Gender, Acculturative Stress, and Coping among College Students

No previous studies have examining gender difference in acculturative stress and coping among college students in within country context. The present study explored gender difference in acculturative stress and coping among Kashmiri college students who migrated to Bhopal, Central India for receiving education. The sample consists of 219 college students (male = 52.10%, female = 47.90%; mean age = 23.30 years, SD = 1.70) completed self reported measures of acculturative stress and coping. The finding of the study revealed that female participants reported higher acculturative stress in comparison to their male counterparts. There were gender differences in reported coping strategies. Focused on the positive coping and tension reduction coping was the most frequently used coping strategies for male students, whereas for female students, self-blame coping was most frequently employed coping strategy.  Implications for reducing the effect of acculturative stress among Kashmiri college students and future research directions are discussed.