University Students’ Coping Strategies to Manage Stress: A Scoping Review

Abstract

The purpose of this scoping review was to explore what is known about how university students cope with stress. Understanding the coping strategies that students use during university study can improve higher education institutions’ stress reduction/preventative intervention design, particularly for students who are struggling. We reviewed 165 international peer-reviewed papers published in English between 2007 and 2022 and extracted information on the country of study, design, characteristics of the sample, stressors studied and coping strategies. We found that research on students coping with stress is disproportionately focused on clinical/health-related disciplines and in particular geographical contexts (Asia and Northern America). Study authors used a multitude of conceptualisations and measurements of coping that represent important barriers to generalising findings and implementing actions based on the research evidence. We propose that the development of student-informed measures of coping and their perceptions of coping effectiveness represent possible solutions going forward.

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