Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to identify the relations among perceived stress, ways of coping, drinking related problems, and symptoms of stress by female college students. Participants were 436 college students at nursing school in S city. Major results revealed that (1) 92.43% of the participants have drunk alcohol, and 25.23% of the participants have experienced drinking related problems; (2) drinking related problems were shown to be significantly positive associations with perceived stress, emotion-focused coping, and symptoms of stress; (3) the perceived stress was significantly associated with drinking related problems, emotion-focused coping, and symptoms of stress; (4) the drinking related problem group showed higher levels of perceived stress, emotion-focused coping, and symptoms of stress than those of the comparison group; (5) perceived stress and emotion-focused coping accounted for 40.1% of the variance in symptoms of stress. In sum, the present study suggests that perceived stress and emotion-focused coping are significantly associated with drinking related problems as well as symptoms of stress among female college students.