Religious Coping and Stres in Academic Context

Ulfiah Ulfiah, Andika Nur Farida and Sulasman Sulasman

UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Jl. A.H. Nasution 105, Bandung, Indonesia

ulfiah@uinsgd.ac.id

Keywords: Religious Coping, Stress.

Abstract: This research was aspired from observing Arabic language students in UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung

that used religious coping to relieve their stress. Most students said that religious coping that they used reduce

their stress. However, few students claimed that coping strategy that they used was not able to reduce the

stress that they encounter. This study was aimed at finding out if there is a correlation between religious

coping and stress in Arabic education program UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung. This study was a

correlational study. Out of the 366 students of the population, the research took as many as 25% or 93 students

as the research sample. The instrument in this study was religious coping scale adapted from Aflakseir and

Coleman and stress scale adapted from Sarafino. The scales were using Likert scale for the measurement. And

for the analysis, the data were computed using person’s r. The pedagogical implications from this study are

that the Arabic education students in UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung can choose an appropriate coping

strategy that they can use to reduce their stress. So as to reduce the stress that they might have from different

kinds of situations.

1 INTRODUCTION

According to Lazarus and Folkman (1984), stress is

an internal condition caused by physical insistence

from body or environmental and social conditions

that are considered harmful, uncontrollable or too

much for an individual to cope with. Further, Sarafino

in Damayanti (2013) defined stress as a desperate

feeling in handling social insistence so that it cause

tense and inconvenient.

Every individual may encounter stress, including

students. Students are individuals who continue their

education to college with greater duties and

responsibilities than the previous level of education.

In college, individuals are required to be more mature

in thinking and acting. University demands for

students not only in academic achievement, but also

students are required to contribute well to the

professional matters later. In addition, students are

also required to contribute to overcome the social

problems that occur in their surroundings.

This demand is in contrast with the student

situation, as a student with all limited social

experiences. This causes the student fails to solve the

problems experienced by himself. Students are

having heavy college loads. Every day they must do

the tasks assigned by the lecturer.

Even before graduating from the university,

students are still experiencing conflicts in making

thesis, such as material that is difficult to get and

lecturers who are difficult to contact. Thus, from the

beginning of the semester until the final semester the

students faced situations that can make them stressed.

This situation is experienced by most students with

various problems and levels. Various problems that

occur in the students make themselves distressed and

complaining.

In the process, when a person experiences stress

or pressure, he or she needs a proper coping

mechanism. According to Sarafino and Smith (2011)

Coping is a process whereby individuals attempt to

regulate the perceived situation of which there is a

gap between their effort and ability considered as the

cause of a stressful situation. Coping refers to

cognitive and behavioral efforts to master, reduce or

manage the internal and / or external demands created

by stressful situations (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984).

One of the things that plays an important role in

managing stress is religion, because religion can

provide individual direction / guidance, support, and

hope, as well as on emotional support Pargament in

Utami (2012) and Loewenthal in anggraini (2014)

says that a person under stress conditions arising from

anxiety can use a religious coping strategy to reduce

Ulﬁah, U., Farida, A. and Sulasman, S.

Religious Coping and Stres in Academic Context.

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 2, pages 409-414

ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2

409

the effects of stress within himself. Religious coping

is an effort to understand and overcome stressful

sources in life by doing various ways to strengthen

individual relationships with God (Pargament et al.,

2011).

Pargament in Angganantyo (2014) states that

religious coping often occurs in critical situations

experienced by a person such as an accident, death,

critical illness and failure to achieve what is desired

so that it can cause stressful effects. This is supported

by Ellison's research by interviewing methods that

find prayers used for coping, related issues and life

crises that are too much to handle on their own

(Pargament in Angganantyo, 2014).

