Running

head: COPING WITH STRESS 1

Coping with Stress:

A Qualitative Inquiry into Sources of Stress, and Coping Strategies

by

James Alexander O’Brien

Dr. Christina Phillips

University of Toronto

Toronto, Ontario

2018

CTL7015
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Coping with Stress:

A Qualitative Inquiry into Sources of Stress, and Coping Strategies

Introduction

One-third of Ontario teens have moderate-severe psychological distress (Boak, Hamilton,

Adlaf, Henderson, & Mann, 2016). This statistic represents an alarming leap from research

completed in 2013 when less than one-quarter of students reported moderate-severe

psychological distress (Boak et al., 2014). The same study found that students in upper grades

are more stressed. For example, Grade 12 students were four times more likely than Grade 7

students to report elevated levels of stress. This is an alarming statistic because students are

about to leave the structure and relative safety of high school and enter into the world of work or

post-secondary education. This trend also indicates that the education system must call into

question its teaching and learning if students are not effectively coping with stress, and solving

the problems causing the stress.

What is causing these high school students to report elevated stress? Lohman and Jarvis

(2000), examined 42 adolescents’ ranging from 11-18 years of age. The participants were asked

to list the top 10 stressors they had experienced in the past 2 months in order of magnitude.

Sixty-three percent of students rated ‘school’ as their top cause of stress. The next most

commonly reported causes of stress were peers, family, extracurricular activities, and job/money.

Admission into post-secondary institutions is getting more competitive as university entry

requirements require a higher average. Anglin and Meng (2016) have identified that grade

inflation is a casual factor in the more demanding entry requirements. The more restrictive

university entry requirements has placed significant stress on high school students with post-

secondary aspirations.
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High levels of stress have been found to have a negative impact on adolescent mental and

physical health. Mental health disorders currently impact 7% of adolescents aged 13-18 and

stress has been established as a contributing risk factor (Connor-Smith & Compas, 2002).

Furthermore, high levels of stress has been linked to adolescent physical health problems

(Steiner, Erickson, Hernandez, & Pavelski, 2002) and substance abuse (Chassin, Ritter, Trim, &

King, 2003). If these stressors cannot be reduced and their causes not addressed, the adolescents

will be at a greater risk for mental and physical illness later in life.

Literature Review

The Transactional Model, proposed by Lazarus and Folkman (1984) details the

individual, their personality and coping strategies, and the transaction between the environment

which is placing a stress on the individual. A person will encounter an environmental stressor,

then appraise the stressor related to the threat or challenge the stressor poses. However, if an

individual perceives a stressor as positive or a challenge, instead of a threat, and if the person is

certain that they possess sufficient coping resources, stress may not occur despite the presence of

a stressor. Therefore, stress is manifested when an individual’s resources, actual and/or

perceived, are not sufficient to counter demands, actual and/or perceived. Coping is an

individual’s cognitive or behavioural efforts to manage stress-inducing external and internal

demands (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Following a coping response, an individual must deal with

the immediate effects on physiological, psychological, and social functioning. These effects can

be positive if the coping was successful, or negative if the coping was unsuccessful. These

effects may improve or hinder future encounters with stressors (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).
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No environmental stimuli is inherently stressful in and of itself, and as such an individual

must first appraise the environmental stimuli as stressful. There are two steps to the appraisal

process, primary and secondary appraisal. During the primary appraisal, an individual evaluates

the situation, determines the importance of the situation to his or her well-being, and evaluates

the congruence to the individual’s goals (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). If the situation/stressor

threatens a person’s well being or harms their goals then it moves to the secondary appraisal of

the stressor. Secondary appraisal involves an individual’s evaluation of their resources and

options for coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). If the individual believes they have insufficient

resources the situation results in a stressful encounter. A review by Seiffge-Krenke (1995) has

shown clear evidence supporting the validity and applicability of Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984)

Transactional Model of Stress and Coping, in adolescent populations.

In the literature, the most frequently cited definition of coping is by Lazarus and Folkman

(1984), coping is defined as “constantly changing cognitive and behavioural efforts to manage

specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources

of the person” (p. 140). Coping is interdependent and is based in a person’s appraisal of the

event, goals, physiological responses to stress, focused attention, and the social context. Coping

incorporates a variety of emotion regulation strategies, behaviours, and thought processes.

