The fit between stress appraisal and dyadic coping in understanding perceived coping effectiveness for adolescents with type 1 diabetes.

This study examined whether perceived coping effectiveness (PCE) was associated with better diabetes management and was higher when adolescents’ dyadic coping was matched to shared stress appraisals. There were 252 adolescents with Type 1 diabetes who completed stress and coping interviews where they appraised mothers’ and fathers’ involvement in stress ownership (mine, indirectly shared, directly shared with parent), in coping (uninvolved, supportive, collaborative, or controlling), and rated their effectiveness in coping. Adolescents completed assessments of depressive symptoms (Children’s Depression Inventory), self-care behaviors (Self-Care Inventory), and efficacy of disease management (Diabetes Self-Efficacy). Glycosylated hemoglobin levels were obtained from medical records. Higher PCE was associated with fewer depressive symptoms, self-care behaviors, and efficacy across age and, more strongly for older adolescents’ metabolic control. Appraisals of support or collaboration from parents were more frequent when stressors were appraised as shared. PCE was enhanced when dyadic coping with mothers (but not fathers) was consistent with stress appraisals (e.g., shared stressors together with collaborative coping). Stress and coping is embedded within a relational context and this context is useful in understanding the coping effectiveness of adolescents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship of caregiver coping to family outcomes during the initial year following pediatric traumatic injury.

This study identified coping strategies associated with caregiver outcomes following pediatric injury and examined injury type as a moderator of coping efficacy. Families of 103 children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and 71 children with orthopedic injuries were followed prospectively during the initial year postinjury. The groups had comparable preinjury characteristics and hospitalization experiences but differed on neurological insult. In hierarchical regression analyses, acceptance was associated with lower burden and denial was associated with greater distress in both groups. Active coping resulted in higher distress following TBI but not orthopedic injuries. Conversely, the use of humor was related to diminishing distress following TBI but unrelated to distress following orthopedic injuries. Results are discussed in terms of the implications for intervention following TBI. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping style use predicts posttraumatic stress and complicated grief symptom severity among college students reporting a traumatic loss.

Problem-focused coping, and active and avoidant emotional coping were examined as correlates of grief and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) severity among 123 college students reporting the unexpected death of an immediate family member, romantic partner, or very close friend. The authors administered to participants, via the Internet, 5 survey instruments that measured demographic characteristics, traumatic event exposure (Stressful Life Events Screening Questionnaire; L. Goodman, C. Corcoran, K. Turner, N. Yuan, & B. L. Green, 1998), complicated grief (CG) severity (Inventory of Complicated Grief--Revised--Short Form; A. E. Latham & H. G. Prigerson, 2004; H. G. Prigerson & S. C. Jacobs, 2001), PTSD severity (PTSD Checklist; F. W. Weathers, B. T. Litz, D. S. Herman, J. A. Huska, & T. M. Keane, 1993), and coping style use (Brief COPE; C. S. Carver, 1997). Results demonstrated that CG and PTSD severity were both significantly positively correlated with problem-focused, and active and avoidant emotional coping styles. The authors used path analysis to control for time since the loss and trauma frequency and found that only avoidant emotional coping remained significant in predicting CG and PTSD severity. Results are discussed in terms of their clinical implications for treating individuals with traumatic losses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A stress process model of caregiving for individuals with traumatic brain injury.

Objective: To test a stress process model of caregiving for persons with traumatic brain injury. Design: A correlational study using path analysis. Participants: One hundred eight caregivers affiliated with community- or Web-based support groups. Main Outcome Measures: The Modified Caregiver Appraisal Scale, the World Health Organization Quality of Life-Brief Version, the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List, and the COPE. Results: The normed fit index, comparative fit index, and parsimony ratio indicated a good fit for the model, suggesting that coping, social support, and caregiving appraisal contribute to quality of life. A more parsimonious model was respecified and achieved a better fit with fewer paths and variables. Conclusions: Empirical support was found for the proposed caregiving stress process model, which appears to provide useful information for future research and clinical interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maladaptive Coping Strategies and Injury-Related Distress Following Traumatic Physical Injury.

