The relationship of relaxation and surviving stress in college students
Introduction
Stress is everywhere around us - at work, in our surroundings, in our personal life. He has become an inevitable companion in all areas of our being. He is encountered by working people who come home late due to overtime, as well as teachers and students. However, several questions arise. "What to do? And what not to do under stress?", "How to handle these stressful situations?".
Teenagers who leave home for the first time to attend college are particularly vulnerable to the impact and effects of stress. Regardless of socioeconomic status, race, gender, or ethnicity, student stress is a major factor in determining how well they are able to function within their academic, social, and family environments. Stress is a reaction that can alter physical and mental health.
Stressed and tense individuals are first advised to change the way they breathe. A common goal of breathing instructions is to combat rapid, shallow, and irregular breathing (Conrad, Müller, & Doberenz, 2006).
Referring to Wheeler (2007), we can define stress as a word expressing the amount of applied force against an object. In real life, stress is related to how certain problems requiring a certain amount of strength affect human life. Examples can be financial problems, health problems, conflicts in interpersonal relationships.
Academic performance of students can be affected by many factors. Phinney and Haas (2003) specified sources of stress more specifically as the unique set of stressful struggles a student must manage, which include: complex financial issues, household responsibilities, responsibilities related to achieving success in school, and academic workload. Arnett (2000) described emerging adulthood as a transitional stage between adolescence and adulthood, where 18- to 25-year-olds face unique challenges and developmental tasks. Youth at this age must acquire relationship skills, learn independence from parents, and develop their identity, which can be stressful and anxiety-provoking (Meadows, Brown, & Elder, 2006). Although some sources of stress are necessary for personal growth, the amount of stress can overwhelm students to the point that it affects their ability to cope. Fear of academic failure is a factor that leads to negative thoughts about themselves and not graduating college (Bhujade, 2017). However, research shows that stressors from the academic environment affect student performance and health more than factors from the social environment (Abouserie, 1994).
The impact of stress on an individual manifests itself in the form of fear, anxiety, guilt and depression, and in more serious cases also in the form of suicidal thoughts. In addition, bad eating habits, lack of exercise, sleep disorders are also recorded, and the number of manifestations of destructive behavior is also increasing, such as more frequent smoking, drug or alcohol use (Dom, & Haefell, 2013 in Bernstein, & Chemaly, 2017). In college students, Edwards et al. (2010) drew attention to the influence of chronic stress, which is related to symptoms such as nausea, headaches, stomach pain, cramps. Also, students often consume unhealthy foods, especially sweets, especially during times of increased stress, for example during the exam period (Hudd et al., 2000).
Coping strategies
Coping is defined as a key variable in the process of reducing, minimizing or tolerating stress and preventing psychological strain. We understand strategy as a cognitive and emotional attempt to solve the internal or external demands of the situation in which we find ourselves. University students deal with success or failure during their studies in different ways. For a minority of students, the challenge is too great and they drop out (Deasy et al., 2014). According to research from 2002, among the most frequently preferred among students are the strategy of solving the problem, searching for social support, and in the last place they chose the strategy of avoidance (Frankovský, 2002). The difference in the preference of coping strategies between men and women attending college was not clearly confirmed. Research from 2007 was focused on measuring coping strategies in 166 university students, while a significant correlation was found in girls between the level of stress and the search for social support, avoidance, or self-blame. In boys, the following correlations have been demonstrated: academic stress and avoidance, family stressors and use of self-control, daily stressful events, and escape (Brougham, Zail et al., 2009).
Relaxation
The adverse effect of mental stress on the health of university students, their academic performance, as well as maladaptive strategies are worrying. In addition to adequate social support, there are many other forms that students can use to overcome stressful situations and thus reduce the effects of stress on their health. Relaxation is also one of the preferred ones.
The relaxation response is a physical state of deep rest that alters physical and emotional responses to stress (Klinic Community Health Center, 2010). There are various types of relaxation techniques, for example yoga, relaxing music, controlled imagination, Jacobson's progressive relaxation, Schultz's autogenic training, or biofeedback. However, one of the simplest forms of relaxation is controlled breathing. Manipulating respiratory rate is proving to be an effective means of influencing overall physiology. The common goal of the instructions is to combat rapid, irregular breathing (Baker, 2012).
