Stressors and coping strategies: The case of teacher education students at University of Ghana

Abstract This research examined the stressors that teacher education students of the University of Ghana usually encounter and the coping stratagems that they frequently embrace. Random sampling technique was employed to select 270 s and third year undergraduate students in 2018/2019 academic year to answer a survey questionnaire with closed-ended and open-ended questions. Dental Environmental Stress (DES) questionnaire on stressors was adapted whereas coping stratagems that might be utilised by students to minimise stress was measured using an adapted form of the Brief COPE. The outcomes of the research revealed that ‘working to meet scholastic requirements”, “inadequate supply of power and water in halls”, and “changes in eating and sleeping habits”, were three major stressors experienced by teacher education students. Furthermore, learners utilised numerous approaches, such as praying or meditating, and self-diverting actions as coping strategies. Learners also used more adaptive coping strategies, than maladaptive and avoidance coping strategies. Overall, resident students were found to be more stressed than non-resident students. Again, this study revealed that resident students are more prayerful and easily get help and advice from lecturers or teaching assistants but deeply averse with substance abuse such as using tobacco/alcohol/drug to feel better compared with their non-resident counterparts. It was recommended that the Department of Teacher Education should establish a counselling centre to assign academic counsellors to learners and organise frequent stress management programmes for them.


PUBLIC STATEMENT INTEREST
Learners are exposed to diverse types of stressors, such as academic burden, financial constraints and a host of difficulties as well as future uncertainties and having opportunities for social mobility in the system. Learners go through these stressors with a responsibility to excel in their academics. In as much as individuals need to comprehend the influences of students' stress, it is also vital to appreciate the effectiveness of coping strategies and refining stress management programmes. This research focused on undergraduate teacher education students in a university that is not traditionally aligned to teacher education. It was envisaged that students in this new programme with a specific mandate might experience a significant amount of stress that will need to be investigated. students are more prayerful and easily get help and advice from lecturers or teaching assistants but deeply averse with substance abuse such as using tobacco/ alcohol/drug to feel better compared with their non-resident counterparts. It was recommended that the Department of Teacher Education should establish a counselling centre to assign academic counsellors to learners and organise frequent stress management programmes for them. Subjects: Educational Research; Higher Education; Secondary Education; Teachers & Teacher Education; Educational Psychology Keywords: stressors; teacher education students; stress coping strategies; university students 1.1. Background of the study Learners are exposed to diverse types of stressors, such as academic burden, financial constraints and a host of difficulties as well as future uncertainties and having opportunities for social mobility in the system. Learners go through these stressors with a responsibility to excel. Individuals could be lethargic and indifferent beings if they do not experience some form of stress as it has been observed that stress is an indispensable and unavoidable aspect of one's daily life. Stress is inescapable as it associates with any peripheral occurrence that could be enjoyable or intimidating (Yikealo & Tareke, 2018). An occurrence could be assessed as an obstacle or a risk depending on a person's response to stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984 as cited in Yikealo & Tareke, 2018). According to Rheinberg and Engeser (2018), thought-provoking circumstances could bring about positive impact like motivation and performance enhancement, intimidating and agonizing situations could also end up in anxiety, depression, societal dysfunction to the level of suicidal intent (Tang, Byrne, & Qin, 2018). Stress has been in public linguistic use historically for the past four centuries and has been utilised to solve deprivation, calamity, or misery (Bamuhair et al., 2015). In any case, stress is best portrayed as a situation where normal requirements exceed the limit concerning the prevailing response by a person and might perchance have physical and mental results (Rout & Rout, 1993). Managing stress, on the other hand, is crucial for human endurance and can be characterised as the way toward taking care of outside or inside burdens that are affirmed as challenging on individual abilities and assets (Rout & Rout, 1993).
Over the years, academic stress encountered by college learners as a result of the transition from high school has been a focus of attention by researchers (Shields, 2001). New challenges are faced by students who gain admission into tertiary education; the switch from high school to university frequently comes with new stressors and needs suitable coping techniques. It is anticipated that students handle academic stressors as well as incorporating scholastic and medical assignments; stressors experienced by individuals that encompass cope with balancing the mission of that stage of existence with wide-ranging college-related stressors, such as retrieving funds as well as stressors related to peers (Bamuhair et al., 2015). According to Kwaah and Essilfie (2017) and Soliman (2014), regardless of age, race and socio-economic background, stress emanates in several ways and might disturb an individual's state of healthiness. Even though there be incalculable reasons for stress, the degree harps on one's physical wellbeing, interconnection with other people, requirements of work, the degree of desire and dependence, as well as different types of obligations (Soliman, 2014).
Coping has been viewed as a stabilization viewpoint that could help a person in psychosocial adjustment over the span of stressful occasions. Coping strategies utilised more than once by learners to minimise levels of stress include effectual time management, social help, constructive reassessment and commitment in comfortable interests. Tolerating responsibility and self-blame are also coping stratagems useful in the first year of medical school tertiary education. The pattern is shifted to challenging, intellectual, and strategic problem-solving in the later years (Ahmadi et al., 2018). Similarly, in order to endeavour to overcome, reduce or permit stress and disagreement, it is imperative that the individual consciously puts in enormous efforts in order to solve private and relational challenges (Weiten & Lloyd, 2008). The efficacy of the coping endeavour is contingent on the type of stress, the person involved, and the situations at hand. Reactions to coping are partially managed by one's disposition and the social setting, especially the inherent features of the stressful atmosphere (Brannon & Feist, 2009;Carver & Connor-Smith, 2010). Thus, learners with an engagement coping approach can change the circumstances, bringing about an increasingly versatile result, thereby reporting fewer symptoms of depression (Tobin, Holroyd, Reynolds, & Wigal, 1989).

