The Power of Stress: Perceived Stress and Its Relationship with Rumination, Self-Concept Clarity, and Resilience

This study examined the relationship between perceived stress, rumination, self-concept clarity, and resilience among a sample of college students (N = 164) attending a Christian university using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the 14-item Resilience Scale (RS-14), the Ruminative Response Style Questionnaire (RSQ), and the Self-Concept Clarity Scale (SCC). T-tests for independent-samples found significant differences between male and female scores only on the PSS and RSQ, with females exhibiting higher scores on perceived stress and rumination. Effect sizes were small and moderate, respectively. Multivariate correlational analysis revealed that perceived stress overall was positively associated significantly with rumination and negatively associated significantly with self-concept clarity and resilience. More specifically, perceived stress for women was associated significantly with higher rumination behaviors, diminished self-concept, and lower resilience levels in comparison to men, although comparisons between the two group correlation coefficients were not statistically significant. The findings of this study suggest that women tend to have higher stress and ruminate more compared to men. Furthermore, women with high stress tend to have high ruminative behaviors, are more likely to have low self-concept clarity, and exhibit low resilience. Men with high stress tend to have higher levels of rumination. Furthermore, elevated levels of rumination were associated with poorer clarity of self-concept and low resilience in men.