Sources of stress reduction in social work students

1 INTRODUCTION

Stress is actually a habit and therefore, if we want to get rid of it, we need to change our habits. We must learn to adopt a different way of behaving than the one that closes us in a vicious circle. Different programs or methods that teach us how to effectively approach and reduce stress can help us with this (Cungy, 2001). The aim of the paper is to report on the results obtained by the survey and pointing out the most common stress reduction resources used by university students in the social work study program. With our survey, we wanted to get an overview of the most used resources for stress reduction among young people studying in a specific field. We wanted to map whether at the same time the sources of stress reduction in social work students are more positive or negative. Because the way a person reduces his stress can negatively affect our health and well-being.

Concept of stress

On the one hand, Nákonečný (1998) understands stress as a certain external, mostly threatening situation. And on the other hand, as an internal psychophysiological consequence of this situation. Vinay (2007) perceives stress as events that mostly cause a reaction in the form of distress (bad stress), but sometimes also as a tense situation that leads to a feeling of joyful mood. He uses this term in the sense of acting events (stressors), but also in the sense of responses to these events (stress reactions). Janis (1994) defines stress as a change in the organism that, in a certain state of threat, can cause a high degree of tension, disrupt the well-established scheme of everyday behavior, weaken mental performance and cause subjectively unpleasant states of affective exhaustion. The impact of stress on a person does not have to be only negative. According to its effect on humans, it is divided into:

• distress: negatively affecting stress,
• eustress: positively affecting stress (Vinay, 2007).

Distress appears when we stop managing things, feel overwhelmed, lose confidence and perspective. These include: family breakdown, generational problems, loneliness, isolation, negative thoughts and ideas, time deficit, anticipation of worries, financial problems, low self-realization, lack of prerequisites for studying, polluted air, little light, pain, illness, disasters, hunger, thirst and others. Eustress is associated, for example, with overcoming obstacles, with pleasant anticipation, with watching a detective story. So it is everywhere where we have the situation under control. Both eustress and distress are physically manifested in a similar way. From a health point of view, it is more about the level of stress and the frequency with which it occurs. It becomes harmful after crossing a certain individual limit in how much stress a person experiences and how often (Ďurdiak, 2001).

Risks during university studies

During the period of university studies, the student is exposed to many stressful factors. According to the research carried out by J. Kuric (1992), among the most serious problems and tasks of this period, which can cause disruption of mental balance, are:

• preparation for a profession and choice of a profession,
• acceptance of body structure changes,
• gaining independence,
• love, sexuality and preparation for marriage and family life,
• problems with forming one's own personality,
• taking the correct position,
• problems of social relations,
• other serious problems (trauma or other significant and adverse events).

J. Melgosa (1998) mentions the following possible stress factors in this period:

• continuation of education,
• leaving the parental home,
• intimate relationships with members of the opposite sex,
• entering into marriage,
• family planning, birth of children, professional growth, unemployment.

Research conducted by Martina Balážová and Zuzana Zakuťanská (2007) points out that the most intensively experienced stressful situations by university students are:

• examination period,
• inability to perform the desired activities,
• health problems of close people,
• negative relationships and tension in the family and in the classroom,
• negative feelings about one's own performance.

Stress Management

Coping with stress is referred to in the psychological literature as coping (Křivohlavý, 2001). This term refers to an intrapsychic, but also a deliberate effort to manage, tolerate, reduce internal and external demands placed on a person. At the same time, these are extremely high requirements that put a lot of strain on a person and burden or exceed the resources available to a person (Křivohlavý, 1994). There are several classifications and categorizations of coping behavior or coping strategies. Based on several divisions of coping strategies and their orientation, the following division has currently been established:

• problem solving orientation,
• orientation to managing emotions,
• escape reactions - running away, avoiding the letter, using sedatives, denying the situation and the like. Compared to the two previous ones, which are very effective, this type of reaction is rarely adaptive (Stuchlíková, 2005).