Statement of the problem
Stress is viewed as an important part of life towards self-improvement. In any case, not all learners can adapt sufficiently. This study, therefore, seeks to explore stressors and coping approaches adopted by undergraduate students pursuing teacher education programmes in the school of education and leadership of the University of Ghana.
Proof from past investigations proposes that learners experience stress in one way or the other, subsequently credited to numerous emotive and bodily symptoms such as exhaustion, cerebral pains, and melancholy to stress among university learners. Consequently, stress is part of learners' survival and might have a consequence of just how learners adapt to the challenges of college life (Kwaah & Essilfie, 2017;Ramos, 2011). Research has shown that difficulties such as poor scholastic excellence, school dropout, addictions, and crime are as a result of extreme stress experienced by learners (Kwaah & Essilfie, 2017). Further, Soliman (2014) additionally indicated that extreme levels of stress do not just prompt uneasiness and lack of impartiality, however, they might likewise prompt amplified occurrence of blunders and inappropriate conduct like examination malpractices, scam, and carelessness. Accordingly, Dusselier, Dunn, Wang, Shelley, and Whalen (2010) suggested that an extreme level of stress and its control might influence learners' essential learning. Nevertheless, how learners adapt to these stressors depends generally on their character, discernments, and past involvements (Amponsah & Owolabi, 2011;Kwaah & Essilfie, 2017). Besides, there have been several studies and empirical evidence on levels of stress and coping stratagems in different areas of academic endeavour, such as education, health and psychology. In all these studies, the researchers noted that university learners encounter extreme levels of academic, psychosocial and health stresses and employ similar approaches to cope with stress, such as adaptive strategies (Amponsah & Owolabi, 2011;Bamuhair et al., 2015;Govender, Mkhabela, Hlongwane, Jalim, & Jetha, 2015;Kwaah & Essilfie, 2017;Yikealo & Tareke, 2018).
An analysis of the various literature demonstrates that most of the studies on stressors and coping approaches had been done in developed countries, and the few done in Ghana were mostly related to distance education students whose natural disposition is different from regular undergraduate students (Amponsah & Owolabi, 2011;Gyambrah, Sesay, & Amponsah, 2017;Kumi-Yeboah, 2010;Kwaah & Essilfie, 2017;Torto, 2009;William, Rebecca, & Joseph, 2010). Thus, this research focused on regular undergraduate teacher education students in a university that is not traditionally aligned to teacher education. The teacher education programme introduced in the university in the 2014/2015 academic year is unique in the sense that it has a different focus because it is the first department established in the university to train teachers for high schools in Ghana compared with the traditional mandate (train professionals in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and health) of the university.
Again, Ghanaian universities have traditionally given accommodation to all students admitted until the late 1980s when the growing demand for tertiary education by students could not meet the very limited residential facilities on campus thereby eroding most tertiary students' dream of becoming residential students in Ghanaian public universities. A study to explore "the predicaments of non-residential students in Ghanaian institutions of higher education: a micro-level empirical evidence" was conducted by Addai (2015, p. 1). Although there has been private-public partnership in the provision of residential accommodation to students, the astronomical increase in student numbers have made it impossible to offer accommodation to all students on campus. The study concluded that non-residential student housing projects in the future should be made a vital part of the academic community by taking realistic measures to alleviate the challenges and difficulties non-resident students encounter at their various places of residence. The researchers of the current study observed from the foregoing that it will be expedient to explore the differences in the stressors encountered by residential and non-residential students as well as the coping strategies they might adopt to manage stress.
In as much as individuals need to comprehend the influences of students' stress, it is also vital to appreciate the effectiveness of coping strategies and refining stress management programmes. Thus, examining stressors and coping techniques teacher education students employ will enable them to minimise their strain to empower them to accomplish meritoriously in their academic endeavours. Consequently, this has prompted the present research to explore the stressors encountered and coping maneuvers utilised by learners in the department of teacher education.

