BACKGROUND: Santri is someone who is studying to deepen knowledge about Islam seriously in boarding school. Life changes will be experienced by Santri. Santri who is used to living at home and living dependent on their parents is then required to live in Islamic boarding schools so that Santri must accept unexpected conditions. Santri must change their previous life habits and have to adapt back to everyday life that is already different, for example, in making decisions, solving problems, and completing responsibilities as a student, when Santri has been given a choice, the Santri is expected to be able to accept it.
AIM: The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of lifestyle management on the coping mechanisms of Santri.
METHODS: The design of this research is quasi-experimental (pre-and post-test control group design). The samples in this study were Santri in Islamic boarding schools in Surabaya and Sidoarjo which were taken by probability sampling (multi stage sampling) with 78 treatment groups and 75 control groups. Data analysis used t test with a significance value of p < 0.05. This research questionnaire uses that the coping mechanism (Jalowiec Coping Scale) has reliability (r = 0.8) and the validity test gets that the Cronbach alpha value is 0.7.
RESULTS: The Santri’ coping mechanisms in the intervention group were 68.6 (adaptive coping mechanisms) and 45.7 in the control group (maladaptive coping mechanisms) with p = 0.00. The results of the paired t-test statistical test obtained p = 0.000 in the intervention group and obtained p = 0.35 in the control group, p < 0.05, it can be concluded that there is a significant change in the coping mechanisms of Santri before and after being given lifestyle management interventions in intervention group and control group.
CONCLUSION: Lifestyle management is effective in improving Santri’ coping mechanisms in dealing with a problem.