ACADEMIA Letters Stressors and Coping strategies of college students during COVID-19 Pandemic Prathibha M V, Asst. Professor, Department of Psychology - REVA University Ashok H S, Visiting Faculty, CESS | Rtd. Professor, Dept of Psychology - Bangalore University Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has brought major changes in the lives of every individual across the globe. Never before the students were locked inside their home for such a long time. Last eight month students are restricted to stay indoors and they are connected to their peer group mostly virtually. Most of working population is also introduced to the culture of work from home. Though the pandemic has been a privilege for the members of family to spend more time together, it also brings in new stressors. The present study aims to identify the stressors of college students who are staying with their family during this time and coping strategy used in dealing with their stressors. The stressors and coping strategies that are identified are analysed and discussed for its implications. Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic, Stressors, coping strategy, College students Methodology Aim: To explore the different types of stressors of College students during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Academia Letters, December 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Prathibha M V, : prathibha.mv@reva.edu.in; prathibhaushankar@gmail.com Citation: M V, P., H S, A. (2021). Stressors and Coping strategies of college students during COVID-19 Pandemic. Academia Letters, Article 4410. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4410. 1 Sampling: Purposive Sampling method was used to choose the sample. The sample includes 89 college students (63 females, 26 males) age range being 17 to 25 years. Procedure: To collect the data from the students a Google form was created, with questions pertaining to demographical details and open-ended questions to report different stressors during the pandemic. In the consent form, clear instructions were given with regard to voluntary participation and confidentiality of the data. Data Analysis: Data was analyzed using Atlasti-9 trial version. Results and Discussion Picture 1: Depicts the word cloud of the responses The above picture depicts the words reflected in the responses of the subjects. The words used by the sample to express different types of stressors include Stress, Pandemic, Online, Classes, Family, Difficult, Fear, Pressure, Headache, Lockdown, Loss, Stressful, Depression, Frustration, Problems, etc., The word Stress is the most frequently used word, followed by Online Classes. The Word Cloud indicates that stress during a pandemic is high and academic issues seem to be more among the students. Academia Letters, December 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Prathibha M V, : prathibha.mv@reva.edu.in; prathibhaushankar@gmail.com Citation: M V, P., H S, A. (2021). Stressors and Coping strategies of college students during COVID-19 Pandemic. Academia Letters, Article 4410. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4410. 2 Table 1: Shows the Codes that emerged with their frequency The response of the students was analyzed and emerged with 18 codes. Cabin Fever-being inside the home for the last 7 months is found to be a major contributing factor for the chronic stress of college students. Not having an opportunity to meet friends, less physical activity, conflicts with parents, fear of disease, increased screen time, financial issues, Academia Letters, December 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Prathibha M V, : prathibha.mv@reva.edu.in; prathibhaushankar@gmail.com Citation: M V, P., H S, A. (2021). Stressors and Coping strategies of college students during COVID-19 Pandemic. Academia Letters, Article 4410. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4410. 3 virtual classes, boredom, health complaints like headache, pain in the eyes, and monotony in routine as the major stressors. The study conducted by Majumdar, Biswas, and Sahu (2020) has also found that students had more extensive feelings of sleepiness, increased daytime nap duration, and depressive symptomatology thereby supporting the findings of the current study. The above table depicts that, academic stress is being high among the students during the pandemic and it has been reported that online classes, online MOOC courses, assignments, submission due dates, heightened academic aspirations, exam fear are found to be majorly contributing to academic stress. Research conducted by Kapasia, Roy, Saha, Zaveri, Mallick, and Chouhan (2020) has also found that students are facing problems such as poor internet connectivity and an unfavorable study environment at home during pandemic times. The study conducted by Khattar, Jain, and Quadri (2020) has also found that 41% of the research sample faced bandwidth and speed limitations during their online classes, thereby supporting the finding of the current research that students face a lot of issues related to network to attend online classes and also being in remote places, rural areas, rainfall makes it more worse as per the response of the sample. Issues like time management, the deadline for submission of assignments, reviewing the lessons, sitting in front of the screen for long hours, and decreased level of concentration is the major concerns related to academics. Being