Purpose of the study
The research explored stressors experienced by teacher education learners of the University of Ghana, Legon, and coping stratagems they might adopt to manage stress.
To achieve the objectives of the research, the following specific aims have been outlined: (1) To recognise stressors encountered by teacher education students.
(2) To ascertain whether there are differences in stressors encountered by resident and nonresident teacher education students.
(3) To evaluate the stress-coping approaches utilised by teacher education students to minimise stress.
(4) To ascertain whether there are differences in the coping approaches that resident and nonresident teacher education students adopt in managing stress.

Conceptual framework
The Transactional Model of Stress and Coping Theory is a framework which highlights a formal assessment to appraise harm, danger and challenges, as consequences in the process of coping with stressful episodes (Lazarus, 1966;Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). The extent of stress encountered in the form of opinions, emotional state, sentiments and deeds, as a result of outside stressors, depends on evaluations of the state of affairs which involves an assessment about whether internal or external demands surpass resources and ability to cope when demands surpass capitals (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).
Accordingly, this research was premised on the fact that different stressors such as academic, health and psychosocial related can trigger coping responses like adaptive and maladaptive stratagems utilised by residential and non-residential students. Thus, the conceptual model related to the conceptual literature examined stressors encountered by students and stress coping strategies employed to minimise stress is presented in Figure 1. Miles and Huberman (1994) defined a conceptual framework as a "visual or written product, one that explains, either graphically or in narrative form, the main things to be studied-the key factors, concepts, or variables-and the presumed relationships among them" (p. 18).
Research has shown that students experience stressors such as academic-related stressors, health-related stressors and psychosocial-related stressors in the course of their academic pursuit (Ganesan, Talwar, Norsiah, & Oon, 2018;Okoro, 2018). Most of the studies indicate that distance education students experience diverse stressors and utilise different coping strategies as opposed to regular students (Gyambrah et al., 2017;Kumi-Yeboah, 2010;Kwaah & Essilfie, 2017;Panchabakesan, 2011;Ramos, 2011). Similarly, majority of research was also conducted on the coping stratagems adopted by these students to manage stress (Ganesan et al., 2018;Govender et al., 2015;Mathew, 2017;Okoro, 2018). Additionally, a few studies on stressors and coping techniques adopted by residential and non-residential college students suggest that residential students face more stress than non-residential students (Kabir et al., 2018;Parveen, 2016), although Addai (2015) found otherwise.

Causes/sources of stress (Stressors)
A stressor is any issue that activates a reaction to stress. Previous studies (Govender et al., 2015;Robotham, 2008) have acknowledged that stressors encountered by students are grouped into three, namely, individual, scholastic and college-related stressors. Examples of individual stressors encountered by learners consist of physical issues or hindrances, family troubles, money-related challenges, resource accessibility, social problems, and the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Scholastic stressors encountered by learners comprise high scholarly expectations, thorough class plans, incorporation of the classroom and medical learning, examinations and assessments, the measure of classwork and horrible scores, managing time, and fieldwork on clinical, as well as student-supervisor relationships. Similarly, stressors associated with the college comprised a change following college life, access to assets for example library assets and friend or partner contention. Because of the ceaselessly changing nature of the college condition learners can conceivably encounter significant levels of pressure that can influence their wellbeing and scholarly performance (Govender et al., 2015).
Correspondingly, Okoro (2018) categorised stressors into two broad categories, namely, academic and non-academic stressors. Consequently, the underlisted have been distinguished to be related to scholarly stress grounded on previous research: scholastic workload, lecture attendance, assessments, school curriculum and insufficient learning materials, subject-related projects and unfriendly scholarly environmental factors, for instance, poor illumination, outrageous temperature, and uncomfortable sound might increase the threat of harm and resultant increase of musculature and skeleton syndromes. Bodily stress forced on the physique comprises improper sitting arrangement and inappropriate posture on chairs in congested classrooms, which could cause great damage to muscles and joints. This might be a usual phenomenon, prompting increasingly incessant, recurrent discomfort and incidents of pain (Ekpenyong, Daniel, & Aribo, 2013as cited in Okoro, 2018. Notwithstanding, non-scholastic stressors involve different stressors aside from scholarly stress that disturbs individuals' day by day operations by coercing them to make adjustments. They comprise relationship stressors, for example, trust issues, unfaithfulness, lack of self-confidence and relationship exploitation; financial stressor, for example, tuition fees, unsettled bills, danger of account going to collection and piling on unpaid liability through loans and credit card liability; unhealthy eating habits (foods that can activate stress comprise nourishment high in caffeine, fat, refined starches, and sugar); and employment.

