Academic Stress and Coping Strategies among Students With and Without Learning Disabilities

Background: Students with learning disabilities, due to their limitations and difficulties in learning certain subjects, experience greater academic stress compared to their peers. Given the importance of psychological well-being among students with learning disabilities, attention to academic stress and the use of effective coping strategies appear to be crucial. The present study aimed to examine and compare academic stress and coping strategies among students with and without learning disabilities. Materials and Methods: This study employed a creoss-sectional design. The research sample consisted of 70 students aged 10 to 12 years with learning disabilities who attended learning disorder centers in various cities in Mazandaran Province, Iran, during 2022, and 70 of their peers from regular schools in the same cities who received mainstream education. Data were collected using the Gadzella Student-Life Stress Inventory and the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS) developed by Endler and Parker. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and independent samples t-tests were employed to examine the research hypotheses. Results: Students with learning disabilities exhibited higher levels of academic stress and a greater use of avoidance-oriented coping strategies (P<0.05). However, no significant difference was observed between the two groups in the mean scores of problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies (P>0.05). Conclusion: As the findings of this study demonstrated, students with learning disabilities experience higher levels of academic stress compared to their typically developing peers and tend to rely more on avoidance-oriented coping strategies when facing stressful situations. Educational planners, teachers, and therapists can design and implement targeted interventions to help such students develop and utilize more effective coping strategies during stressful academic experiences.