An Examination of the Relationship among Academic Stress, Coping, Motivation, and Performance in College

Empirical evidence suggests that a domain-specific coping style may play an important role in the way students manage stressful academic events and perform at college. The purpose of this research was to examine the extent to which college students’ academic coping style and motivation mediate their academic stress and performance. A structural equation analysis showed that the relationship between college students’ academic stress and course grade was influenced by problem-focused coping and motivation but not emotion-focused coping. As expected, greater academic stress covaried with lower course grades; however, students who engaged in problem-focused coping were more likely to be motivated and perform better than students who engaged in emotion-focused coping. Strategies for promoting more effective coping in college students are discussed.