COPING STRATEGIES OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN GEORGIAN CONTEXT

Studies in university students' coping strategies have their peculiarities due to particularly acute stresses characteristic of this period of life. On the other hand, there are specific limits regarding the nature of stressors and the lack of coping ability in this period. Due to such limits, it is necessary to consider different approaches to university students' stressors. Research into university students' coping strategies has been done in various countries, but this is the first such study done in Georgia. Within the transactional stress concept of Lazarus, we tested the stress buffering effects of various coping strategies such as task-, emotion-, and avoidance-oriented coping strategies, praying, and social support. Within the framework of the research, 252 university students from a wide variety of disciplines and with an average age of 21 were surveyed. The methods applied in the study are the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS) by Endler & Parker (Endler & Parker,1990) and the Stress Life Inventory (SRRS) by Holmes and Rahe (Holmes & Rahe, 1967) combined with the Kucher Adolescent Depression Scale KADS -6 (Brooks et al.,2003). Results show expected main effects: There are different coping strategies used in different critical life events. Coping strategies such as social support and praying have a stress-buffering effect and prove to be situational resources in cases of strong stress. Certain coping strategies such as task-oriented coping, emotional coping and praying are predictors of psychological well-being.