Stress coping strategies
Coping is perceived as an important variable during the time spent in limiting, decreasing or enduring stress (Gustems-Carnicer & Calderón, 2013). Coping alludes to the opinions and actions individuals utilise to deal with the interior and exterior requests of traumatic occasions (Folkman, 2010).
Coping has been characterised by Lazarus and Folkman (1984) as a procedure of continually changing one's intellectual and demeanour endeavours to oversee precise outer or inner challenges that are assessed as burdening or surpassing the assets of the individual. Coping methodologies are viewed as those endeavours, both conduct and mental, that a person utilises to suppress, diminish or limit and endure distressing occasions (Sreeramareddy et al., 2007). Correspondingly, Lazarus and Folkman (1984) also defined eight comprehensive kinds of coping stratagems that people may utilise in traumatic circumstances. These eight categories of coping approaches are additionally categorised into emotion-focused and problem-focused coping techniques. Whereas emotion-focused coping techniques comprise concentrating on the positive, self-criticism, unrealistic reasoning, minding your own business, separation, and decrease in anxiety, problem-focused coping techniques consist of looking for social help (Lazarus, 1993).
Besides, problem-focused coping is the point at which a person connects with the surrounding through direct activity, critical thinking, and dynamic fundamental leadership. Holland (2001) indicated that immediate action includes changing the circumstance/occasion or changing oneself to eradicate the stressors. In general, problem-focused coping procedures are planned for diminishing the anxieties of the circumstance or stressor. This is done by increasing the resources for managing the stressor, which is regularly utilised when the individual accepts that the stressor can be altered (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Consequently, problem-focused stratagems and confident thoughtful techniques of coping are adaptive coping tactics that lessen stress experienced by individuals.
On the contrary, endeavours focused on exchanging emotional reactions to stressful situations are termed as emotion-focused coping approaches (Robotham, 2008). These endeavours are aimed at limiting the negative impacts of the stressor; in this way, the person feels much improved, yet the issue is not resolved (Holland, 2001). Accordingly, emotion-focused coping techniques are planned for lessening the effect of the apparent stressor if the stressor cannot be changed or maintain a strategic distance from, or if a person sees the cause of stress as very intimidating, unalterable and overwhelming (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).
Emotion-focused stratagems, for example, evasion and negative thoughtfulness in light of a stressor are maladaptive strategies for coping. Even though these techniques for coping may diminish a person's feelings of anxiety, it encourages long-term wellbeing (Shaheen & Alam, 2010). Furthermore, the outcomes of maladaptive coping may cause diminished confidence, increased liquor utilization and smoking, decreased working of the immune framework, increased selfdestructive propensities, poor scholarly achievement, and dropouts (Mosley et al., 1994;Sarid, Anson, Yaari, & Margalith, 2004). Yikealo and Tareke (2018) investigated stress coping procedures among undergrads of the College of Education (CoE) in Eritrea Institute of Technology, Mainefhi. One hundred and twenty-three learners were randomly selected to participate in the research. A 15 item Self-created College Students Coping Strategies Scale (CSCSS) was utilised for the research. The findings suggest that the learners utilise more positive stress coping approaches than negative ones.

