The relationship between hardiness, coping with stress and psychosocial adjustment in adult psychology students

Abstract

The problem addressed by this study was to explore the effect of hardiness and coping strategies on psychosocial adjustment in adult psychology students. The aim of the present study was to establish connections between hardiness, coping behavior and psychosocial adjustment in adult students. The sample included 105 psychology students (age M=37.7; men=18; women=87). To collect the data, the Hardiness Scale, the Ways of Coping Questionnaire and the Psychosocial Adjustment questionnaire were used. We applied Pearson, dispersion and Stepswise Multiple Regression analyses for data analysis. The results of this study were summarized as follows. The mean scores of all investigated characteristics were within norm. We found no significant differences in adjustment and all of its components between the subgroups with different scores of hardiness. However, there were significant differences in the use of self-control, seeking social support, accepting responsibility and positive reappraisal. There was found a model predicting several components of psychosocial adjustment: acceptance of others (commitment and self-controlling); emotional comfort (accepting responsibility); escapism (accepting responsibility and commitment). There were two coping strategies predicting hardiness: seeking social support and positive reappraisal. The major limitations of this study were imbalance on the sex criterion within the sample and the lack of control group for comparative analysis. We are planning to use the research results as the empirical base for creating supportive training interventions that will increase students’ level of adjustment to their future profession. It could be done through hardiness training and increasing student’s ability to use positive coping strategies.