Abstract
This study investigated the coping mechanism of the freshmen students of Western Philippines University with the following objectives:1. determine the demographic characteristics of the respondents, 2) find out the problems encountered by the respondents and their frequency of occurrence, 3) identify the coping mechanisms of the freshmen students as they adjust to their college lives, and 4) find out the relationship between some demographic characteristics and the coping mechanism of the respondents. Data were gathered at the University Main Campus through personal interviews and with the use of a survey questionnaire. Results show that out of one hundred twenty respondents, 80 are females and the rest are males and single. The majority were from Narra and Aborlan with an average monthly allowance of P1,708.74. The respondent’s mothers and fathers had a mean age of 44.23 years and 41.91 years old, respectively. Their mothers were mostly high school level housekeepers while their fathers were college-level farmers. Results further revealed that the respondents “rarely” encountered financial problems, school problems, boarding house problems, and emotional and spiritual problems. They have positive coping mechanisms when facing financial, school, boarding house, social, emotional, and spiritual problems. It also revealed that based on the Spearman’s rho and T-test, there is no significant relationship between some demographic characteristics of concern in this study and do not have substantial effects on the stress coping mechanisms of the respondents.
