Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) DOI: 10.7176/JEP Vol.10, No.23, 2019 111 Coping Strategies of Stress Adopted by Female Employees with Children in the University of Cape Coast: Implications for Management Practices Regina Sally Maison 1* Grace Yeboah 2 Grace Aba Mensah 3 Mabel Anane 1 , 1.Foso College of Education, Assin Foso, Ghana. 2. St. Louis College of Education, Kumasi, Ghana. 3.Wesley College of Education, Kumasi, Ghana. Abstract The study investigated the coping strategies of stress adopted by female employees with children in the university of Cape Coast. A descriptive study was the designed employed in carrying out the study. Two hundred and four (204) respondents were sampled from 431 female employees with children to answer a set of questionnaires. The results revealed that demands from husbands and thinking of promotional issues were some of the stressors that confronted the respondents. The major effects of stress among the respondents were their inability to plan well and lack of concentration on household chores. The result showed that the most prevailing coping strategy adopted by the respondents was engaging in conversation with friends and family members as well as getting assistance from colleagues. It was concluded that female employees with children in the University of Cape Coast go through stress, which emanates from different sources. Some of the recommendations were that management of the University must educate their employees on and appropriate strategies to cope with their stress. That could be done by management through seminars conferences, workshops on coping strategies of stress. Keywords: work stress, coping strategies, female employees, university of cape coast DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-23-16 Publication date: August 31 st 2019 1. Introduction In today’s world, stress has become a worldwide phenomenon, which occurs in various forms in every workplace. Employees are generally working for longer hours, as the rising levels of responsibilities require them to exert themselves even more strenuously to meet rising expectations about work performance. The word ‘stress’ is not unfamiliar to most people. Stress is defined as the physiological and psychological reactions to certain events in the environment. Some people defined stress as events or situations that caused them to feel tension, pressure or negative emotions, such as anxiety and anger. Stress is an unpleasant state of emotional and physiological arousal that people experience in situations that they perceive as dangerous or threatening to their well- being (Tenibiaje2011) Hans Selye was one of the founding fathers of stress research. His view was that “stress is not necessarily something bad – it all depends on how you take it. The stress of exhilarating, creative successful work is beneficial, while that of failure, humiliation or infection is detrimental.” Selye believed that the biochemical effects of stress would be experienced irrespective of whether the situation was positive or negative. Since then, a lot of research has been conducted into stress over the last few years. Some of the theories behind it are now settled and accepted; others are still being researched and debated. The causes of stress can be environmental, social, biological or psychological factors that challenge an individual to change or adapt (Bourne & Yaroush, 2003). For instance, environmental and social factors include the environment of a workplace and relationships with others whereas biological and psychological factors encompass the nutritional status, emotional wellbeing and overall health levels of an individual (Gazzaniga, Heatherton, & Halpern, 2010). A widely accepted definition of stress, attributed to psychologist and Professor Richard Lazarus, is, "a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize." Thus, in the psychological point of view, stress is generally used to describe a response to demands that is greater than an individual’s ability to cope, which disrupts the individual’s physical or mental equilibrium and poses a threat to the individual’s general well-being (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). They suggested that for a situation to elicit a stress response, the situation has to be appraised by the individual as stressful, that is, the demands on the individual’s resources exceeds his or her ability. The sociological theory of stress views stress as an interaction of an individual’s position in the social organisation that exposes them to various stressors, which in turn give rise to stress outcomes (Pearlin, 1989). It looks into the problems rooted in social roles that often endure in an individual’s relationships, experiences and wellbeing causing role strain. The theory also takes into account the convergent effects of significant life events and daily life hassles that reflect important life experiences that are sometimes stressful significant life events and daily life hassles that reflect important life experiences that are sometimes stressful. Thus, the theory proposes to