Stress and coping among college students in the Dominican Republic

Abstract

Background and Purpose: Stress is a common complaint among college students; however, stress is understudied specifically among Hispanics outside of the United States. A cross-sectional study investigating the stress-coping approaches utilized by Dominican college students living in the Dominican Republic (DR) is reported. Methods: Three-hundred three students, 27% male and 73% female, attending a private DR college completed a self-administered survey that inquired about their stress-coping approaches. Results: Older students in good academic standing were five times more likely to engage in exercise in response to stress (p= .006). Smoking cigarettes was significantly higher among White male students (p= .018). Students most often reported listening to music, using more than one stress-coping approach, or exercising in response to stress. Conclusion: This study identified stresscoping approaches utilized by college students attending a private university in the DR. Adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies were described. These findings differ from findings reported in studies conducted among other Hispanic college student populations that more often reported social support as a more commonly-used stress-coping approach.