Covid-19 Pandemic: Academic Resilience and Academic Stress

among College Students in Gresik

Ima Fitri Sholichah

and Muhimmatul Hasanah

Universitas Muhammadiyah Gresik, Jalan Sumatera 101 GKB, Gresik, Indonesia

Institut Pesantren Sunan Drajat, Paciran, Lamongan, Indonesia

Keywords: Academic Resilience, Academic Stress, Student Collage.

Abstract: Students studying in college will undoubtedly face various academic problems. Resilience is needed for

students to have the ability to adapt to challenging situations and overcome challenges and problems both in

college and in their personal lives. In addition, students who have good academic resilience will find it easy

to solve the problems they face related to learning activities and academic performance. This study aims to

empirically examine the role of academic resilience on academic stress among college students. The

participants in this study were 124 students (28.2% male and 71.8% female) from several universities in

Gresik aged 17-29 years (SD = 1.73). The academic resilience in this study was measured using the academic

resilience scale (ARS- Indonesia), while the academic stress was measured using the Student-life Stress

Inventory (SSI). The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, Pearson correlation, and a simple

regression test. The results showed that academic resilience has a significant role in predicting academic stress

among students. Furthermore, the level of academic resilience and academic stress of the participants are at

the medium level. Several suggestions and recommendations based on the research findings are discussed.

1 INTRODUCTION

The end of 2019 in Wuhan, a new type of coronavirus

(SARS-Cov-2) was identified, causing a disease

called coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Coronaviruses are group of viruses that can cause

disease in animals or humans. Several types of

coronaviruses are known to cause respiratory tract

infections in humans ranging from coughs and colds

to more serious ones such as Middle East Respiratory

Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory

Syndrome (SARS) (Wilder-Smith & Freedman,

2020).

In early 2020 this virus has spread to 65 countries

globally, and World Health Organization (WHO) has

designated this virus as a global pandemic (Yuliana,

2020). A pandemic refers to a disease that spreads to

many people in several countries at the same time.

The spread of the new variant of coronavirus itself is

increasing significantly and continuously globally.

The world is shocked by the growing number of

covid-19 cases; based on WHO data in April 2021,

the number of cases of coronavirus infection

worldwide, with positive confirmed cases as many as

141,982,642 people, with a death rate of 3,032,055

(Kemkes, 2020).

Indonesia began to be infected with this virus in

early March 2020 with the discovery of 2 positive

cases in Depok, West Java. Since then, the number of

people infected by the virus has continued to increase.

Until June 2021, the number of Covid-19 cases in

Indonesia recorded 1,950,276 people and increased

by 12,990 from Thursday (17/6) data. It brings the

cumulative total of cases caused by the SARS-CoV-2

virus to 1,963,266 people. The findings of 12,990

Covid-19 cases were based on the examination of

132,215 specimens from 73,805 people. The addition

of 12,990 positive cases of Covid-19 was contributed

from 31 out of 34 provinces in Indonesia (Merdeka,

2020).

The COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease-19)

pandemic has affected education systems worldwide,

leading to the closure of schools, universities, and

colleges. As of April 27, 2020, approximately 1.7

billion students were affected in response to the

pandemic. According to UNICEF, 186 countries have

implemented national closures, and eight countries

have implemented local closures. This affects

approximately 98.5% of the world's student

population (UNESCO, 2020). Policies taken by many

countries, including Indonesia, by closing all

educational activities have forced the government and

Sholichah, I. and Hasanah, M.

Covid-19 Pandemic: Academic Resilience and Academic Stress among College Students in Gresik.

DOI: 10.5220/0010809500003347

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Psychological Studies (ICPsyche 2021), pages 119-130

ISBN: 978-989-758-580-7

119

related institutions to offer alternative educational

methods for students and students who are not at

educational institutions (Purwanto et al., 2020).

People are suggested to avoid crowded places and

carry out worship at home to minimize the spreading

of the virus. In addition, all activities that are usually

carried out outside the home are hampered and

limited, including school activity. As a consequence

of the physical distancing policy, the government

issued a policy through the ministry of education and

culture, namely the Learning from Home program or

online learning. It is to avoid physical contact among

the educators and the students, which causes the virus

to spread more widely. This online learning policy is

applied to every level of education, from

kindergarten, elementary, junior high, high school to

university levels.

