The Importance of Personality and Self-efficacy for Stress Management in Higher Education

  1. Galindo-Domínguez, Héctor 1
  2. Bezanilla, María-José 2
  1. 1 Universidad Francisco de Vitoria
    info

    Universidad Francisco de Vitoria

    Pozuelo de Alarcón, España

    ROR https://ror.org/03ha64j07

  2. 2 Universidad de Deusto
    info

    Universidad de Deusto

    Bilbao, España

    ROR https://ror.org/00ne6sr39

Revista:
International Journal of Educational Psychology: IJEP

ISSN: 2014-3591

Año de publicación: 2021

Título del ejemplar: October

Volumen: 10

Número: 3

Páginas: 247-270

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.17583/IJEP.7870 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

Otras publicaciones en: International Journal of Educational Psychology: IJEP

Resumen

The psychological implications of stress have become an issue of concern for university students around the world over the past decade. It is thought that the perception of stress varies depending on students' personality traits and their beliefs about being able to manage their academic life. To investigate this further, a study was conducted with a sample of 200 university students. The main findings of this study were: (1) All of the Big Five Model of personality traits significantly contribute to developing positive academic self-efficacy, with some of these being moderated by gender. Self-efficacy is characterised by agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, emotionally stability and openness to experience. (2) People with high academic self-efficacy are able to take advantage of eustress and manage distress better than people with low academic self-efficacy. (3) There are some personality traits that contribute to distress and eustress. Specifically, people who are introverted and have low emotional stability and low openness to experience tend to suffer from distress more than people who do not have these traits. In contrast, conscientious people tend to experience eustress more than people without these characteristics. All these traits were mediated by self-efficacy, and in some cases were moderated by gender.