Some research on religious coping among Muslim

populations, such as Kesselring et al. in Siegel (1986)

compared the use of religious coping between

Egyptians and Sweden’s. They reported that 92% of

Egyptian patients with cancer expressed confidence

that God would help them, in contrast to only 37% of

Swedish patients suffering from the same disease

Similarly, Hussain and Cochrane in Aflakseir and

Coleman (2011), in a study of Muslim women with

depression, found that coping through religion was

the most common strategy, in which women prayed

for help and read many prayers and verses from the

Qur'an specifically to seek protection from disease.

Furthermore, Dahlan's research in johanes and

Thodora (2011) divides the religious-focused

coping into two parts, namely religious belief and

religious behavior. Dahlan in johanes and Thodora

(2011) finds that religious-focused coping is

always done by Indonesian subjects, when they

encounter certain stressors. Therefore, this study

also uses religious-focused as one type of coping

which is likely to be selected by the sample, since

the sample of this study is Indonesian. This

research only focuses on religious-focused coping

in the form of religious belief.

In the Qur'an it is explained that by remembering

God the heart will be calm and serene, as in Ar-Ra'd

verse 28.























































































































































ُ

Those who have believed and whose hearts are

assured by the remembrance of Allah.

Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah hearts

are assured."(QS. Ar-Ra’d: 28)

In line with the verses of the Qur'an, Rasulullah

SAW also implies the condition of the believer, when

faced with a failure or disaster. As mentioned in the

hadith which means: "There is no hope and worry in

the heart of a believer except Allah Almighty and His

Majesty gives him hope and secures him from fear"

(HR. Thabrani).

Based on the explanation, the researcher is

interested in doing more research about the

relationship between religious coping with stress on

Tarbiyah faculty students majoring in Arabic

Education UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung. The

purpose of this study was to find out the relationship

between religious coping and stress.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Religious Coping

According to Pargament et al. (2011) religious coping

is an effort to understand and overcome stressful

sources in life by doing various ways to strengthen

individual relationships with God. Religious coping

involves the use of cognitive or behavioral strategies

based on beliefs or religious practices to help manage

emotional stress or physical discomfort (Koenig in

Aflakseir and Coleman, 2011).

Pargament in Angganantyo (2014) states that a

religious coping strategy tends to be used when an

individual want something that cannot be obtained

from a human being, as he finds himself incapable of

facing reality. Consequently, individual can divert his

weakness to an infinite power in order to gain strength

to overcome that reality (Angganantyo, 2014).

Pargament in his research identifies three

strategies of religious coping, (1) self-directing

(religious coping method by focusing and relying on

oneself rather than God). Self-centeredness does not

mean to forget God, only the intensity is different) (2)

deferring (more likely to suspend and pass it all to

God passively), and (3) collaborative (a composite of

self-directing and deferring where individuals and

God become partners, individuals and God work

actively together for problem solving). In addition to

the three kinds of religious coping, there are two other

patterns of religious coping, namely positive religious

coping and negative religious coping.

However, in this study researchers used the theory

of Religious coping of Pargaments that had been

filtered and adapted for individuals with an

understanding of Islamic religion by Aflakseir and

Coleman (2011). There are three kinds and two

patterns relevant to the concept of Islam, namely:

 Religious practice (spiritual behaviors and

actions such as prayer, du’a, dzikr, Qur'an

recitation, fasting);

ICSE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education

410

 Negative Feeling Toward God (the individual

has a negative prejudice to the god of the

problem being experienced);

 Benevolent Reappraisal (reassessment of God-

given issues with positive consideration);

 Passive Religious coping (more likely to

suspend and pass it to God passively).

Active Religious Coping (looking for control

through a cooperative relationship with God in

problem solving).

2.2 Stress

According to Lazarus and Folkman (1984), Lovallo

in Sarafino (2011) stress is a condition that is caused

when a person's differences or environment are

related to the individual, i.e. between the desired

situation with the biological, psychological or social

system of the individual.

Sarafino (in Damayanti) defines stress as a feeling

of being unable to cope with various demands of the

environment causing tension and discomfort.