Research File
The research group in the research presented by us consisted of 90 respondents, of which 24 were men and 66 were women aged 18 to 28. Probands are university students majoring in medicine, nursing, psychology, teaching, economics and students with a technical major. They participated in the research voluntarily, filling out the questionnaires online. The mean age was 22.03 and the standard deviation was 1.74. The highest representation was 23 year olds in the number of 22, which made up 24.4% of the total group. Teaching students from the Comenius University in Bratislava had the highest representation, followed by psychology students from the Catholic University in Ružomberok and students from the University of Pavel Jozef Šafárik from Košice from the department of medicine.
Research Tools
The basis of the research is an experiment conducted for a period of three weeks, we obtained data from the respondents through questionnaires. In order to analyze coping strategies, the BRIEF COPE questionnaire was used in the research, and the stress disposition questionnaire was administered to determine the level of vulnerability to stress. Another was the Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) questionnaire for mapping the respondents' personality traits. In order to find out possible experienced manifestations of stress, we expanded the battery with questions regarding symptoms occurring during stressful situations. It also included demographic questions, a question aimed at finding out the situations that the respondents consider stressful, where they had the option of their own answer, and then also a question about the activities they use to manage stressful situations. For this question, they had the option of choosing at least 4 of the 15 alternatives offered.
BRIEF COPE
Coping strategies were identified using a 28-item questionnaire known as BRIEF COPE from 1997, authored by Carver. In BRIEF COPE there are 14 different coping strategies divided into 3 basic groups.
Problem-focused strategies: active coping, planning, positive reframing, acceptance, religiosity and spirituality. Emotion-focused strategies: humor, use of emotional support, use of instrumental social support, venting, engaged behavior. Escape strategies: self-distraction, denial, drug abuse, self-blame.
Respondents had the opportunity to answer using a 6-point Likert scale, while 6 meant completely valid and 0 completely not valid (Šiňanská, Šandlová, 2013). We measured the internal consistency of the test using the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. BRIEF COPE achieved value α = 0.762, split-half reliability, which is one of the other indicators of reliability, showed values of α = 0.638 and α = 0.662.
Disposition to stress questionnaire
To assess vulnerability to stress, the Stress Vulnerability Scale (SVS) was developed by Miller and Smith in 1985. This questionnaire measures how susceptible a person is to physical and psychological stress (Tariq, & Mujeeb, 2013). It contains 20 items whose statements were evaluated by the probandi on a 5-point Likert-type scale. It included grades from 1 = always to 5 = never. The value of Cronbach's alpha in this case was α = 0.748, split-half reliability α = 0.468 and α = 0.771.
Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI)
The TIPI was designed by Gosling, Rentfrow, and Swann in 2003 to assess the constellation of traits defined by the five-fact theory of personality. The questionnaire consists of 10 items rated using a 7-point scale, where 1 means strongly disagree and 7 means strongly agree (Treuer, Gillihan et al., year not stated). The TIPI questionnaire was not included in the calculations of internal consistency, because the authors themselves do not recommend recalculating the reliability due to the shortness of the instrument, as it was proven in some of the items (α = 0.68; 0.40; 0.50; 0.73; 0.45), although to a lower extent than with the BIG FIVE instrument. The relatively lower internal consistency of this instrument could be due to the fact that each scale consists of only two items (Gosling, Rentfrown, & Swann, 2003).
Manifestations of stress
In this part of the questionnaire battery, respondents were presented with 13 statements describing possible manifestations of stress. Respondents responded to statements such as: "I can't fall asleep or I wake up during sleep", "I suffer from stomach problems", "I feel dizzy" using a 4-point scale, where 0 meant that it is not true at all and 3 that it is still true. We measured Cronbach's alpha α = 0.846, which is considered sufficient in research. Split – half reliability was α = 0.759 and α = 0.760.
Progress and implementation of research
Respondents participated in the research voluntarily, agreed to data processing and, for the need to contact them further, also provided their e-mail addresses. Each address was assigned a number under which the respondent appeared throughout the experiment. Using a random number generator, we divided the participants into two experimental groups with 30 subjects in each group. Experimental groups for a period of three weeks - 5 minutes a day - had the task of performing one of the specified types of relaxation. Experimental group 1 performed relaxation by practicing controlled breathing. The participants selected for this group were sent instructions and a video recording according to which they performed the given exercise. Experimental group 2 relaxed by daily listening to relaxing music chosen by us, also for three weeks for 5 minutes a day.
