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Adult Education Quarterly
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Dealing With the Stress of College

A Model for Adult Students

Jennifer Kohler Giancola

St. Louis University

Matthew J. Grawitch

St. Louis University

Dana Borchert

St. Louis University

With an increase in nontraditional students attending college, there is a need to understand how work/school/life stress affects adult students. The purpose of this study is to test a comprehensive stress model that posits appraisal (cognitive evaluation) and coping as mediators between stressors/interrole conflict and psychosocial outcomes. The model proposes that higher levels of stressors/interrole conflict will be associated with lower positive and higher negative appraisals. The model also predicts that positive and negative appraisals will predict specific adaptive and maladaptive coping behaviors. Adaptive coping results in positive outcomes, whereas negative coping leads to negative outcomes. The results support appraisal and coping as partial mediators with positive appraisal and adaptive coping having the hypothesized positive effects. Family—school conflict and school—work conflict and work stressors, in particular, emerge as key stressors for the adult student. This study provides direction for future researchers and implications for adult higher education.

Key Words: stress • nontraditional students • adult undergraduates • role strain • coping • adult education

Adult Education Quarterly, Vol. 59, No. 3, 246-263 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0741713609331479
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