The SIJ Transactions on Industrial, Financial & Business Management (IFBM), Vol. 2, No.

3, May 2014
ISSN: 2321-242X 2014 | Published by The Standard International Journals (The SIJ) 58



AbstractThe purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of coping strategies among Undergraduate
students in Thailand. The instrument in this study used the Three Scales of Academic Coping Strategies
(Sullivan, 2010), which was translated into Thai language, it contained 56 statements including Approach
Coping Strategy, Avoidance Coping Strategy, and Social Support Coping Strategy. The sample consisted of
200 Thai undergraduate students who have been randomly chosen as respondents. A pilot study was conducted
to identify the validity of the translated version. The reliability coefficients (Cronbach Alpha) for using coping
strategies (Thai version) was Approach Coping Strategy (0.96), Avoidance Coping Strategy (0.95), and Social
Support Coping Strategy (0.91).The reliability coefficients (Cronbach Alpha) on the effectiveness of The Three
Scales of Coping Strategies was Approach Coping Strategy (0.96), Avoidance Coping Strategy (0.95) and
Social Support Coping Strategy (0.95).The finding showed that 86% of the respondents agreed that Social
Support Coping Strategy helped them to cope up with academic performance, 84.5% agreed that Avoidance
Coping strategy was useful, while 83.5% gave positive responses to Approach Coping Strategy.
KeywordsAcademic Coping Strategies; Academic Performance; Coping Strategies; Thai Undergraduate
Students; Undergraduate Students.

I. INTRODUCTION
igher education in Thailand was started in 19th
century [Thailand, Commission of Higher Education,
2012]. From the 1960s to 1990s, many public
universities were formed by amalgamation of colleges or
upgrades of college to universities by Thailand, Ministry of
Education. The Higher Education system policies in Thailand
were set towards a new autonomous education system in
1997. The Thai government transformed the public
universities from their original bureaucratic system to an
autonomous public universities system. Under the new
autonomous public universities system were allowed to
independent set their own regulation with regard to academic
affair independently, personal administrations, and managed
the budget and asset independently [Teerawut, 2011].
In Thailand, predominantly, universities and colleges
provide higher education. The universities and colleges
provide two levels of education, the diploma and graduate
degrees. According to Thailand Ministry of Education, over
2.2 million students are currently enrolled in the higher
education sector and the participation rates of university age
students has increased significantly over the last few years,
from an average of 26% to the current average of 40%
[Thailand, Ministry of Education, 2011]. In recent years,
there has been a significant increase in higher education
opportunities with the availability of 78 public universities
and 89 private universities [Thailand, Ministry of Education,
2011].
Students admission to the higher institutions in Thailand
is the high school entrance examination taken at the end of
Mattayom 6 (Grade 12). Undergraduate students are the
students whose age ranges are between 19 to 22 years old
[Thailand, Ministry of Education, 2008].
The Ministry of Education (2011) had introduced several
strategies to help university students to cope with not only on
academic performance but also to help them to provide more
opportunities to express and actualize their natural talents and
potential. Besides, the ministry also introduced
developmental programs to help them in handling their
continued personal-social, career, and educational
development. The specific objective of Thailands Eleventh
National Economic and Social Development Plan (2012-
2016) related to academic coping strategies included the
following:
To invest in raising the quality academic strategies to
address the development of teachers, curricula,
instructional media, and information technology.
To adjust teacher training in academic excellence by
developing coping strategies to ensure quality and
high moral standards among teachers.
H
*School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, MALAYSIA. E-Mail: linatda{at}gmail{dot}com
**School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, MALAYSIA. E-Mail: rash{at}usm{dot}my
Linatda Kuncharin* & Dr. Abdul Rashid Bin Mohamad**
Coping Strategies on Academic
Performance among Undergraduate
Students in Thailand
The SIJ Transactions on Industrial, Financial & Business Management (IFBM), Vol. 2, No. 3, May 2014
ISSN: 2321-242X 2014 | Published by The Standard International Journals (The SIJ) 59
To promote academic coping strategies by using the
information technology to enhance learning efficiency.
To develop a quality and standard of academic coping
strategies of higher education institutions.
To promote and adjust regulations of academic coping
strategies to support the decentralisation of
educational administration and management to district
education offices and academic institutions.
To encourage the academic coping strategies practice
in educational management.
There have been considerable changes in the structure of
the management and administration in Thailand in order to
support the key teaching and learning changes stipulated by
the 1999 National Education Act. Act and National Education
Plan (2012-2016) which govern the administration and
provision of education and training, the underlying principles
in reform of education system emphasise a unified policy,
flexibility implementation, decentralisation, quality
assurance, improvement academic coping strategies in the
professional education of teacher at higher level of education.
In the responsive of academic coping strategies among
undergraduate students [Thailand, Ministry of Education,
2011], there are certain strategies planned and introduced;
To promote academic coping strategies and develop
Thai undergraduate students living in a knowledge-
based society at vocational and higher education levels
to be professionals, modern citizens of the world with
diverse skills, competitiveness in global markets.
