Resilience, Positivity and Social Support as Perceived Stress Predictors among University Students

Kamila Litwic-Kaminska; Aleksandra Błachnio; Izabela Kapsa; Łukasz Brzeziński; Jakub Kopowski; Milica Stojković; Darko Hinić; Ivana Krsmanović; Benedetta Ragni; Francesco Sulla; Pierpaolo Limone

doi:10.3390/ijerph20196892

Resilience, Positivity and Social Support as Perceived Stress Predictors among University Students

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Oct 7;20(19):6892. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20196892.

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Psychology, Kazimierz Wielki University, 85-867 Bydgoszcz, Poland.
² Faculty of Political Science and Administration, Kazimierz Wielki University, 85-671 Bydgoszcz, Poland.
³ Faculty of Pedagogy, Kazimierz Wielki University, 85-064 Bydgoszcz, Poland.
⁴ Faculty of Computer Science, Kazimierz Wielki University, 85-064 Bydgoszcz, Poland.
⁵ Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia.
⁶ Department of Psychology, University of Kragujevac, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia.
⁷ Department of Humanistic Studies, Learning Science Hub, University of Foggia, 71122 Foggia, Italy.

Abstract

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have been trying to identify which personal resources can contribute to minimizing the mental health costs in students incurred due to the restrictions that disrupted safety and predictability in their academic lives. The aim of the study was to verify if and how individual factors (resilience and positivity) and socio-environmental factors (social support and nationality) allow prediction of the level of perceived stress. University students (n = 559) from Poland, Serbia, and Italy were surveyed using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), the Positivity Scale (PS), and the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL-12). Personal resources-positivity, resilience, and support-were found to be positively interrelated and significantly associated with stress levels. Additionally, gender and nationality differentiated stress levels. A general linear model (GLM) showed that levels of perceived stress are best explained by resilience, positivity, tangible support, and gender. The results obtained can strengthen students' awareness of personal resources and their protective role in maintaining mental health, as well as contribute to the creation of prevention-oriented educational activities. Nationality was not a significant predictor of the level of perceived stress, which highlights the universality of examined predictors among university students from different countries and suggests that interventions aimed at enhancing these resources could benefit students across different cultural contexts.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; academic concern; mental health; positivity; resilience; stress; university students.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Humans
Pandemics*
Social Support*
Stress, Psychological
Students
Universities

Grants and funding

This research was co-funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ Cooperation partnerships in higher education project “Enhancing digital and psychological resilience through peer networking in the online environment in times of crises—DigiPsyRes”; grant number 2021-1-RSO1-KA220-HED-32204. This publication reflects the views of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.