Students are individuals who study in tertiary

institutions, whether at universities, institutions,

polytechnics, academies, or high schools. According

to Goodwin (Fuad & Zarfiel, 2013), when entering

college, students will face many new challenges and

must face academic challenges that are different from

the previous ones. Higher education is a stressful time

for most students where they have to adapt to a new

educational and social environment (Misra & Castilo,

2004). Students often face academic problems from

semester to semester to the final level when they

conduct their research. The forms of academic

problems vary from simple to complex problems,

such as problems with lecturers, peers, or

interpersonal relationships. Many students feel

burdened and have difficulty in academics, such as

complex lecture material, too many assignments, low

motivation, and other difficulties.

The researchers conducted initial interviews with

some students. RA stated that he felt that offline

lectures were more fun than online lectures because

many lecturers only gave many assignments with a

short deadline. Lately, he often has sleeping problems

because he overthought about unfinished tasks,

making him more sensitive. Moreover, the situation

that does not allow him to do assignments with his

friends makes RZ feel increasingly difficult to

complete his assignments.

The explanation above shows that these students

experience academic stress. Academic stress is a

student's response to school pressure that causes

discomfort, tension, and changes in behavior

(Desmita, 2010). According to Kaplan and Sadock

(Affum-osei et al., 2014), stress is one of the most

influential factors in learning achievement. Academic

stress experienced by students has an impact on their

learning outcomes/achievements.

Academic stress on students needs to be

considered because it influences the educational

process. Physically, academic stress causes sleep

disturbances, so that many students use sedative

substances (Waqas, Khan, Sharif, Khalid, & Ali,

2015). Academic stress causes a decrease in student

performance, both male and female students (Khan,

Altaf & Kausar, 2013). The decline in performance

was also followed by decreased academic

achievement Sohail (2013). So that academic stress

also has an impact on delays in the study process and

dropping out (Schaefer, Matthess, Pfitzer, & Kohle,

2007).

With these pressures in the academic field,

students need high resilience to survive in challenging

conditions and continue to complete lecture

assignments and thesis. This resilience is called

academic resilience, which is defined by the ability of

students to adapt and develop in almost all the

difficulties they experience (Waxman, Gray &

Padron, 2003). Academic resilience is the ability of

students to deal with difficulties and stress

experienced in academic contexts, such as pressure

and stress in exams and difficulties in assignments

(Mallick & Kaur, 2016). Academic resilience is the

ability of students to maintain academic performance

in life. Students with academic resilience are students

who are academically successful even though they

have a disadvantaged socioeconomic background.

Academic resilience in the context of higher

education is defined as the ability to face challenges,

difficulties, and pressures in an academic setting

effectively (Martin & Marsh, 2006). Students must

face several risk factors, such as low grades, pursuing

a predetermined time limit, difficult assignments,

strict attendance, and the obligation to attend some

lecture classes (Martin & Marsh, 2006). In short,

academic resilience refers to a phenomenon described

by the ability to achieve good results despite dealing

with difficulties in adapting and following academic

developments. According to Wang and Gordon

(1994), learners who have academic resilience are

able to turn an environment that is considered

difficult into a source of motivation while

maintaining high hopes and aspirations, being goal-

oriented, having problem- solving skills, and having

social competence. Alva (1991) added that

individuals who have academic resilience can

succeed in achieving success in the educational

process they undergo where they struggle in adverse

situations and still have the possibility of not

succeeding.

Morales (2008) stated that academic resilience is

influenced by students' beliefs about themselves,

ICPsyche 2021 - International Conference on Psychological Studies

120

others, and the world around them so that resilience

departs from the mental health experienced by

students. According to Rickinson (1997), students'

coping skills can increase their resilience, motivation,

and persistence until they complete their studies.

Academic Stress

Stress in the school or educational environment refers

to academic stress (Sinaga, M. A. J. 2015;

Rahmadani, C. S. M. 2014; Hikmah, Y. 2014).

Desmita (2010) stated, "Academic stress is stress

caused by academic stressors." Academic stressors

are stress experienced by students from the learning

process or things related to learning activities such as

pressure to go to class, study time, cheating, lots of

assignments, getting test scores, determining majors

or careers, exam anxiety, and manage stress.

Academic stress is a response that arises because

there are too many demands and tasks that students

must do. Stress conditions are caused by pressure to

show achievement and excellence in increasing

academic competition so that various pressures and

demands increasingly burden them. Academic stress

experienced by students results from subjective

perceptions of the discrepancy between

environmental demands and the substantial resources

owned by students.