In order to increase the motivation to do the given relaxation, both experimental groups received a table with a breakdown of individual days, where they were supposed to indicate the completion or failure of the relaxation for the given day. After ten days from the beginning of the experiment, they were asked by e-mail to send the given tables in turn in order to check the transfer of relaxation. After three weeks, questionnaires were again administered to the proband.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
With a questionnaire monitoring disposition to stress, we determined respondents' sensitivity to stressors. The average value was 21.35, standard deviation 8.96. Scores in all personality dimensions reach medium levels (median = 4.50-5.50), with domains such as conscientiousness and openness being among the strongest.
Active coping, planning, positive reframing, use of emotional support and use of instrumental social support were among the most frequently preferred coping strategies. The least used were drug abuse, denial, and disengaged behavior.
From a questionnaire aimed at detecting manifestations of stress in university students, we found that the most common problems of young people struggling with stress include: tiredness during the day, nervousness, lack of motivation and lack of interest in school/work duties. 81.1% of the 90 participants consider exams as the biggest stressor at school, further 28.8% mention time constraints and 17.7% conflicts as stress-inducing situations. Less than 5% of the probands included visiting a doctor, traveling, assuming responsibility, pressure from the environment and fear of the future as stressful. As many as 73 participants (81.1%) of the research try to relieve stress by listening to music, relaxation is used by 29 participants, which is 32.2%. Less frequently mentioned activities include anti-stress coloring books (6.7%) and drinking alcohol (12.2%). Other activities that lead college students to better manage stressful situations include sleeping, reading books, meeting friends, going for a walk, and many others.
The difference in the level of experienced stress between the experimental group applying controlled breathing and the experimental group listening to music was not confirmed before relaxation. A significant difference (p = 0.040) was manifested in one of the coping strategies, namely active coping, between the respondents of the experimental groups, which could have been caused by random selection, which we could not influence.
No significant difference was demonstrated in the respondents' personality dimensions, nor in any of the manifestations of stress. Thanks to the non-parametric test, we found that in most cases there is no significant difference between the respondents of the experimental groups before the start of relaxation.
Much research is focused on the relationship between personality and coping strategies. As we also administered the TIPI questionnaire in our research, we monitored the relationships of personality domains with fourteen coping factors using Spearman's correlation coefficient. We can observe a significant negative relationship with coping strategies humor and drug abuse with the personality domain friendliness. Humor and also self-distraction, use of emotional support, drug abuse, disengaged behavior were negatively correlated with conscientiousness. The use of instrumental support was statistically significantly and positively correlated with extraversion. Another significant negative relationship was found between emotional stability and escape-focused strategies (denial, self-blame, drug abuse) and emotion-focused strategies, specifically venting and engaged behavior. Openness, as the last of the personality domains, was negatively correlated with the coping strategies self-blame and disengaged behavior.
After relaxation, the respondents of the group relaxing with the help of abdominal breathing achieved a reduction of the experienced stress (see Tab. 1). There was no significant reduction in the level of stress in university students listening to relaxing music.
Tab. 1 Differences in the degree of experienced stress among respondents of the experimental group applying controlled breathing before and after relaxation
University students involved in research and relaxing through breathing achieved significant changes in coping strategies focused on active coping, engaged behavior and self-blame (see Chart 1).
Chart 1 Differences in preferences of coping strategies among respondents of the experimental group applying controlled breathing before and after relaxation
The difference in the coping strategies of respondents listening to music was significant in one of them, namely self-blame (see Graph 2).
Chart 2 Differences in preferences of coping strategies among respondents of the experimental group relaxing by listening to music before and after relaxation
In both experimental groups, the highest rated manifestations were fatigue during, lack of motivation and nervousness. In the group with controlled breathing, stomach problems were significantly reduced after relaxation (p = 0.049), there was a reduction in nervousness (p = 0.048) and also the lack of motivation was evaluated more positively (p = 0.039) (see Chart 3). In the case of college students listening to music, fatigue during the day was significantly reduced (p = 0.035) and nervousness (p = 0.021) (see Chart 4).
