University of Sunderland: Stress and Coping in Master's Students

This dissertation investigates the levels of stress and the coping strategies employed by Master's program students, specifically at the University of Sunderland. The study explores the various types of stress, including acute, episodic acute, and chronic, and their impact on students' mental and physical well-being. The research delves into the challenges faced by postgraduate students, such as managing workload, adapting to new environments, and balancing personal and professional responsibilities. Through literature review, research methodology, data analysis, and discussion, the dissertation examines the relationship between stress levels and the coping mechanisms adopted by students to mitigate these pressures. The findings provide valuable insights into the factors contributing to stress and offer recommendations for effective stress management strategies. The study aims to contribute to the understanding of student mental health and well-being in higher education, with a focus on practical solutions for students facing academic and personal demands.

Level of Stress and Coping
Strategies among Master
Programme Student

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I am thankful to all those friends and relatives who gave me guidance and support in
completing my dissertation on corporate governance they always encouraged for completing
dissertation in the best possible way. In addition to this, I also appreciate my mentor for giving
me guidance in preparing dissertation. From his support and experienced I was in the position to
complete dissertation in a right manner. Finally, I want to extend my sincere thanks to everyone
who have directly or indirectly supported me in completion of my dissertation.

ABSTRACT
According to Cambridge English Dictionary, the word stress means worry that is caused
by difficult situation or something else which is causing this condition. People who are under a
lot of stress may experience minor pains, headaches and sleeping difficulty. Acute stress will be
a form of short term pressure which is not having much extensive level of damage linked with
the long term anxiety and is very much common in most of the people. This will be emerging
due to common form which is emerging from demand and pressure of recent past or that of
future. Emotional distress, muscular pains and stomach problems are some of the very common
symptoms of acute stress which are easily curable. People suffering from episodic acute stress
will be those who are frequently undergoing with acute stress and their lives are completely in
disorder. There are some of the common symptoms for these people like irritable, tense, over
aroused and short tempered having lot of nervousness. Then the chronic stress will be grinding
into people from a long period of time which is destroying minds and body of people. These
stress will be including stress of poverty, trapped in unhappy job or career and never ending
trouble. Generally, people suffering with chronic stress will be ignoring the fact that they are in
trouble with their lives as mostly, they are into comfortable stage and are familiar with their
anxiety or depression.
Education in this current situation is also very much stressful as with the increase in
competition between students for their career. This would be making education inherently
demanding and stressful especially in post graduate students who are having their dual
responsibility towards professional and personal role. Cope-up with this stress which is marking
into field of post graduate students will be that strategy which efforts in reducing level of stress.
Person if is having coping skills then he will be able to overcome all kind of stress, depression,
anxiety and problems which is also very much necessary in today’s scenario. The students who
are studying in their master’s degree will be more exposed to stress as they would need to
manage their personal and professional life. These students majorly live outside their home town
away from family and friends that too under pressure of academic and professional life. So it is
then very commonly seen that they having greater level of risk or stress which they are exposed
to due to these activities.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................1
1.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................1
1.2 Background............................................................................................................................2
1.3 Aims and Objective...............................................................................................................3
1.3.1 Aim.................................................................................................................................3
1.3.2 Objective.........................................................................................................................4
1.4 Rationale................................................................................................................................4
1.5 Significance...........................................................................................................................4
1.6 Research question..................................................................................................................5
1.7 Structure of dissertation.........................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 2: LITERTURE REVIEW............................................................................................6
2.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................6
2.2 Meaning and level of stress among students of master’s program of University of
Sunderland...................................................................................................................................6
2.3 Strategies of coping among students of University of Sunderland........................................9
2.4 Relationship between stress level and coping strategies.....................................................13
2.5 Mental health under the spotlight: The University of Sunderland......................................14
2.6 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................15
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................................17
3.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................17
3.2 Research approach...............................................................................................................17
3.3 Research philosophy............................................................................................................19
3.4 Research design...................................................................................................................20
3.5 Data collection.....................................................................................................................22
3.6 Sampling..............................................................................................................................23
3.7 Data analysis........................................................................................................................24
3.8 Ethical consideration...........................................................................................................25
3.9 Reliability and validity........................................................................................................26
3.10 Research limitation............................................................................................................26