Referencias bibliográficas

  • Abbasi, M., Mirderikvand, F., Adavi, H., & Hojati, M. (2018). The Relationship between Personality Traits (Neuroticism and Extraversion) and Self-Efficacy with Aging Depression. Salmand: Iranian Journal of Ageing, 12(4), 458-466.
  • Abbod, M. H., Alharbi, B. H., & Gazo, A. M. (2020). The Relationship between Personality Traits, Academic Self-Efficacy and Academic Adaptation among University Students in Jordan. International Journal of Higher Education, 9(3), 120-128.
  • Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. Freeman.
  • Baron, R. & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173-1182.
  • Beckmann, N. & Wood, R. E. (2017). Dynamic personality science. Integrating between-person stability and within-person change. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1486.
  • Benson, H. & Allen, R. (1979). How much stress is too much?. Harvard Business Review, 58(5), 86-92.
  • Bleidorn, W., Hopwood, C. J., & Lucas, R. E (2016). Life events and personality trait change. Journal of Personality, 86(1), 83-96.
  • Boehmer, S., Luszczynska, A., & Schwarzer, R. (2007). Coping and quality of life after tumor surgery: Personal and social resources promote different domains of quality of life. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, 20, 61–75.
  • Brown, D. & Gali, R. (2016). Personality traits’ effects on self-efficacy and outcome expectations for high school major choice. International journal for educational and vocational guidance, 16, 343-361.
  • Carver, C. S. & Connor-Smith, J. (2010). Personality and coping. Annual Review of Psychology, 61, 679-704.
  • Childs, S. E., Finnie, R., & Martinello, F. (2016). Postsecondary student persistence and pathways: Evidence from the YITS-A in Canada. Research in Higher Education, 58, 270-294.
  • Delgado-Rodríguez, N., E Hernández-Fernaud, E., Rosales, C., Díaz-Vilela, L., Isla-Díaz, R., & Díaz-Cabrera, D. (2018). Contextual Performance in Academic Settings: The Role of Personality, Self-efficacy, and Impression Management. Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 34(2), 63-68.
  • Domínguez-Lara, S., Merino-Soto, C., Zamudio, B., & Guevara-Cordero, C. (2018). Big Five Inventory in Peruvian College students: Preliminary results of its validation. PSYKHE, 27(2), 1-12.
  • Dumitru, V. M. & Cozman, D. (2015). The relationship between stress and personality factors. Human & Veterinary Medicine, 4(1), 34-39.
  • Durand-Bush, N., McNeill, K., Harding, M., & Dobransky, J. (2015). Investigating stress, psychological well-being, mental health functioning, and self-regulation capacity among university undergraduate students: Is this population optimally functioning?. Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 49, 253-274.
  • Ebstrup, J. F., Eplov, L. F., Pisinger, C., & Jørgensen, T. (2011). Association between the Five Factor personality traits and perceived stress: Is the effect mediated by general self-efficacy? Anxiety, Stress, & Coping: An International Journal, 24(4), 407–419.
  • Ervasti, M., Kallio, J., Määttänen, I., Mäntyjärvi, J., & Jokela, M. (2019). Influence of Personality and differences in stress processing among Finish students on interest to use a mobile stress management app: Survey study. JMIR Mental Health, 6(5), e10039.
  • Galindo-Domínguez, H., Pegalajar, M., & Uriarte, J. D. (2020). Mediator and moderator effect of resilience between self-efficacy and burnout amongst social and legal sciences faculty members. Revista de Psicodidáctica, 25(2), 127-135.
  • García, O., Aluja, A., & García, L. F. (2004). Psychometric properties of Goldberg’s 50 Personality Markers for the Big Five Model. A study in the Spanish Language. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 20(4), 310-319.
  • Goldberg, L. R. (1990). An alternative “description of personality”: The big-five factor structure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 1216-1229.
  • Gomez, V., Allemand, M., & Grob, A. (2012). Neuroticism, extraversion, goals, and subjective well-being: exploring the relations in young, middle-aged, and older adults. Journal of research in personality, 46(3), 317-325.
  • Guzmán-Yacaman, J. E. & Reyes-Bossio, M. (2018). Adaptación de la Escala de Percepción Global de Estrés en estudiantes universitarios peruanos. Revista de Psicología, 36(2), 719-750.
  • Hayat, A. A., Kohoulat, N., Amini, M., & Faghihi, S. A. A. (2020). The predictive role of personality traits on academic performance of medical students: The mediating role of self-efficacy. Medical Journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 34(1), 1-7.
  • Hooper, D., Coughlan, J., & Mullen, M. (2008). Structural Equation Modelling: Guidelines for determining model fit. Electronic journal of business research methods, 6(1), 53-60.
  • Karademas, E. C. & Kalantzi-Azizi, A. (2004). The stress process, self-efficacy expectations, and psychological health. Personality and Individual Differences, 37, 1033–1043.
  • Kenny, D. A. & McCoach, D. B. (2003). Effect of the number of variables on Measures of Fit in Structural Equation Modelling. Structural Equation Modelling: A multidisciplinary Journal, 10(3), 333-351.
  • Kondratyuk, N. & Morosanova, V. (2014). The relationship between self-regulation, personality traits and job stress. Personality and Individual Differences, 60 (Suppl.), S75
  • Lazarus, R. S. (1999). Stress and emotion: A new synthesis. Springer.
  • Lazarus, R. S. (2000). Toward better research on stress and coping. American Psychologist, 55, 665–673.
  • Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. Springer.
