Non Traditional Students

University students’ life is full of excitement and memorable experiences. They establish new relationships, meet new friends, and course instructors, engage in exiting social activities, and Stimulating intellectual discourses. However, they also face challenges which consequently lead to stress which impact on their psychological well being and academic performance. According to Angola and Ongori (2009), stress occurs when one is confronted with a situation which is perceived to be overwhelming.

Studies have also revealed that college experience is the most stressful years in a student’s life. Towbes and Cohen (1996) reported that the need for the students to adjust to a new social environment, deal with leaving away from parental authority,

Studies have shown that perceived stress and stressors are not necessarily consistent across all college students. Morris, Brooks and May (2003) reported that this construct had been shown to differ between traditional and non-traditional students. Traditional are unmarried and are not employed and are in school full time. Conversely, nontraditional students may be married, have children and go to school in the evenings. Majority of the university students use maladaptive coping behaviors such as drinking, drug abuse and risky sexual activity (Weschler, Lee, Kuo, Nelson &lee2002; Kelly Rollings and Harmon, 2005; Field & Powel, 2007; Suldo et-al, 2008).Prendergast (1994) reported that in an effort to cope with stress many college students are likely to drink at higher levels than young adults who are not in college.

Sarafina and Ewing (1999) found out that if students do not learn appropriate coping strategies to deal with stressors, they are likely to suffer from physical and psychological ailments and distress. Tolan, Gorman Smith, Henry, Chung and Hunt (2002) noted that coping strategies that serve to increase perceived stress place adolescents at higher risk for experiencing mental

The scores were reversed on the four positive items (1=5, 2=4, 3=3, 4=2, and 5=1) and then summed them across all items. The positive items included 4, 5, 7 and 8. Individual score ranged from 1-70 with higher scores indicating higher perceived stress. Scores that range from 1-28 were considered low-stress. Scores that ranged from 29-42 were considered moderate, whereas those that ranged from 43-70 were considered high perceived stress