Brunei Trainee Teachers' Coping Strategies for Stressful Situations

The survey investigated the extent to which Brunei trainee teachers used the task-oriented, emotion-oriented, and avoidance-oriented coping strategies when in stressful situations. Data collection employed the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations. Participants consisted of 118 educational psychology student teachers at the University of Brunei Darussalam. Of these, 89 (75%) were females while 29 (25%) were males. The sample comprised of 71 (60%) BEd and 47 (40%) PGCE students. Overall, the task-oriented strategy was the most used coping method followed by the emotion-oriented style. There were no significant gender and programme of study differences in the way participants employed the three coping procedures. Age, gender, and programme of study were not significantly correlated with the three coping strategies. The coping strategies were found to be distinct ways of reacting to and relieving stress according to the Brunei sample. Further mixed methods research was recommended to gain further insights on the problem. Keywords: Stress; coping; strategies; task; emotion; avoidance; student teachers.