Sources of stress can vary, in line with human

development but stress conditions can also occur at

any time throughout human life (Smet, 1994).

Sarafino (2011) distinguishes sources of stress into

three parts, namely:

2.2.1 The Sources of Stress Within a Person

Illness and age are sources of stress in a person.

Where pain creates physical and psychological

demands on stressful individuals. The body's ability

to fight disease usually improves in childhood and

declines in old age. In addition, for adults, the

assessment of the disease usually includes current

difficulties and concerns for the future, whereas for

children only focus on the present.

Another thing that triggers stress is conflict.

According to Miller in Sarafino (2011), the drivers

and pullers of the conflict produce two opposite

tendencies, namely approach and avoidance. This

tendency generates the basic types of conflict

(Sarafino, 2011):

 Approach-approach Conflict. It comes when

we are attracted to two equally good goals;

 Avoidance-avoidance Conflict. It Appears

when we have to choose two unpleasant

situations. Sarafino (2011) explains that people

usually try to delay or avoid the decision in

avoiding this conflict. Therefore, usually

avoidance-avoidance conflict is very difficult

to solve;

 Approach-avoidance Conflict. It appears when

we see interesting and unattractive conditions

in a purpose or situation.

2.2.2 The Source of Stress in a Family

Sarafino (2011) explains that the behavior, needs, and

personalities of each family member impact on

interactions with people from other members of the

family that sometimes cause stress. According to

Sarafino (2011) factors from families that tend to

allow the emergence of stress is the presence of new

members, divorce and the existence of a sick family,

disability, and death.

2.2.2 Stress Sources Within Communities

Contact with people outside the family provides many

sources of stress. For example, children experience in

school and competition. The existence of experiences

related to work and also with the environment can

cause a person to become stressed (Sarafino, 2011),

such as extreme temperatures, noise, and stuck

congestion (Smet, 1994).

3 METHODS

3.1 Research Approach and

Instruments

This study belongs to quantitative study using

correlational design. The respondents of the study are

366 students of Tarbiyah Faculty. Out of the

population, 93 students were selected as the sample

using proportionate stratified random sampling

technique. The population was stratified on the basis

of academic year. There are four different academic

years. The following table describes the distribution

of the sample based on their academic year.

Table 1: The distribution of the respondents based on their

academic year.

Academic Year /

Semester

The number of

respondents

Semester I

Semester III

Semester V

Semester VII

Total respondents

The data were obtained from two instruments;

Religious coping and stress scale. Religious Coping

scale was modified from similar scale originally

Religious Coping and Stres in Academic Context

411

developed by Aflakseir and Coleman (2011) This

scale consists of five indicators; Religious practice,

Negative Feeling Toward God, Benevolent

Reappraisal, Passive Religious coping, and Active

Religious Coping. The stress scale was adapted from

Sarafino (2011) covering four aspects: physical and

Psychological aspects (cognition, emotion and

behavior)

Before collecting the data, the two instruments

were tested for their respective validity and

reliability. The result is presented in the following

table.

Table 2: Research Instrument Validity Index.

Instrument

The number

of tested

aspects

The number

of valid

aspects

Validity

Index

Religious

Coping

Scale

5 Aspects

4 Aspects

0.295 –

0.853

Stress Scale

4 Aspects

0.642 –

0.925

The table shows that 4 Religious Coping aspects

are valid but the other aspect is not, it is in negative

feeling toward god aspect. However, Since the four

other aspects are valid and represent all aspects,

religious coping aspects are deemed valid in

measuring religious coping. Furthermore, the four

aspects of stress are valid with the lowest validity

index 0,642 and the highest 0,925.

After validity test, reliability test was also carried

out and has resulted in the following results.

Table 3: Research Instrument Reliability Index.