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS................................................................................................28
4.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................28
4.2 Results..................................................................................................................................29
4.3 Discussion............................................................................................................................60
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION and RECOMMENDATION........................................................63
5.1 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................63
5.2 Recommendation.................................................................................................................65
REFERNCES.................................................................................................................................66
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................73

TABLE OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Lazarus’ model of stress, appraisal, and coping............................................................12
Figure 2: Research approach.........................................................................................................18
Figure 3: Upset because something that happened unexpectedly.................................................31
Figure 4: Unable to control important things in life......................................................................32
Figure 5: Have you felt nervous or stressed..................................................................................33
Figure 6: Felt confident about your ability to handle personal problems......................................34
Figure 7: Have you felt that things were going your way.............................................................35
Figure 8: Have you found that you could not cope with all the things you had to do...................36
Figure 9: Have you been able to control irritations in your life....................................................37
Figure 10: Have you felt that you were on top of things...............................................................38
Figure 11: Have been angry of things that happened were outside of control..............................39
Figure 12: Have felt that difficulties were piling up so high that could not overcome.................41
Figure 13: Been turning to work or other activities to take my mind off things...........................43
Figure 14: Been using alcohol or other drugs to make myself feel better.....................................44
Figure 15: Been getting emotional support from others................................................................45
Figure 16: Been doing something to think about going movies watching TV..............................46
Figure 17: Been trying to find comfort in my religion meditation or spiritual beliefs..................47
Figure 18: Been thinking hard about what steps to take................................................................48