Feldman et al. (2008) academic stress in children

arises when expectations for academic achievement

increase, either from parents, teachers, or peers, while

these expectations are not in accordance with their

abilities. Wilks (2008) concluded that the causes of

stress among students are: a) fear of not getting a

place in college, b) school exams, c) study too much,

and d) school schedule is too busy. All this stress is

related to academic problems. Academic stress is

defined as the pressures faced by students related to

school, which are perceived negatively and impact

their physical, psychological, and learning

performance (Feldman et al., 2008; Wilks, 2008).

Academic stressor causes academic stress

(Barseli, 2017). The academic stressor is the cause of

stress that starts from the learning process, such as

pressure to get good grades, length of study, many

assignments, low grades/achievements, and anxiety

in facing exams (Barseli et al., 2017). The

implementation of the learning from home policy

made some students feel anxious and depressed. The

number of tasks given by the teacher makes many

students feel stressed in undergoing online learning

(Chaterine, 2020). Furthermore, the tasks given by

the teacher are also considered difficult and have a

very short deadline which makes students confused in

completing their assignments (Raharjo & Sari, 2020).

Academic stress is a response that arises because

there are too many demands and tasks that students

must do. Stress conditions are caused by pressure to

show achievement and excellence in conditions of

increasing academic competition so that various

pressures and demands increasingly burden them.

Academic stress experienced by students results from

subjective perceptions of the discrepancy between

environmental demands and the substantial resources

owned by students.

Academic stress is related to a) academic pressure

(sourced from teachers, subjects, teaching methods,

learning strategies, tests, or class discussions); and b)

social pressure comes from peers. Stress will affect

the physical and psychological aspects that will

disrupt the learning process (Welsh, 2009). Academic

stress comes from external factors (school

environment and parents); on the other hand, internal

factors also affect learning stress; students prepare

themselves in doing their tasks (Sigarlaki, 2014).

Gadzella and Masten (2005) measured academic

stress in two aspects, stressors and reactions to

academic stressors.

a. Academic Stressor

Academic stressors are events or situations that

require adjustment outside the things that usually

happen in everyday life. Academic stressors fall into

five categories: (1) Frustrations when personal needs

are hampered, and students fail to achieve their life

goals. Frustration occurs due to delays, failures, daily

difficulties, lack of human resources, alienation in

society, disappointment in dating, and missed

opportunities. (2) Conflicts arise when students are

under pressure to choose two or more opposite things,

such as a conflict between two choices, both pleasant

and unpleasant, from a positive and negative

perspective. (3) Pressure is an academic stressor that

can come from within or outside the self. Pressure can

be interpreted as a stimulus that makes students

accelerate and improve their performance—for

example, competition, excessive activity, school

assignment deadlines, and interpersonal

relationships. (4) Chances are behaviors that students

raise because of several things, such as unpleasant

experiences, changes at the same time, and life

changes that interfere with individual lives. (5) Self-

imposed, how students burden themselves. For

example, the desire to compete, be loved by everyone,

worry too much, solve problems, anxiety about

exams, and procrastination.

b. Reaction to Academic Stressors

According to Gadzella and Masten (2005), there are

four categories of reactions to stress: (1)

Covid-19 Pandemic: Academic Resilience and Academic Stress among College Students in Gresik

121

Physiological emphasizes the relationship between

the mind and the physical students. Generally

characterized by excessive sweating, shaking,

stuttering, moving quickly, fatigue, indigestion,

respiratory problems, backache, skin reactions,

headache, arthritis, fever, weight loss, or weight gain.

(2) The emotions observed in this stress reaction are

emotions, such as fear, guilt, grief, feeling

upset/angry. (3) Behavior is related to students'

emotional reactions, such as crying, self- destruction,

excessive smoking, quick anger towards others,

hurting others, defense mechanisms, and aloofness.

(4) Cognitive Appraisal leads to students' experiences

of stress and students' cognitive assessments of

stressful events, which then lead to strategies that are

carried out to deal with stress. Such as thinking and

analyzing effective strategies and analyzing the

problems experienced.