Empirical literature review
The result of a study by Ganesan et al. (2018), to explore the degree of stress as well as the coping stratagems encountered by undergraduates indicated that the many university students have a moderate level of stress. This investigation was motivated by considering the connection between stress and coping procedures between undergraduates. The findings also suggested a substantial reverse association between the degree of stress and coping approaches by undergraduates to manage stress. The investigation infers that a few amounts of stress can be great, as the correct sort of stress inspires them towards change and progress. Nonetheless, learners can be burdensome if they cannot adapt to stress. The investigation prescribed that learners ought to be urged to participate in extra-curricular exercises, for example, sports to decrease pressure.
So also, Okoro (2018) evaluated the issues related to stress and tactics for dealing with stress among undergrads. Using descriptive statistics, the investigation uncovered that scholastic/coursework demands were the greatest perceived cause of stress among the students. Postponement, study/life equalization, funds, and cash issues were additionally recognised to have caused a significant amount of stress within the study period. The most widely recognised adapting stratagem among the students was active coping. However, denial was the least basic technique utilised.
Similarly, Kwaah and Essilfie (2017) researched stress and adaptation schemes among learners pursuing distance education. The consequences of the investigation demonstrated that scholarly workload, high recurrence of assessments, budgetary issues and family/marriage issues were the significant reasons for stress among the learners. Students utilised numerous techniques, principally praying/meditating, self-diverting exercises, for example, sitting in front of the TV and tuning in to music to adapt to stress.
Further, Mathew (2017) assessed stress and adapting techniques among undergrads. This investigation surveyed the degree of stress encountered by undergrads and the adapting stratagems they utilise to manage stress. The research findings demonstrated that the mean of 26.94 for stress level suggests that the average number of participants has a reasonable degree of stress. Similarly, a mean of 48.40 for adapting stratagems suggests that the average number of participants have an average level of adapting approaches.
Likewise, Govender et al. (2015) investigated the cause of stress and coping stratagems utilised by undergraduate occupational therapy students at a tertiary institution in South Africa. This was to decide the sorts and recurrence of stressors and adapting styles utilised. The study revealed that individual stressors were the most momentous overall stressor amongst first-year students, whereas scholastic stressors were the most highly ranked stressors among continuing undergraduate students. Emotion-focused and problem-focused coping were employed by students to manage stress.
A study was conducted between Commerce and Law students in Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh (UP), India. This research found the pervasiveness of stress in college students and its relationship with academic life, intrapersonal life and social life (Parveen, 2016). The findings indicated that resident students experienced more stressors than non-resident students. Similarly, a study was conducted on evaluation of stress, loneliness and depression among residential and non-residential students of Dhaka University (Kabir et al., 2018). The results reveal that residential students encountered more stressors, loneliness and depression than nonresidential students.

Research design
Descriptive cross-sectional design was utilised in this research to investigate the stressors encountered and coping stratagems employed by undergraduates offering teacher education programmes at the University of Ghana. The purpose of using the survey design was to explore the stressors experienced by teacher education students, and the adapting stratagems they employ to offset or minimise the stress. A Self-Report Questionnaire with closed-ended and open-ended questions was designed and administered to the students to ascertain the stressors they encounter in their academic pursuits.

Population of the study
The target population for this research comprised all undergraduates offering teacher education programmes at the University of Ghana. However, the accessible population was all the undergraduate teacher education students in the 2018/2019 academic year studying secondary education programmes in the department of Teacher Education. Other characteristics of the learners include age, employment status, gender, level, marital status, religious affiliation, cumulative grade point average (CGPA) and residential status of the respondents.

Sample and sampling procedure
The sample consisted of Levels 200 and 300 students offering secondary education programmes in the department of teacher education. These students were selected because they have had at least one year transition from the high school to the university level. At the time of the research, the pioneers were the students in Level 300 and there were no students in Level 400. Additionally, Level 100 students were not used because they had not yet spent a year at the university. The department of teacher education was purposively selected because this department is new (4 years) and its focus is different from the focus of the traditional programmes of the University of Ghana. Two hundred and seventy students were selected for the study out of a population of 450 students using the sampling technique to determine the sample size in didactic and psychological measurement activities in research (Yamane, 1973). Stratified random sampling was the sampling technique that was used in selecting the students who participated in the study by initially grouping them into different classifications such as level, residential status, and area of study. Then, the researchers randomly selected the final list of students from the different strata. The researchers used a confidence level of 95%, meaning the real value is within ±5% of the surveyed value. Although the value obtained was 208, indicating that 208 or more surveys are needed to have the 95% confidence level, the researchers decided to increase the number of respondents to 270.