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
According to Cambridge English Dictionary, the word stress means worry that is caused
by difficult situation or something else which is causing this condition. People who are under a
lot of stress may experience minor pains, headaches and sleeping difficulty. So, for them, Yoga
is an effective technique for overcoming stress (Dyrbye and Shanafelt, 2016). It could also be
physical and mental reaction and then adaptation of parts of body to real and perceived changes
or challenges faced within lives of human. Stress is a condition which will not be allowing
person to think properly about any matter of their lives. Even they would not be involved in any
of the social activities due to level of stress they are facing.
The cause of stress is identified to as having many reasons behind it but each person will
be facing their own difficulties during their course of life. There are many reasons or examples
of life stress like that of loss of job, increase in financial obligation, moving to new home,
chronic illness, emotional problem and examination as well. So, people should be having
knowledge about how could they be managing their stress which is complicated and bit
confusing as well due to various levels or types of stress (Mata, Di Angelantonio and Sen, 2015).
The type of stress will be including acute, episodic acute and chronic stress and all of these will
be having their own duration, characteristics, treatment and symptoms as well.
Acute stress will be a form of short term pressure which is not having much extensive
level of damage linked with the long term anxiety and is very much common in most of the
people. This will be emerging due to common form which is emerging from demand and
pressure of recent past or that of future. Emotional distress, muscular pains and stomach
problems are some of the very common symptoms of acute stress which are easily curable.
People suffering from episodic acute stress will be those who are frequently undergoing with
acute stress and their lives are completely in disorder (Al‐Gamal, Alzayyat and Ahmad, 2016).
There are some of the common symptoms for these people like irritable, tense, over aroused and
short tempered having lot of nervousness. Then the chronic stress will be grinding into people
from a long period of time which is destroying minds and body of people. These stress will be
including stress of poverty, trapped in unhappy job or career and never ending trouble.
Generally, people suffering with chronic stress will be ignoring the fact that they are in trouble
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with their lives as mostly, they are into comfortable stage and are familiar with their anxiety or
depression.
Education in this current situation is also very much stressful as with the increase in
competition between students for their career (Schwarzer, 2014). This would be making
education inherently demanding and stressful especially in post graduate students who are having
their dual responsibility towards professional and personal role. Cope-up with this stress which is
marking into field of post graduate students will be that strategy which efforts in reducing level
of stress. These skills could be developed from learning, by watching others and then try to
overcome the hardship situation. Coping will be making conscious efforts in reducing level of
stress which will be termed to as coping strategy or skills (Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2015). If there
is stress that keeps on increasing in humans then they must also learn about how to cope with
these stress including healthy environment.
All post graduate students including that of medical education or any other field will be
inherently stressful as they will be vulnerable in experiencing stress. The students of post
graduate will be having longer working hours in their internship with academic and research
activities at the time of studies. So, it could be included that they are the most vulnerable to stress
and its related disorders as well (Townsend and Morgan, 2017). The management of a high
workload, late-night studying, writing, living in a new city away from friends and family will
indirectly lead to stressful situations since stress occurs when there is a greater demand and less
coping ability.
1.2 Background
Within this dissertation which is studying about level of stress among master degree
students within the University of Sunderland and the relationship between stress level and coping
strategies as well. So, it can be included that the higher level education will be requiring
laborious studies on part of students with their part time jobs as well which is involving stress
and anxiety among students (Travers, Morisano and Locke, 2015). These situations might be
having negative impact on the student’s ability to excel and then perform well or at desired level
within their academic career. The research will be including all factors which are having their
impact on students due to stress and strategies of coping up with it.
Stress, anxiety, worry and aggression have been observed to be increasing over the recent
years. Stress is labelled as "Twentieth Century Disease" in a UN (United Nations) report. Stress
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among students is an inevitable phenomenon. The latest report from the American College
Health Association (ACHA) indicated that about half of the students reported higher or average
stress in 2014 than in 2015.
University of Sunderland is situated in North East of England which was established in
year 1901 as the municipal training college which gained the status as university in year 1992.
The campus of University of Sunderland is located in London and Hong Kong offering courses
like that of engineering, computing, arts, business and management, integrated foundation
degrees, English, teacher’s training and designs as well (Adriaenssens, J., De Gucht, V. and
Maes, S., 2015). Most of the students of university would be exposed to their stress in lives but
they must be making efforts on their own level to cope up with the stress. The definition in terms
of post graduate students will be linked with having negative and unpleasant feeling which is
likely to add up to their fear and distress emotions.
Studies have implicated that stress exposure and coping strategies adapted by student
during first year does not play a major role among students being successful in final year and
successfully completing the programme. They can learn constructively and opt out themselves
and their studies throughout the program (Fares, Al Tabosh and Aridi, 2016). There is higher
level of stress among students who are starting their tertiary year of academic program and this
will be resulting into college drop out during their first Semester only. On the contrary, the major
reason behind this dropout will be higher level of stress and anxiety among all students.
Postgraduate students have to plan, organize and structure their own learning process. Research
and reading are their own responsibilities. They need to determine their goals and parameters,
but there will be checks, guides and timelines on how to keep them on track (Ryan and Zuber-
Skerritt, 2017). There are chances that graduate level students will be expected to elaborate their
skills which are related to both deductive and inductive thinking, critical analysis and logical
reasoning.
1.3 Aims and Objective
1.3.1 Aim
To investigate the level of stress and coping strategies among master programme: Survey
on students of University of Sunderland.