According to Taylor (2003), academic stress

factors are external factors and internal factors.

a. External Factors

(1) Time and money, resources owned by individuals

that can affect the way a person deals with stressors,

(2) Education, educational background affect the way

individuals deal with stressful conditions, (3)

Standards of living, the standards applied to each

individual are different between one another, it

affects a person in facing stressful situations, (4)

social support, is the physical and psychological

encouragement provided by other people by helping

people find alternative ways of coping in dealing with

stressors, (5) Stressors in life, including major life

events and daily problems, are circumstances that can

affect the way a person deals with stressful

conditions.

b. Internal Factors

Personality, including (a) Affect, negative affect can

affect conditions of stress and pain. (b) Hardiness

personality, hardiness personality includes

commitment to oneself, belief that he can control

what happens in life, and change and conform with

new activities. (c) Optimism can make a person more

effective in dealing with stressful conditions and

reduce risk and pain. (d) Psychological control, one's

feelings can control stressful conditions and help deal

with stress more effectively, (e) Self- esteem can be a

moderator between stress and pain. (f) Coping

strategies, strategies to deal with stress mean

managing difficult situations, strengthening efforts to

overcome life's problems, and finding ways to

overcome or reduce stress levels. There are two types

of coping, problem-oriented coping and emotion-

focused coping Academic Resilience.

Academic resilience is the capacity to develop,

mature, and increase competence in obstacles. Students

need academic resilience in order to overcome the

problems encountered, especially for students. More

unpleasant conditions in the preparation of the thesis

are deemed necessary for students to build academic

resilience. Academic resilience can also determine

students' thinking styles and success as students,

including success in overcoming learning difficulties

on campus. By having academic resilience, students

can overcome difficulties, rise from pressure,

frustration, stress, depression, and try to overcome

them (Gilligan, 2007).

Finn and Rock (1997) stated that academic

resilience is significant in the academic success of

students. Students involved in campus activities and

feel more connected to the campus environment

appear to have more academic resilience. According

to Smokowski (1999), academic involvement and

social involvement are essential aspects in forming

student academic resilience.

Students with high academic resilience can

consider a challenging environment to be a source of

motivation while maintaining high hopes and

aspirations, having a clear goal orientation, having

good problem-solving skills, and having competence

in social relations with various parties. Finn and Rock

(1997) describe students who have academic

resilience prefer to work hard, rarely leave class, and

experience problems in class. Wolin and Wolin

(1993), the characteristics of academic resilience are

insightful, independent, creative, have a sense of

humor, and have initiative. Academic resilience is

influenced by supporting factors that will be the key

to the success of students passing through the

academic stages at university.

Cassidy (2015) divides academic resilience into

three aspects, a) perseverance, describes individuals

who work hard, do not give up easily, focus on

processes and goals, and have persistence in the face

of adversity, b) adaptation and help- seeking,

individuals who can reflect their strengths and

weaknesses and can seek help, support and

encouragement by other individuals as an effort to

individual adaptive behavior, and c) negative affect

and emotional response, which is a picture of anxiety,

negative emotions, optimism-pessimism, and

negative acceptance possessed by an individual

throughout life.

Martin and Marsh (2009) studied academic

resilience on a broader psychological dimension and

found five factors that can predict academic

resilience, self-efficacy, self-control, planning, low

anxiety, and persistence. These five factors must be

ICPsyche 2021 - International Conference on Psychological Studies

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considered in the test material design used to assess

students' academic resilience. The belief that is

embedded in them is a high power that will provide

encouragement in their lives in the future.

Factors that are predicted to increase students'

academic resilience are the role of parents. Parental

involvement can significantly predict students'

academic resilience, so that high parental

involvement is associated with high academic

resilience (Olaseni et al., 2020). Gender can also

significantly predict academic resilience. Adolescent

girls have better academic resilience than boys.

Parents are advised to be more involved in children's

education activities both at home and at school to

improve academic resilience. It is also recommended

that appropriate psychological intervention programs

can contribute to the development of academic

resilience. This study aims to see the negative

relationship between academic resilience and

academic stress. Besides that, it also looks at how

much influence there is between academic resilience

and academic stress.

2 METHOD

1. Participant

Participants in this study consisted of students who

studies at some universities in Gresik Regency. There

were representative participants from each level in

university. Semester 2 (n = 8.1%), semester 4 (n =

43.5%), semester 6 (n = 27.4%), semester 8 (n =

20.2%), semester 10 (n = 0 ,8%). In total, there were

124 participants, consisted of 28.2% male and 71.8%

female participants aged 17 to 29 years old (mean =

20.81, SD = 1.73) involved in this research.

Participants were obtained through non-

probability sampling method with accidental

sampling technique. The researchers used google

forms to distribute questionnaires to participants.

Participants were volunteers and did not receive

anything for their participation in this study.

