Academic Stress and Coping Strategies: “Devaluation” and Subject-Specificity

Abstract

“Devaluation” is one of the coping strategies that students employ when they encounter academic stress in an attempt to minimize their suffering. The purpose of this research is to determine whether the occurrence of this “devaluation” depends on academic subjects. A semi-structured interview combined with an open-ended questionnaire were conducted to reveal students’ feelings and behaviors toward subjects they were not good at. Statistical analyses showed that students who were not good at Japanese used “devaluation” significantly more often that students who disliked Mathematics. In contrast, students who disliked Mathematics felt significantly more academic stress than students who were not good at Japanese. This study demonstrates that “devaluation” can be used more easily towards certain subjects than others, suggesting that, for other subjects such as Mathematics, some other measures need to be taken to lessen suffering caused by academic stress.