How College Students Deal with Pain

 

This study questioned and observed 22 college level participants and looked specifically at how they cope with pain.  The researchers found four main ways that college students cope.  One way involved ignoring the pain and multiple distraction attempts.  Some students tried to minimizing their pain's debilitating effects. Many used advantageous comparisons to cope with their pain and others attempted to attribute meaning to their pain.

To ignore and/or distract themselves from their pain, students would intentionally participate in an activity and or deny their feelings of pain. Students attempting to minimize their pains effects said they had tried either physical or psychological attempts to minimize the effects of their pain. Many students compared themselves to others considered to be in a more painful or treacherous situation in order to make themselves feel better.  Lastly, students searched for potential meanings behind their pain.

This study shows the different ways college aged student deal with their pain, by distracting themselves by shopping, sports, or partying to comparing themselves to those with worse problems.  These coping mechanisms proved helpful to many of the students suffering from cognitive pain. 

 

From Journal of Ethnographic & Qualitative Research, v6 n1 p32-44 2011. 13 pp by Firmin, Michael W. ; Burger, Amanda J. ; Sherman, Amanda L. ; Grigsby, Megan E. ; Croft, Jennifer N.