SUBJECTIVE VULNERABILITY, DISPOSITIONAL OPTIMISM AND RESILIENCE AS PREDICTORS OF ACADEMIC STRESS TOLERANCE BEHAVIOUR AMONG ACADEMIC STAFF OF NIGERIA UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

This study adopted a cross-sectional survey design to examine subjective vulnerability dispositional optimism and resilience as predictors of academic stress tolerance behaviour among academic staff of Nigerian universities. One hundred and ninety-six (196) academic staff of Nigerian universities from the four geopolitical locations within the country (South-East = 52, West = 50, South-South = 50, and North Central = 44), 54 (volunteered) and 142 (sampled) using the accidental sampling technique, participated in the study. The participants comprised 95 (48%) females and 101 (51.4%) males whose age ranged between 23 and 55 years of age with a mean age of 38.5 and a standard deviation of 5.21. Their religious affiliation showed that 192 (98%) were Christians and 4 (2%) were Muslims. Four hypotheses were formulated and tested. The validation scales used to obtain the research data were the Subjective Invulnerability Scale (SIS) developed by Duggan et al. (2013), the optimism scale (OS) developed by Holanda et al. (2018), the Resilience Scale (RS) developed by Wagnild and Young (2009), and the Academic Stress Tolerance Scale (ASTS) developed by Cox (1993). Correlation analysis was utilized to test the extent and direction of the relationship among the study variables. This was carried out with both Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression Analysis. Resilience significantly predicted academic stress tolerance behaviour among the academic staff (β = .32**, t = 44**, P < 0.1). Dispositional optimism showed significant positive prediction of academic stress tolerance behaviour among the academic staff (β = .37**, t = 48**, p < .01), and subjective vulnerability showed significant negative prediction of academic stress tolerance behaviour among the academic staff of Nigerian universities (β = -.27, t = -.32, p > .05). These results were discussed in line with the literatures reviewed and established results implication and recommendations were made possible.