Research Problem

High levels of stress have been found to have a negative impact on adolescent

psychological and physical health. Research has indicated that stress levels are related to

internalizing and externalizing problems and psychological maladjustment in

adolescents(Compas, Connor-Smith, Saltzman, Harding Thomsen, & Wadsworth, 2001). Stress

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is linked to an increased risk of anxiety disorders (Ghoarbani, Krauss, Watson & LeBreton,

2008). Approximately 1 in 3 adolescents will meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder before they

turn 18 (Merikangas et al., 2010). Compared to anxiety disorders manifested in adulthood,

anxiety disorders developed in young people are associated with greater severity and more

frequent anxiety episodes (Ramsawh et al., 2011). Stress negatively impacts health and overall

well-being, however, effective coping can buffer against the negative impact of stressors

(Compas et al., 2001).

Teachers are key moderators and influencers of student stress (Rockoff, 2004). Teachers

can help identify stress in students and direct them towards effective coping strategies. However,

despite the fact that teachers are involved in moderating stress and teaching effective coping

strategies the literature has not studied their perspectives. To my knowledge no study has

qualitatively examined teachers’ perceptions of student stress and effective coping strategies.

Purpose of the Current Study

School has an important role in the development of a young person’s life and teachers

have a critical role in their cognitive affective, psychological, and physical development.

Teachers interact with students in a variety of circumstances and can enhance a student’s ability

to cope with stress. A primary purpose of the current study is to investigate how educators equip

their students to effectively cope with stressors and acquire stress management skills.

Specifically, the current qualitative study will investigate, with semi-structured interviews, how

classroom teachers promote effective coping strategies. This will generate insight into stress-
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related programming and what classroom teachers are doing now to best serve the developmental

needs of their students.

The second purpose of this research is to explore the perspectives of a classroom teacher

and their experiences, practices, attitudes, and beliefs as they relate to the sources of stress for

students in their care. Becoming sensitive to what teachers identify as common sources of

academic stress can be valuable in attempting to minimize the impact those stressors have on the

students. With this knowledge, teachers can try to limit the stressors in their classroom so

students can be more successful.

Research Questions

In summary, based on the review of literature on stress and coping strategies in

adolescents, this study addressed the following research questions:

1. What can educators do to equip their students with effective coping strategies?

2. What do educators identify as common sources of stress in their students?

Methodology

Participants

The participants for this study consisted of Ontario public school teachers. In order to

qualify for this study, it was required that teachers have more than 10 years of experience to

ensure the teacher has a breadth of experiences working with students to allow for comparisons

across time. Exclusion criteria precluded interviewing teachers who are currently outside of the

classroom setting (i.e. program support teachers, guidance teachers, student success teachers).
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Secondary school teachers have been chosen, as rates of stress are significantly higher in

secondary students than elementary students (Boak et al., 2014). Prospective participants were

told that the purpose of the research is to investigate how educators equip students with tools to

effectively cope with stressors and explore what teachers see as frequent sources of stress.

Participating teachers were offered no incentive for their participation. Participants were

recruited by means of word-of-mouth.

Design

Data for this study was obtained using qualitative research methods. A semi-structured

interview was used for this study and was conducted face-to-face and was be audio-recorded.

These interviews were the central data gathering mechanism and focused on the teacher’s unique

stories that detail their experiences. The researcher chose to use semi-structured interviews in

this study as it allows the participants to share their perceptions of student stress and coping in

their own words. Due to the limited research and the subjective nature of the respondents based

on their experience, qualitative methods were selected to explore the topic. Strauss and Corbin

(1990) report that “qualitative methods can be used to better understand any phenomenon about

which little is yet known” (p. 523). This is connected to my study because this is the first study

of its kind to interview teachers and examine their experiences, practices, attitudes, and beliefs as

they relate to assisting students who are stressed. The semi-structured interview was selected as

the primary instrument of data collection. Semi-structured interviews are “well suited to the

exploration of attitudes, values, beliefs and motives, perceptions and opinions or complex or

emotionally sensitive issues (Barriball & While, 1994, p. 334)”. This method also allowed

participants to expand and elaborate on points and allow the researcher to ask probing questions

to gather additional information.

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Results

Results from this study were collected from face-to-face, semi-structured individual

interviews. Participants shared valuable insights from their professional experience working with

secondary students. Pseudonyms were assigned to protect the anonymity of participants. Sean, a

physical education teacher in a secondary school has 13 years of experience. Erin is a physical

education teacher at an secondary school which has recently placed a school-wide focus on

promoting health and wellness. She has 23 years of professional experience.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the experiences, practices, attitudes, and

beliefs of experienced educators as they relate to the sources of stress for students in their care.