Objectives: To identify coping strategies associated with injury-related distress in a mixed sample of physically injured adults. Study Design: Correlational. Setting: Level 1 trauma center. Participants: Orthopedic hand (n=22), multiple trauma (n=35), and burn-injured patients (n=11); ages 18-66; English speaking. Measures: Trauma Symptom Checklist-40 (TSC-40) and Brief Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced Scale. Results: Positive associations were found between 5 coping strategies and TSC-40 scores. Multiple regression revealed 3 strategies that explained significant variability in TSC-40 scores (R2=.36; emotional venting: β=.28, p=.02; behavioral disengagement: β=.25, p=.02; self-blame: β=.26, p=.05). Conclusions: Use of certain coping strategies was associated with injury-related distress among acutely injured adults. Psychosocial and educational interventions for coping in the immediate aftermath of traumatic physical injury may mediate and prevent injury-related distress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of gender and negative affectivity in stressor appraisal and coping selection.

Individual differences in stress may arise from many sources. This study investigated the role of gender and negative affectivity (NA) in stressor appraisal and coping selection. Differential exposure to stressors was controlled by requiring participants to rate the stressfulness of identical hypothetical scenarios. As predicted, women rated the scenarios as more stressful than men, and perceptions of stressfulness increased with participant NA. Women endorsed the use of emotion-focused coping strategies more than men, even when perceived stressfulness was controlled. NA predicted use of both emotion- and avoidance-focused coping, although only the latter association remained significant after controlling for stressor appraisals. Gender × NA interaction effects were not significant. Implications for the prediction and management of stress are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress Generation, Avoidance Coping, and Depressive Symptoms: A 10-Year Model.

This study examined (a) the role of avoidance coping in prospectively generating both chronic and acute life stressors and (b) the stress-generating role of avoidance coping as a prospective link to future depressive symptoms. Participants were 1,211 late-middle-aged individuals (500 women and 711 men) assessed 3 times over a 10-year period. As predicted, baseline avoidance coping was prospectively associated with both more chronic and more acute life stressors 4 years later. Furthermore, as predicted, these intervening life stressors linked baseline avoidance coping and depressive symptoms 10 years later, controlling for the influence of initial depressive symptoms. These findings broaden knowledge about the stress-generation process and elucidate a key mechanism through which avoidance coping is linked to depressive symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Issues in the study of stress and coping in rehabilitation settings.

The purpose of this article is to assist rehabilitation researchers in making decisions about the design and conduct of stress and coping research. The authors offer a selective review of the stress and coping literatures, with a focus on rehabilitation-specific work. The authors first address stress, focusing on different definitions and on how it relates to adaptation, and then consider coping, focusing on the levels at which coping operates, its relation to features of the situation, and its influence on adjustment. The authors urge researchers to collect additional data, including assessing changes over time, and to examine multiple aspects of stressful experiences to better capture the complexity of stress and coping processes. Researchers should specify the nature of the coping construct used, use assessment methods clearly linked to the facet of the coping construct being examined, and investigate specific mechanisms by which coping influences rehabilitation outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-critical perfectionism and daily affect: Dispositional and situational influences on stress and coping.

This study of university students (64 men and 99 women) examined both dispositional and situational influences of self-critical (SC) perfectionism on stress and coping, which explain its association with high negative affect and low positive affect. Participants completed questionnaires at the end of the day for 7 consecutive days. Structural equation modeling indicated that the relation between SC perfectionism and daily affect could be explained by several maladaptive tendencies associated with SC perfectionism (e.g., hassles, avoidant coping, low perceived social support). Multilevel modeling indicated that SC perfectionists were emotionally reactive to stressors that imply possible failure, loss of control, and criticism from others. As well, certain coping strategies (e.g., problem-focused coping) were ineffective for high-SC perfectionists relative to low-SC perfectionists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Minority status stress and coping processes among African American college students.

