INTRODUCTION
Background
This paper describes part of a large-scale investigation
into stress among preregistration nursing and midwifery
students studying at a university in northern England.
The investigation was underpinned by a transactional
perspective on stress, a perspective that focuses on the
ongoing interactions or ‘transactions’ between the person
and their environment (for specific models, see Cox 1993;
Endler & Parker 1990; Payne 1999; Sutherland & Cooper
1990). Appraisals of these person–environment transactions
give rise to the experience of ‘stress’, an experience
that is contingent on the individual’s perceptions of situations
or events, their personal characteristics, feelings,
and emotions, and on their ability to cope. Most studies
undertaken within a transactional framework focus on
three key aspects of the stress process: sources of stress
(i.e. stressors), stress (the psycho-physiological reaction to
such stressors), and coping.