Graph 3 Differences in the manifestations of stress in the respondents of the experimental group applying controlled breathing before and after relaxation
Chart 4 Differences in the manifestations of stress in the respondents of the experimental group relaxing by listening to music before and after relaxation
DISCUSSION
With our research, we wanted to point out the relationship between relaxation and experiencing stress in university students. We focused on young people studying at Slovak universities, whether with a humanities or technical focus. An important finding of the entire research was the confirmation of the effectiveness of relaxation for experiencing stress.
Tyrell (1992) found that sources of stress for Irish students mainly include the need to perform well in exams, final exams, financial matters, fear of failure, career decisions. Studying and time management were often cited as factors causing stress. Time management has a major impact on academic stress, and poor organization of activities has been shown to be one of the main predictors of stress in academic settings (Misra & McKean, 2000). These researches partly confirm the results obtained by us from the assessment of stressors in the lives of young students. Exams (81.1%), time constraints (28.8%), conflicts (17.7%), speaking in front of others (16.6%), society (14.5%), presenting (11.1%) and new situations (10%) were considered the most stressful by the respondents of our research.
Luquis et al.'s (2003) survey of university students' perceptions of health-promoting habits yielded alarming results. The study confirms sufficient physical activity of young people, but also bad eating habits and stress management. Students showed increased use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Taking medication, according to the respondents, serves as a coping mechanism for stress and depression, alcohol as a reward for a stressful week. In addition, tobacco relieves stress and tension. This coping strategy – an escape strategy – rarely appeared among respondents in our research. In our research, we monitored the relationship between personality domains and coping strategies. A significant negative relationship of escape-oriented strategies with emotional stability and conscientiousness was confirmed. Humor and drug abuse were negatively correlated with agreeableness. The use of instrumental social support was significantly positively correlated with extraversion. Research by Connor-Smith and Flachsbart (2007) indicated a weak correlation between personality and coping with stress, yet there is a fact that personality can directly facilitate but also limit coping responses.
Experienced stress is also associated with various physiological and psychological manifestations. The most common physiological symptoms perceived by university students are muscle tension, constipation, diarrhea, excessive fatigue, headaches, tightness in the chest, dry mouth, palpitations, excessive sweating, reports Majdičová (2009). It also provides data on psychological symptoms such as nervousness, restlessness, fear of immediate failure, lack of confidence in one's own abilities. The results correspond to the data reported by the respondents of our research. Up to 32.2% of respondents feel frequent fatigue, 25.6% suffer from excessive sweating, and 21.1% report frequent headaches. Up to a third of our participants struggle with increased nervousness during stress. 33.3% of students report a lack of motivation due to stressors. In contrast to our findings, the research of Gurková, Zeleníková and the team (2017) stated the dominance of emotional manifestations of stress such as nervousness, sad mood, restlessness, over physiological ones, of which the most frequently occurring were headache, abdomen, breathing problems, chest pressure, nausea/vomiting.
Stress management can include any type of intervention, it also offers measures on an individual level, such as relaxation training, meditation, biofeedback. The results of the studies showed that biofeedback, or breathing retraining itself, are tools that produce subjective relaxation.
With the experiment, we wanted to answer the question of the effectiveness of selected relaxations on the experience and manifestations of stress. The result supports the claim that it is possible to fight stress effectively just by practicing breathing. We assumed that the input and output values would differ and the change would be demonstrated. By random selection, we divided 60 students into two experimental groups, whose task was to perform a certain type of relaxation for a period of three weeks. A five-minute relaxing melody was sent to the relaxers through music. We sent instructions and a video demonstration to the group with controlled breathing so that they knew how to perform the given breathing. The task of both groups was to relax for five minutes every day. Respondents were also provided with a table where they could mark the relaxation implementation. Differences in results between the experimental groups before the start of relaxation were minimal.
As part of our research, a statistically significant improvement in the level of experienced stress was demonstrated in the group relaxing through breathing. The experimental group listening to music also showed improvement, but not with a statistically significant difference before and after relaxation. Controlled breathing achieved significant differences in three manifestations, namely the lack of motivation, which was reduced in students after the experiment, the subsequent reduction of stomach problems and nervousness. In the group listening to music, we noticed a significant difference in the items nervousness and fatigue during the day.
There were changes in some of the coping responses. In the experimental group using controlled breathing, significant differences appeared in the active coping strategy, where the rate of occurrence of this reaction increased. However, the average values acquired in the engaged behavior strategy also increased significantly. The rate of self-blame as another coping strategy decreased. A significant difference in this strategy (i.e. self-blame) also occurred in respondents relaxing by listening to music.
