Coping Strategies in Response to Stress as a Function of Social Support.

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to determine a significant relationship between coping strategies university students used during the times of stress and the level of their perceived social support. After detailed literature review, it was hypothesized that students having strong social support will have better coping strategies in response to stress as compared to those having weak social support. The sample size consisted of 60 university students, selected from various universities of Karachi. The entire sample comprised of two groups (i.e., 30 with high social support, 30 with low social support). The age of the participants ranged from 18 to 25 years with the mean of 21.333 years. Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) (Zimet,Dahlem, Zimet & Farley, 1988) and Coping Inventory for Stressful Situation (Endler & Parker, 1990) were administered in order to assess level of social support and types of coping strategiesrespectively.Pearson Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation was used to find out the relationship Pearson Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation was used to find out the relationship between levels of social support and types of coping strategies among university students. Theanalysis of the data was done by using Microsoft Excel 2007.The results showed significant positive correlation between high levels of social support and task-oriented coping strategies (r = 0.595) and low levels of social support and task-oriented coping strategies (r = 0.263). There was a moderate negative correlation between high levels of social support and emotion-oriented (r = - 0.399) and avoidance-oriented coping strategies (r = -0.233) as well as between low levels ofsocial support and emotion-oriented (r = -0.397) and avoidance-oriented coping strategies (r = - 0.325).