COPING MECHANISMS FOR STRESS AMONG MARRIED FEMALE POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, IBADAN, OYO STATE

Abstract

In a bid to empower women, education is vital. Women are rising to meet up with high standard in the society and are being motivated to partake in societal activities and at the same time not neglecting their traditional assignment in their homes. Combining motherhood roles and academics activities are stressful period for married female students. Few studies have documented the coping mechanism for stress among married females in higher institution of learning. This study, therefore explored the coping mechanism for stress among married female postgraduate students of university of Ibadan. A descriptive cross-sectional design was conducted among 244 consenting female married students of the postgraduate school of the University of Ibadan. A validated self-administered semi-structured questionnaire used for data collection included questions relating to physical sources of stress in school, social factors that constitute stress during course work, mental effect of stress in academic performance, emotional source of stress and stress coping mechanism utilised by the female married students. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Respondents‘ age was 33.9±7.9 years, majority (80.3%) were Christians, 85.7% were Yoruba and 78.3% were married before they started the programme. About 40% of the respondents claimed they do often find movement within school environment stressful. About 45% often felt tired or worn out while 38.1% always felt tired or worn out at the end of each day‘s lecture. Majority (66.4%) claimed that long lecture duration made them physically stressed in the school environment while 20.1% said it was registration/assignment. Slightly more than half of them (50.8%) claimed they rarely found it easy to read after house chores while 24.6% never found it easy. A large proportion 79.1% always got moral support from their husbands concerning their academic situations while 4.1% rarely get moral support from their husbands. Some (32.4%) often had headaches after attending to their different responsibilities and 9.4% always had headaches. Few (10.2%) always got worried about assignments and examinations. The relationship of 75.8% with their spouse or in-laws did not get them depressed while the relationships of 17.6% with their spouse/in-laws rarely got them depressed. Disagreement with spouses often made 23.4% lose concentration in school while it always made 9.8% to lose concentration in school. Majority (73.4%) claimed they didn‘t belong to any association/club and 41.8% reported that combining school activities with household responsibilities rarely gave them time to attend social functions. Some (49.2%) always doubled their efforts and tried harder to make things work and 44.3% often doubled their efforts. Some (41%) often made plans for everything and followed it while 45.9% always made and followed their plans in everything. More than half (53.3%) claimed that they do relax when they experience multiple stresses. Married female postgraduate students go through serious physical, social, mental and emotional stress while combining academic works with their responsibilities at home. It would be very necessary therefore to promote a supportive environment for them to learn in school and perform their responsibilities at home effectively.