Exploring Occupational Therapy Students’ Coping Strategies and Styles

This study aimed to determine occupational therapy students’ coping strategies and styles to manage stress. The final sample included 160 students, with 39 master of occupational therapy (MOT) students and 121 occupational therapy doctoral (OTD) students who were currently enrolled in an MOT or OTD program. This study used a cross-sectional, descriptive survey. The survey included both closed-ended and open-ended items to provide a greater insight into occupational therapy graduate students’ stressors, coping strategies, and coping styles. Results of the survey showed the most frequently reported coping strategies for both programs were emotional support, instrumental support, self-blame, and religion. The least used strategies included denial, substance use, behavioral disengagement, and venting. When comparing the two groups, results suggested that both MOT and OTD employed similar coping strategies, with OTD students more likely to use religion as a coping strategy. Participants most frequently reported using the problem-focused coping style. These results indicated that students were implementing both healthy and unhealthy coping strategies. This study will allow students and educators to better understand how MOT and OTD students cope with stress and develop programming to enhance coping among occupational therapy graduate students. Implications for improved occupational therapy educational success include: (1) addressing and acknowledging the stressors that occupational therapy students experience, (2) facilitating and supporting occupational therapy students’ healthy coping strategies, and (3) increasing awareness of unhealthy coping strategies that occupational therapy students may be using.