What is the Impact of Stress-Coping Skills on Levels of Motivation in Adolescents?

• Main Authors: Tanya Hudson, Noran Moffett, Karen McCabe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Georgia Southern University 2015-06-01
• Series: Georgia Educational Researcher
• Subjects: Stress/coping; Adolescents; Motivation; Stress-coping strategies
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gerjournal/vol12/iss1/2

Stress-coping strategies are identified by researchers as conditions used suitable to a situation when adolescents have a change in their environment or a stressor that they cannot control. The purpose of this manuscript is to explore the impact of stress-coping strategies on perceived levels of intrinsic motivation. According to the research, stress results from an imbalance between the requirements of the environment and one’s ability to cope with it (Aldwin, 2007). The inquiry was conducted in a high school of convenience where the researcher had access to the students available to participate in quantitative research design. Research has shown that adolescents often benefit when they can combine one or more coping strategies to address the stressor. Since strategies have benefits and costs associated with them, it is necessary to identify the long lasting stressors adolescents face in order to find a response related to or based on the context of the stressor. The descriptive analysis of the pre-survey and post-survey, implementation of strategies was analyzed to determine the impact stress-coping strategies have on perceived stress levels of intrinsic motivation. A Chi-Square Goodness of Fit was used to indicate the distribution of responses along with the percentage of agreement between respondents on the whole item. The pre-survey and post-survey design was performed to determine a correlation between perceived levels of and motivation. The data from the quantitative design was reviewed to determine a relationship using a Pearson correlation and t-test. Results, strengths of the study and limitations are discussed.