الفهرس 
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Abstract
Nursing students experience academic stress during their active engagement in the education process (Riley et al., 2019). They face a wide range of academic (theory-related) and practical (clinical-related) stressors including, but not limited to, massive academic course load, prolonged hours of clinical training, fear of making mistakes with patients, and so forth (Bahadır-Yılmaz, 2016; He et al., 2018).
Emotional intelligence and coping strategies are resources utilized to reduce the negative consequences of stress. However, little is known about how coping strategies influence the relationship between emotional intelligence and perceived academic stress (Khalaf Alah et al., 2018).
The present study aimed to investigate the role of coping strategies in the relationship between emotional intelligence and perceived academic stress among baccalaureate students at the Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University.
The study was conducted at the Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University. The subjects comprised a proportionate stratified random sample of 900 nursing students recruited from the second to the eighth semester of the academic year 2022-2023. Students were stratified into eight strata based on their major nursing courses.
The data for this study were obtained using the following tools:
Tool I: Socio-demographic, academic, and health-related profile of nursing students structured questionnaire.
The researcher designed it to extract information about age, gender, socio-economic status, academic performance as measured by Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA), presence of medical and/or mental health problems, and availability of psychological support…etc.
Tool II: The Stress in Nurse Education Questionnaire (SINE)
SINE was developed by Rhead (1995) and comprises a total of 32 items distributed over two subdimensions (practical stress and academic stress; 16 items each) to measure the intensity of the stress as perceived by the student nurses undertaking the academic and practical aspects of the nursing education. Every item was assessed using a 4-point Likert scale, with 0 denoting no stress at all and 3 denoting intense stress. The total score of the SINE questionnaire ranges from 0-96, with the higher scores indicating greater stress.
Tool III: The Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT)
Developed by Schutte et al. (1998), and has 33 items assessing to what extent the individual perceives, understands, regulates, and makes use of emotions adaptively. Each item was rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The cumulative score ranges from 33 to 165 with higher scores indicating higher emotional intelligence. The test comprises four subscales: perception of emotions, management of one‘s own emotions, management of other‘s emotions, and utilization of emotions (Ciarrochi et al., 2001).
Tool IV: The Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS)
It was developed by Endler and Parker (1990). It is a 48-item divided into three subscales that assess how frequently people employ task-, emotion-, and avoidance-oriented coping strategies when under stress. Each item was rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = not at all; 5 = very much). For each subscale, a mean score was calculated. A higher score indicates more use of the coping style that is being measured.
Preparation of the study tools
All tools were translated by the thesis supervisors into Arabic language.
A panel consisting of five bilingual professionals specializing in Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing reviewed all study tools for translation accuracy and assessed their face validity.
A pilot study was carried out on a random sample of 45 nursing students (5% of the total sample size) recruited from semester ”3” which had the largest population size (N = 921). Results indicated that the translated tools were clear and applicable.
Tools II, III, and IV were assessed for internal consistency using Cronbach‘s alpha. All tools were proven to be reliable.
Actual study
The researcher and thesis supervisor met with nursing department chairpersons and course coordinators to discuss the study’s purpose and sample size.
A simple random sample method was used to select a representative sample size from each stratum.
The researcher divided the required sample into groups of 50 students each. Students who agreed to participate in the study and signed an informed consent form, filled out a self-administered questionnaire containing information about the study tools.
Statistical analysis:
The following statistical measures were used:
Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data.
Pearson correlation coefficient (r) was used to assess correlations among key variables.
Perceived academic stress was categorized into low and high levels using a median split.
Level of emotional intelligence was calculated according to the mean ± 1 SD and divided into low, moderate, and high levels.
ANOVA and t-test were used to test for association between perceived academic stress, socio-demographic, academic, and health-related variables and to determine potential covariates associated with perceived academic stress to be included in the regression analysis.
The mediator role of each coping strategy was examined using Baron and Kenny’s technique (1986).
Tool IV: The Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS)
It was developed by Endler and Parker (1990). It is a 48-item divided into three subscales that assess how frequently people employ task-, emotion-, and avoidance-oriented coping strategies when under stress. Each item was rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = not at all; 5 = very much). For each subscale, a mean score was calculated. A higher score indicates more use of the coping style that is being measured.
Preparation of the study tools
All tools were translated by the thesis supervisors into Arabic language.
A panel consisting of five bilingual professionals specializing in Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing reviewed all study tools for translation accuracy and assessed their face validity.
A pilot study was carried out on a random sample of 45 nursing students (5% of the total sample size) recruited from semester ”3” which had the largest population size (N = 921). Results indicated that the translated tools were clear and applicable.
Tools II, III, and IV were assessed for internal consistency using Cronbach‘s alpha. All tools were proven to be reliable.
Actual study
The researcher and thesis supervisor met with nursing department chairpersons and course coordinators to discuss the study’s purpose and sample size.
A simple random sample method was used to select a representative sample size from each stratum.
The researcher divided the required sample into groups of 50 students each. Students who agreed to participate in the study and signed an informed consent form, filled out a self-administered questionnaire containing information about the study tools.
