Perceived stress and coping mechanisms among university students

Ntamo, Mzwandile Maxwell

Perceived stress and coping mechanisms among university students

Thesis / Dissertation

2026

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

School of Education

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

Students are particularly vulnerable to mental health issues due to their university experiences and related factors. Every day, they encounter a variety of influences that affect their ability to manage stress. These daily experiences contributing to stress are referred to as stressors. The aim of this study is to contribute to the student development literature on mental health in higher education. To this end, the researcher sought to answer the following questions: What are the perceived stressors among students at a South African university? What coping mechanisms do students at this university employ? This study applies the transactional model of stress developed by Lazarus and Folkman (1984). The model conceptualizes the complexity of stress by incorporating the relationship between the individual and the environment through the continual interaction of internal and external factors. The researcher designed a mixed methods study to investigate the stress phenomenon among university students enrolled in the Science Faculty of a research-intensive university in South Africa. Data was collected through an online questionnaire distributed to the students via the university's intranet site. Subsequently, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with six students from the Science Faculty. To ensure triangulation, the researcher also conducted semi-structured interviews with two professional psychologists working in student counselling services. The data was analysed using descriptive quantitative analysis for the secondary data (administered through a questionnaire) and using qualitative thematic narrative analysis for the interviews both for the students interviews and interviews with the psychologists. The results identified four types of stressors among the students: an overloaded curriculum, time management stressors, relationship stressors, and financial stressors. Additionally, the results showed that out of the 368 respondents to the questionnaire, 30.2% (111 students) felt that they were competent at managing stress, and 33.2% (122 students) felt reasonably competent at managing stress, while 20.1% (74 students) felt they were not very competent at managing stress, and 7.1% (26 students) felt not at all competent at managing stress. Moreover, 40.5% (149 students) felt competent at managing time, 34.5% (127 students) felt reasonably competent at managing time, 15.2% (56 students) felt not very competent at managing time, and 1.5% felt not at all competent at managing time. Lastly, 55.3% (179 students) indicated that readily available professional assistance would be most helpful for them. Finally, the results identified two types of coping mechanisms in this cohort of students: emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping. The study showed that some students used positive coping mechanisms, such as physical exercise, while others used negative coping mechanisms, such as smoking marijuana. This study demonstrates that stress among students in this faculty can be described as a complex interplay of an overloaded curriculum affecting their time management capabilities, further intensified by relationships and financial challenges. If left unaddressed, these factors may combine to cause serious mental health issues. Consequently, students employ either emotion-focused coping or problem-focused coping to mitigate stress. Therefore, the study recommends that the university make additional resources available to expand counselling services and that the faculty board employ a faculty coordinator. This coordinator would play a central role in organizing academic activities and connecting academics, support services, and other faculty stakeholders to better support students and identify problems early in their university experience. This approach would help view a student's journey holistically throughout their studies, rather than as a series of pass or fail marks. However, given the small sample size of this study, the results are not easily generalizable.