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1.3.2 Objective
 To analysis the level of stress among students of master’s programme of University of
Sunderland.
 To examine the relationship between stress level and coping strategies.
 To investigate strategies of coping among students of University of Sunderland.
1.4 Rationale
As there is increase in the level of stress among people and they are fighting with their
stress and anxiety using own techniques and methods. All the psychological problems of students
are majorly categorised into stress, depression, anxiety, sleep disorder and sometimes, taking
these things to extreme level as well. There are number of studies that are conducted on matter
related to psychological problem within people having different levels of stress among in which
depression is the most common (Frich, Brewster and Bradley, 2015). So, this study is very much
important to find out what the reasons of stress are and how people are making their efforts to
cope up with these. There is increase in the number of cases of depression among students in
between the ages of 18-40 years. It could be included that about 27% of them are suffering from
mild depression, 3 of them with severe depression and 18% of them with moderate depression.
So, it is important to study the factor of stress and process of coping up with these stress in their
daily life as well. There were many previous studies which focused on assessment of stress factor
and the psychological consequence for the university students of India (Moss, Good and Sessler,
2016). So this particular study would be regulated by level of stress observed and then strategies
of coping up with the stress within master degree student of University of Sunderland
1.5 Significance
This project which is involving level of stress and strategies to cope up them especially
focusing on master’s degree programme students into University of Sunderland is very much
importance. So, this part will be defining the way in which study will be contributing in
providing information to readers and those who will be involved within the dissertation like
company or participants on whom research is conducted. This section will be specifically stating
that what the study is all about, who all are contributing in this and who would be getting
benefits from it (McCloughen and Foster, 2018). Like this current study which is focusing on
level of stress and cope up strategies for master’s level students of University of Sunderland is
important for researchers. These researchers will be those who are conducting their study on
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stress and ways to cope up with this stress. So, this will be the importance for researches and also
for students of master’s degree program who are suffering from stress and finding out strategies
or ways to cope up. Other than this dissertation will be vital for University of Sunderland as they
will be knowing about reason behind stress among their students and what could strategies to
cope up.
1.6 Research question
A. “What are the perceived levels of stress in a convenience sample of Masters level
students at the University of Sunderland?”
B. Are there any measurable differences in perceived levels of stress or in coping strategies
across different programmes?
1.7 Structure of dissertation
Chapter 1: Introduction- This is the opening part of dissertation which is including research
aim, objectives, questions and reasons behind conducting study on specified topic. This will also
introduce the topic upon which the study will be based on.
Chapter 2: Literature review- It is another section which include to, as second chapter and this
will be including studies and researches conducted by authors, researchers and scholars. In text
citation will be done so that validity and reliability could be measured of the present study or
dissertation.
Chapter 3: Research methodology- This is the main part which is including all kinds of
methods, tools and techniques that are used in order to identify what and how it is to be done.
Like there are various types of methodology which are to be used by researchers in order to find
out results like primary and secondary data collection sources, qualitative or quantitative
research and inductive approach.
Chapter 4: Data analysis- In this chapter, complete data collected will be analysed in order to
find out correct conclusion based on level or stress and methods to cope up.
Chapter 5: Discussion– The discussion will place the results in the context of currently available
literature and consider implications for practice. So these sections will having certain discussion
made on data which is included in results part and that included within literature review as well.
Chapter 6: Conclusion and recommendation- This is the end section which is concluding the
findings so that on the basis of same, recommendations will be given.
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CHAPTER 2: LITERTURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
Literature review is an important part of dissertation which is including research and
work done or conducted by various scholars, authors and researchers on the same topic which is
conducted (Lin and Huang, 2014). As the topic which is focusing on this current dissertation
about what is level of stress and how students could cope up stating strategies to overcome
stress. This is an important section that is doing in depth research about stress level among
master’s degree students and ways to overcome it. This literature review will be giving a clear
idea about whole study including all important points and issues related to topic which must a
critique in its way. This is majorly done in thematic manner including several authors and should
be comprehensive which is including major writers of field. Other than including research of
only other writers and scholars, dissertation is also forming a part of own thoughts and ideas
concerning to the topic of research.
2.2 Meaning and level of stress among students of master’s program of University of Sunderland
Tension, anxiety, trauma, stress and pressure are all that physical and mental response
which is adaptation of human body and brain that occur after witnessing changes or challenges
into their lives. In this context, stressor is that biological or environmental agent which is causing
stress and tension to human body or brain it was said by Al‐Zayyat and Al‐Gamal, (2014). Stress
is very much common phenomenon that is faced by the person who is in problem and resisting
for changes and coming out of their status quo. Almost more than half of the population is
exposed to stress in their lives which is the most commonly natural feeling designed to deal with
difficult situations. All the people will be having their own definition or meaning of stress which
is naturally different from that of others. So, there are various definitions and all interpretations
are also different for variety of people but common thing in between would be related to stress.
There is point of time when this stress could be prevailing for longer duration of time
which will create burden or even risk to health. This stress is also included to as way in which
human brain and body is responding to each demand of environment. The meaning of stress for
students will be having negative and unpleasant feeling and fear or distress that they are trying to
avoid at usual terms. According to Khater, Akhu-Zaheya and Shaban, (2014) there are certain
common forms of characteristics which students are exposed at time when they are in stress.
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