How Teaching Air Traffic Control College Students About Stress Improves Stress Management

The modern, fast-paced lifestyle intertwined with intricate technological advancements can significantly contribute to stress levels, which can impede decision making and adversely affect action tasks. For Air Traffic Control (ATC) professionals, stress management (SM) skills are increasingly recognized as essential for success. The intent of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of SM technique training to enhance knowledge about stress and to promote the use of SM techniques. Thirty-one participants from an aeronautical university were assigned to either an experimental group receiving SM training or a control group. A questionnaire assessing SM knowledge and use of SM techniques was administered pre-training, immediately after training, and several weeks after training. Participants in the experimental group showed an increase in SM knowledge and a willingness to use SM techniques, particularly rational self-talk, even weeks after the training. Thus, SM training can improve stress awareness for ATC students, potentially enhancing aviation safety.