Perceived Stress and Life Satisfaction among College Students

Abstract

The present study examined the relationship between perceived stress and life satisfaction among college students. Perceived stress refers to the extent to which individuals appraise their life circumstances as stressful, whereas life satisfaction reflects a person's cognitive evaluation of the quality of his or her life. A correlational research design was proposed. For purposes of demonstrating the statistical presentation of a journal manuscript, a synthetic dataset of 200 college students was used; these results are illustrative and must not be presented as observations collected from real participants. Perceived stress was assessed using the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), and life satisfaction was assessed using the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). In the synthetic analysis, perceived stress was negatively correlated with life satisfaction (r = −.52, p < .001). A simple linear regression indicated that perceived stress significantly predicted life satisfaction, R² = .27, F(1, 198) = 73.35, p < .001. The findings are consistent with published research indicating that higher stress is generally associated with poorer well-being among university students. Recent research has also shown a direct negative relationship between perceived stress and life satisfaction and has identified coping strategies and personality traits as potentially important explanatory factors. The study highlights the importance of stress-management, coping-skills, social-support, and well-being programs in higher education.