The current study tested coping efforts as moderators of the effects of minority status stress on general levels of perceived stress and academic performance for African American students at a predominantly White college and university (PWCU) and a historically Black college and university (HBCU). Multivariate analyses revealed that African American students at the PWCU experienced significantly higher levels of minority status stress than their counterparts at the HBCU. Students did not differ in overall levels of perceived stress and in most coping efforts assessed. HBCU students reported higher mean use of problem-oriented strategies and spiritual efforts than students at the PWCU. Moderated regression analyses revealed an increase in the effects of minority status stress on perceived stress at high levels of problem-oriented efforts. The effects of minority status stress on perceived stress decreased at higher levels of disengagement. In predicting academic performance, type of institution was the strongest predictor. Implications of the findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptions of organizational change: A stress and coping perspective.

Few organizational change studies identify the aspects of change that are salient to individuals and that influence well-being. The authors identified three distinct change characteristics: the frequency, impact and planning of change. R. S. Lazarus and S. Folkman's (1984) cognitive phenomenological model of stress and coping was used to propose ways that these change characteristics influence individuals' appraisal of the uncertainty associated with change, and, ultimately, job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Results of a repeated cross-sectional study that collected individuals' perceptions of change one month prior to employee attitudes in consecutive years indicated that while the three change perceptions were moderately to strongly intercorrelated, the change perceptions displayed differential relationships with outcomes. Discussion focuses on the importance of systematically considering individuals' subjective experience of change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Secondary traumatic stress and the child welfare professional.

Reviews the book, Secondary traumatic stress and the child welfare professional by Josephine G. Pryce, Kimberly K. Shackelford, and David H. Pryce (see record 2007-05981-000). This book offers a complete examination of an important and often overlooked issue in the field of trauma work—secondary traumatic stress (STS). The authors appear to have written this book in response to a relative dearth of literature in this area as it affects child welfare workers. The research summarized and cited in this book is current, making the book timely and well developed. The easy-to-comprehend writing style of the authors flows and allows readers to be easily drawn into the case scenarios provided. Any professional working in child welfare as a caseworker, investigator, or supervisor, will benefit from reading this book. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ongoing traumatic stress response (OTSR) in Sderot, Israel.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 41(2) of Professional Psychology: Research and Practice (see record 2010-06890-002). In the article “Ongoing Traumatic Stress Response (OTSR) in Sderot, Israel,” by Diamond, Lipsitz, Fajerman and Rozenblat (Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 2010, Vol. 41, No. 1., pp. 19–25), due to a production error, the last author’s name was misspelled in the byline and the author note. The correct spelling is Ornit Rozenblat.] In Sderot, a small city in southern Israel, seven years of continuous missile attacks have led to dramatic increases in treatment seeking for anxiety symptoms. For some clients, the clinical picture is consistent with a diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For other clients, however, the onset and constellation of symptoms are less typical of PTSD. In these cases, anxiety symptoms seem to evolve gradually and be associated with ongoing, daily stress about imminent attacks, rather than with a discrete, past traumatic event. Much of their avoidance behavior is reality based. They report hyperarousal, severe distress, and loss of control during and immediately following actual missile attacks. However, they are less likely to exhibit reexperiencing symptoms. Furthermore, in contrast to the typical presentation of PTSD, their symptoms tend to diminish dramatically or completely resolve when they are no longer within harm’s way. We suggest that this clinical presentation may be best understood as an ongoing traumatic stress response (OTSR), rather than PTSD or PTSD symptoms. We consider diagnostic features which discriminate between these two phenomena as well as implications for treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between coping styles, performance, and responses to stressful scenarios in police recruits.

This study investigated the relationship between coping styles and police recruits' stress responses and performance during a stressful event and the relationship between coping styles and traumatic symptoms. Recruits participated in a simulated stressful policing situation and were scored by expert raters. Distress measures included biological and psychological indicators of stress. Coping styles were associated with subjective and physiological distress but not with performance. Different coping styles were associated with different patterns of traumatic symptoms in the participants. Police recruits appear to rely on their training and skill sets in stressful situations regardless of how they manage their emotional response. Furthermore, the results suggest that different posttraumatic stress disorder manifestations may represent different pathologies, each associated with a different style of coping. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spousal support and coping among married coworkers: Merging the transaction stress and Conservation of Resources models.

