Teaching life skills and coping strategies

Within the UK, formal education at most levels will require the learners to evidence that they have reached a defined level of development in their skills, knowledge and possibly behaviours. Such summative assessment providing evidence that they have attained sufficiently to be awarded whatever qualification the programme attracts. As students often require these formal qualifications for academic or occupational advancement, so the assessments, and indeed the programme itself is likely to become a source of stress, and while a measured level of stress is considered motivational (Gibbons, Dempster and Moutray 2008), some students will manage programme demands and the resultant stress less well than others. As the students ability to manage stressors is considered influential on their academic performance (Anderson- Darling et al 2007), it is worth identifying exactly what generates stress for those undertaking formal education, considering ways to mediate the impact of this stress by reviewing attributes and coping strategies associated with academic success and exploring whether such attributes can be enhanced or if programmes could be adapted in order to accommodate such differences. To do this we must first define what constitutes “stress” and the sources of stress, and then identify student attributes that predict academic performance.