Moreover, the purpose of this study is to investigate, with semi-structured interviews, how

classroom teachers promote coping strategies. After transcription, coding and analysis, the

following themes have emerged from the data: (1) Sources of student stress, (2) Coping

strategies implemented by students to reduce stress, (3) Recommendations for teachers to assist

students cope with stress

Sources of Student Stress

Marks/GPA requirements for post-secondary. Participants Erin and Sean both

reported that getting high marks was a huge stressor. Sean stated “ Student stress at our school is

basically all around academics, its about marks.” He shared that students are not stressed about

acquiring knowledge, the students are stressed about their marks as a means to an end. He

continued, “Its all about university, and maintaining the marks required to keep advanced

placement status, and trying to get where they want to go which is university and university

scholarships.” Erin observed that between October and February is a highly stressful period for
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her students and this is caused by university applications where students would continually ask,

“will I be at the big-name school, is my future mapped out for me”. Both teachers report that

academic stress is a bigger issue in grades 11 and 12 than in grades 9 and 10.

Social stressors. Participants highlighted a number of relationship stressors seen with

their students. Sean stated:

As a secondary area of stress, I would have to say it would be a social thing, so fitting in,

you know part of the “in-crowd”. And then there’s other peer stress, drugs play a role in

that as well but that’s much smaller are obviously that finds its way into the social scene

as well. Partying as well, you hear about that as well.

My interview with Erin affirmed that relationships are a big cause of stress in her

students and noted that is especially prevalent in the senior grades.

Extracurricular over involvement. Another source of stress identified by both teacher

participants was student over involvement in school clubs and sports teams. Participating in too

many clubs and teams caused their students stress because of over commitment and time

pressures. Erin noted that many students overinvolve themselves in extracurriculars and fail to

schedule their time accordingly which causes stress. She reports that students are heavily

involved in the school but are not stressed because they plan out their time effectively. Sean

describes students who he knows overinvolve themselves:

There are students that are part of track and field clubs, then also part of student

government and trying to be social with their friends and then trying to be in the school

play and trying to do sports teams on top of that. They end up stressing themselves out,

way too much, because they are overwhelmed trying to be everywhere.

Sean identifies these students are spending too much time in clubs, sports teams, and
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events outside of school that they don’t have time to complete their school work. Sean spoke of

the motivation for these students to engage in the extracurricular activities is making their

university application more competitive “They are so concerned about the next step and getting

into the next program and getting scholarships they involve themselves in way too many things

and stretch themselves way too thin”.

Poor executive functioning. Executive function is a term used to describe the ability that

allows us to control and coordinate out thoughts and behaviours (Blakemore & Choudhury,

2006). Executive functioning skills include selective attention, organization, voluntary response

inhibition, decision-making, multi-tasking, and working memory. Behaviour studies show that

performance on tasks that demand these skills is impaired in adolescents. These behaviour skills

are associated with the frontal lobes, MRI studies have demonstrated that the frontal lobes of

adolescents are still developing. Both Sean and Erin name deficits in skills of executive

functioning as sources of stress. Teachers described students who are more stressed than their

peers as having poor time-management skills. Sean expanded saying:

(Marks are) all about time management, the kids that do really well, the top students, they

know what they can do and can’t do. How much time to devote to studying…the second

tier of kids that are really intelligent but don’t know when to start studying.

Erin argues that a lot of her student’s stress is self-induced. Her students are perceiving

something as more stressful than it actually is. She said “cognitive distortions create negative

thinking patterns that can induce more stress…resulting in an emotional response that is really a

lot higher than what needs to be.”

Coping Strategies Implemented by Students to Reduce Stress

Having a positive social circle. A strong social support network can help inoculate
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students against the debilitating effects of stress. Sean maintains that a positive social circle can

help prevent stress “I think number one, you need to have a good social group around you, you

have to surround yourself with individuals and friends that have similar goals to you and want to

go the same path as you”.

Study groups. Sean articulated the benefits of different study groups on reducing student

stress. For example, their school has Science, Math and English study groups that meet with a

teacher to review challenging material and study. One limitation noted by Sean is that the

students have to self-advocate and attend the study group sessions and most students who would

really benefit from the study group do not attend.