Instruments
A Self-Report Questionnaire with closed-ended and open-ended questions was designed and administered to undergraduate teacher education students to ascertain the causes of stress they experience as well as copping tactics utilised by the learners to manage stress. The questionnaire consists of three sections. Section A elicited the respondents' data and background information. On personal data, students provided their ages, gender and indicated their cumulative grade point average (CGPA). The rest is the background information about students such as their marital status, employment status, residential status, and religious denomination. Section B consists of 18 statements about the causes of stress experienced by the students. Students were given a 5-point Likert scale of strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree, or strongly disagree to choose from. Similarly, Section C consists of 12 statements about the coping approaches teacher education students employed in managing stress. Similarly, students were given a 5-point Likert scale of strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree, or strongly disagree to make a choice.
The questionnaire was designed by adapting Garbee's Dental Environment Stressors (DES) questionnaire that was modified by Westerman, Grandy, Ocanto, and Erskine (1993), and Polychronopoulou and Divaris (2005). In the adaptation process, some items were selected from DES, and the others developed by the researchers after a review of the revised forms of DES to examine the stressors experienced by the learners (Cohen, Kamarch, & Mermelstein, 1983). Similarly, the Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (Brief COPE) inventory was adapted and used to measure the coping approaches undergraduates used to minimise stress (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980). In the adaptation process, some items were selected from the Brief COPE, and the others developed by the researchers after a review of the revised forms. In the validation process, face validity was established, pilot tested and the dataset cleaned where appropriate. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) was then performed and Cronbach's Alpha established.

Data collection procedure
Data were collected in April 2019 from undergraduates offering teacher education programmes at the University of Ghana through permission obtained from the Head of the Department. The researchers made personal contacts with the respondents, who are their students, during the lecture period to give advance information to them and to make the necessary arrangements for the administration of the instruments. The second meeting was the administration of the instrument and collection of the data at scheduled lecture periods. An introductory letter from the Head of Department of Teacher education was used to explain the purpose of the study to them. Levels 200 and 300 students pursuing undergraduate education programmes were used for the study.

Data analysis procedure
Data on background information were analysed using frequencies, percentages and means. The stressors encountered by students and the coping techniques, they might adopt were analysed using means and standard deviations. The Independent Samples t-test was used to find out whether resident teacher education students differed from non-resident teacher education students on the stressors they experience as well as coping strategies they might adopt.

Demographic information
The study sought to find out the age, employment status, gender, level, marital status, religious affiliation, CGPA and residential status of the respondents. Regarding the demographic distribution, the outcome of the responses is presented in Table 1. The researchers used the captive audience approach to distribute the questionnaires and retrieved the filled questionnaires from students with a response rate of 100%. The Cronbach's alpha (0.78) obtained suggests that the items in the questionnaire were internally consistent.
From Table 1, the number of males who participated in the study is 126 (46.7%) and that of females is 144 (53.3%). The mean age of learners presented for this study is 20.98 years. Also, most of the participants are unmarried (95.2%), followed by those who are unemployed (89.3%), and then those with CGPA more than 2.5 (85.2%). The rest are Christians (80.0%), residential students (74.4%), BA Education students 68.9%, Level 200 students (65.2%) and females (53.3%).

Stressors among teacher education students
Objective one sought to find out the various stressors experienced by teacher education students. Table 2 presents the outcome of the responses provided by the participants. The objective of the study was to explore stressors experienced by teacher education learners of the University of Ghana, Legon and coping stratagems they might adopt to manage stress. The academic-related stressors presented in Table 2 include "working to meet academic requirements", which had the greatest mean (M = 4.36, SD = 0.88) demonstrating that scholastic work puts a lot of stress on undergrads offering teacher education programmes at University of Ghana. The next is "inadequate supply of power and water in halls" (M = 3.89, SD = 1.20), "congested lecture theatres" (M = 3.69, SD = 1.30) and "facing financial pressure" (M = 3.58, SD = 1.29). Academic work such as the writing of assignments and quizzes, making presentations, attending lectures and writing endsemester examinations stress undergrads pursuing teacher education courses.

