Coping Strategies Among Swedish Female and Male Managers in an International Context.

This work was part of the Collaborative International Study of Managerial Stress. Swedish managers (N=288) from the 3 highest levels in the organizations were included. Swedish results were compared with managerial coping data from 4 other nations. Cross-national differences in support and control coping were found. Covert coping seemed to be a predominantly female strategy. In general, however, female and male managers are more alike with regard to coping patterns than men and women in the population. Some of the coping behavior of managers was associated with health risks. These data imply that coping strategies should be improved in organizational settings, particularly for females. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping with intergenerational family conflict: Comparison of Asian American, Hispanic, and European American college students.

Using a stress-coping framework, the authors examined indirect and direct coping strategies as potential mediators in the relationship between intergenerational family conflict and psychological distress in Asian American, Hispanic, and European American college students. Asian American college students reported the highest likelihood of family conflict. Students from all cultural groups also used direct coping slightly more often than they did indirect coping. Only indirect coping mediated the effect of family conflict on distress for Asian Americans and European Americans, but it did so in the opposite direction than hypothesized. For these two cultural groups, indirect coping fully accounted for the variance shared between family conflict and psychological distress. For Hispanics, indirect coping partially mediated the effect of family conflict on psychological distress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping With Employment Uncertainty: A Comparison of Employed and Unemployed Workers.

This study examined coping with stress associated with employment uncertainty for comparable samples of laid-off and employed high-technology workers. It was expected that different coping strategies would be associated with perceived stress for employed vs. unemployed people. Although unemployed participants reported higher levels of stress compared with employed participants, employment uncertainty mediated the association between employment status and perceived stress. Emotion-focused coping strategies were related to higher perceived stress, whereas problem-focused coping strategies were related to lower perceived stress. The use of emotional avoidance as a strategy moderated the effect of employment uncertainty on perceived stress, such that a greater propensity to endorse avoidance coping strategies was associated with higher levels of stress particularly under low uncertainty conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Effectiveness of Expatriate Coping Strategies: The Moderating Role of Cultural Distance, Position Level, and Time on the International Assignment.

On the basis of the stress and coping literature, the authors examined the diverse coping strategies used by expatriate managers in response to the problems encountered while on international assignments. It was hypothesized that although problem-focused coping strategies may be more effective than are emotion-focused coping strategies in affecting cross-cultural adjustment and intention to remain on the international assignment, the relationship is moderated by contextual factors such as hierarchical level in the organization, time on the assignment, and cultural distance. Coded semistructured interview responses from 116 German expatriates on assignment in either Japan or the United States were analyzed with moderated regression analyses. The results suggest that the effectiveness of problem-focused coping strategies in predicting cross-cultural adjustment is moderated by cultural distance and position level but not by time on the assignment. The use of problem-focused coping strategies was not related to expatriates' intention to remain on the assignment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 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)     

Racial and Body Image Differences in Coping for Women Diagnosed With Breast Cancer.

Although more White women develop breast cancer, African American women more frequently die of the disease (American Cancer Society, 2003). Despite higher morbidity among African American women, few studies have included racially diverse samples. The purposes of this study were to explore racial and body image differences in coping and self-efficacy in coping and racial differences in body image perceptions among breast cancer patients. The 92 participants ranged in age from 28 to 86 years (M=57.64, SD=12.48). Participants with higher body image perceptions had significantly higher self-efficacy in coping compared with participants with lower body image perceptions. There were no significant racial or ethnic differences in coping, self-efficacy in coping, or body image perceptions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological Adjustment of Children With Sickle Cell Disease: Family Functioning and Coping.

Objective: Using a risk and resistance model (J. L. Wallander, J. W. Varni, L. Babani, H. T. Banis, & K. T. Wilcox, 1989) to determine the effects of coping style and family functioning on children's adjustment to sickle cell disease (SCD). Participants: A sample of 73 caregivers and 23 children (ages birth to 18 years) admitted to a hematology acute care unit for pain or fever associated with SCD. Setting: A children's hospital on the East Coast of the United States. Outcome Measures: Disability stress, disease severity, child and parent coping, family functioning, and child adjustment were assessed with standard paper-and-pencil measures. Results: Results provide partial support for J. L. Wallander et al.'s (1989) risk-resistance model. Disability stress did not mediate the relation between disease severity and child adjustment, and severity of medical condition and medical stress did not predict adjustment. Child gender and child age predicted family functioning and child adjustment to SCD. Child or parent coping strategies did not moderate the association of disability stress and child adjustment. Conclusions: Individuals working with patients should be aware of other factors that may affect child outcome above disease severity; specifically, concerns of boys and girls with SCD and their caregivers should be assessed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping With Intergenerational Family Conflict Among Asian American College Students.