To support academic coping strategies and create an
intelligence capital of the nation.
To increase academic coping strategies in English so
as to remain a priority with government in developing
a five year plan (2012-2016) for making English
language teaching and learning a central theme for
undergraduate students. At the university level, both
public and private Thai universities reformed English
language strategies in the workplace.
In conclusion, English is the most popular foreign
language taught in universities. Since the introduction of
English language teaching, many substantial changes have
been made to the curriculum in order to make Thailands
economy more competitive in the global market, and to meet
the international communitys expectations and demands
[Attapol, 2010].
II. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Generally, undergraduate students are facing stress with
regard to their academic performance problems because they
lack of the academic coping strategies to help them cope with
stress and academic performance problems [Paitoon, 2012].
Jedsarid & Kasetchai (2011) have examined factors affecting
students academic achievement at Prince of Songkla
University. The aim of their study was to investigate the
factors affecting academic achievement of undergraduate
students who fell into probation status. Proportional stratified
sampling was employed among 390 undergraduate students
from different programme. Data were collected via
questionnaires and interviews. Binary logistic regression was
used to analyse factors affecting academic achievement of
undergraduate students under probation condition. The
authors found that gender was one of the factors affecting
academic achievement besides stress, students responsibility,
and environmental factors.
In Thai culture, parents expect their children to be
excelled in academic since their primary school. Their
expectation is higher once their child entered university. It is
agreed and understood that obtaining the highest academic
credential is prestigious among Thai family and it is always
rewards in the long-term. Undergraduate students are
encouraged to pursue their studies in order to comply with
Thai social norms and/or to gain a higher social status, which
is often a ticket for moving to a better life style [Kiatisak et
al., 2009]. He also suggested that academic coping strategies,
knowledge and personal attributes are the major factors that
could lead to their academic achievement, to their
advancement, and to their better success in future life.
Passakorn et al., (2009) studied about stress, factors
affecting stress, and stress coping among 400 of the first to
fourth year students in prince of Songkla University. The
finding showed that the academic and educational factors
could significantly predict stress for undergraduate students
with a coefficient of variation of 38.5% (p<0.01). Four
academic coping strategies that related to stress were being
practiced by the students. The strategies were the palliative
coping behaviour; the emotive coping behaviour; the
confrontive coping behaviour; and the subtractive coping
behaviour. Some of the undergraduate students consulted
their family and friends only if their coping strategy failed
[Passakorn et al., 2009].
III. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the
effectiveness of coping strategies on academic performance
among Thai undergraduate students. Specifically, the
objectives of the study are to:
Identify the academic coping strategies practiced by
Thai undergraduate students.
Investigate the effectiveness of the Three Scales of
Academic Coping Strategies on academic performance
among Thai undergraduate students.
IV. METHODOLOGY
This is a descriptive study that examined the academic coping
strategies and its effectiveness among Thai undergraduate
students. Hence a quantitative study is well suited to
answering questions of who, where, how many, how much,
and what is the relationship between specific variables.
However, quantitative research studies typically yield data
that do not explain the reasons underlying prevalence rates,
relationships, or differences that have been identified by the
researchers [Combs & Onwuegbuzie, 2012].
The SIJ Transactions on Industrial, Financial & Business Management (IFBM), Vol. 2, No. 3, May 2014
ISSN: 2321-242X 2014 | Published by The Standard International Journals (The SIJ) 60
V. SAMPLES
The population for this study were undergraduate students
from Ratchamangala University of Technology Srivijaya,
who were randomly selected (Table 1). From the second year
students, 35 (17.50%) were females and 35 (17.50%) were
males. Meanwhile, the randomly selected student samples of
third year consisted of 30 (15.00%) females and 30 (15.00%)
males, and from fourth year students 35 (17.50%) were
females and 35 (17.50%) were males.
Table 1: Number of the Samples
Year Level
Undergraduate Students in Thailand
Male Female
2nd 35 (17.50%) 35 (17.50%)
3rd 30 (15.00%) 30 (15.00%)
4th 35 (17.50%) 35 (17.50%)
VI. THE INSTRUMENT
The Three Scales of Academic Coping Strategies [Sullivan,
2010) which was based on the original version was translated
into Thai language and was used in this study. The instrument
consisted of three parts, the background information, the
Three Scales of Academic Coping Strategies, and the third
part is interview. Only part one and two of the instruments
were used, while the third part (Interview Section) was not
conducted in this study. The Three Scales of Academic
Coping Strategies (Thai version) consists of 56 statements.
The Approach Factor was measured using 23 statements, the
Avoidance Factor was measured by 19 statements, and the
Social Support Factor was measured by 14 statements.
