Stressors and coping strategies among successful female African American baccalaureate nursing students

Interview and descriptive methods were used to investigate the stressors and coping strategies of academically successful African American female baccalaureate nursing students (N = 23) in the three predominantly Caucasian universities in South Carolina. The study addressed three questions: 1) What are major stressors for African American female students? 2) Which coping strategies do these students use? and 3) Which coping strategies do these students find to be most successful? Major stressors identified, both by priority and frequency of occurrence, were academic in nature, followed in descending order by environmental, financial, interpersonal, and personal stressors. Coping strategies used with the greatest regularity and success were active coping (taking action to remove or circumvent the stressor), seeking social support for instrumental reasons (seeking assistance, information, or advice about what to do from someone in a position to help), and seeking social support for emotional reasons (getting sympathy or emotional support from someone). Behavioral disengagement, denial, and alcohol-drug disengagement were reported to be unsuccessful coping strategies in the majority of instances.