Our results on reducing the level of experienced stress using controlled breathing are consistent with the results of a research study by McKay (2012), where the goal was to determine the effect of diaphragmatic (abdominal) breathing in university students on the perception of life stressors. The participants evaluated stress in the physiological, psychological, socio-cultural, spiritual and general areas. Findings have shown that diaphragmatic breathing for five minutes a day is effective in reducing perceived stress. With the help of breathing, stomach problems, nervousness and motivation increased. By breathing correctly, in addition to inducing calmness, an individual can release up to 70% of toxins from the body, oxygenates the brain, thereby reducing excessive anxiety and feelings of tension. Movements of the diaphragm during controlled breathing massage the stomach, small intestine, liver and pancreas, thereby improving circulation in them. Controlled breathing also regulates the digestion and assimilation of food, which also alleviates stomach problems (Herrington, 2013).
Students involved in research by Bland et al (2012) reported listening to music as the best form of stress management. This statement was also confirmed by research by Goethem and Sloboda (2011), who pointed out the effectiveness of listening to music in reducing nervousness and tension. Relaxation through music succeeded in reducing the nervousness experienced by the participants in our case, even though it did not have an impact on stress reduction that would be evaluated as significant.
The expected results of our research were thus confirmed in comparison with theoretical and empirical studies by foreign and domestic researchers. A significant difference between the two experimental groups after relaxation was not proven, but we proved a positive relationship between relaxation and experiencing stress, while controlled breathing was a more effective type of relaxation in terms of alleviating the experienced stress and its manifestations.
Of course, we also take into account various influences that could disrupt the course of the experiment. We tried to minimize the impact of the inability to fully control the implementation of a given type of relaxation by introducing tables that each participant of the experiment received before it began. We thus assumed an increase in motivation to do the given exercise. However, we still cannot exclude the fact that the participants did not complete the three-week relaxation completely. Another limit can be the incorrect transfer of abdominal breathing. This factor was treated by sending clear instructions and video recordings on how to perform the given type of breathing correctly. Although the questionnaire battery is a quick tool from the point of view of data collection, we do not rule out the presence of social desirability, and thus a distorted perception of the information provided. The relaxation music sent by the respondents may not have been suitable for all participants, as we each prefer a different kind of music, therefore we also consider this aspect as a limitation of the research.
CONCLUSION
The main goal of our work was to point out the relationship between relaxation and experiencing stress using experimental research. The experiment, in which 60 humanities and technical university students from Slovakia took part, confirmed the effectiveness of controlled breathing. The purpose of the three-week relaxation was to provide students with practical skills, experience and new knowledge in the field of effective stress management. As up to 81.1% of the respondents stated that exams associated with the academic environment were the main source of stress, we considered controlled breathing to be a practical tool that can be applied wherever students are. We compared the experimental group relaxing through controlled breathing with the group listening to music, as the result of the research by Goethem and Sloboda (2011) pointed to the positive influence of music on experiencing stress in students. With our results, we confirmed that relaxation, controlled breathing or listening to music, ensured the reduction of stress in university students. With controlled breathing, we also achieved a significant reduction in the experienced stress of the participants, which, however, did not manifest itself in the respondents listening to music. Considering the shortness of the experiment, we did not expect that coping strategies would be too affected by the intervention, but this hypothesis was not confirmed. Changes occurred in both experimental groups, while the introduction of breathing relaxation increased the use of active coping, as well as engaged behavior. The rate of self-blame as one of the coping strategies also decreased, which occurred in both experimental groups.
Considering the established hypotheses and research goal, we consider the experiment to be partially successful. Although there were no significant changes in the respondents' experience of stress, we consider it an advantage that it was possible to achieve positive changes in a relatively short time - increased motivation, reduction of nervousness, fatigue, stomach problems.
We agree with the opinion of Jones (2009) that for future practice it would be appropriate to introduce programs that increase the quality of physical and mental health of university students, but not only those. As mentioned by Brougham, Zail, Mendoza, & Miller (2009), teachers are the most reliable source of health information for young people. It is necessary to intensify efforts in the provision of services to students, for example in the form of education focused on the issue of stress, how to identify stress and, above all, how to manage it.
Author: Mgr. Barbora Molčanová
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