VII. FINDING AND DISCUSSIONS
7.1. Academic Coping Strategies used by Thai
Undergraduate Students
About 172 (86.00%) undergraduate student agreed that social
support strategies helped them to cope with academic
performance problem (mean = 1.28). Besides, 169 (84.50%)
of them agreed that they used avoidance coping strategies to
cope with academic performance problem (mean = 1.34) and
167 (83.50%) of the undergraduates agreed that approach
coping strategies had helped them to cope with academic
performance problem (mean = 1.28) (Table 2). It showed that
majority of the Thai undergraduates applied different
strategies in order to cope with their academic performance.
Table 2: Number and Percentage of Participants Responded for each
Academic Coping Strategy (N = 200)
Scale
Yes No Mean SD
N % N % N = 200
Approach Strategy 167 83.5 33 16.5 1.28 0.33
Avoidance Strategy 169 84.5 31 15.5 1.34 0.35
Social Support Strategy 172 86.0 28 14.0 1.40 0.37
7.2. Effectiveness of the Three Scales Academic Coping
Strategies among Thai Undergraduate Students
Table 3 shows mean and standard deviations on the opinions
of Thai undergraduate students about the effectiveness of
academic coping strategies on academic performance
problems (N = 200).The effectiveness of the Three Scales of
Academic Coping Strategies had mean ranging from 4.39 to
4.71. The mean scale on the effectiveness of Social Support
strategy on academic performance is 4.71, followed by
Avoidance coping strategy (mean = 4.53), and Approach
strategy (mean = 4.39).
Table 3: Mean and Standard Deviations on the Effectiveness of
Academic Coping Strategies
Scale
Mean SD
N = 200
Approach Strategy 4.39 1.54
Avoidance Strategy 4.53 1.56
Social Support Strategy 4.71 1.60
Based on the finding, there is a strongly support that
academic coping strategies helped Thai undergraduate
students to perform better in their academics performance and
coping strategies on academic performance are necessary for
Thai undergraduate students. Even though the result showed
that there were not much difference between the three
strategies practiced by the undergraduates (social support
strategy 86%; avoidance strategy 84.5%; approach strategy
83.5%), but social support strategy was popular among them.
It was proved that undergraduates preferred to share their
difficulties in study with their peers, family and lecturers.
There were also undergraduates whom tried to avoid their
difficulties by not taking any positive action to solve it
(84.5%) besides, the third group whom practiced approach
strategy whereby they tried hard to solve their academic
problems during their studies. Thus, the result was tallied to
the effectiveness of the Three Scale of Academic Coping
Strategies which mentioned that the mean score of the social
support strategy was 4.71.
VIII. RECOMMENDATIONS
A few recommendations should be highlighted in order to
improve the academic performance of the Thai undergraduate
students.
8.1. Ministry of Education
Ministry of Education should play a big role in helping the
higher institutions in Thailand to produce better and highly
academic achievers among the Thai undergraduates. As a
government body with full authority, the ministry would be
able to share their mission and vision with all the
professionals in education, psychology and counselling in
order to serve better for the benefit of the undergraduate
students.
8.2. University
University itself should consider and introduce more quality
and relevance programs involved undergraduate students in
all university in Thailand. This is to make sure that all
university would be able to produce the best and quality
future leaders.
The SIJ Transactions on Industrial, Financial & Business Management (IFBM), Vol. 2, No. 3, May 2014
ISSN: 2321-242X 2014 | Published by The Standard International Journals (The SIJ) 61
8.3. Parental
Parental direct involvement in their child curriculum and co-
curriculum area would be more realistic if both parties, the
parents and the university played their role. It is suggested
that the parents should also receive training in academic
coping strategies should particularly aim to foster positive
attitudes, beliefs and actions not only among themselves but
also their children.
8.4. Academic Advisor/Counsellor/Mentor
Academic Advisor/Counsellor/Mentor should introduce
academic development programme which could help their
low achievers students to excel.
IX. CONCLUSION
This study also suggested that Thai undergraduate students
used social support coping strategy most frequently when
they faced with academic problems. Besides, Thai
undergraduate students tend to practice approach coping
strategies and avoidance coping strategy less frequently when
they faced difficulties in order to perform well in their
academics. Many study have shown that social support
coping strategy helped undergraduate students to improve
their academic performance by receiving guidance from
professors in their class [Welsh, 2010]; needing someone to
express their emotions or talking to another student for
emotional support [Nattasuda et al., 2013]; talking to
someone who can be trusted [Paul, 2012].
Coping strategies can help undergraduate students to
enhance their academic performance [Kadhiravan & Kumar,
2012]; improve class attendance, participation, persistence
even when faced with setbacks or failure in general, and arm
them with stronger more resilient self who can lead to a much
more positive learning experience [Aun et al., 2011];
academic coping strategies helped undergraduate students to
perform in their academic through academic coping strategies
factors i.e. approach, avoidance, and social support [Sullivan,
2010]. In addition, academic coping strategies was also
design to help undergraduate students to cope their life those
that include physical well-being, emotional, spiritual, and
psychological well-being [Yasin & Dzulkifli, 2009].
Normally, emotional coping strategy is usually practiced in
the first year of undergraduate students while in later years
the trend is changing towards cognitive, confrontive and
painful problem solving [Mahajan, 2010].
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