Aidas Perminas

Stress coping and psychological adaptation in the international students

International students all over the world meet a lot of stressful situations due to different academic demands, cultural context, language problems and other adaptation difficulties. There is little evidence to explain what stress coping strategies are used by international students to cope with stressful situations and how they are connected to psychological adaptation. So the purpose of this study was to assess associations between psychological adaptation and stress coping strategies in international and domestic students. The study recruited 356 students: 258 host and 98 international students. Stress coping strategies were measured by Coping Orientation of Problem Experience questionnaire. Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale was used to measure depressive symptoms. Stress related health complaints were measured using a scale devised by the authors of this study. The study ascertained that in stressful situations international students used different stress coping strategies when compared to domestic students. Moreover, stress coping strategies used by international and domestic students were differently connected to health outcomes. The study pointed out that by researchers and counselors’ special attention should be given to international students.

EFFECTIVENESS OF PROGRESSIVE MUSCLE RELAXATION AND BIOFEEDBACK – ASSISTED RELAXATION IN REDUCING PERCEIVED STRESS AMONG STUDENTS WITH REGARD TO PERSONALITY FEATURES

Background . The aim of the study was to assess the effectiveness of biofeed- back-assisted relaxation as well as progressive muscle relaxation in reducing per- ceived stress with regard to personality features. Method . The subjects of the study were 177 university students, 143 of which participated in the course of six sessions. The subjects participated either in four progressive muscle relaxation sessions (n=47) or four biofeedback-assisted relaxation sessions (n=48). Subjects in the comparison group participated only in the 1 st and the 6 th sessions without relaxation training. Biofeedback-assisted relaxation was conducted using NeXus – 10 device (The Neth- erlands). Results and conclusions. Both relaxation methods proved to be effective in reducing perceived stress. Changes in perceived stress were related to the type of relaxation, personality characteristics, and their intensity.

PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF THE INVENTORY OF COLLEGE STUDENTS’ RECENT LIFE EXPERIENCES (ICSRLE): LITHUANIAN VERSION

Urban expansion, population growth and modes of consumption are all factors that have caused a significant increase in waste production in Casablanca. Privatized in 2004, the solid waste management in this city is confronted with institutional, technical and legal problems. The analysis of documents - the Law 28-00 on solid waste, the Convention of delegated management and the National Program of Household Wastes (NPHW) - allows assessing the institutional, political and technical difficulties of the reform of the solid waste management. It shows, in particular, that the legal provisions and governmental strategies are difficult to be applied. In addition, The investigations carried out in the popular quarters of Ben M’Sik shows that wastemanagement solids is perceived like a shared responsibility.