2. Instruments

This study employs a quantitative method, where the

primary approach in collecting the data is a survey

with a questionnaire (Neuman, 2007). The

questionnaires in this study were given at the same

time to the participants through Google Form. In

order to collect information about students' academic

stress, this study used Student-life Stress Inventory

(SSI). In addition, to collect information related to the

students' academic resilience, this study used The

Academic Resilience Scale (ARS-30).

a. Student-life Stress Inventory

Stress Inventory (SSI) compiled by Gadzella (1991).

Student-life Stress Inventory has been translated into

Indonesian by Seswita (2013). Student-life Stress

Inventory consists of 54 items based on two

dimensions, namely stressors and reactions to stress.

Stressors consist of 23 items, and reactions to stress

consist of 31 items. This instrument has reliability

with Cronbach's Alpha coefficient ranging from .70 -

.92. In addition, the Indonesian version of the

Student-life Stress Inventory has a reliability of .908

(Seswita, 2013). Thus, the Student-life Stress

Inventory is a highly reliable scale to measure

students' academic stress.

Table 1: Example of the Indonesian version of the Student-

life Stress Inventory Blueprint.

Dimension Stressor

Item

Seringkali saya merasakan khawatir yang

berlebihan

Tubuh saya seringkali merasa gemetar

ketika menghadapi masalah

Participants filled out the instrument by choosing

one of the alternative answer options considered the

most appropriate for the participant from each

statement presented. The alternative answer choices

are (1) Very Not Appropriate, (2) Not Appropriate,

(3) Appropriate (4) Very Appropriate.

b. The Academic Resilience Scale (ARS-30)

This study also adopted the Academic Resilience

Scale (ARS-30) developed by Cassidy (2016). The

Academic Resilience Scale has been translated into

Indonesian by Kumalasari, Luthfiyanni, and

Grasiaswaty (2020). ARS- Indonesia has three

dimensions, namely persistence (10 items),

adaptation and help-seeking (8 items), and negative

affect and emotional response (6 items). ARS-

Indonesia has a reliability of .891 (Kumalasari,

Luthfiyanni, & Grasiaswaty, 2020). ARS-Indonesia

(24 items) proved valid and reliable in measuring

academic resilience in the Indonesian student

population.

Table 2: Example of ARS-Indonesia Blueprint.

Dimension Adaptation and help-seeking

Item

Saya akan menggunakan kesuksesan saya

sebelumnya untuk membantu memotivasi

diri saya .

Saya akan mulai memantau dan

mengevaluasi pencapaian dan upaya saya

Covid-19 Pandemic: Academic Resilience and Academic Stress among College Students in Gresik

123

Participants filled out the instrument by choosing

one of the alternative answer options considered the

most appropriate for the participant from each

statement presented. The alternative answer choices

are (1) Very Not Appropriate, (2) Not Appropriate,

(3) Appropriate (4) Very Appropriate.

3. Procedure and Statistical Analysis

There were three procedures in this study, namely

preparation, data collection, and data analysis. The

first stage was preparation. The researcher looked for

problems, learned the theory, and adapted the

instruments used in this study. The second stage was

data collection. The researchers obtained the data by

distributing online questionnaires via google form

and asked the participants to fill out the questionnaire

individually. At the beginning of the questionnaire,

participants were informed regarding the research

objectives and their willingness to become

participants. It takes around 10-15 minutes to

complete the questionnaires. No personal information

is collected, and participants are guaranteed

anonymity in their responses. The third stage was data

analysis. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS

24.0. The collected data were tested for descriptive

statistics, internal consistency, normality, linearity,

correlation analysis, and regression analysis.

3 RESULT

The participants in this study consisted of 124

students from several universities in Gresik. The

descriptive statistic of the participants can be seen in

the table below.

Table 3: Participant demographics.

Category

Score

Total

Percentage

Academic

resilience

Low X < 66,123 24

19,35%

Medium

66,123 ≤ X

< 76,635

65,33%

High 76,635 ≤ X 19

15,32%

The table above shows the score categories of the

research subjects. According to the table, it is found

that most of the participant’s academic resilience

were in the medium score category, with the total 81

participants with the percentage of 65.33%. The same

result was also found in terms of academic stress.

Most of the participant’s academic stress are in the

medium level with 94 participants and the percentage

of 75.70%.

Table 6: Cronbach's alpha (internal consistency).

Variable

Number of

items

Cronbach’s

alpha

Academic

resilience

24 .772

Academic

stress

54 .911

ICPsyche 2021 - International Conference on Psychological Studies

124

The internal consistency of the questionnaires of

academic resilience and the academic stress were

found before analyzing the data. The result indicated

that Cronbach's alpha value for both instruments were

adequately reliable. Both instruments had a

Cronbach's alpha value above .7.

