Effect of Religiosity and other Coping Strategies on Academic Stress; A Comparative Study

This study compares the effectiveness of religious activities and other academic stress coping strategy on academic stress of exhibited by the undergraduate students of Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science and Technology Ikere Ekiti (BOUESTI). The study aimed at revealing the most embraced and most effective academic coping strategies in other to guide the students right. The study in this wise employed the descriptive research of the survey design, with 12,740 students of the 2023/2024 Academic Session of the university and 450 students used as the population and sample size for the study. The study employed a self-constructed questionnaire titled Religion, Spirituality and Stress Coping Strategies Questionnaire (RSSCSQ) as the instrument for the study. The instrument was validated by ensuring the face, content and criterion validity, with reliability inclusive. A 0.72 and 0.83 correlations coefficient was obtained for both the construct validity (Convergent) and reliability (Test-Retest) respectively. The study made use of descriptive statistics that includes frequency count and percentage alongside with t-test and Pearson Product Moment Correlation, all at 0.05 level of significance. The findings from the study have it that religious activities are more effective academic stress coping mechanism compared to other mechanism. While a negative and strong relationship was established between religious activities and academic stress (-0.82), indicating that an increase in religious activities will result in a reduction in academic stress. The study recommended that all forms of spiritual and religious beliefs should be respected and allowed to flourish, while ensuring proper monitoring and supervision to maintain a harmonious campus environment. Other stress coping strategies should be evaluated and modified, where necessary, to enhance their effectiveness in supporting students’ mental health and academic success.