Essay On Social Support

876 Words4 Pages

with feedback, validation, and a sense that one can master one’s environment” (Hobfoll, 1988, p. 120). Social support also consists of interactions where meaningful support occurs between people. Students can use these social supports to help them get through the stress that they are experiencing. Social support has been found to be important in many college students’ lives. Social support can help by offering distractions from unhappiness caused by stress, or by helping the student re-work and change personal perspectives on what has happened. Students who are experiencing homesickness need to have a support system so they can let out their feelings. Many of these students are known to be depressed and this matter needs to be worked with …show more content…

Exercising can help to release the stress that is built up in the body. The body is prepared to do something physical, and exercise will afford it a health way to make use of this preparation. Students have access to exercise facilities on campus that can help them. Participating in intramural sports can be a way to also release the stress and have fun at the same time. Eating properly also can help students to reduce stress. Being able to eat on a schedule and not skipping meals can help to reduce stress. Stress can build up when meals are skipped and the nutrition needed for the body is not provided. It is all a matter of changing eating habits that can help reduce some of the stress (Greenberg, 1996). One of the first interventions that research Saunders & Balinsky (1993) suggests is a cognitive approach. The cognitive approach enables the student to gain skills to cope with theses stressors and to better control reactions to these stressors. This cognitive approach is a good beginning point for graduate students to learn about managing stress. This cognitive approach helps to identify cognitive aspects of stress specific to graduate students. “Cognitive approaches have been reported to successfully alleviate stress and emotional disorders such as depression” (Saunders & Balinsky, 1993, p.