Coping with Academic Stress: A Comparative Study of Humour, Social Media and Islamic Practices among Accounting Students

Academic stress is prevalent among university students, yet limited research has directly compared the coping strategies they use to manage such pressure. This study examined and compared the frequency and perceived effectiveness of humour, social media and Islamic practices as coping strategies among accounting students. It also investigated the associations between students’ current academic stress levels and the frequency with which they used each strategy. A quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted involving 300 accounting students from a public university in Malaysia. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, the Friedman test, Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and Spearman’s rank-order correlations. The findings revealed significant differences in the frequency of using the three coping strategies, χ²(2) = 76.54, p < .001, Kendall’s W = .128. Islamic practices were used significantly more frequently than humour and social media, whereas the difference between humour and social media use was not significant. Perceived effectiveness also differed significantly across the three strategies, χ²(2) = 211.99, p < .001, Kendall’s W = .353. Islamic practices were perceived as significantly more effective than humour and social media, while humour and social media did not differ significantly. Academic stress was positively but very weakly associated with social-media coping frequency (ρ = .134, p = .020) but was not significantly associated with humour or Islamic-practice frequency. The findings highlight the importance of recognising students’ spiritual, digital and humour-based coping resources while avoiding assumptions that their use necessarily reduces stress. Universities should consider culturally responsive and multidimensional student-support initiatives that complement, rather than replace, formal academic and psychological support.

Academic Stress; Accounting Students; Humour; Islamic Practices; Social Media

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