Mindfulness sessions. The largest school-wide initiatives to mitigate student stress are

mindfulness activities. Both teachers reported having yoga, and meditation sessions in their

school. Erin said her school started mindfulness meditation 10 years ago before it was on

everybody's radar and she reported the school has seen a culture shift and the students are really

buying into the meditation program. Sean mentioned that his school has weekly morning yoga

sessions but less than 4% of the school population has taken advantage of these activities. Sean

recommended “introducing students to mindfulness, yoga and understanding that phys ed is a

way and getting active is a way to cope or deal with stressors”. Both participants noted that many

students are reporting engaging in mindfulness activities on their own.

Recommendations for Teachers to Assist Students Cope with Stress

Building relationships between students and teachers. When asked what educators can

do to assist students who are experiencing stress, Erin explained:

My biggest thing is the relationship thing, is the relationship building, and rapport

building because as soon as you go off tangent and take those moments to check in with
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your students you are so much more able to identify those red flags and they are that

much more comfortable sharing that with you and the communication line can start to get

help earlier.

More specifically, Erin addressed occasions where she was able to help students who came to her

with stressors. She was able to take the appropriate measures and referred the students to the

school guidance counselor or social worker. Erin identified that her relationship with the students

was the catalyst for those students coming to her seeking assistance with their stressors.

Executive functioning training. Both teachers believed study and organizational skills

were lacking in students and sought to teach these fundamental skills. Erin has incorporated

specifically teaching executive functioning skills in her classroom. She stated “executive

functioning has become a focus in our foundation program which is grade 9 and time

management comes with the procrastination”. She teaches organizational skills such as using an

agenda or a calendar because she sees students stressed without one, “they have a busy mind and

don’t have a clear picture of the road ahead”. Erin continues, describing the negative effects of

social media “this is a guinea pig generation and I see social media is a huge time sucker” she

views social media as a major cause of procrastination and helps her students moderate and

curtail their social media use. Both of the participants also highlighted that they have not

received any formal training on assisting students who are stressed or training on how to educate

students on effectively coping with stress.

Identification of stressed students. Teachers need to recognize when their students are

stressed so their can help them to cope successfully. Sean and Erin both outlined how they

identify students who are stressed. Sean explained that he is always available for a conversation

if a student wants to come talk to him about what is going on and causing them stress. Then once
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he understands the situation he is more accommodating with regard to deadlines on assignments

and tests. Erin described a different approach where she reaches out to the students on a regular

basis rather than requiring the student reach out to a teacher when they are suffering from stress.

She explains:

One of the things we’ve done with wellness is really focus on checking in with kids and

keeping the lines of communication open. We have a team of communication lines so if

someone raises a red flag in your class whether its attendance whether its emotional or

performance has dropped off than a call goes to student services, head of guidance, and

our social worker.

Having a system in place for teachers to actively check in with their students and inquire

into their wellbeing is a great way for teachers to identify students who are distressed and would

benefit from effective coping strategies (e.g. referral to a school resource team to assist the

student depending on the severity of the stressor). Requiring students to self-report if they are

distressed means teachers will miss students who do not communicate their stress to their

teachers.

Discussion

The major finding of this qualitative research study is that participating teachers reported

that students are most stressed about their marks, post-secondary admission, and that teachers

learn more strategies to promote effective coping to deal with stress in their students.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the experiences, practices, attitudes and

beliefs of experienced educators as they relate to the sources of stress for students in their care.

Moreover, the purpose of this study it to investigate, with semi-structured interviews, how

classroom teachers promote effective coping strategies. The use of qualitative design enabled the
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in-depth exploration of teacher’s perceptions of the sources of student stress and teacher’s

experiences assisting students cope with stress.

Results of the present study were grouped into three themes: (1) Sources of student stress,

(2) Coping strategies implemented to reduce stress, (3) Teacher recommendations to help

students cope with stress. Subsequent discussion will be organized in those themes to be

examined in the context of the existing literature.

Sources of Stress

The participants identified that the greatest source of stress for their students was around

getting high marks and getting admission into post-secondary. These findings have been

replicated in previous literature (deAnda et al., 2000) which found that students reported

concerns regarding planning for their future and school-specific stressors with the highest

frequency. Students are most stressed about their marks and getting into university and our

research suggests that teachers are able to identify with accuracy what causes the greatest amount

of stress to the students. This study identified what the teachers believed may be one of the

underlying causes of academic stress. The teachers reported that poor executive functioning, the

ability to control and coordinate our thoughts and behaviours (Blakemore & Choudhury, 2006),

as a possible cause for the academic stress. They described students who have poor time-

management skills, organizational skills, and emotional control as being more stressed than their

peers.

