Topic 10 - academic stress

Question 1

Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory

Answer 1

• Stress is a reaction to the loss of possible resources
• These resources include
• Objects
• (e.g. House or car) - valued because of physical nature or status (based on rarety)
• Conditions
• e.g. Good Marriage, having a good job, social support etc - we seek them out, therefor they are a resource. (they are a resource because they are sought out)
• Personal characteristics
• e.g. Social ability, high self esteem, conscioentiousness - they help with dealing with stress –> why they are resource.
• Energies
• e.g. Loans, money, other supports, etc - these help us access OTHER resources (that is why they are resources) they are valued for their aid in accessing other resources (e.g. You need to have money to buy a car)

People want to aqcuire and maintain resources.
Stress is a reaction to loss of resources (in environment)

People are motivated to acquire and maintain the resources - stress emerges when resources are threatened, lost, or when owned resources are lost and there is failure in acquiring new resources.

Resources: the more you have, the more you can use, and the better your chances of getting new resources is. And vice versa.

When one has enough resources, demands are perceived as less taxing = someone is better able to cope.
When resource low, demands perceived as more strenuous, leading to less good/adaptive coping.

Question 2

Alcaron, Edwards and Menke (2011) study - examine predictors of burnout and engagement in students.

Answer 2

Conducted study to examine predictors of burnout and engagement in students.
Looked at it from COR perspective

• Burnout (from COR theory) is the loss of resources over time
• Losses lead to maladaptive coping, leading to further resource loss, maladaptive spiral (spiral of resource loss –> this is seen as burnout.)
• Engaged individual created more resources in the environment
• Core components of burnout e.g. Emotional exhaustion (lack of energy felt by individual, outcome of performinng bad coping strategies)
• Ineffective coping leads to cynicsm development
• Cynicsm from COR lens - occurs when someone refrains from “investing”
• Cynisim is “withdrawal”, stepping back from investing resources - but doesn’t help in long run, leads to more maladaptive coping. (so negative spiral I assume)

Take away: How an individual copes (from COR theory) is dependent on their resources, and the demands they face

Authors looked at burnout and engagement.
They focused at social support (condition resource), conscientiousness (personal resource), perceived demands (from COR theory would mediate relationship between resources and coping, so people with more resources perceive less threat = they don’t NEED to cope because there is no threat to cope with)
Looked at burnout and engagement.

might ask questions about what main things they looked at:
Conscientiousness (part of big 5 personality structures, basically awareness, attention to detail, organizational thing, think of it as awareness of things that need to be done), social support, perception of demands, resources and coping styles

Results
• Partial support for the COR theory
• When thinking aout burnout and engagement in academic stress
• Conscientiousness is a valuable resource in preventing burnout
• And good for promoting engagement (consistent with hypothesis)
• Social support was a valuable resource
• Indirect effect on engagement via problem-focused coping
• Not DIRECT effect on engagement
• Valuable in predicting coping strategies, but NOT significant predictor of burnout or engagement - indirect effect of engagement through problem solving behavior (individuals with more social support may be able to get a bunch of different suggestions on how to cope)
• Social support had direct link to problem solving coping ( if you have lot of social support, you likely engage in problem solving coping)
• May provide both an emotional outlet and availability of coping strategies.

• Demands did not fully mediate the relationship of resources on coping
• Partial mediation of how people cope with academic stressors.
• Individual characteristics (e.g. conscientiousness) played bigger and more direct role (than demands)
• Demands were NOT related to social support (social support was directly related to coping)
• Coping partially played a role in the relationship with demands on burnout and engagement.

There was also support for hypothesis that there had to be a perception of threat before coping could occur.
Also found emotion focused coping was associated with burnout, and not engagement
Problem focused coping associated with engagement, but not burnout.

What does it all mean:
To prevent academic burnout:
we should change how people PERCEIVE the stressors and demands (e.g. Through reappraisal, seeing things as more of a challenge rather than something they can’t deal with) – appraisal may change view on stressors.

