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The covid-19 pandemic was introduced by the World Health Organization during March of

2020. (Ruiz-Robledillo et al., 2022) The introduction of covid-19 pandemic affected multiple

groups of individuals and increased stress among different groups of individuals. Students are an

example of being one of the individuals affected where according to (Son et al., 2020) it was

recorded that at least 71% of students find that their stress level has increased during the covid

19 pandemic. This paper will evaluate social stress and the adverse consequences of social stress

behaviors that could affect the students during the covid 19 pandemic, discuss the possible

methods in self-management and how it can resolve the stress during pandemic.

The covid-19 pandemic affected students and caused social stress in various ways due to the

sudden changes in social events during the pandemic period. Social stress can be explained as a

situation where an individual loses his or her sense of belonging within a group and it happens

when the individual faces difficulties in his or her usual social interaction (Kiecolt-Glaser et al.,

2010). This situation was faced by students during the pandemic. During the covid 19 pandemic,

students were isolated and their interaction between them and the teachers or friends have

reduced, the teaching and learning experience was different because instead of teaching and

learning face to face, the students were then learning virtually in online classes and it caused

students to be having social stress due to the lack of interaction with classmates and friends.

They were also having increased workload in studies during the pandemic, which made them

have more stress. According to the research of (Ashwin et al., 2022) Students find themselves no

longer as active as before because they were not participating in their activities that they used to

do before. Prior to the pandemic, students were actively engaged in activities like parties,

gatherings and sports activities.

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The sudden changes in studies and social activities shown above could lead to social stress with

adverse consequences on students where they find themselves with mental issues like anxiety or

coping mechanisms that are not beneficial to themselves. Such as, coping with stress by

consuming alcohol or substances as a method of coping with social stress. (Panchal et al., 2021)

mentioned that around 56% of young adults had symptoms of anxiety and they were more unable

to resist substances where 25% of young adults consumed harmful substances compared to

adults 13%. Apart from this, social stress could also lead to health issues both mentally and

physically, as mentioned by (Lederbogen et al., 2013) social stress increases the risk of coronary

heart disease, depression, anxiety, and death, it has a significant impact on both physical and

mental health. Students need to find proper coping methods to prevent the impact on their

physical and mental health.

The examples above can be explained with the model of Lazarus and Folkman. In the model of

Lazarus and Folkman, it explains how an individual can cope with stress using various methods.

In this situation, the students are influenced by the sudden change of their living habits, it

becomes a stress for the students because they perceive the sudden change in their usual life

activities as a stressful experience. To overcome the stressful situation, students need to find a

method that can help them to cope with the stress, but there are different methods of coping. If

students used emotion focused methods to cope with their stress, such as consuming substances

like drinking alcoholic drinks will only cope with the stress for a short term period. When the

short term period ends, stress might happen again and affect the health of the students.

Consuming substances like alcohol as a way of coping with stress is considered a negative way

of coping. Therefore, students should focus on problems coping mechanisms where the stress

can be coped. The research of (Voltmer et al., 2021) showed a few examples of students using
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emotion coping mechanisms to reduce stress or mental issues during the pandemic. Social

support from relatives is one of the mechanisms that is most effective in reducing the stress or

mental issues a person has during the pandemic. So, students who are more isolated far from

their schools or campuses can find their relatives in that area as a social support method that

helps them to reduce their stress during the pandemic. The research made by (Son et al., 2020)

has strengthened that social support is important for students to cope with stress during the

pandemic. In his research, 34% of students said that their primary methods of coping with stress

during the pandemic were using social support. And many of them used online platforms such as

Zoom as their method of seeking social support by video calling with their parents and relatives.

Apart from Zoom, one of the students said that he used Sanvello, an online platform that helps

people who are facing stress to communicate with a professional consultant that provides social

support. These researches showed that social support is an important factor that helps the

students to cope with stress when they are isolated.

However, social support is not the only method that helps to reduce stress of a student. The same

research of (Son et al., 2020) showed a majority of students using self-management methods as a

way to cope with stress. 70% of the 105 participants,73/105 said they used self-management

methods doing enjoyable things like exercising (31/105), using social media and streaming

services like Youtube (22/105), playing with pets (7/105), writing a journal (5/105), listening to

music (4/105), reading (2/105), and drawing (2/105). Finally, some participants (15/105, 14%)

said they used strategies for self-distraction, such as making lists for both their personal and

professional lives. It is an efficient method for students who live by themselves on campus since

most activities can be done individually. (Son et al., 2020) also mentioned that students should

use self-management methods to cope with stress and should be given full support in the future.
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This paper has shown social stress and the adverse consequences of social stress, discussed the

possible solutions to the adverse effects. In conclusion, to cope with the social stress of students,

students are strongly encouraged to use problem coping mechanisms like self-management to

resolve their stress.

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References

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Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., Gouin, J. P., & Hantsoo, L. (2010). Close relationships, inflammation, and

health. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 35(1), 33–38.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2009.09.003

Lederbogen, F., Haddad, L., & Meyer-Lindenberg, A. (2013). Urban social stress – Risk factor

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2013.05.046

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Voltmer, E., Köslich-Strumann, S., Walther, A., Kasem, M., Obst, K., & Kötter, T. (2021). The

impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on stress, mental health and coping behavior in German

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