Investigating the relationship between the sense of ability to adapt, well-being and stress in students
Theme: Principles of human flourishing
Type of research: Quantitative empirical cross-sectional study
Description:
Students in academia regularly must deal with stress-inducing events that affect their well-being. Next to stress that is related to exam preparations and deadlines for assignments, difficulties in managing daily life tasks and the consequences of major life events often have a serious impact on stress levels. Prolonged periods of time in a stressed state without recovering from it can disrupt students’ flourishing. Therefore, it is important to understand what explains the emergence of such stress to be able to mitigate it most efficiently and optimize student well-being. An important factor in stress management and human flourishing is how individuals perceive their ability to adapt to novel circumstances. Individual differences in the sense of the ability to adapt to events such as an upcoming exam or relocation to a new place of living affect students’ experience of stress, the process of dealing with it, and their well-being and flourishing.
Therefore, this assignment aims to investigate the relationship between students’ stress-, as well as well-being levels and their sense of ability to adapt. An example research question in the context of this assignment could be:
To what extent does the sense of ability to adapt moderate the relationship between flourishing and academic stress in students?