Researchers concerned with the interface between work and family have begun to explore the implications of married coworkers: employees who work in the same occupation or workplace as their spouse. The purpose of this paper is to expand on that work by exploring how married coworkers cope with work-related stress when compared to typical dual-career employees. We hypothesize that married coworkers utilize different coping mechanisms because of the additional resources provided by their spouse and present a study of police officers (n = 611) and a study of working adults (n = 369) that provide support for this prediction. We conclude by discussing the implications of this research for the management of stress at work and provide directions for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The mediating role of coping: A cross-sectional analysis of the relationship between coping self-efficacy and coping effectiveness among athletes.

This study examines the relationship among global coping self-efficacy, coping, and coping effectiveness within athletes. We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between coping self-efficacy and coping effectiveness, which would be mediated by coping. It was also predicted that coping strategies within the task-oriented coping dimension would be positively associated with coping effectiveness, whereas strategies from the disengagement- and distraction-oriented coping dimensions would be negatively associated with coping effectiveness. Participants were 353 athletes between the ages of 18 and 29 years, who completed a measure of coping self-efficacy the night before they competed, in addition to a measure of the athletes' use of coping strategies and their perceived coping effectiveness, which was completed immediately after the competitive event. Results revealed that higher global coping self-efficacy scores were significantly (r = .33, p     

Coping styles and affect.

Most stress research has focused on testing the effects of coping strategies on negative outcomes such as distress, anxiety, and pathology. The present study focused on the effects of coping styles on the affective components of subjective well-being. Its main aim was to test differential associations between coping styles and positive and negative affect, using secondary analysis. The data were derived from 3 studies (n = 480) in which various samples—adolescents, university students, and a general population participants—completed trait version questionnaires of coping and affect. The main results, based on correlation and multiple regression analyses, showed that problem-focused coping was positively related to positive affect and negatively related to negative affect, whereas avoidance coping showed the opposite pattern of associations with positive and negative affect. Most important, problem-focused coping was found to be a moderator of avoidance coping effects on both positive and negative affective responses. The conclusions are that coping is an important factor in well-being during normal everyday life, and moreover, the interactive effects of coping styles merit further research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping with sexual harassment: Reconceptualizing women's resistance.

This study explored the underlying structure of women's coping with sexual harassment from a rational-empirical approach. On the basis of multidimensional scaling, clustering, and confirmatory factor analysis across 8 data sets, 4 clusters of coping behaviors emerged, with little variance across the data sets. These clusters bear resemblance to Moos and colleagues' (C. J. Holahan, R. H. Moos, & J. A. Schaefer, 1996; R. Moos, 1992; R. H. Moos & J. A. Schaefer, 1993) distinction between coping strategies that differ in both method and foci. The four clusters that emerged are behavioral engagement, behavioral disengagement, cognitive engagement, and cognitive disengagement. This framework provides insight into the complex forms that women's coping with sexual harassment takes and has important legal implications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Students' stress, coping strategies, and school completion: A longitudinal perspective.

This study investigated the relationship between two intrapersonal variables-- stressful life change events and reported coping strategies-- and high school completion status among early adolescents. The sample was comprised of 92 students (44 females and 48 males) who had completed questionnaires regarding the number and types of life change events they had experienced and the coping strategies they reported using during ninth grade. A 3-year follow-up study of these students was completed to determine whether they finished high school or reported dropping out. Discriminant analysis was used to build a prediction model and indicated that the coping factors of Social Activities and Seeking Professional Support significantly predicted high school dropout status, whereas Family Involvement was negatively related to this outcome. These findings are discussed in light of current research, and suggestions for future research are provided. Interventions that focus on the contextual variables related to family and peers are indicated, as is the need for school psychologists and other school mental health professionals to offer coping skills training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting performance under acute stress: The role of individual characteristics.

This prospective study examined how differences in coping style, coping self-efficacy, and metacognitive awareness influence coping behavior and performance during a realistic acute stressful exercise in 2 military samples (n = 122 and n = 132). Results showed that coping self-efficacy and coping style affected coping behavior, and that, in turn, coping behavior affected performance. The findings of a post hoc analysis suggested that metacognitive awareness had an indirect relationship with coping behavior, through task-focused coping style and coping self-efficacy, instead of a predicted direct relationship. Together, these results indicate that coping style and coping self-efficacy are important predictors of performance under acute stress, and that this effect is mediated by coping behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)