The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Stress Management Training Program on perceived stress, self-efficacy and coping styles of preparatory school students in Middle East Technical University. Pre-posttest experimental control group design was used to investigate the effectiveness of Stress Management Training Program. Before the main study, reliability and validity studies of Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), College Adjustment Self-efficacy Scale (CASES) and Student Coping Instrument (SCOPE) were carried out with one hundred and forty one students. Three hundred and sixty six students (154 females and 212 males) contributed the main study. Among them, sixteen students were randomly assigned in the experimental and control group. While the Stress Management Training Program was applied for experimental group, control group did not receive any treatment. The program continued for six weeks, once a week for 90 minutes. The program included the effective and in-effective ways of coping with stress, emotions and thoughts that affect behaviors, relaxation training, problem solving and assertiveness training. ANOVA, Mann-Withney U and two-related samples Wilcoxon tests were used to analyze data. The results of analysis of variance showed a gender difference between males and females. Females had higher scores in perceived stress, socially related life events and emotion-focused coping. The results of Wilcoxon test showed a significant reduction between pre and post test scores of experimental group in perceived stress scores and the frequency of socially related life events. No difference was found for CASES and SCOPE.At the end of the study, the findings were discussed and recommendations were presented.

Due to the passage of the Gainful Employment Rule of 2015, for-profit schools must ensure graduate employability, which forces vocational schools to make student success a priority. The concepts of stress mindset from the cognitive activation theory of stress and stress management self-efficacy from social cognitive theory were used in this study to assess the relationship of each to the employability of graduates. This study utilized a nonrandomized convenience sampling method and a multiple logistic regression with categorical dependent/criterion variables (gainful employment versus not) and continuous predictor variables (stress management self-efficacy, stress mindset) to compare the relationships. Stress mindset levels were measured using the stress mindset measure while stress management self-efficacy levels were measured by the stress management self-efficacy measure with 66 participants. The results of this study indicated that while both increased levels of stress management self-efficacy and a positive stress mindset were associated with a significantly increased likelihood of gainful employment, on its own, stress management self-efficacy was a better indicator than was stress mindset, on its own. The implications for positive social change from the results of this study, are a greater understanding of the importance of stress management self-efficacy and a positive stress mindset on the employability of technical school graduates. This knowledge could lead to the creation of improved stress management and stress mindset assistance for technical school students, which could lead to increased employability in these graduates.