Investigating social connection as a protective factor against exam stress in college students

Abstract

Objective: To examine social connection as a protective factor against exam stress. Participants: 55 undergraduate students at two universities. Methods: Students were evaluated on an exam day for their hardest class and at baseline, a day in a week where they had no exams. Social connection, salivary cortisol, perceived stress, and cognitive control (measured with the Stroop test) were assessed. Exam scores were later reported. Results: Higher social connection was associated with lower perceived stress on exam day. At a small liberal arts school, higher levels of social connection were associated with higher Stroop scores. This correlation with cognitive control was not significant at a large public university. Conclusions: These findings indicate that social connection may be a protective factor in mitigating perceived stress and cognitive control capabilities may help facilitate reduced exam stress in some school environments.

Keywords:

• college students
• cortisol
• exam stress
• perceived stress
• social connection

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge all of the research assistants who worked on this project including Meghan Beck, Sarah Elizabeth Bidwell, Jonathan Jalen Carter, Victor Catalan Gallegos, Mahika Jammula, Sophie Joseph, Mary Claire Kinnas, Haiden Lancaster, Anthony Lane, Harshi Matada, Rahul Mehra, Rachel Musa, Hannah Netschytailo, Emma Reaney, El Russel, Madeline Schutte, and Jenna Vroman. We also are thankful for support from the Office of Undergraduate Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill via the Undergraduate Research Consultant Team Award and Wofford College, Undergraduate Research Office.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States and received approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.

Data availability statement

Data are available at the center for open science website: https://osf.io/u4bde/

Notes

1 A survey was sent to all participants that had participated before students were sent home due to COVID-19 asking them to rate levels of perceived stress “during the past few weeks (i.e., since your school reduced operations and transitioned to remote instruction).” 65 participants filled out the survey. Results indicated that higher levels of social connection also predicted lower levels of perceived stress after COVID disruption, r(63) = –.273, F(1, 64) = 5.088, p = .028.