Stress Coping Strategies for Overseas Students from East Nusa Tenggara during The Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia is part of the 2019 Coronavirus disease pandemic that is taking place all over the world. The number of victims exposed to Covid-19 continues to grow, the government made new several policies, which have consequences in the community. A Pandemic can change individual lives, which can trigger psychological stress. This also happened to overseas students who came from East Nusa Tenggara. There are quite a lot of East Nusa Tenggara students scattered in Yogyakarta, which makes researchers interested in making their research subjects. The purpose of this study was to find sources of stress and an overview of stress-coping strategies for overseas students from East Nusa Tenggara during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study uses a qualitative method with a case study investigation strategy, with three student respondents from East Nusa Tenggara as research subjects. The findings from this study are the sources of stress for East Nusa Tenggara students during the Covid-19 pandemic, namely reduced parental income which affects remittances, parents preferring to set aside money for traditional expenses, difficulty studying online, difficulty with local friends, difficulty going to church, not being able to gather with family, tiring college assignments, feeling imprisoned in a boarding house, afraid of burdening parents with economic matters, worrying about the condition of parents in the village, difficult and afraid to find food. The stress coping strategies of migrant students from East Nusa Tenggara during the Covid-19 pandemic was learning new things, worshiping, watching, listening to podcasts and music, choosing songs according to their mood, playing social media, entertaining themselves with karaoke, sleeping, tidying things up, choose songs as needed, seek entertainment, and sing to express feelings.