University of Cagayan Valley

School of Criminology
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Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

The growing awareness of the benefits of education,

the constitutional provision for free education, the demand

for education relevance and responsiveness to changing

societal needs and the alarming rate of increase in the

countrys population have contributed to the problem of

providing education for all, a problem which becomes more

serious each year(DepEd News Article 2014).

Education is one of the most important aspects of

human resource development. Poor school performance not

only results in having a low self-esteem, but also causes

negative behaviors among students. There are many reasons

for students to underperform at school and one of these is

stress.

Stress has become an important topic for the athletes.

Stress in academic institutions can have both positive and

negative consequences if not well managed.

It is important that athletes should learn and acquire

the necessary knowledge and skills that will in turn make

them contribute positively to the development of the

general economy of any nation. However, the intricate

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academic environment sometimes poses great medical problems

to the athletes' lives that tend to negate the positive

gains that one would expect after completion of University.

A disturbing trend in college student health is the

reported increase in student stress nationwide. Stressors

affecting students can be as academic, financial, time or

health related, and self-imposed stress.

Academic stressors include the student's perception of

the extensive knowledge base required and the perception of

an inadequate time to develop it. Students report

experiencing academic stress at predictable times each

semester with the greatest sources of academic stress

resulting from taking and studying for exams, grade

competition, and the large amount of content to master in a

small amount of time.

It is important for the university to maintain well-

balanced academic environment conducive for better

learning, with the focus on the students' personal needs.

Students' expectations vary with respect to personality and

their backgrounds which influences on how one perceive the

environment around him/her. Students at the university have

different expectations, goals, and values that they want to

fulfill at the university, which is only possible if the

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students' expectations, goals, and values are integrated

with that of the university.

The future of any nation lies heavily on the young

people since they are the tomorrow's leaders; therefore, it

is important to identify the different stressors and the

coping mechanisms of these students. This will help the

university administrators to come up with the best

strategies to enable the students to cope up with these

stressors while pursuing their academic careers. The

negative effect of stress on students is likely to pose

challenge to the individual students, their colleagues, and

the institution as a whole.

The University of Cagayan Valley- Tuguegarao City

Campus develops students skills by encouraging them to

join different sports in the university. This program

develops the athletes in their capability to enhance their

talents, skills and improve their learning.

The identified athletes of the university are coming

from different departments of the university. Athletes are

the pride of the university who will bring honor and

prestige in several set of competition. Though, there are

other factors that may affect the academic performance of

the athletes, the researchers will only deal with the

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stressors encountered by the athletes and its coping

mechanisms.

Henceforth, the researchers will attempt to conduct a

study to assess the coping mechanism of athletes of the

University of Cagayan Valley.

Conceptual Framework

Stressors affecting students can be as academic,

financial, time or health related, and self-imposed stress.

Academic stressors include the student's perception of the

extensive knowledge base required and the perception of an

inadequate time to develop it. Students report experiencing

academic stress at predictable times each semester with the

greatest sources of academic stress resulting from taking

and studying for exams, grade competition, and the large

amount of content to master in a small amount of time.

The study aims to assess the coping mechanism of

athletes of the University of Cagayan Valley.

The paradigm of the study shows the input, process and

output of the study. The Input-Process-Output (IPO) model

of the systems theory will be adopted in this study.

Under this model, the input is considered as dependent

variables, the process as the intervening variables, while

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the output as the objective or the desired results intended

for the study.

The Process box refers to the research procedures that

will be applied in order to gather data that lead towards

answering the queries or statement of the problem raised in

this study. Survey questionnaire is the tool use in order

to assess the coping mechanism of athletes of the

University of Cagayan Valley.

The Output box refers to the result of the study

wherein the researchers would assess the coping mechanism

of athletes of the University of Cagayan Valley.

A diagram of the study is shown in the figure below.