Before testing the hypothesis, the researcher

tested the assumptions, namely the normality test and

linearity test. The normality test employed the

Kolmogorov-Smirnov Goodness of Fit Test

technique. The result indicated that the data from both

variables were normal. The results of the linearity test

indicated that the data is linear (p<0.05).

Table 7: Normality Test.

Variable K-S-Z p Interpretation

Stress

academic

0,077 0,067 Normal

Resilience

academic

0,066 0,200 Normal

Table 8: Linearity Test.

Variable

linearitys

Interpretation

Stress academic

0,001 Linear

Resilience

academic

Table 9: Regression Test.

Square

F B

.291 .085

11.246

-.291

.001

Based on the table above, the regression analysis

result shows that there is an effect of academic

resilience on student academic stress. The probability

value of the regression test was 0.001 (p <0.05), so

that the hypothesis in this study was accepted. In

addition, the correlation value of the relationship was

0.291, and the percentage of the influence of

academic resilience on student academic stress was

0.085. The finding implied that academic resilience

has an effect of 8.5% on student academic stress. On

the other hand, 91.5% of student academic resilience

is influenced by other variables besides student

academic resilience.

The results of the regression analysis also showed

that academic resilience has a negative effect on

academic stress. This finding implied that the higher

the student's academic resilience level, the lower the

student's academic stress level; in contrast, the lower

the student's academic resilience level, the higher the

student's academic stress level.

4 DISCUSSION

The COVID-19 phenomenon addresses its new

challenges for the education area, which requires

teachers and students to be ready to teach and learn

online-based so that lectures are full of competence,

precise, accurate, and fast. On the other hand, the

competence, system, and technical support available

do not fully support it. As teachers and lecturers used

to apply the old paradigm such as teacher-centered in

conducting the teaching-learning in the classroom,

online learning is only considered the technical tool

during the pandemic. It has not led to the change of

ways of thinking and acting, as a student center-based

learning paradigm, that is, to make students become

more creative, innovative and form the students into

lifelong learners.

The COVID-19 outbreak has become a

worldwide pandemic, and it causes anxiety, fear, and

stress globally (Pragholapati, 2020). Everyday life is

full of stress. In this situation, the Covid-19 outbreak

is one of the highest factors that contribute to causing

stress. Stress cannot be studied only from one model,

but stress needs to involve biopsychosociospiritual

factors. There are four main aspects of a pandemic

that can trigger a stress response in individuals,

namely the threat of infection, social restrictions, lack

of basic needs, and the need for new behavioral

adjustments (Pertiwi & Syakarofath, 2020). The

impact felt by each individual is different, depending

on the resilience they have (Pragholapati, 2020).

Resilience can help individuals stay safe, well, and

productive during crises such as the current

conditions, namely the COVID-19 pandemic

(Pragholapati, 2020).

The revolution of the learning system from offline

to online also affects academic stress among students.

Mazo (2015) explained that a school is a place where

many people gather to get a basic thing. Thus, during

online school, they lost their occasion to gather at the

same place, so that this situation also causes stress to

the individual. Furthermore, the causes of stress can

arise from the external environment as well as the

internal environment, and these stressors can affect

both physical and psychological individuals.

Stressors are things that cause stress. In this modern

era, there are many stressors, including disasters,

disease, and noise. In addition, mass media and

Covid-19 Pandemic: Academic Resilience and Academic Stress among College Students in Gresik

125

electronic devices also cause stress for both children

and families. The effects of this stress can directly

impact blood pressure; it also causes heart disease,

depression, and migraines. The existence of academic

resilience among students, which is strongly

influenced by teachers' support, is expected to

minimize the academic stress experienced by

students. In addition, conditions at home also affect

academic resilience in learning. Sun and Stewart

(2007) said that resilience is affected by the

characteristics of the individual itself and supports

from the environment such as adult support in school,

adult support at home, and peer support.

This study describes the effect of academic

resilience on student academic stress. The hypothesis

test showed a negative relationship between students'

academic resilience and academic stress. In other

words, the hypothesis 1 is accepted. Moreover, this

study also found the effect of academic resilience on

student academic stress. Thus, the hypothesis 2 was

also accepted.