Instrument

Alpha Coefficient

Religious Coping Scale

0.713

Stress Scale

0.741

Based on table 3, it was verified that the two

instruments are reliable based on the Cronbach alpha

requirement. This has led to a conclusion that the two

instruments used in this research are valid and reliable

3.2 Data Collection Techniques

This study belongs to quantitative study using

correlational design. The respondents of the study are

366 students of Tarbiyah Faculty.

Overall, the procedure of the research is divided into

five stages: preparation stage, implementation stage

(data retrieval), data processing stage, data analysis stage

and final step (drawing conclusion and report writing).

Prior to conducting the research, the researcher took care

of the permit and asked permission at the research site,

Faculty of Tarbiyah majoring in Arabic Education UIN

Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung.

The implementation process is done by giving

questionnaires to samples that have been specified as

many as 93 students During data collection, the

researcher experienced obstacle in the form of filling the

questionnaire that is not in accordance with the number

of items, so after some time the researcher reshared the

questionnaire.

The data analysis used SPSS (Statistical Program

for Social Science) version 17. The data analysis

technique in quantitative almost always uses statistical

computation. There are two types of statistical analyses

in this research; descriptive and inferential. The data was

analyzed using Pearson correlation to determine the

correlation between the two observed variables.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Based on the data from the sample, it was revealed

the following categorization:

Table 4: Respondent based on Religious coping.

Categories

Interval

Total

Number

Percentage

Low

X <142

12,9 %

Moderate

142 < X < 185

76,3 &

High

X <185

10,8 %

Table 5 describes that the students with low stress

level are 12 students (12.9%), those with moderate

stress level are 71 students (76.3%) and those with

high religious coping are 10 students (10,8%). It can

be concluded that most students have moderate level

of stress.

After the distributions had been identified,

correlation analysis was carried out to find out the

ICSE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education

412

correlation between the two variables. What follows

in table 6 are the correlation test result.

Table 6: The correlation between Religious Coping and

Stress.

Correlation

Coefficient (r)

Analysis Indexes

Correlation

Coefficient (r)

- 0,57

Determination

Coefficient (r2)

- 0,325

Confidence Level (α)

5% (0,05)

Based on the analysis, it was discovered the

following results: r = - 0,57, r

= - 0,325, α = 0,05,

N= 93, Pvalue = 0,587. If Pvalue>α , 0,587 > 0,05, it

means that H

is accepted and H1 is rejected. This

implies that there is no correlation between religious

coping and stress in Arabic education students in UIN

Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung.

The result confirmed that there is no correlation

between religious coping and stress in the students.

The finding of the study is expected to be

beneficial for further research so as to the students

have more effective coping strategies in attaining

psychological well-being.

5 DISCUSSION

The result is in contrast with the existing theories.

Wong, McDonald and Gorsuch in Utami (2012) say

that religious coping is an individual way of using his

belief in managing stress and problems in his life. In

addition, Pargament et al. (2011) reveals that

measurement of religious coping has proven to be a

stronger predictor in the face of stressful situations.

In this case, the researcher considers the

statements of some subjects stating that even though

they already do religious coping especially on the

religious practices aspect, they do not get the peace

and remain anxious.

In Qur’an surah Ar-Ra’d: Those who have

believed and whose hearts are assured by the

remembrance of Allah. Unquestionably, by the

remembrance of Allah hearts are assured." in Jalalain

Tafsir the verse is translated as “those who believe

and whose hearts are reassured find rest by God’s

remembrance that is by His promise of reward. Verily

by God’s remembrance are hearts reassured that is the

hearts of the believers;

The tafsir emphasizes on the phrases those who

believe. Iman literally means believing in something.

Islamic scholars define iman as to believe with one’s

heart, to confess with one’s tongue and to

demonstrate in one’s physical actions. This is

consistent with the Hadith of Prophet Muhammad

SAW saying that: Iman is to believe with one’s heart,

to confess with one’s tongue and to demonstrate in

one’s physical actions (HR Thabrani). It is also

explicitly stated in Al-Hujurat: 15 The believers are

only the ones who have believed in Allah and His

Messenger and then doubt not but strive with their

properties and their lives in the cause of Allah. It is

those who are the truthful.

