Interrelation of Perceived Stress, Academic Resilience, Semantic Coping, and Conscious Self-Regulation Among University Students

Introduction. Student age is characterized by high academic loads and high uncertainty of educational conditions, which provokes the development of chronic stress and reduces the overall psychological well-being of students. The key role in successfully overcoming these difficulties is played by the internal resources of the individual, among which academic resistance, conscious self-regulation and semantic coping are particularly distinguished. However, the exact mechanisms of their interrelationships under stress conditions remain insufficiently studied.
Objective. Identification of the nature and direction of interrelations between indicators of perceived stress, academic resilience, semantic coping and conscious self-regulation in university students.
Materials and Methods. The empirical study involved 126 students aged 18 to 49 years (M = 27.3; SD = 6.1). The data was collected using an online questionnaire. A set of validated methods was used: the questionnaire “Style of selfregulation of behavior” (V. I. Morosanova), the MCCS semantic coping scale (N. Eisenbeck et al.), академической the ARS-30 academic resilience scale (S. Cassidy), and the PSS-14 perceived stress scale (S. Cohen). Statistical processing was performed using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient.
Results. Statistically significant negative associations were found between the level of perceived stress and key cognitiveregulatory processes: modeling of significant conditions (r = –0.482; p < 0.001), regulatory reliability (r = –0.461; p < 0.001), and flexibility (r = –0.388; p < 0.001). At the same time, the direct destructive relationship of stress with the integral indicator of academic resilience was not confirmed. A significant positive correlation was found between semantic coping and the overall level of conscious self-regulation (r = 0.446; p < 0.001), indicating the proactive nature of semantic reinterpretation.
Discussion. Experienced stress specifically depletes students’ cognitive and regulatory resources, but semantic coping and self-regulation act as buffer meta-resources that support academic resilience even under high stress conditions. The results substantiate the need to introduce comprehensive training programs aimed at developing the skills of conscious goal setting, regulatory reliability, and existential sense-making into the system of psychological support of higher education institutions.

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