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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1419771
This article is part of the Research Topic The Interplay of Stress, Health, and Well-being: Unraveling the Psychological and Physiological Processes - Volume II View all 14 articles

Global self-esteem and coping with stress by Polish students during the COVID-19 pandemic

Provisionally accepted
Ewa Kupcewicz Ewa Kupcewicz 1Anna M. Cybulska Anna M. Cybulska 2*Daria Schneider-Matyka Daria Schneider-Matyka 2Paweł Jastrzębski Paweł Jastrzębski 3Aleksandra Bentkowska Aleksandra Bentkowska 4Elżbieta Grochans Elżbieta Grochans 2
  • 1 Department of Nursing, Collegium Medicum, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Olsztyn, Warmian-Masurian, Poland
  • 2 Department of Nursing, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland
  • 3 Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Olsztyn, Warmian-Masurian, Poland
  • 4 Provincial Specialist Hospital in Olsztyn, Olsztyn, Warmian-Masurian, Poland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objectives: Students experience considerable stress and anxiety during the course of their studies, which has a significant impact on their health and hinders the learning process. There are many stressors that can intensify stress, which is why choosing the right strategies for coping with stress and self-esteem is so important. Methods: The study was conducted on 798 students of the School of Public Health at the University of Warmia and Mazury in majors: nursing, midwifery, emergency medicine and dietetics (subgroup 1; n=428; 53.77%) and at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, major: veterinary medicine (subgroup 2; n=368; 46.23%). The study employed the diagnostic survey method using a questionnaire technique including Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale, MINI-COPE, PSS-10, and a selfquestionnaire. Results: The scores obtained by over half of the students were indicative of low global self-esteem, whereas over 80% of the students felt stress at a high intensity. Moreover, it was shown that the veterinary medicine students demonstrated a higher intensity of coping strategies, i.e. active coping (p<0.04) and planning (p<0.02), than medicine students. Conclusion: The study found that students experience a high level of stress regardless of the study major. The study revealed that students, irrespective of the major, experienced high levels of stress. Self-esteem had a significant impact on the stress level and methods of coping with difficult situations in students of medicine. A majority of the students applied positive styles of coping with stress.

    Keywords: Challenges, coping, self-esteem, Medical Education, strategies, stress, university students

    Received: 18 Apr 2024; Accepted: 13 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kupcewicz, Cybulska, Schneider-Matyka, Jastrzębski, Bentkowska and Grochans. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Anna M. Cybulska, Department of Nursing, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.