Moderating Role of Coping Style on the Relationship between Stress and Psychological Well-Being in Hong Kong Nursing Students

Abstract

Aims and objectives: To examine whether coping styles moderate the influence of stressors and psychological well-being in Hong Kong nursing students. Background: Stress could contribute to psychological distress in nursing students. Coping strategies are essential to mitigate psychological distress. So far, the moderating effects of coping between stressors and psychological well-being has not been thoroughly investigated. Design: This is a cross-sectional study conducted at four higher education institutions in Hong Kong. Methods: We recruited a convenience sample of 293 nursing students in February 2018. The Stressors in Nursing Students Scale-Chinese version (SINS-CN), Brief Cope Inventory-Chinese version (Brief COPE-C), and the Chinese version of the General Health Questionnaire-12 (C-GHQ-12) were used to measure the stressors, coping styles, and psychological well-being, respectively. Three multiple hierarchical linear regression models were used to identify the associations between the variables. Results: The stressors related to clinical learning, confidence, and personal problems were significant in explaining the psychological well-being. The coping strategies also predicted the psychological well-being and explained 44.5% of the variance. The coping strategy—accommodation—moderated the relationship between personal problems and psychological well-being. Conclusion: Problem-solving and accommodation types of coping were adaptive to stress and effective in promoting psychological well-being. However, using accommodation to cope with stressors related to personal problems will exacerbate the negative effects of the personal problems on the psychological well-being. Relevance to clinical practice: This study reveals the relationships between stressors, coping, and psychological well-being. Nurse educators must be aware of nursing student coping styles so they may devise strategies to promote effective coping to reduce the psychological distress among nursing students.

COVID-19 perseverative cognition and depressive symptoms in Hong Kong: The moderating role of resilience, loneliness and coping strategies

“…We observed that greater engagement in emotion-focused coping buffered the effect of COVID-19 perseverative cognition on depression. Our result echoes with the literature indicating emotion-focused coping as a moderator in the relationship between heightened stress and negative mental health outcomes ( Austenfeld and Stanton, 2004 ; Cheng et al, 2022 ; Lin et al, 2010 ). This is also consistent with recent studies which found that positive reappraisal, a key component of emotion-focused coping, represented a protective factor against development of psychological distress during COVID-19 ( Ke et al, 2022 ; Riepenhausen et al, 2022 ).…”

Estrés y estilos de afrontamiento en estudiantes universitarios

“…Dentro de los estudiantes universitarios se denota que los que estudian carreras orientadas al área de la salud muestran niveles de estrés mayores a los que exhiben los estudiantes que estudian otras carreras; ejemplo de ello son los diversos estudios en población universitaria en carreras como enfermería o medicina (Cheng et al, 2022;Lui et al, 2022;Ma et al, 2022;Pozos-Radillo et al, 2021;Priyadharshini et al, 2021;Rodríguez-Fernández et al, 2020;Valdez et al, 2022).…”

Associations among stressors, perceived stress, and psychological distress in nursing students: a mixed methods longitudinal study of a Hong Kong sample

“…Ineffective coping with stress may lead to psychological distress ( Li et al, 2009 ; Collin et al, 2020 ), which is commonly associated with depression, anxiety, and social dysfunction. In a cross-sectional study, Cheng et al (2022) reported that seeking support, problem-solving, and venting were the most common coping types used by the final year nursing students in Hong Kong; those nursing students who tended to use such coping strategies reported less psychological distress. Hence, assessment of various determinants of stress and distress is essential to suggest suitable remedial measures for stress mitigation.…”