Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to determine the reasons of stress and the ways of coping with stress in university students. The study which was conducted with descriptive scanning model was completed with 504 students at a public university between March 2014 and April 2015. A questionnaire with close-ended questions formed by researchers and the Scale of Coping with Stress (SCS) were used as data collection tools. The data of the study were evaluated in SPSS 16 software package with Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney U, and Chi-square tests. Comparing the SCS and subscale mean scores of students; significant differences were determined only in the variables of gender and desire to receive postgraduate education. It was found that female students obtained higher scores from the social support scale compared to male students and students desiring to receive postgraduate education had higher problem-focused coping scores compared to those not desiring to receive postgraduate education (p<0.05). The first three conditions causing stress in students were determined as benefit-oriented relations (90.5%), discrimination among students made by instructors (89.3%) and intensity of courses (89.1%). Agreeing with the fact that inadequate elective courses, abundant theoretical courses, obscurity after graduation and discrimination among students made by instructors cause stress varied in terms of the faculty/vocational high school of students. It was concluded that university students mostly preferred problem-focused coping method in coping with stress and the methods of students to cope with stress did not differ in terms of their age, faculty/ vocational high school, accommodation during undergraduate education, monthly income and parents' education. Additionally, the female gender and the desire to receive postgraduate education changed the methods of coping with stress.

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