The verse implies that Iman that will reassure

one’s heart. The faith and the submission to Allah is

the key by believing that Allah controls everything

and Allah provides solution for everything. When

individuals have faith, they will feel calm and

peaceful.

Abu Hurairah r.a said that one Rasulullah said:

Pray to God, while you will be sure your prayers will

be answered. Know that God does not grant prayers

from a careless heart. (HR. Imam Ahmad).

The high degree of religious coping in students

can be influenced by several factors, such as

education, experience, environment, etc. Pargament

suggests that the use of religious coping is unstable

and may vary according to the level of stressors and

life experiences (Angganantyo, 2014).

Several factors that can affect stress levels such as

psychological resistance, where psychologically

people with high psychological endurance tend to be

more effective in dealing with stress. Ability to

respond to the emergence of problems or conflicts is

also a factor that affects the level of stress, weaker

response in dealing with stress may cause heavier and

more complicated stress. The gap between the

expectations and limitations of one's ability also

affects the level of one's stress. The bigger the gap

between expectation and limited ability will be the

greater the degree of stress faced (Anggraini, 2014).

6 CONCLUSIONS

The result confirmed that there is no correlation between

religious coping and stress in the students of Arabic

Education Department UIN Sunan Gunung Djati

Bandung.

The pedagogical implications from this study are

that the Arabic education students in UIN Sunan

Gunung Djati Bandung can choose an appropriate

coping strategy that they can use to reduce their

stress. So as to reduce the stress that they might have

from different kinds of situations. For the next

researcher, in this research there are still many things

Religious Coping and Stres in Academic Context

413

that have not been answered and need to be further

researched. Therefore, if the researcher wants to

examine the stress, it is recommended that the

researcher does research on the appropriate specific

conditions that describe the stress situation, and other

researchers can also use the verses of the Qur'an as

literature in making measuring instruments to

conform to Islamic principles. In addition, other

researchers can also conduct research with more

population and similar stress levels.

REFERENCES

Aflakseir and Coleman, 2011. Initial development of the

Iranian religious coping scale. Journal of Muslim

Mental Health. 6, (1), 44-61.

Angganantyo, W., 2014. Coping religius pada karyawan

muslim ditinjau dari tipe kepribadian. Jurnal Ilmiah

Psikologi Terapan. 2, (1), 50-61.

Anggraini, B., 2014. Religious coping dengan stress pada

mahasiswa. Jurnal Online Psikologi. 2, (1), 135-151.

Damayanti, Y., 2013. Perbedaan Tingkat Stres Sebelum

Dan Setelah Pelatihan Manajemen Stres Pada

Mahasiswa Tingkat Akhir Di Asrama Aceh. EMPATHY

Jurnal Fakultas Psikologi. 2(1).

Lazarus and Folkman, 1984. Stress, Appraisal, and Coping,

Springer Publishing Company. New York.

Johanes A. A. R., Thodora, E. T., 2011. Jurnal Humaniora.

Vol.2 No. 1.

Pargament, K. I., Feuille, M., Burdzy, D., 2011. The Brief

RCOPE: current psychometric status of a short measure

of religious coping. Journal of religions. 2, 51-76.

Sarafino, E. P., Smith, T. W., 2011. Health psychology:

biopsychosocial interactions, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

New York.

7th

edition.

Siegel, S., 1986. Statistik Nonparametrik untuk ilmu-ilmu

social, Gramedia. Jakarta.

Smet, B., 1994. Psikologi Kesehatan, PT. Grasindo.

Jakarta.

Utami, M., 2012. Religiusitas, Koping Religius, dan

Kesejahteraan Subjektif. Jurnal Psikologi. 36, (1), 46-

66.

ICSE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education

414