Coping Mechanism Towards Academic Stress Among Students: An Analysis from Islamic Perspective

Academic stress can have a negative effect on a student's cognitive, emotional and behavioural well-being. Furthermore, academic stress could also cause a decline in student’s academic performance. Therefore, it is necessary for the student to be able to cope and relieve stress. Religious coping strategies are one of the effective ways in overcoming academic stress. This study was aimed to explore and understand students' experiences of religious coping methods when facing academic stress. A qualitative method by using interview was used. A total of five respondents from the public universities were involved. The data from interviews were analysed by using thematic analysis from five respondents. This study discovered three specific religious coping behaviour that was employed to cope with academic stress; 1) worship in the heart, 2) worship verbally and, 3) worship by action. It has also identified three themes on the impact of religious coping on 1) cognitive, 2) emotional and 3) behaviour. From this study, it can be concluded that specific religious coping behavior which had been used by the students is helpful for them in coping with academic stress. The knowledge and awareness of the internal and external stressors also can help the students to identify the best solution and coping mechanism to manage the stress. These coping behaviours also help the students to have a better understanding of how religious coping can affect students in terms of cognitive, emotion and behavior.