  • Leger, K. A., Charles, S. T., Turiano, N. A., & Almeida, D. M. (2016). Personality and stressor-related affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111(6), 917-928.
  • Lucas, R. E., Diener, E., Grob., A., Suh, E. M., & Shao, L. (2000). Cross-cultural evidence for the fundamental features of extraversion. Journal of personality and social psychology, 79(3), 452.
  • Luszczynska, A. & Schwarzer, R. (2005). Multidimensional health locus of control: Comments on the construct and its measurement. Journal of Health Psychology, 10, 633–642.
  • Martin, M., Ward, J. C., & Clarck, D. M. (1983). Neuroticism and the recall of positive and negative personality information. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 21(5), 495-503.
  • Matteo, R. A. & Porto, A. P. (2016). Professional choice self-efficacy: predicting traits and personality profiles in high school students. Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica, 29(30).
  • Matthieu, M. & Ivanoff, A. (2006). Using stress, appraisal, and coping theories in clinical practice: Assessments of coping strategies after disasters. Brief treatment and crisis intervention, 6(4), 337-348.
  • McGowan, J., Gardner, G., & Fletcher, R. (2006). Positive and negative affective outcomes of occupational stress. New Zealand Journal of Psychology, 35, 92–98.
  • Mirhagui, M. & Sarabian, S. (2016). Relationship between perceived stress and personality traits in emergency medical personnel. Journal of Fundamentals of Mental Health, 18(5), 265-271.
  • Naz, D., Mills, D. J., Mettler, J., & Heath, N. (2019). Stress and Coping patterns of university students. Journal of College Student Development, 60(1), 85-103.
  • Niehoff E., Petersdotter L., & Freund P. A. (2017). International sojourn experience and personality development: selection and socialization effects of studying abroad and the Big Five. Personality and Individual Differences, 112, 55–61.
  • Otonari, J., Nagano, J., Morita, M., Budhathoki, S., Tashiro, N., Toyomura, K., Kono, S., Imai, K., Ohnaka, K., & Takayanagi, R. (2012). Neuroticism and extraversion personality traits, health behaviours, and subjective well-being: The Fukuoka Study (Japan). Quality of Life Research, 21(10), 1847-1855
  • Palenzuela, D. (1983). Construcción y validación de una escala de autoeficacia percibida específica de situaciones académicas. Análisis y Modificación de Conducta, 9(21), 185-219.
  • Park, S., Song, Y., Ko, G., Jhung, K., Ha, K., Lee, Y.R., & Kim, Y. (2016). The relationship between personality, sense of efficacy and stress in Korean teachers. Psychiatry Investigation, 13(5), 566-570.
  • Price, E. L., McLeod., P. J., Gleich, S. S., & Hand, D. (2006). One-year prevalence rates of major depressive disorder in first-year university students. Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 40, 68-81.
  • Reddy, K. J., Menon, K. R., & Thattil, A. (2018). Academic stress and its sources among university students. Biomedical and pharmacology journal, 11(1), 531-537.
  • Şahin, F. & Çetin, F. (2017). The Mediating Role of General Self-Efficacy in the Relationship between the Big Five Personality Traits and Perceived Stress: A Weekly Assessment Study. Psychological Studies, 62, 35-46.
  • Sajjad, S. M. (2017). Stress and Time Management. In S. M. Sajjad (coord.), Essentials of Counseling (pp. 206-248). Abosar Prokashana Sangstha.
  • Schneider, T. & Jackson, S. M. (2014). Extraversion and Stress. In A. D. Haddock & A. P. Rutkowski (Eds.), the psychology of extraversion (pp. 121-131). Nova Science Publishers.
  • Semmer, N. (2003). Individual differences, work stress and health. In M. J. Schabracq, J. A. M. Winnubst, & C. L. Cooper (Eds.), Handbook of work and health psychology (pp. 83–120). Wiley.
  • Szymura, B. (2010). Individual differences in resource allocation policy. In D. H. Saklofske & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of individual differences in cognition (pp. 231-246). Springer.
  • Taghizadeh, M. E. & Radfar, Z. (2016). Relation of various levels on which metacognitive knowledge is utilized and personality characters with self-efficacy against problems. World Scientific News, 55, 199-209.
  • Trógolo, M. & Medrano, L. A. (2012). Personality traits, difficulties in emotion regulation and academic satisfaction in a sample of argentine college students. International Journal of Psychological research, 5(2), 30-39.
  • Turiano, N. A., Chapman, B. P., Gruenewald, T. L., & Mroczek, D. K. (2015). Personality and the leading behavioral contributors of mortality. Health Psychology, 34, 51– 60.
  • Uliaszek, A. A., Zinbarg, R., E., Mineka, S., Craske, M. G., Sutton, J. M., Griffith, J. W., Rose, R., Waters, A., & Hammen, C. (2010). The role of neuroticism and extraversion in the stress-anxiety and stress-depression relationships. Anxiety Stress Coping, 23(4), 363-381.
  • Vollrath, M. (2001). Personality and stress. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 42, 335–347.
  • Wang, Y., Yao, L., Yang, X., Wu, H., Wang, J., & Wang, L. (2014). The mediating role of self-efficacy in the relationship between big five personality and depressive symptoms among Chinese unemployed population: a cross-sectional study. BMC Psychiatry, 14, 61.
  • Wlodarczyk, D. & Obacz, W. (2013). Perfectionism, selected demographic and job characteristics as predictors of burnout in operating suite nurses. Medycyna Pracy, 64, 761-773.
  • Xin, Y., Wu, J., Yao, Z., Guan, Q., Aleman, A., & Luo, Y. (2017). The relationship between personality and the response to acute psychological stress. Scientific reports, 7, 1-8.
  • Zhang, L. F. (2012). Personality traits and occupational stress among Chinese academics. Educational Psychology, 32(7), 807-820.
Fuente de los datos: Dialnet