Distress and Coping among Students: Examining Gender Differences

Description

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22302501

Arpita Kalra¹, Mehak Sharma², Aswathi, G.³, Eshneet Kaur⁴, and Snigdhaa Bhattacharjee⁵ (Department of Clinical Psychology, Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar, Punjab¹, PG Department of Psychology, Current Trainee of Advanced Diploma in Child Guidance & Counseling Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi², Psychologist, Ls Right Agents Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad, Psychologist, Mounam Medical and De-addiction Center, Erode, Tamil Nadu³, and Department of Clinical Psychology, AIBAS, Amity University Haryana^4,5)

The challenges and stress the students are facing are emanating from multiple sources, such as family and parents in the form of high expectations from them, academic pressures, rapidly changing societal norms, relationship issues, and economic crises, which seem to be the major stressors for them. Effective and healthy coping helps them, while maladaptive coping further increases their stress and thereby mental and physical health issues. The current research attempts to explore psychological distress and spiritual coping among college students. The objectives of the research were to examine a) Psychological distress and Spiritual coping among college students, b) Gender differences in psychological distress & c) Gender differences in spiritual coping among students. The sample of 123 students of the age ranging from 20 to 24 years was collected using convenience sampling in a cross-sectional design from Private Universities and Colleges of Delhi-NCR region. In the sample, 71 were females and 51 were male students. Of the total sample of 123 students, 69 were pursuing postgraduate programs and 54 were pursuing Graduate programs. Psychological distress and Spiritual coping were measured by GHQ-12 (Goldberg, 1972) and the Spiritual Coping Scale by Khatoon (2017). The research found significant gender differences in psychological distress, as female students were found to score more on psychological distress than their male counterparts. The research also revealed significant gender differences in spiritual coping, as female students resorted to spiritual coping more than the male students. The research has significant implications for training students using culturally based and indigenous spiritual coping for effectively dealing with psychological distress.