REFLECTIVE MECHANISMS OF STUDENTS' COPING STRATEGIES

Abstract

The article presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the relationship between coping strategies and reflexive mechanisms among university students. The aim of the research was to investigate the influence of reflexive skills on students’ choice of adaptive or maladaptive coping strategies in the context of academic and external stressors. The study involved 119 undergraduate students from the National University of Ostroh Academy. The following instruments were used: the Brief-COPE questionnaire (adapted by T. Yablonska, O. Vernyk, and H. Haivoronskyi) and three diagnostic tools developed by O. V. Savchenko for assessing reflexive skills at cognitive, metacognitive, and personal levels.
Descriptive statistics revealed that the most commonly used coping strategies among students were emotion-focused coping and problem-focused coping, while avoidant coping strategies were used less frequently. Reflexive skills were found to be developed at all three levels, with the highest scores observed at the metacognitive level.
Regression analysis demonstrated that reflexive skills are significant predictors of coping behavior. Specifically, cognitive and metacognitive reflexive abilities positively predicted the use of problem-focused coping strategies. Moreover, metacognitive reflexive skills were associated with a decreased likelihood of avoidant coping. Cognitive reflexive skills were also positively associated with emotion-focused coping, whereas personal-level reflexivity showed no significant predictive power for most coping styles.
The findings indicate that developing reflexive mechanisms–particularly at the metacognitive level–can enhance students' ability to choose adaptive coping strategies, thus supporting psychological resilience under stress. These results may serve as a foundation for designing psychoeducational and developmental interventions aimed at strengthening students’ reflexive competence and promoting effective stress-coping behaviors in higher education settings.