Based on the results, there was a negative

relationship between academic resilience and student

academic stress. This finding is supported by research

from Septiani and Fitria (2016), Wirananda (2017);

Syfa (2019); Wuthrich (2020); Sungko (2020);

Septiana (2021). The results also showed the effect of

academic resilience on student academic stress.

Students' academic resilience that affected students'

academic stress was 8.5% consisting of a)

perseverance, b) adaptation and help-seeking, and c)

negative affect and emotional response. The result

implied that the higher the student's academic

resilience level, the lower the student's academic

stress level; in contrast, the lower the student's

academic resilience level, the higher the student's

academic stress level.

The COVID-19 pandemic has provoked a

university to adopt an adaptive culture. The three

dimensions and indicators are change creation,

student focus, and organizational learning. The

creation of change can be identified from (1) how the

university manages the change flexibly and

efficiently and (2) the university's ability to respond

to other changes in the environment. The focus on

students is recognized from (1) student's ideas that

contribute to the change, (2) all university academics

who have a deep understanding of students' wants and

needs. Organizational learning is viewed from (1) the

university's innovation and risk-taking and (2) the

university's continuity in learning to respond to

changes in the external environment.

Resilience during the COVID-19 outbreak refers

to positive adaptation to adversity and various

perspectives on how to define resilience appropriately

in all areas of life, such as challenges that threaten

function, development, and survival (Pragholapati,

2020). Grabber et al. (2015) explain that resilience is

forming a protective mechanism that involves

psychosocial processes and is facilitated by positive

adaptation. The existence of an experience of events

and stress depends on age, gender, culture, and

socioeconomic factors. Resilience is strongly

influenced by family processes among children and

adolescents and is associated with practical problem-

solving. In addition, the formation of resilience is

crucial at this stage. It will affect adulthood, personal

changes, and development in life.

The number of participants showed that there

were more female participants (71.8%) than male

participants (28.2%). According to Wuthrich (2020),

female gender and anxiety proneness were

consistently associated with increased distress and

freedom from negative cognitions with reduced

distress. Academic stress arises when expectations

and demands increase, both from parents, teachers, or

peers, and these expectations are out of their control

so that they become stressful (Bariyyah & Latifah,

2015). Stress is based on thinking ability and

readiness to face challenges and solve a problem

(Shahmohammadi, 2011). There was some evidence

that an individual's characteristics (perfectionism,

avoidance, coping, self-efficacy, resilience), lifestyle

(sleep, homework), school, family, and peer

connectedness were associated with distress.

Male students are calmer when faced with

challenges and difficulties in learning. Meanwhile,

female students feel stressed when they get many

tasks such as heart pounding, shortness of breath,

increased muscle tension, fatigue, headaches

(Bariyyah & Latifah, 2015), sweat during exams, and

anxiety (Agolla & Ongori, 2009). In addition, female

students tend to be stressed when approaching exam

day. They tend to be more emotional and sensitive,

and this happens because they feel worried and

panicked when they are about to face an exam. When

they have excessive anxiety, individuals will show

cynicism, rigidity of stance, sarcasm, irritability

(irritability) (Bariyyah & Latifah, 2015), fear of not

being able to do the work, so exam results are not

optimal. It is also in line with the opinion of Liu and

Lu (2011) in their research which found that when

students experience academic stress, student

achievement will decrease, it is difficult to adjust to

school, and cannot focus on assignments or lessons.

Based on the results, it is also found that academic

resilience in terms of gender has differences between

women and men. The level of academic resilience of

ICPsyche 2021 - International Conference on Psychological Studies

126

women is higher than the level of academic resilience

of men. This finding aligns with Mwangi and Ireri

(2017) that female students are rated higher as having

academic resilience than male students. It is because

the socio- emotional development of females is

higher than males. Furthermore, female students are

considered to have more caring relationships with

each other, either with peers or with more mature

people, and women are considered to have more

positive social support than male students (Sun &

Stewart, 2007).

Some factors possibly influence the academic

resilience level of students. Previous research has

shown that three factors can affect student academic

resilience, namely, 1) individual factors in the form

of cognitive abilities, self-esteem, and social

competence possessed by students, 2) family factors

include caring, affection, attention, parenting,

adequate social economy and harmonious

relationships between family members, and 3)

community factors include the environment in which

individuals live and associations/organizations that

they follow (Aisyah & Listiandini, 2015).