The secondary sources of stress identified by the teachers include social stressors and

extracurricular overinvolvment. According to research, secondary school students commonly

report peers and relationships as common stressors (Boldero & Fallon, 1995). Past research has

not identified extracurricular overinvolvment as a source of stress reported by students. This may
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be because extracurricular involvement may not be inherently stressful and the students likely

enjoyed the extracurricular activities they participated in. Rather, extracurricular overinvolvment

by students may present as academic stress. In this context, teachers may be more capable to

identify the root cause of a student’s stress that the student themselves. This is promising

because teachers may be able to assist students who are stressed due to extracurricular over

involvement and they may guide them to manage their time better.

Coping Strategies Implemented by Students to Reduce Stress

The research participants reported students engaging in study groups, mindfulness

sessions and having a positive social circle as coping strategies. The research supports that these

coping strategies are effective approaches for dealing with stress. These coping strategies are

effective, adaptive, problem-focused coping strategies, which involve taking active steps to

remove or circumvent the stressor. Problem-focused coping is positively correlated with an

increased grade point average (GPA), decreased incidence of depression and reduced delinquent

behaviour. Additionally, mindfulness is an example of a specific strategy that has been found to

be helpful in managing stress in high school students (Burke, 2010; Sibinga et al., 2011).

Social support is one of the strongest mediators of coping and dealing with stressors

(Cobb, 1976; McQuaid et al., 2016; Shavit et al., 2016). There is no specific literature examining

the use of study groups as a method to cope with stress. However, study groups provide both

social support and an academic environment where students can engage in problem-focused

coping, so this coping strategy may be beneficial to students.

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Recommendations for Teachers to Assist Students Cope with Stress

The coping methods identified by the teachers to assist students include: building

relationships between teachers and students, teaching executive functioning skills, and

identification of stressed students. The literature on the benefits of positive relationships

between teachers and students indicate that students who have a close and supportive

relationship with a teacher work harder in the classroom, are more attentive to the teacher, have

greater perseverance in the face of adversity, accept teacher direction and criticism, and cope

better with stress (Little & Kobak, 2003; Midgley, Feldlauffer & Eccles, 1989; Ridley,

McWilliam & Oates, 2000; Wentzel, 1999). Further, these results showed that teachers

recognize the importance of building these relationships as a central component to help students

cope with stress.

Both participants who are both physical education teachers reported assisting students

develop executive functioning skills into their curriculum and teaching reduced stress. These

findings are promising, as many studies have identified that executive functioning contributes to

academic achievement, not vice versa (Bull, Espy, & Wiebe, 2008; Miller & Hinshaw, 2010).

Additionally, literature supports the need for teachers to enhance executive functioning skills as a

means to assist students cope with stress (Campbell et al., 2009). The results also indicated that

teachers are novvt receiving training and professional development on assisting students deal

with stress or coping. This study suggest that despite teachers not receiving training they are

assisting students cope with stressors and providing them with effective coping strategies.

Recommendations, Implications and Limitations

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A number of similarities were evident when comparing the findings with the relevant

literature in this area. Based on the results of the current study, I recommend that classroom

teachers are intentionally directed to teach, develop and evaluate coping strategies and executive

functioning in school. Moreover, I recommend that schools and boards conduct professional

development opportunities to assist teachers develop strategies to assist students cope with stress.

These results suggest that students are very stressed about grades and admissions into post-

secondary education. Additional research should examine how teachers and career/guidance

councillors can quell these stressors specifically.

Due to the scope of this research study, there were some methodological limitations. The

sample size obtained for this research study is too small and the results are hard to generalize

across schools and education systems. A future study with a larger sample size would be useful.

Additionally, this study was limited because it only interviewing teachers, whereby interviewing

students would have resulted in a first hand account of student stress and how they cope.

Conclusion

In conclusion, one-third of Ontario teens has been found to have moderate-severe

psychological distress (Boak et al., 2016). Levels of distress in our student population are

skyrocketing and high levels of stress have been found to have a negative impact on adolescent

academic performance and student mental and physical health. This study is the first of its kind

to examine how experienced educators are responding to the explosion in stressed students.

Future research should examine student’s experiences and perspectives concerning stress and the

effects teachers have on minimizing student stress. Specifically knowledge must be identified so

teachers can assist and enhance students ability to cope with stress.
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