Differences between resident and non-resident teacher education students on stressors
Objective two sought to find out whether there are differences in the stressors encountered by residential and non-residential teacher education students. Table 2 presents the outcome of the responses based on residential status as provided by the participants. Additionally, an independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare the causes of stress affecting residential and nonresidential teacher education students. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the overall stressors encountered by residents (M = 60.3, SD = 23.0) and nonresidents (M = 59.7, SD = 21.7). However, there were significant differences in some specific stressors residential and non-residential teacher education students experienced: residents (M = 4.29, SD = 0.92) and non-residents (M = 4.55, SD = 0.76) on the causes of stress with respect to "working to meet academic requirements" as an academic-related issue; t (268) = −2.141, p = 0.033, with non-residents strongly agreeing to that assertion; "inadequate supply of power and water in the halls", t (268) = 2.547, p = 0.011, with residents (M = 4.00, SD = 1.18) being more affected compared with non-residents (M = 3.58, SD = 1.18); residents (M = 3.56, SD = 1.35) and non-residents (M = 4.07, SD = 1.06) on "congested lecture theatres" (t (268) = −2.847, p = 0.005; residents (M = 3.22, SD = 1.29) and non-residents (M = 3.59, SD = 1.31) on "inadequate course materials for assessments" (t (268) = −2.073, p = 0.039); and residents (M = 2.80, SD = 1.40) and non-residents (M = 2.42, SD = 1.25) on 'apathy received from other "departments where courses are borrowed" (t (268) = 1.996, p = 0.047); residents (M = 3.62, SD = 1.19) and non-residents (M = 3.20, SD = 1.23) on the causes of stress concerning "conflict in time management" as a psychosocial issue, t (268) = 2.501, p = 0.013. This result suggests that residents have a challenge when it comes to time management compared with their non-resident counterparts. This is not surprising as non-residential students in Ghana still have access to parental control and support and are likely able to manage their time better than their counterparts who have left home to live on their own for the first time. Furthermore, there was a significant difference between residents (M = 3.49, SD = 1.36) and non-residents (M = 3.13, SD = 1.12) on the psychosocial causes of stress concerning "dealing with roommates"; t (268) = 1.994, p = 0.047, with residents complaining more than non-residents. Issues concerning conflicts between roommates in Ghanaian Universities cannot be overemphasized and the University of Ghana is neither an exception as roommate conflicts have been topical over the years, with some students being expelled from the halls.
Finally, results on residents (M = 3.00, SD = 1.37) and non-residents (M = 2.59, SD = 1.24) showed a significant difference in the causes of stress with respect to "illness/health problems" as a health-related issue; t (268) = 2.143, p = 0.033. Lectures begin at 7.30 am and end at 7.20 pm at the University of Ghana. For the non-resident student, this poses a great challenge due to the traffic situation in the city of Accra. A non-resident student will have to leave home very early to avoid traffic and might get home late as a result of the traffic, which can trigger stressful situations and corresponding effects. However, non-resident students seem to disagree with the assertion that they might experience illness/health issues compared with their counterparts.

