PERCEIVED STRESS, COPING STRATEGY AND GENERAL HEALTH: A STUDY ON ACCOUNTING STUDENTS IN MALAYSIA

ABSTRACTThe current research aims to examine the relationships between perceived stress, coping capability and general health of university students. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen et al., 1988), Coping Strategy Indicator (CSI; Amirkhan, 1990)and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ; Goldberg, 1981) were administered to 1785 respondents from tertiary education institutions, aged 18 to 26 years. Analyses of data were performed using Pearson correlation coefficient to identify relationships between perceived stress, coping strategy and general health.Results showed that there were positive relationships between perceived stress, General Health Questionnaire and coping strategy. Specifically students that perceived higher levels of stress would have higher scores of GHQ (lower level of general health state) and higher coping strategy. Lastly, results revealed that there was a negative relationship between coping strategy and GHQ. Specifically, students that have better coping strategy would have better general health state.Keywords: Perceived stress, coping strategy, general health.INTRODUCTION:The living life of students in colleges has always been challenging (Ahmed-Tharbe, 2006). According to Hammer, Grigsby and Woods (1998), students in colleges often regard their academic life as stressful and demanding. Stress occurs when one is confronted with a situation which is perceived to be overwhelming and one cannot cope with such a situation (Agolla and Ongori, 2009). Markrides, Veinot, Richard, MckeeG include depression and high levels of anxiety. On the other hand, stress may cause physical health problems such as high blood pressure and disturbed metabolism (AL-Dubai, Al-NAggar, Alshagga and Rampal, 2011). In addition, erratic behavior for example alcohol use (Flynn, 2000) and night-eating syndrome (NES) (Wichianson, Bugh, Unger, Spruijt-Metz & Nguyen-Rodriguez, 2009) are noted among students with excessive stress.In Malaysia, stress among students is an area of concern for the government. The Health Minister Datuk Seri LiowTiong Lai claimed that a recent study conducted in Malaysia among 6,540 school students revealed that 4.8% school students were found to experience severe stress, 17.1% severe anxiety and 5.2% severe depression. The study found that stress among school students resulted from both family and academicrelated problems. The government has taken remedial action where 2,354 students were given an intervention program to help them to curb stress. In addition, training was provided to 279 school teachers to impart on them ways to identify and tackle emotional, behavior and mental problems faced by students (The Sundaily, 2011).Various studies were also conducted by researchers in universities to examine issues pertaining to stress among college students in Malaysia. For example, using 200 students from three universities in Malaysia, Faleel, Tam, Lee, Har and Foo (2012) conducted a research to investigate the effect of perceived social support and stress on the coping capability and level of depression of foreign and local students in Malaysia. Their study showed that stress and depression are positively related whereas coping capability and stress are negatively related. Yusoff, Abdul Rahim and Yaacob (2010) examined the sources of stress among 761 medical students in one of the public universities in Malaysia. …