Two coping strategies--problem solving and social support seeking--were hypothesized to differentially moderate the effects of intergenerational family conflict on well-being and adjustment in a college sample of 117 Asian American young adult children. Results indicated that social support served as a protective-stabilizing factor that buffered the effects of family conflict on positive affect and somatic distress. Problem-solving coping served as a protective-reactive factor that had a positive effect on positive affect when family conflict was low and a negative effect when family conflict was high. The potential implications of these findings for counseling and conducting research on Asian American college students are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-Related Differences Among Adults Coping With Pain: Evaluation of a Developmental Life-Context Model.

The pain and coping literature is limited because of its almost exclusive focus on young adults. Our goal was to develop and evaluate a theoretically sound model of age-related differences in coping. Age-related increases in emotion-focused and avoidance-oriented coping and decreases in problem-focused coping were expected to arise from age-related differences in life-context (e.g., health status, stress levels) and in the pain experience. Questionnaire data were collected from 280 older and younger adults with pain. Increasing age was associated with lower pain severity/interference and greater perceived control over pain. Life-context partially mediated this relationship. As hypothesized, there were age-related declines in problem-focused coping. Contrary to expectations, however, older adults also used fewer emotion-focused coping strategies. The implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping Strategies in Bulimia Nervosa Treatment: Impact on Outcome in Group Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.

This study's purpose was to examine the extent to which participants (N = 143) receiving cognitive-behavioral therapy for bulimia nervosa (BN) reported implementing therapeutic strategies to abstain from BN behaviors, and to assess whether use of specific strategies predicts outcome at treatment end and 1- and 6-month follow-up. Frequency of outcome expectancies (OE), stimulus-response prevention (SRP), and social support-seeking (SSS) strategies significantly increased by end of treatment. By 1-month follow-up, use of SSS, not OE or SRP, declined significantly relative to treatment end. Although frequency of coping strategy use at treatment end did not predict 1-month BN symptom remission, SSS use at 1-month follow-up predicted 6-month remission. Findings highlight the importance of social support to maintain treatment gains. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping patterns of African American adolescents: A confirmatory factor analysis and cluster analysis of the Children's Coping Strategies Checklist.

The current study examined patterns of coping strategies in a sample of 497 low-income urban African American adolescents (mean age = 12.61 years). Results of confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the 4-factor structure of the Children's Coping Strategies Checklist (T. S. Ayers, I. N. Sandler, S. G. West, & M. W. Roosa, 1996) was not replicated in the current sample. The final model was a 3-factor model that was invariant across gender. The Active Coping factor and Revised Avoidant Coping factor were highly correlated in the present sample. Results of cluster analyses identified 2 coping groups differing on the frequency of coping use and preferred coping methods. The 1st group was more likely to use avoidant coping and less likely to use social support-seeking coping than the 2nd group, which showed more consistent use across coping strategies. There were no significant differences in the association between stressors and symptoms across the 2 groups. The results highlight the importance of examining factor structures of coping measures with underrepresented groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting Occupational Coping Responses: The Interactive Effect of Gender and Work Stressor Context.

This study examined whether gender and work stressor context interacted to affect reports of occupational coping strategies. Participants (N=113) were asked to indicate how they would cope with both self-focused (i.e., solitary) and interpersonal (i.e., group) work overload contexts by providing responses to the Cybernetic Coping Scale (J. Edwards & A. J. Baglioni, 1993). Consistent with the hypothesized interaction, male and female participants evidenced similar coping strategies in the self-focused work overload context, whereas female participants showed significantly higher use of coping (T2=.08, p     

Attachment in Coping With Bereavement: A Theoretical Integration.

