Relationship Between Obsessive Thoughts, Anxiety Symptoms, and Coping Strategies in University Students

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to determine the interrelationship of obsession, anxiety, and coping among college students. Life at universities tends to involve high levels of academic pressures, social problems, and individual accountability, and therefore is likely to cause some psychological issues. Students may report obsessive thoughts and anxiety-related symptoms as common experiences, which may affect their coping methods. The study was based on the cognitive behavioral theory of obsessions and the stress and coping transactional model.A Quantitative cross sectional correlational research approach was adopted for the study. Participants for the study included 250 university students ranging in age from 18 to 25 years that were recruited through convenience sampling from the University of Gujrat, Pakistan. For data collection, standardized self-report measures were used in the form of the Obsessive Compulsive Inventory Revised (OCI-R) for measuring obsessive thoughts, the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) for measuring anxiety symptoms, and Brief COPE Inventory for measuring coping methods.These findings reveal that there is a low correlation between obsessive thinking and anxiety with the coping mechanism, indicating that these constructs were poor predictors of the coping strategy employed by the participants. These results demonstrate the complexity involved in the process of coping and imply that there might be other variables influencing the coping process.