Stressors, academic performance, and learned resourcefulness in baccalaureate nursing students.

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Anne-Marie V. Goff (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
David Ayers

Abstract: Despite extensive research establishing that stress affects problem-solving ability and coping, and leads to decreased learning, academic performance, and retention in nursing students, a paucity of research explores specific factors that could enhance these learning processes and outcomes. This explanatory correlational study examines the mediating effect of learned resourcefulness, the ability to regulate emotions and cognitions, on the relationships of stressors--both personal and academic--to academic performance in baccalaureate nursing students. Gadzella's Student-life Stress Inventory (SSI) and Rosenbaum's Self-Control Scale (SCS), a measure of learned resourcefulness, were administered to 53 junior level baccalaureate nursing students (92.5% female; 84.9% Caucasian; 9.4% African-American or Black) at a large urban university in North Carolina. High levels of both personal and academic stressors were revealed, but were not significant predictors of academic performance (p = .90). Age was a significant predictor of academic performance (p < .01) and both males and African-American/ Black participants had higher learned resourcefulness scores on the SCS than females and Caucasians. Total stress scores on the Student-life Stress Inventory showed that male participants perceived less stress (N = 4, M = 116.5) than females (N = 41, M = 141). No significant relationships among learned resourcefulness, stressors, and academic performance were revealed from multiple regression analyses.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 2009
Keywords
Academic Performance, Higher Education, Learned Resourcefulness, Nursing Students, Stressors
Subjects
Nursing $x Education (Higher)
Academic achievement.
Stress (Psychology)
Adjustment (Psychology)
Nursing students.

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