Help students minimize emotion focused strategies

fostering engagement through social support (to help with more problem focused coping to minimize burnout)

Also found coping partially mediates relationship with burnout or engagement with outcomes.
Not just critical what people are experiencing, but what they are experiencing and the ressources they have.
We need to include HOW people cope (turned out to be an important part, e.g. Emotion focused choices more likely to lead to burnout, problem focused more likely to lead to engagement)

The more structured info you can give, the more help it is likely to be - if we can give direct info on e.g. What emotional coping is, and showing HOW they can lead to burnout, and showing more adaptive coping alternatives –> being more structured and explicit, giving direct info, is more helpful

Question 3

Kennett, Quinn-Nilas, & Carty (2020) study (3 models on resourcefulness and perceived control of stress)

Answer 3

• Academic stress is multifaceted
• Important to include INTRAindividual (things occuring WITHIN individuals) and social, environmental and academic parts/faces/aspects.
• This paper looked at academic stress and the impacts on student performance (outcome measures)
• Resourcefulness and perceived control of stress were lens they took perspective through? (they had thought that how academic stress impacts performance is influenced by perceived stress and resourcefulness, (inspired by resourcefulness theory)
• Resourcefulness theory notes that someone’s ability to use resourcefulness behaviour is related to their appraisal of perceived control of stress
• In order to have learned resourcefulness, you need to have high internal perceived control of stress (ability to understand what about the stress that is in their control (and what aspects are not in their control)) - if something was legit not in their control, even accepting this could be healthy (e.g. Your house burned down, all test material was in there - completely beyond that is in your control - accepting that is not in your control would be healthy) and thus resourcefull i guess
• Resourcefulness is psychological factor playing role in relationship between academic stress and outcome (physical, mental health, resilience outcome, etc) - using resourcefulness skills, things like selfcare, one can minimize negative aspects of stress, and use more action oriented problem solving behaviors.
• From this view, academic stress does NOT drive outcomes, but outcomes can be better understood as related to resourcefulness - without learned resourcefulness skills, you have more challenges (which could lead to more academic stress and negative outcomes)

Authors were looking at different pathways that could lead to outcomes. (and how resourcefulness and perceived control of stress may have indirect affect on outcomes)

Model 1:
Academic stress –> learned resourcefulness –> perceived control –> outcomes (resilience, adaption, health)

Model 2:
Academic stress –> perceived control –> learned resourcefulness –> outcomes (resilience, adaption, health)

Model 3:
Academic stress –> learned resourcefulness OR/AND perceived control –> outcomes (resilience, adaption, health)
(model 3 is a parallel model, so not either resourcefulness or perceived control, but that they don’t act in serial manner, but rather in parallel.)
In 1 and 2, assumed causal influence of one indirect variable on the other (perceived control affecting learned resourcefulness or vice versa)
–> directional impact!
Model 3 is different. Here we are not assuming causal influence of one indirect variable on the other. - rather, it is parallel. (m1 and m2 does not influence each other on influence on outcome variables)

Results
• The parallel model was identified as the best fit
• This study adds to literature which noted the importance of learned resourcefulness and perceived control in regulating academic stress
The idea that you need to have one to influence the other wasn’t really the case. Doesn’t mean perceived control of stress and learned resourcefulness don’t influence outcomes, they just don’t seem to influence EACH OTHER - they operate in parallel environment.

This study added to the literature, noting the importance of perceived control, and learned resourcefulness, in regulating academic stress - both of these are important! (just in parallel)

Indircet paths were important with higher academic stress being related to lower resilience, through lower perceived control and lower resourcefulness.
Basically, if you had lower leanred resourcefulness, and lower perceived control, there was more negative outcomes in terms of resileince, adaption, and health overall.

What we need to know:

Know it is mutlifacted, and the facets.

understand the resourcefulness theory. (notes that someone’s ability to use resourceful behavior is associated with perceived control and outcomes)

(learned resourcefulnes and perceived control) showing some relatedness?
When learned resourcefulness is more available, and perceived control is “better”, it leads to better outcomes.

And what they found, that the two things seemed to act in parallel, rather then directly influencing each other

Perceived control may influence learned resourcefulness, and vice versa, but they do so equally in that case.

The variables are seen more as mediators (compared to moderators)

If asked if their hypotheses were confirmed, what would we answer?
• They prposed 3 models, and we are open to the idea any of them might work - so both yes and no. Original idea of serial model (1 or 2) being best, but also had in back of mind that third model might be best - so hypothesis kinda met. (yes, perceived control and learned resourcefulness DID have an impact, just not in the way they originally imagined)

Question 4

what effects were involved in the multifaceted stuff idnitifed by the authors (Quinn study, the model study), or which model was best and why?

