Pengaruh Membaca Novel di Wattpad terhadap Stres Mahasiswa Pada Masa Pandemi Covid-19

Abstract

The stress faced by students during the covid-19 pandemic creates challenges and tensions that can affect their health outcomes. Coping with stress requires proper coping mechanisms. One of them is emotion-focused coping whose task is to regulate and control emotions when dealing with stressful situations. Reading novels on Wattpad is an emotionally focused coping activity that relaxes the body and triggers the brain to release endorphins that help manage stress. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of reading novels on Wattpad on student stress. This study used a pre-test and post-test control group design and randomly divided 10 students into a control group and an experimental group. Participants participated in reading the novels on Wattpad for 30 minutes for seven consecutive days. The results of the study were measured using a stress measuring instrument constructed by the research team based on the Student-Life Stress Inventory by Gadzella. Data analysis used the Mann-Whitney statistical test which showed a significance value of 0.141 (p.sig > 0.05; df = 4), that reading the novels on Wattpad did not affect the stress of students during the Covid-19 pandemic.