Resilience in academic stress: Exploring the role of cognition in how students adjust to life at the University of York

The main aim of tertiary education is to prepare students to make a positive contribution to society by developing within them the ability to function efficiently and effectively within the workplace. However, research is instead showing that during university life, more than half of all students report a high prevalence of mental health problems (Stallman, 2010), leading to a disruption of studies (Jackson, Pancer, Pratt & Hunsberger, 2000) and a subsequent failure to develop as anticipated (Stallman, 2011). This suggests that there is a need to invest in programmes which aid students in adjusting to being at university. Researchers recommend that such programmes focus on building students’ levels of resilience; their capacity to adapt and grow in response to university life (Stallman, 2011). This thesis aims to clarify how universities can promote student adjustment by exploring the cognitive processes that influence the levels of resilience of students high on negative trait emotion. Negative trait emotion refers to the predisposition to experience intense and frequent negative emotion (Rosenberg, 1998) and has been highlighted as exerting a harmful impact on individuals’ abilities to adapt to their experiences. Therefore, in this way, the thesis aims to uncover the cognitive mechanisms that should be targeted in order to improve students’ capacity to adjust and grow while at university, enabling them to subsequently perform at a high standard post-graduation.