Answer 4

WHY was the parallel model the best model?
= because when they did their analysis to look at them, they found that if they ran the model like model 1 or model 2, they found the sequential ones didn’t have a difference ( in outcomes) - as the parallel model is the most simple/parsimoneous, they said it was the best (removing the linear aspect of model 1 and 2).

Multifaceted stuff:
• Academic stress is multifaceted
• Important to include INTRAindividual (things occuring WITHIN individuals) and social, environmental and academic parts/faces/aspects.
• This paper looked at academic stress and the impacts on student performance (outcome measures)
• Resourcefulness and perceived control of stress were lens they took perspective through? (they had thought that how academic stress impacts performance is influenced by perceived stress and resourcefulness, (inspired by resourcefulness theory)
•
• Resourcefulness theory notes that someone’s ability to use resourcefulness behaviour is related to their appraisal of perceived control of stress
• In order to have learned resourcefulness, you need to have high internal perceived control of stress (ability to understand what about the stress that is in their control (and what aspects are not in their control)) - if something was legit not in their control, even accepting this could be healthy (e.g. Your house burned down, all test material was in there - completely beyond that is in your control - accepting that is not in your control would be healthy) and thus resourcefull i guess
• Resourcefulness is psychological factor playing role in relationship between academic stress and outcome (physical, mental health, resilience outcome, etc) - using resourcefulness skills, things like selfcare, one can minimize negative aspects of stress, and use more action oriented problem solving behaviors.
• From this view, academic stress does NOT drive outcomes, but outcomes can be better understood as related to resourcefulness - without learned resourcefulness skills, you have more challenges (which could lead to more academic stress and negative outcomes)

Question 5

Signs/Symptoms of Academic Stress

Answer 5

Chronic academic stress often leads to phsyical (or mental) symptoms, like listed here = chronic stress can be detrimental. All academics have stress, but when it because never-ending, that's when detrimental outcomes occur.
•	Frequent illness
•	Depression
•	Irritability
•	Decreased academic performance
•	Drug or alcohol use/experimentation/overuse 
•	Cheating
•	Insomnia
•	Suicidality
•	Self-harming behaviour

Question 6

Causes of academic stress (across settings)

Answer 6

• Developmentally inappropriate classrooms
• High-stakes tests
• Pressure from parents
• Overly demanding academic content
• Peer relationships
• Fear of failure
• Lack of preparation
• Overbooked schedules
• Pressure to maintain high grades
• Pressure to gain acceptance to certain higher education settings
• Conflicts with teachers
• Poor diet and lack of sleep
• If there is one thing we can do to help out with stress –> get enough sleep! It is the one thing that can offset a lot of stress - so make sure you get enough sleep!

Question 7

Coping with academic stress

Answer 7

• Access campus resources
• Stay present
• Learn new skills through practice
• Self-care (exercise, get enough sleep)
• allow us to rebuild resources + increase satisfaction
• Positive self-talk
• Forgive yourself
• Sometimes we forget to do this when we make mistakes, we engage in self blame –> not helpful!
• Focus on what you can control
• Set realistic self-goals
• Don’t overbook yourself
• Sometimes we forget to do this when we make mistakes, we engage in self blame –> not helpful!
• Learn stress management skills
• Get organized
• Build resilience

Academics at any level can be stressful - so we should all do some relfection on what helps us deal with personal and academic stress.
Fair bit of research done on what helps people deal with (academic) stress - it scary to reach out, but not reaching out can be detrimental. (access campus resources)

Stay in present = you can’t change things in the past. - mindfulness and meditation can be good here

Question 8

Useful strategies for academic settings

Answer 8

• Reducing the preoccupation with ‘grades of the sake of grades’ mentality
• Identify students demonstrating high levels of stress
• Incorporate stress education into curriculum
• Revise testing or homework policies
• Reduce test anxiety
• Provide and ensure that students receive adequate supports
• E,g. Increasing student counselors, make them more available, idneitfy indiviauls at risk, linking them with support
• Promote healthy behaviours
• From policy standpoint, changing mindset from “grades for sake of grade”
• Help students develop effective coping strategies