Statistical analysis:
The following statistical measures were used:
Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data.
Pearson correlation coefficient (r) was used to assess correlations among key variables.
Perceived academic stress was categorized into low and high levels using a median split.
Level of emotional intelligence was calculated according to the mean ± 1 SD and divided into low, moderate, and high levels.
ANOVA and t-test were used to test for association between perceived academic stress, socio-demographic, academic, and health-related variables and to determine potential covariates associated with perceived academic stress to be included in the regression analysis.
The mediator role of each coping strategy was examined using Baron and Kenny’s technique (1986).
The following are the main results yielded by the present study:
I. Descriptive statistics
The majority of the baccalaureate nursing students were females (73.2%), aged 22 years and below (93.9%).
Most students were Egyptians (97.1%).
The mean score of students‘ Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) was 2.91 out of ―4‖.
A small percentage of students reported mental and/or physical health issues (10% and 14.4%, respectively).
More than half of the students (57.9%) received psychological support.
A significant percentage of nursing students (55.4%) had high levels of perceived academic stress. The prevailing sources of stress were related to scholastic workload and emotional strains in clinical practice.
More than two-thirds of the nursing students (68.6%) had a moderate level of emotional intelligence.
Nursing students frequently utilized task-oriented coping strategies and less frequently used avoidance-oriented coping strategies (59.15±9.22, and 52.37±10.09; respectively)
II. Correlation among key variables (emotional intelligence, coping strategies, and perceived academic stress)
There was a moderately positive statistically significant correlation between the overall score of perceived academic stress and emotion-oriented coping strategy (r =0.40, p<0.001).
An inverse correlation between managing one‘s own emotions, a component of emotional intelligence, and the total score of perceived academic stress (r = -0.10, p<0.01) was observed.
There was a positive correlation between task-oriented coping strategy and the overall score of the emotional intelligence test and its components (r = 0.36 to 0.50, p<0.001).
Emotion-oriented coping was inversely associated with an overall score of the emotional intelligence test (r = -0.09, p<0.001), and only the component of perception of emotion (r= -0.11, p<0.01) and managing one‘s own emotions (r = -0.17, p<0.001).
There was a significantly moderate and positive correlation between avoidance-oriented coping strategy and emotional intelligence (r =0.18, p<0.001).
III. Relationship between perceived academic stress, socio-demographic characteristics, academic and health-related profile of baccalaureate nursing students
Older students had lower levels of perceived academic stress compared to younger students (54.93±17.32, and 63.36±14.80; respectively), t = 4.05; p<0.001.
Females reported higher mean scores of perceived academic stress compared to males (64.05±14.98, and 59.55±14.91; respectively), t = -3.10; p<0.001.
Egyptian students reported higher perceived academic stress compared to foreign students (63.35±14.76, and 45.92±16.59; respectively), t = 5.92; p<0.001.
Students with insufficient income reported the highest levels of perceived academic stress (66.44±13.13), F=3.75; p<0.05.
Students residing alone obtained the highest mean score of perceived academic stress (64.69±14.20, F=14.31, P<0.001).
A higher, CGPA was positively correlated with a higher perceived academic stress among nursing students (r=0.12, p<0.001).
Student nurses admitted involuntarily to the nursing faculty had a significantly higher perceived academic stress (67.28±14.37) than those admitted voluntarily (61.65±15.06), t=4.76, p<0.001.
Students with mental health problems reported higher levels of perceived academic stress than those who did not (67.66±15.18, and 62.31±15.00; respectively), t=3.18; p<0.01.
IV. Testing the mediator effect of coping strategies in the relationship between emotional intelligence and perceived academic stress
Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the mediator effect of different coping strategies on the relationship between emotional intelligence and perceived academic stress.
It was found that managing one‘s own emotions negatively predicted perceived academic stress after controlling covariates (B = -0.19, β = -0.07, t= -2.03, p<0.05). However, when emotion-oriented coping strategies are included in the model, the direct effect of management of own emotions on perceived academic stress became non-significant (B=-0.08, β=-0.03, t=-0.88, p=0.38). This indicates that the protective effect of managing one’s own emotions against perceived academic stress was fully mediated by emotion-oriented coping techniques.
Task-oriented and avoidance-oriented coping strategies did not demonstrate a mediator role in the relationship between the management of one‘s own emotions and perceived academic stress.
Based on the results of the current study, it can be concluded that: Students experience a significant level of perceived academic stress as a result of their academic workload, and emotionally charged situations during their clinical practice. Emotional intelligence, as an internal resource, cultivates the use of effective coping strategies to meet the demands of academics. However, it still requires further development. Managing one‘s own emotions, a component of emotional intelligence buffers the effect of perceived academic stress through lowering the use of maladaptive emotion-oriented coping strategies among nursing students.
The following are the main recommendations of the present study:
Develop psycho-educational and skills-training programs to improve emotional intelligence and effective coping skills among nursing students.
Optimize psychological support and counseling services at the faculty of nursing.
Establish a welcoming and understanding learning environment in which students feel comfortable discussing their feelings and seeking assistance, when necessary, especially during clinical practice.