Motivational beliefs as protective factors against stress in university students

Abstract

Self-efficacy could be key in the explanation of the appearance of stress. Self-efficacy could also influence stress coping because these beliefs could determine if the coping behaviour will be initiated, during how much time and how much effort will be expended. In this work a sample of 258 students of Sciences of the Health was selected, 228 women and 30 men with ages between the 18 and 45 years, being the average age of 21 years. The academic stress questionnaire (CEA) elaborated by Cabanach, Valle, Rodríguez and Piñeiro was used. The results corroborates previous investigations that point out that to low sense of personal effectiveness frequently appears tie with high levels of anxiety and symptoms of stress and that those individuals that they have high levels of self-efficacy maintain significantly less levels of ill-being. On the other hand, results obtained in relation with the coping strategies are also coincident with the indicated ones in recent investigations.