Coping With Stress: Strategies Adopted by Students at the Winneba Campus of University of Education, Winneba, Ghana

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate if students of the Winneba Campus of UEW (University of Education, Winneba), have appropriate strategies to cope with stress. Four hundred students who were selected based on stratified random sampling technique from all the departments at the Winneba Campus of the university were involved in the study. The questionnaire which was adapted to suit the study environment was pre-tested at the University of Cape Coast. The results of the study showed that among the ten strategies used, “active coping” and “positive reinterpretation and growth” were the two most predominant for problem-focused and emotion-focused styles of coping respectively. The study also indicated that students of the Winneba Campus of UEW used more of emotion-focused strategies than problem-focused strategies in managing stress. Among the recommendations is that the Counseling Unit of UEW should strengthen its services by having social support groups that consist of lecturers and students, so that supportive skills, such as talking and sharing, can be developed and students may then become very comfortable to let out their feelings.