt to deal with the stress despite the outcome, which requires effort. If it does not require effort, then it becomes “automatized” (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984, p. 140). These coping mechanisms can become automatic when they no longer require effort after it becomes learned.