Coping strategies include religion, mental shutdown, acceptance, search for instrumental, social or emotional support, behavioral shutdown, humor, use of alcohol and drugs, planning to find a solution to problems, active coping, coping by suppression, diverting attention, retreating into the background, self-criticism, confrontational way of coping with stress, blaming others, looking for positive sides of events, accepting personal responsibility for solving the situation, self-control, trying to avoid a stressful situation and run away from it, resignation, monitoring (tendency to search for information about threats) and others. Thus, coping strategies represent certain ways of behaving in various stressful situations. Several authors have devoted themselves to identifying resources for stress reduction in the context of various variables (gender, personality, meaning of life, etc.). Balážová, Zakuťanská (2007) and Gerbová (2009) devoted themselves to specific mapping of what resources are used by students of selected fields to eliminate stress. In the first case, the survey concerned students of humanities and technical studies, in the second case, Gerbová focused the survey on students in the field of psychology.

Appropriate resources for stress reduction

Resources for stress reduction are habitual, transsituational, relatively consistent patterns of coping at the behavioral, cognitive, or experiential level that an individual uses when encountering internal or external stressors (Ruiselová, 2006). The repertoire of ways in which stress can be appropriately eliminated includes:

• efficient time management,
• social support,
• proper eating habits,
• relaxation (yoga, Macháček's relaxation-activation method, Schultz's autogenic training, Jacobson's progressive relaxation, meditation, biofeedback, massages, flash relaxation techniques),
• art therapy, music therapy, dance and movement therapy,
• breathing exercises,
• positive thoughts and others.

Post Objectives

We ask the following research question: VO1 What resources for stress reduction are most often used by social work students?

2 METHODS

Selection File

The scope of our selection is 291 participants, university students in the social work study program. The participants come from the following universities: Catholic University in Ružomberok, University of Constantine the Philosopher in Nitra, University of Health and Social Work St. Alžbety in Bratislava, University of Sládkovičov, University of Prešov in Prešov.

Measuring tools

In order to find out the most frequently used resources for stress reduction, we used the questionnaire created by us, Questionnaire to find out the most used resource for stress reduction. It contained one open question with the possibility of free statements.

3 RESULTS

In the following section, we present the research results corresponding to our goals.

Table 1 Sources of stress reduction

Respondents - students of the social work study program - mentioned exercise as the most frequently used resource for stress reduction. This resource is used by up to 21.3% of respondents. The second most frequently cited source is smoking. Up to 21% of respondents use this source. The third most frequently used resource for stress reduction among social work students is food - 12% and alcohol - 12%. The proportions of occurrence of other items can be found in table no. 1.

4 DISCUSSION

The findings indicate that university students in many cases do not reach for the most effective resources for stress reduction. Of the first three sources most often used for stress reduction by social work students, the second (cigarettes) and third (food, alcohol) places are those that we could label as unsuitable sources for stress reduction. With these sources, experts warn that when a certain limit is exceeded, they are harmful and cause stress and other health problems. Depending on this finding, we could indirectly point to the fact that, overall, in the fields of study, emphasis should be placed on better awareness of effective stress management and the consequences that inappropriate resources for its reduction can bring. An increase in the number of hours focused on psychohygiene could bring a positive effect.

Our paper pointed out that college students studying social work consider cigarettes, food and alcohol to be among the primary ways to reduce stress. This fact should be a warning. University students often experience stress, especially during the exam period. With the increased level of occurrence of stress in the life of a university student, there is also the risk of increased reaching for inappropriate resources to reduce it. It is precisely in the awareness of the consequences of an inappropriate choice that we find a significant limit in university students. Therefore, awareness of positive and negative resources for stress reduction, their consequences and effects should be increased, not only at school, but also in families. Awareness of the importance of psychohygiene and the possibility of knowing and using many relaxation techniques should be significantly strengthened among university students. Students in the field of social work after finishing school perform demanding and often stressful work, and familiar ways of positively reducing stress can significantly help them perform work activities better and cope more effectively with work and life burdens.

4.1 Conclusion

In addition to the theoretical definition of important facts related to stress, the goal of our paper was to map the most frequently used resources for its reduction among university students in the social work study program. Through the survey, we tried to find out what resources university students reach for and whether their choice is appropriate and the effect effective. Research in this area has given us insight into the repertoire of resources for stress reduction in social work trainees and has highlighted that in many cases their selection is incorrect. Effectively choosing a source to eliminate stress can be one of the first steps to successfully eliminate it.

Author: Miriama Gerbová

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