Researchers have deplored shortcomings in theoretically based models of coping with bereavement. Integration of cognitive stress with attachment theory is proposed to predict adjustment to bereavement, describe different forms of effective coping, and resolve ongoing debates about continuing versus relinquishing bonds. These 2 generic approaches are integrated within a bereavement-specific perspective, the dual-process model of coping (Stroebe & Schut, 1999). Accordingly, (a) different coping styles are adopted by, and are differentially efficacious for, bereaved people according to their style of attachment; (b) bereaved people's ways of continuing bonds differ according to their attachment style; and (c) grief complications are associated with insecure attachment styles. The authors conclude that it is better for some bereaved individuals to work toward retaining ties and for others to work toward loosening ties. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Innocence Abroad: A Pocket Guide to Psychological Research on Tourism.

This article introduces tourism as a neglected topic of study for psychologists and discusses how ventures into this area provide opportunities for pioneering research and innovative applications. A coherent body of theory, drawn from experimental, social, and health psychology and synthesized by cross-cultural psychologists for the study of acculturation, is presented as one foundation for this area of inquiry. This includes stress and coping, culture learning, and social identification theories. The conceptual frameworks are applied to the interpretation of selected studies of tourism and are recommended for designing prospective investigations and guiding future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Good Cope, Bad Cope: Adaptive and Maladaptive Coping Strategies Following a Critical Negative Work Event.

The authors examined the moderating effects of coping tactics on the relationship between negative emotion and work performance. Findings indicate an adverse effect of emotion on performance; however, this effect is moderated by coping tactics. Venting (expressing one's negative feelings to others) amplified the adverse effects of negative emotion. Self-control had mixed effects: On one hand, it buffered the adverse effects of negative emotion, yet on the other hand, it had a negative direct effect on outcomes. Task focus had a positive direct effect on performance but no buffering (moderating) effect. Implications of these findings for understanding the effects of negative emotion and coping in the workplace are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping With Downsizing: A Comparison of Executive-Level and Middle Managers.

A longitudinal study compared the reactions of executive-level and middle managers prior to a large-scale downsizing, during initial and final phases, and following the downsizing. Compared with executives, middle managers perceived greater job insecurity, were more likely to use escape coping, and reported lower job performance and higher levels of health symptoms. Over time, both executives and middle managers reported a decline in perceived threat of job loss but an increase in sense of powerlessness, a decrease in the use of control-oriented coping strategies, and reduced job performance in the initial phase of downsizing. Although less so, executive-level managers were also adversely affected by the downsizing, suggesting that this group should be included in stress management interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping with family-to-work conflict: The role of informal work accommodations to family.

The purposes of this study are to (a) construct and validate a scale measuring informal work accommodations to family (IWAF), (b) test the moderating effect of IWAF on the relationship between family-to-work conflict and work stress, and (c) examine the relationships between IWAF and a set of relevant antecedents and coping constructs. Two survey-based nonexperiments are used to accomplish these goals. Results indicate that (a) the IWAF scale is reliable, content valid, and meaningfully correlated to work-family and coping constructs; (b) more frequent use of IWAF attenuates the positive relationship between family-to-work conflict and stress; and (c) IWAF, along with organizational policies and climates, may be important for workplace stress management. Implications for research and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Academic Stress Among College Students: Comparison of American and International Students.

This study compared academic stressors and reactions to stressors between American and international students using Gadzella's Life Stress Inventory (B. M. Gadzella, 1991). Five categories of academic stressors (i.e., frustrations, conflicts, pressures, changes, and self-imposed) and four categories describing reactions to these stressors (i.e., physiological, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive) were examined. The sample consisted of 392 international and American students from 2 Midwestern universities. American students reported higher self-imposed stressors and greater behavioral reactions to stressors than international students. Respondent's status (American or international) and interaction of status and stressors emerged as the 2 strongest predictors of their behavioral, emotional, physiological, and cognitive reaction to stressors. Five stressors attained statistical significance in the regression model. The findings emphasize the need to recognize cultural differences in stress management. Implications for mental health providers in the university arena are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does Virtual Reality Enhance the Management of Stress When Paired With Exercise? An Exploratory Study.

The purpose of the present study was to assess the psychological benefits of virtual reality paired with aerobic exercise in a laboratory setting. In this study, 154 introductory psychology students were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 20-min conditions (a) walking outside around campus, (b) walking on a laboratory treadmill combined with virtual reality to experience both virtual and actual exercise, (c) walking on the laboratory treadmill without virtual reality, and (d) experiencing a virtual walk with virtual reality without actual exercise. Our results suggest that virtual reality may enhance some of the psychological benefits of exercise when paired with actual exercise under certain conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)