inside the four walls with no friends around has made the online classes less interesting. Students pursuing courses that have more practical components are found to experience more stress due to the ineffectiveness to handle practical subjects more effectively through online classes and not enjoying it. Students who were living with family before COVID and also students who were living away from the family (in the hostel) were found to have issues in adjusting with family due to prolonged stay with the family members. Students have reported that it is very difficult to make parents understand that why they are in front of the phone or computer for long hours. As the classes, assignments, study materials are online, students are spending more time with gadgets, and that is one of the major issues for parents. It has also been reported that some of the students are finding it difficult to manage online classes, household chores, and other activities. Hectic routine is reported as one of the stressors. Emotional distress due to anxiety about the future, parental conflicts, financial issues, missing peer group, unhappiness, being bored, monotony in routine, parental expectations, sibling rivalry, being at home always, not being productive, less socialization, parents’ interferences were reported. Psychological issues such as anxiety, hopelessness, loneliness, depression, disturbance in sleep shed light on the need for psychological help. Research conducted by Piya, Ankita, and Subhashis (2020) and Kapasia, Roy, Saha, Zaveri, Mallick, and Chouhan (2020) have Academia Letters, December 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Prathibha M V, : prathibha.mv@reva.edu.in; prathibhaushankar@gmail.com Citation: M V, P., H S, A. (2021). Stressors and Coping strategies of college students during COVID-19 Pandemic. Academia Letters, Article 4410. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4410. 4 also found that Depression symptomatology is found to be significant among Indian students during this pandemic and chronic stress of living through a pandemic led to a host of physical symptoms, like headaches, insomnia, digestive problems, hormonal imbalances, and fatigue. Research findings support the current research results that COVID Pandemic is leading to many psychological disturbances. Though the college students have used the word depression were traced and interviewed and it was identified that they don’t mean depression as in a clinical perspective but it is their expression for sadness, boredom, and loneliness. In the follow-up students who had mentioned depression have revealed that though they are making an attempt to get connected to family members and friends over the phone, they still feel empty and very low. Students who are in their final year are found to be more concerned about their future than the students in the first and second year, as the final year students would be concerned about their career and higher education. Students with a family size of 7 and more are found to have less stress and their stressors are mainly Academic in nature and COIVD anxiety, whereas are students from smaller family sizes (3-6 members) are found to be troubled by more stressors including, negative family environment, academic stress, and Cabin Fever. The bigger the family size the Cabin fever seems to be less. Anxiety about getting infected by COVID, death in the family due to COVID has disturbed the emotional state of the students. Some of the students have also reported that they have social anxiety to interact with friends and family members in social gatherings and outside the home in the fear of getting infected by COVID-19. Health issues such as headaches, pain in the eyes, body pain, sleeplessness due to increased screen time have been reported. The study conducted by Dutta, Mukherjee, Sen, and Sahu (2020) has also reported that during COVID there is an increased screen time among children and that leads to headaches and other health concerns and the supports the findings of current research Words used to describe themselves such as lazy, worthless, hopeless is clear report about Self-criticism and negative self-talk due to stress and inability to handle the issues. Expressions like annoyed, guilt, fear, low, bored, irritation, frustration, annoying, anxiety, worried, clueless are a clear report of Emotional Distress among the students. It has also been reported that students find it difficult to manage their Love life as they had to move back to their hometown due to COVID. They have expressed that it is difficult to manage long-distance relationships and they are scared about losing their loved one. Some of the students have reported that being in the hostel was an escape from a negative family environment and parental conflicts and due to COVID they had to go back to the same Academia Letters, December 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Prathibha M V, : prathibha.mv@reva.edu.in; prathibhaushankar@gmail.com Citation: M V, P., H S, A. (2021). Stressors and Coping strategies of college students during COVID-19 Pandemic. Academia Letters, Article 4410. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4410. 