Coping strategies employed by teacher education students
Objective three sought to find out the various coping strategies teacher education students employ when stressed. Table 3 presents the outcome of the responses based on residential status as provided by the respondents. Handling stress is very crucial to preventing any undesirable consequence of protracted stress encountered by individuals. Learners employ numerous adapting stratagems in dealing with stress. Table 3 shows that majority of learners were using positive coping approaches such as selfdistraction, that is "Doing something like watching TV, movies, going shopping, listening to music to take my mind off the condition" (M = 4.11, SD = 0.99), with residents obtaining the highest mean (M = 4.8, SD = 0.85) and non-residents having the lowest (M = 3.91, SD = 1.31). It is therefore not surprising that students disagreed on the notion of giving up coping, such as "Giving up the attempt to do anything about the situation" (M = 2.69, SD = 1.27), with residents' disagreeing (M = 2.65, SD = 1.28) more than non-residents (M = 2.83, SD = 1.24).
The rest are active coping like "Doing something about the situation, act to neutralize stressor" (M = 3.82, SD = 1.22), with residents (M = 3.84, SD = 1.17) being more active than their nonresident counterparts (M = 3.77, SD = 1.35). On positive refraining such as "Learning from experience by seeing something good in the current situation" (M = 3.87, SD = 1.20), residents were more positive (M = 3.90, SD = 1.17) than non-residents (M = 3.81, SD = 1.22) although there was no significant mean difference between them. Furthermore, on religion like "Praying/meditating" (M = 3.87, SD = 0.94), residents (M = 3.95, SD = 0.93) prayed and meditated more than their non-resident counterparts (M = 3.62, SD = 0.93). This is not surprising as religion plays an important role among Ghanaians when it comes to solving problems that confront them especially with problems that do not have communal structures to alleviate its undesirable consequences. Similarly, it is also not startling that residents are praying more than non-resident students as the former has a well-structured routine relative to participating in religious activities. This finding is consistent with the results obtained by Kwaah and Essilfie (2017) on the stressors This study showed that teacher education students do not indulge in drugs (M = 1.78, SD = 1.23) and that residents are more unenthusiastic to using a drug to feel better (M = 1.69, SD = 1.18) than their non-resident counterparts (M = 2.06, SD = 1.33). Contrary to popular belief that students use substance abuse such as "Using tobacco/alcohol/drug to feel better", this study revealed otherwise. These outcomes substantiate research conducted by Sideridis (2008) that revealed five important stress coping stratagems: browsing the internet, sleeping and resting, watching TV or movies and instant messaging as frequently used coping strategies by students. 6. Differences among resident and non-resident students on the type of coping strategies they might employ Objective four sought to explore how resident students differ from non-resident students on the type of coping approaches they utilise to manage stress. An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare coping stratagems adopted by resident and non-resident learners. Generally, there was no significant difference in the coping strategies adopted by residents (M = 39.5, SD = 16.8) and nonresidents (M = 38.4, SD = 15.1). However, specifically, there was a significant difference between the resident (M = 1.69, SD = 1.18) and non-resident (M = 2.06, SD = 1.33) on the coping strategies they might employ concerning substance abuse such as using tobacco/alcohol/drug to feel better; t (268) = −2.182, p = 0.030. The result suggests that resident students are more opposed to using tobacco/alcohol/drugs to feel better compared to non-resident students, even though all of them denied substance abuse. Similarly, there was a significant difference between residents (M = 3.57, SD = 1.28) and non-residents (M = 3.12, SD = 1.28) on the coping strategies they might employ concerning emotional support such as "Friends and family giving advice/emotional support"; t (268) = 2.557, p = 0.011. As explained previously, resident students have access to their lecturers and TAs more than non-resident student students because they are always on campus and accessibility is not restricted by location compared to non-residents. Correspondingly, there was a significant difference between residents (M = 3.95, SD = 0.93) and non-residents (M = 3.62, SD = 0.93) on the coping strategies they might employ with respect to religion such as "praying/meditating"; t (268) = 2.521, p = 0.012. As discussed earlier, residents have a well-structured system concerning religion compared with non-residents.

Conclusion
Questions have been raised concerning the effectiveness of existing programmes at colleges as a result of presumed lack of the integration of academic and emotional support resulting in the continuous mental misery that learners suffer in their academic pursuit. When a learner encounters high degrees of stress or lingering stress, irrespective of the age or grade, it can inhibit one's capability to learn, remember, and make decent grades as well as lead to poor physical, emotional, and mental health. The major causes of stress identified during the study concerning academic-related issues were, "working to meet academic requirements", "inadequate supply of power and water in halls", "congested lecture theatres" and "facing financial pressure". Likewise, major psychosocial stressors identified are "conflict in time management", and "dealing with roommates". Finally, about health-related problems, "changes in eating and sleeping habits" were identified as a high stressor.
While majority of the students were using positive coping strategies such as "doing something like watching TV, movies, going shopping, listening to music to take my mind off the condition", "praying or meditating", "doing something about the situation, act to neutralise stressor", "learning from experience by seeing something good in the current situation" and "friends and family giving advice or emotional support", many were also getting help from lecturers and Teaching Assistants (TAs). However, it came to light that students disagreed with the notion of using tobacco/alcohol/drugs to address stressful situations, which is very encouraging for health reasons.
Finally, the findings on stressors suggest that resident teacher education students were stressed by "inadequate supply of power and water in the halls", "conflict in time management", "dealing with roommates" and 'changes in eating/sleeping habits. On the other hand, non-resident students were stressed by "working to meet academic requirements", "congested lecture theatres", "inadequate course materials for assessments", "apathy received from other departments where courses are borrowed" and "facing financial pressure". On differences in coping strategies, this study has revealed that resident students are more prayerful and easily get help and advice from Lecturers or TAs but deeply averse with substance abuse compared with their non-resident counterparts.
The research findings will add to the extant body of literature related to stress and could help the students in finding an answer to their issues and assist them with enjoying their schooling in a stress-free and tension-free environment.

Recommendation
The researchers made the following recommendations based on the research objectives, analysis and findings of this research.
(1) We recommend that the department of teacher education sets up a counselling unit to organise stress management programmes for teacher education students. This can be done when every student has been assigned a counsellor who can contact the learners at the office or through e-mails and mobile phones.
(2) The department of teacher education should establish a students' support services unit that will develop policies to help ease the stress encountered by learners in the department.