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Input Process Output

1. Profile of the 1. Assessing

respondents in the profile
terms of: of the
1.1 . Age respondents
1.2 . Gender in terms of
1.3 . Civil Status age, gender,
1.4 . Religion civil
1.5 . Parents status,
Assessed
Educational religion,
Attainment parents coping
1.6 . Parents educational mechanism of
Occupation attainment, athletes of
1.7 . Sports parents the
1.8 . Year Level occupation, University
sports, year of Cagayan
2. Perceptions of level and
Valley.
the respondents name of
on coping department.
mechanism of 2. Assessing the
athletes in Perceptions of the
terms of: respondents on coping
2.1 . Interpersonal mechanism of athletes
2.2 . Intrapersonal in terms of in terms of
2.3 . Academic Interpersonal,
Stress Intrapersonal, Academic
2.4 . Environment Stress and Environment
Stress Stress.
3. Measures can be 4. Correlate variables
proposed in between the perceptions
coping mechanism of the respondents on
coping mechanism of
of athletes.
athletes and their
profile variables.
5. Proposing measures in
coping mechanism of
athletes.

Feedback

Figure 1. Paradigm of the Study

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Statement of the Problem

This study attempts to assess the coping mechanism of

athletes of the University of Cagayan Valley for SY 2016-

2017.

Specifically, this study will seek to answer the

following questions:

1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of:

1.1 . Age
1.2 . Gender
1.3 . Civil Status
1.4 . Religion
1.5 . Parents Educational Attainment
1.6 . Parents Occupation
1.7 . Sports
1.8 . Year Level

2. What are the perceptions of the respondents on

coping mechanism of athletes in terms of:

2.1. Interpersonal

2.2. Intrapersonal

2.3. Academic Stress

2.4. Environment Stress

3. Is there a significant relationship between the

perceptions of the respondents on their coping mechanism

and their profile variables?

4. What are problems encountered by the athletes that

affects their academic?

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5. What measures can be proposed in addressing the

problems encountered by the respondents that affects their

academics?

Hypothesis

This study will be guided by lone hypothesis that

there is no significant relationship between the

perceptions of the respondents on their coping mechanism

and their profile variables.

Significance of the Study

This study is deemed beneficial to the following:

Athletes. These refer to the respondents of the study

who are officially enrolled at the university for SY 2016-

2017 and registered varsity player of any sports.

Students. The students will be beneficiaries of

whatever suggestions or recommendations this study will

present.

Community. People in the community will benefit from

the development this study that will take effect on the

students, who are part of the community. They will take

into consideration the outcomes and recommendations of this

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study and will use these to determine ways on how to

encourage the students to cope their stress.

Government. This study will further enhance the

governments knowledge on coping mechanism of their

employees. They may incorporate the ideas of the results of

this study into the present and future curricula to further

improve its support in the community.

Parents. Parents will also find this study necessary

because it will help them to encourage their children to

cope their stress.

School Heads and Administrators. This research study,

in some way, help them increase their knowledge on the

study. Such knowledge will enable them to explore ways on

how to coping mechanism of athletes and to encourage them

to apply the significant findings of this study.

Researchers. Findings of this study may somehow

provide future researchers with information variables they

will use in similar researches.

Future Researchers. Findings of this study may somehow

provide future researchers with information variables they

will use in similar researches.

Scope and Delimitation

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This study will be limited to the Varsity Athletes of

the University of Cagayan Valley for SY 2016-2017. A

purposive sampling will be applied to select the population

of the study that will compose of 125 respondents. The

study will be conducted for SY 2016-2017.

The independent variables in this study will be

limited to the profile of the respondents and the coping

mechanism of the athletes.

This study will make use of the descriptive-

correlational research design. The data will be derived

from the results of the one-shot survey questionnaire

constructed by the researchers. The administration of the

test will be personally done by the researchers.

Definition of Terms

In order to understand further this research by the

readers, the terms used are operationally defined.

Coping Mechanisms. This refers to the expending

conscious effort to solve personal and interpersonal

problems, and seeking to master, minimize or tolerate

stress or conflict.
Stress. It refers to unpleasant state of emotional and

physiological arousal that people experience in situations

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that they perceive as dangerous or threatening to their

well-being.
Stressors. This refers to the circumstances that cause

stress and vary in severity and duration.

Athlete. It defines as the subject of the study who is

enrolled or attends varsity sports at a school, college or

university.
Interpersonal Stress. It is often the by-product of

conflicts amongst peers, family or colleagues. Such types

of conflicts are referred to as interpersonal conflicts.

Intrapersonal. Among other part-time (working)

students has, in recent times, caught the attention of

educational researchers.