5 environment. The financial issue is one of the stressors reported by some of the students. Though there is no clear mention with regard reason behind the financial issue, students have reported that they are being disturbed by the financial issues. Though students have mentioned that they have hope that the situation will get better in the future, they have also expressed that they are concerned about how the New Normal is going to be. They have anxiety about the new normal and how well they will be able to adjust to the new normal. Table 2: Depicts the codes co-occurrence The response of the students was analyzed and emerged with 18 codes. Academia Letters, December 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Prathibha M V, : prathibha.mv@reva.edu.in; prathibhaushankar@gmail.com Citation: M V, P., H S, A. (2021). Stressors and Coping strategies of college students during COVID-19 Pandemic. Academia Letters, Article 4410. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4410. 6 Table 2 depicts the association between the codes. Emotional Distress is found to be associated with Academic Stress, Cabin fever, negative family environment. Academic stress is found to be associated with hectic routines, negative family environments. The association between the stressors indicates that students in negative home environments tend to feel lonely, isolated, higher level of emotional distress even when are living with family members, as there is no cordial relationship among the family members. The hectic routine of academic responsibilities and in some cases along with household chores reflects the lack of cordial relationship among the family members and also has an impact on Academics. Females are found to have hectic schedules, which can be attributed to the gender role expectations from parents even in the present times. Parental pressure for female students to spare time for household chores and failing to understand the demands of their academic expectations makes females find their schedules hectic. Coping Strategies used to adapt: Students who were willing to provide further data were interviewed over the phone to explore the coping strategies used to adapt to the various stressors. It is observed that the majority of them have insight that the pandemic situation is being difficult for every to adapt to and they have to sail through it. Having hope that the situation will get better in the future is helping them to an extent. They are actively trying to handle their situation by diverting their attention and engaging themselves during free time in their hobbies such as gardening, playing with pets and friends in the neighborhood, painting, dancing, and watching TV series online. To handle the negative emotions some of them have started expressing them in the form of poetry, writing daily journals. It has also been reported that some of the participants have stopped conversing with their family members, especially parents in order to avoid arguments and conflicts. Both boys and girls have reported that they are experimenting with cooking and baking in order to keep themselves active and engaged in new activities. Conclusions 1. College students have many stressors during pandemics. 2. Cabin fever, Academic Stress, and Emotional Distress is found to be major stressors among college students. 3. Female students were found to have a hectic routine than their male counterparts. 4. Cabin fever was not reported among students from bigger family sizes. Academia Letters, December 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Prathibha M V, : prathibha.mv@reva.edu.in; prathibhaushankar@gmail.com Citation: M V, P., H S, A. (2021). Stressors and Coping strategies of college students during COVID-19 Pandemic. Academia Letters, Article 4410. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4410. 7 Implications of the Study • Family and parental support is crucial in handling the issues during Pandemic • Parents’ should be sensitized about the online mode of education • Educational institutes should take frequent feedback from the students to handle issues concerned with screen time, breaks between classes, deadlines, and an effective learning environment. Academia Letters, December 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Prathibha M V, : prathibha.mv@reva.edu.in; prathibhaushankar@gmail.com Citation: M V, P., H S, A. (2021). Stressors and Coping strategies of college students during COVID-19 Pandemic. Academia Letters, Article 4410. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4410. 8 References Dutta, K., Mukherjee, R., Sen, D., and Sahu, S. (2020). Effect of COVID-19 lockdown on sleep behavior and screen exposure time: an observational study among Indian school children. 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Piya Majumdar, Ankita Biswas, and Subhashis Sahu (2020) COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown: cause of sleep disruption, depression, somatic pain, and increased screen exposure of office workers and students of India, Chronobiology International, 37:8, 1191-1200, DOI: 10.1080/07420528.2020.1786107 Verma, S., and Mishra, A. (2020). Depression, anxiety, and stress and socio-demographic correlates among general Indian public during COVID-19. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 66(8), 756-762. Academia Letters, December 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Prathibha M V, : prathibha.mv@reva.edu.in; prathibhaushankar@gmail.com Citation: M V, P., H S, A. (2021). Stressors and Coping strategies of college students during COVID-19 Pandemic. Academia Letters, Article 4410. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4410. 9