Measurement of Sense of Coherence, Stress Perception Before and After College Entrance, and Stress Perception at the End of the New Semester for Freshmen

The dataset was collected using cluster sampling, selecting participants from 10 majors across four colleges within a key provincial undergraduate university in Hunan Province. The first survey was conducted in mid-to-late August 2024 (with registration scheduled for September 15th), approximately one month before the freshmen's entrance. After the students received their admission notices and a freshman group was established, trained freshman class counselors distributed and facilitated the completion of questionnaires for baseline measurement (SOC-13, PSS-14) within the group. The second measurement was taken in mid-November 2024, two months after the freshmen's entrance (SOC-13, PSS-14). The third measurement regarding stress perception was conducted in mid-January 2025, two months after the second measurement (before the winter break). A total of 695 participants completed all three measurements, including 239 males (34.4%) and 456 females (65.6%); 293 participants (42.2%) were from urban areas, and 402 (57.8%) were from rural areas; 187 participants (26.9%) were only children, while 508 (73.1%) were not; 371 participants (53.2%) belonged to liberal arts majors, and 324 (46.6%) belonged to science and engineering majors.