Literature Review Blog #3

2. Citation: 

Bland, Helen W., et al. "Stress Tolerance: New Challenges For Millennial College 

           Students." College Student Journal 46.2 (2012): 362-375. Academic Search 

           Premier. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

3. Summary: 

"Stress Tolerance: New Challenges For Millennial College Students" is an article found in the College Student Journal about the millennial generation of college students and the unique characteristics of this generation. It focuses on how this generation of college students deals with the many stressors of college. The authors did a study on this topic by using a stress tolerance questionnaire, and from the questionnaire they grouped students into high and low stress tolerance groups. They concluded from the study that the coping mechanisms used by the millennial college students are ineffective, and they are leading to low stress tolerance.

4. Authors:

Helen W. Bland: Bland is a professor at Georgia Southern University, and she works in the Department of Community Health. Her expertise includes community health education.

Bridget F. Melton: Melton is an associate professor at Georgia Southern University, and she works in the Department of Community Health, with expertise in physical activity.

Paul Welle: Welle was a student in Georgia studying stress in college students.

Lauren Bigham: Bigham is a professor at Georgia State University, and she works in the Department of Health and Kinesiology.

All four of these authors are knowledgeable about the topic of the article because they all study health related subjects, and have previous works on topics related to this one.

5. Key Terms:

One key term in this article is stress tolerance, which is the ability to remain calm when faced with stressful situations. This term is used a lot in this article because the study is comparing high tolerance college students and low tolerance college students. Another key term in this article is millennial generation, which is a group of people born from the 1980s' and later, like people in college now. This study is on millennial college students.

6. Quotes:

"Since stress is such a concern for the Millennial college student population, there is a real need to approach the topic in relation to stress tolerance. When faced with similar stressors, people do not react in the same manner. Some are able to handle the stress, while others have great difficulty" (1).

"The Millennials face a great deal of stress regarding their education. According to Howe and Strauss (2000), the Millennials are the first generation since 1945 to face a more stringent set of academic standards than the generation before it" (1).

"Out of the 29 factors assessed in relation to stress tolerance, nine were found to be risk factors that put one more likely to suffer low stress tolerance. These nine factors included cleaned apartment, called a friend, prayed, used internet social networks, called mom, shopped, ate, and used substances. A common theme that these risk factors might share is that all allude to reliance on external coping sources. These coping mechanisms may be defined as avoidant coping strategies" (1).

7. Value:

This article is very valuable for my final research project. It provides a detailed study and conclusion on how millennial college students cope with stress. They concluded that millennial college students' methods of coping with stress are actually not helping them very much, and they are just causing them more stress. This is a key point to include in my paper. Also, many quotes in the article will be very useful in supporting by points and expanding on the topic.