Managing Stress and Maintaining WellBeing: Social Support, ProblemFocused Coping, and Avoidant Coping

Life is full of stress for college students (Roberti, Harrington, & Storch, 2006). For students to manage their stress, positive social support and useful coping are essential. Bear in mind that students manage stress differently; they assess stress, seek support from families and friends, and execute their coping all in their own ways. However, although many researchers report that social support and coping are positively associated with well-being (BenZur, 2009), there are two pitfalls in applying these associations to students. One, social support is unstable or even decreasing for some students in the recent decade (Arria et al., 2009), so it is important to see how low support may change the association between stress and students’ well-being. Two, not all coping strategies are effective; some are functional and useful, whereas others are less so (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989). This study aims to examine the moderating roles of social support and coping on the association between stress and well-being. From both theoretical and practical perspectives, there is lack of clear understanding of the factors that can predict the well-being of college students surrounded by a multitude of stressors (Skowron, Wester, & Azen, 2004). Thus, in this article I seek to address this gap by providing theoretical, empirical, and practical insight into the conditions under which stress is linked to the well-being of college students. I integrate theories of social support and coping to propose that the association between stress and well-being will be buffered when students perceive high support that enhances their problem-focused coping; in contrast, the association will be deteriorated when students frequently use avoidant coping when they perceive low support. A particularly useful framework for understanding the potential protective nature of social support and coping is Lazarus