The categorization of participants showed that the

level of academic stress experienced by students is

mainly at the moderate level (75.80%). It means that

most students deal with problems in campus life in a

normal way as this is considered part of the

responsibilities they have to live with. Students do not

feel burdened even though the existing circumstances

make it difficult, and they feel depressed. Students

who know their strengths and realize that they can

only depend on themselves can complete work and

problems that cause stress (Wagnild, 2011). This

situation allows students to control the stress that

happens to them, not to cause excessive reactions. It

is in line with Hurrelman's research (Smet, 1994)

which explains that individuals with good

physiological and psychological conditions, such as

high self-esteem, resilience, independence, will not

cause physiological and psychological reactions in

seeing and dealing with stress. The resilience

mentioned by Hurrelman can be related to the

resilience abilities of the students.

Age also affects the issue of academic stress.

From the results of the demographic analysis of

participants based on age, it was found that almost all

participants were between 17-29 years and

participants experienced moderate academic stress.

At the higher age level, the level of academic stress

tends to be lower. According to Struart and Laraia

(2005) in Purwati (2012), age is related to one's

experience in dealing with various kinds of stressors;

the older a person is, the better one's stress

management is.

Stressor or semester factors also affect the

academic stress experienced by the students. The

demographic analysis of participants based on

semester or level of stressor indicated that the burden

of education affects a person's level of academic

stress. It is in line with a study conducted by Agolla

and Ongori (2009) that an academic burden that is too

heavy, such as unsatisfactory academic performance,

preparation for tests, lack of interest in

subjects/courses, and punishment from teachers, are

factors causing academic stress.

Academic resilience is the ability of students to

maintain performance in their academics life.

Students with academic resilience constitute

academically successful students even though they

have a less fortunate socioeconomic background.

Jacelon (1997) reveals that a person who has

resilience is an individual who is independent, not

bound, has intelligence above average, positive

attitude, optimistic, has strong self-awareness, has

varied desires, and engages in social activities. The

results showed that the category of academic

resilience level of the research subjects was in the

moderate category (65.33%), compared to students

with a low academic resilience category (19.35%).

These results do not show much difference, but they

already illustrate that the students have sufficient

ability to survive, bounce back, and adapt positively

to academic demands, including academic stress.

Roellyana and Listiyandini (2016) argued that

students with good academic resilience are more

optimistic students who believe that everything can

change for the better so that the stress experienced

based on the academic pressure experienced can be

minimized.

Academic resilience is an individual's ability to

respond to the difficulties he faces, as an adaptive

behavior that is successful and can show personal

qualities and continues to grow beyond expectations

during difficult times (Gilligan, 2007). Two

conditions can increase resilience in individuals.

Firstly, the experience of difficulties and obstacles

experienced by individuals has affected the

individual. Second, individuals can adapt to

difficulties, life responsibilities, obstacles, and

setbacks, which causes them to become more

resilient. Rojas, 2015). Thus, academic resilience is

crucial for students to have to deal with academic

stress. These students are under pressure to cope with

academic stress so that with good resilience, they can

better resolve stressful situations than students with

low resilience.

Covid-19 Pandemic: Academic Resilience and Academic Stress among College Students in Gresik

127

These results support that students have a good

attitude of resilience to manage stress with all their

abilities. Taylor (2012) said resilience, as a source of

internal coping owned by individuals. Therefore, this

resilience ability has become a form of coping done

by students to deal with academic stress. The skills

developed by these students to survive are the ability

to control impulses, be optimistic, analyze the causes

of problems, develop empathy, and reach out.

The study is significant in discussing in-depth

how the academic resilience possessed by students.

The result of the study can be used as a reference for

students in dealing with academic stress. However,

the limitation of this study is that it only focuses on

one city, so that researchers do not find out how the

level of academic resilience of students is related to

academic stress in other cities. The researchers

suggest further researchers who conduct their study

on academic resilience to explore some other factors

that might affect resilience, such as individual

cognitive abilities, self-esteem, social competence of

individuals, family factors, and community factors.

5 CONCLUSION

The hypothesis in this study is accepted. Academic

resilience has a negative relationship with academic

stress. In addition, academic resilience has an effect

of 8.5% on academic stress. The academic resilience

and academic stress of the participants were in the

medium category. Based on the explanation,

academic resilience is essential for all students.

Academic resilience is helpful to encourage the

students to survive in difficult conditions. The hope is

that with students increasing resilience, they will be

able to resolve stressful situations satisfactorily.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank the psychology lecturer at UMG

and the participants in this study. I also appreciate all

the support I have received from our entire family.

Finally, I would like to thank my partners for

completing this research.

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