Sources of Academic Stress and Coping Strategies of Sandwich Students in a Nigerian University: A Quantitative Study of a Minority Student Population

Abstract

Though lifelong education has been emphasised in current literature, studies focusing on the wellbeing of sandwich students in Nigeria have been scarce. Our study set out to identify sandwich students’ academic stressors and how they cope with these stressors. The quantitative cross-sectional survey research design was applied in our study. Using a convenience sampling technique, 164 sandwich students participated in the study. Our findings showed, among others, that students perceived overcrowded hostels, congested lecture schedules, time pressure to cover the course before exams, and inconsistent lecturing timetables to be the most significant stressors of their programme. Students had higher mean scores in approach and social support coping strategies than in an avoidance coping strategy. Also, gender, year of study, and marital status were not significant factors in students’ adoption of coping strategies except in social support coping, where marital status was a significant factor. Our findings show that sandwich students face some challenges that result in academic stress and are inclined to adopt mostly task-based strategies to cope with academic stress. Implications of the findings were highlighted.