| Stress is a pervasive and continuous issue for people in all societies and even more so for college students who face multiple responsibilities while trying to attain their post-secondary education degrees. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a stress management program for graduate students' perceived stress and related issues. Another intention of the study was to identify program components that should be included in a graduate level stress management program.; A pre-post experimental (treatment and control group) design was utilized in this study. The purposive sample included participants in master's level courses in counseling or other education related fields. There was a review of relevant literature exploring populations that have received stress management treatment, the content and techniques that were utilized, and their success in reducing stress. The treatment group received the stress management program for 12-consecutive weeks, one 2-hour session per week. In addition the treatment group completed a personal self-management project log throughout the treatment period which involved tracking a selected personal stress related symptom they wished to change. Treatment components consisted of stress theory content dissemination, stress management techniques, tracking a personal stress related symptom, and discussion and question-answer interactions.; Three instruments were utilized as tools in retrieving pre and post-test data from the treatment and control group. There were eight null hypotheses and five research questions posed. The design of this study utilized one fixed factor or independent variable (group membership, whether treatment or control), seven dependent variables (the posttests), and seven covariates (the pretests). In order to determine pre-post comparison outcomes in this study the following was utilized: participant experiences and comments, an overall MANCOVA, and follow-up ANCOVA tests on each dependent variable. Seven of the eight null hypotheses were rejected, indicating that the stress management program enabled the graduate students in the treatment group to reduce and cope with their stress more than the control group. Other outcome variables from the research questions revealed further systemic data concerning graduate students stress. |
