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Coping strategies and psychological well-being among teacher education students

Coping and well-being in students

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Abstract

The coping strategies used by students play a key role in their psychological well-being. This study examines the relationship between coping strategies and psychological well-being in a sample of 98 undergraduates aged between 19 and 42 years. Coping strategies were evaluated by means of the CRI-A (Moos, 1993), while psychological well-being was assessed using the BSI (Derogatis and Spencer, 1982). The results show a relationship between coping style and psychological well-being. Approach coping strategies as problem solving in teacher education students had a beneficial effect on symptoms of depression, phobic anxiety and overall level of psychological distress. In contrast, cognitive avoidance coping are associated with greater presence of psychological symptoms indicating distress. And behavioural avoidance strategies (search for alternative rewards and emotional discharge) were associated with negative psychological well-being. Coping strategies may help to reduce psychological distress in university students. Specifically, approach-oriented coping is associated with positive scores for psychological well-being, and avoidant emotion-focused coping—above all, behavioural avoidant coping—may be a strong predictor of psychological distress.

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Acknowledgement

This research was supported by grants from the Programa de Recerca en Docencia Universitaria (REDICE-10 and ARCE 2010), University of Barcelona, 2010–2012, awarded to the project ‘Ethical competencies in music and movement teaching on the Bachelor of Education degree offered by the University of Barcelona: Evaluation and proposals for the curriculum’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of didactics of Corporal Expression and Music, Faculty of Teacher Training, University of Barcelona, Passeig de la Vall d’Hebron, 171, 08035, Barcelona, Spain

    Josep Gustems-Carnicer

  2. Department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Passeig de la Vall d’Hebron, 171, 08035, Barcelona, Spain

    Caterina Calderón

Authors
  1. Josep Gustems-Carnicer
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  2. Caterina Calderón
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Correspondence to Josep Gustems-Carnicer.

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Josep Gustems-Carnicer. Department of didactics of Corporal Expression and Music, Faculty of Teacher Training, University of Barcelona, Passeig de la Vall d’Hebron, 171, 08035 Barcelona, Spain. Email address: jgustems@ub.edu. Web site institution: www.ub.edu

Current themes of research:

Coping strategies among students. Creativity. Restructuring teacher education.

Caterina Calderón. Department of Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment. Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Passeig de la Vall d’Hebron, 171. 08035 Barcelona, Spain. Email address: ccalderon@ub.edu

Current themes of research:

Coping strategies among students and social-psychological aspects of education.

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Gustems-Carnicer, J., Calderón, C. Coping strategies and psychological well-being among teacher education students. Eur J Psychol Educ 28, 1127–1140 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-012-0158-x

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