Les processus de coping et leur association avec l’auto-efficacité perçue chez des enseignants de suisse romande : résultats d’une étude préliminaire

Within the Swiss context of the present study, important on-going school reforms lead to new challenges and constraints for teachers. Thus, it is legitimate to question how teachers can deal with the difficulties inherent to their profession. The aim of the study was to explore the coping responses of 86 teachers (women = 70; men = 16; mean age = 38.9 ± 12.0), and to assess the possible relationships between those responses and teaching self-efficacy. Self-report questionnaires were administered between June 2016 and February 2017, with a return rate of 37.5%. Participants completed two questionnaires: the Ways of Coping Checklist (WCC) assessing five coping responses (solving problem, social support approbation, avoidance, positive reevaluation and self-blamed), and the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) measuring three dimensions of teachers’ self-efficacy (for classroom management, instructional strategies and student engagement). The most frequent coping responses were social support approbation and solving problem. Positive reevaluation seemed to be used as an intermediate coping response for both women and men. Women were more likely to seek social support than men in order to deal with difficulties, whereas men did not report the use of specific process. Participants reported high levels of teaching self-efficacy, without significant difference between women and men. Moreover, teachers with high level of self-efficacy for classroom management and instructional strategies were less likely to use self-blamed and avoidance coping responses. Teachers with high level of self-efficacy for student engagement were also less likely to use self-blamed coping responses. Partial correlations with sex, age and years of experience as control variables were performed, and no variation was found. The findings of the present study demonstrate that social support approbation and solving problem are coping responses commonly used in our sample of teachers. The high levels of teaching self-efficacy and the lack of significant correlation between this variable, social support approbation and solving problem coping responses question us about the protective role of self-efficacy. It could be considered as a coping response, helping to appropriately overcome the difficulties linked to the teaching profession. Due to the important school reforms in Switzerland, pre-service teachers need resources and tools to deal with these new challenges. Further studies are necessary in order to better understand relationships between coping responses and teaching self-efficacy, and their potential protective or damaging effects.     

Depressive Symptoms,Coping Strategies,and Disordered Eating Among College Women

In a 2‐phase study with a total of 392 participants, depressive symptoms mediated the association between disordered eating and lower problem‐solving confidence and an avoidance problem‐solving style. Depressive symptoms did not mediate the association between the ability to generate competent solutions to hypothetical stressful situations and disordered eating. Depressive symptoms appeared to influence responses to problem‐solving inventories/coping checklists but had less of an influence on open‐ended problem‐solving measures.     

Models of helping and coping, responsibility attributions, and well-being in community elderly and their helpers

The analysis of Brickman et al. (1982), which separates attribution of a problem's cause and solution, was tested in 4 studies. Young and elderly adults' (n = 210) well-being was related only to taking responsibility for solutions. The elderly compared with the young adults assumed less responsibility for problem cause and solution. They also preferred helping and coping models that assume low self-responsibility for solutions (e.g., medical model). This result was replicated with Meals on Wheels clients (n = 51). An intragenerational helping pattern was found in Study 3. Lay helpers (n = 63) helped mainly same-age recipients. Elderly and middle-aged helpers compared with young adults preferred using a medical model. Overall, a cohort bias in model preference was suggested. In Study 4, problem type and recipient age moderated attributions and model choice of young and middle-aged Ss (n = 92). Relevance to the control literature and ethical and clinical implications of a medical-model bias are discussed.     

Coping responses in the midst of terror: The July 22 terror attack at Utøya Island in Norway

This study examined the peri‐trauma coping responses of 325 survivors, mostly youth, after the July 22, 2011 terror attack on Utøya Island in Norway. The aim was to understand peri‐trauma coping responses and their relation to subsequent post‐traumatic stress (PTS) reactions. Respondents were interviewed face‐to‐face 4–5 months after the shooting, and most were interviewed at their homes. Peri‐trauma coping was assessed using ten selected items from the “How I Cope Under Pressure Scale” (HICUPS), covering the dimensions of problem solving, positive cognitive restructuring, avoidance, support seeking, seeking understanding, and religious coping. PTS reactions were assessed with the UCLA PTSD Reaction Index. The participants reported using a wide variety of coping strategies. Problem solving, positive cognitive restructuring, and seeking understanding strategies were reported most often. Men reported using more problem‐solving strategies, whereas women reported more emotion‐focused strategies. There were no significant associations between age and the use of coping strategies. Problem solving and positive cognitive restructuring were significantly associated with fewer PTS reactions. The results are discussed in light of previous research and may help to inform early intervention efforts for survivors of traumatic events.     

Evidence for a curvilinear dose-response relationship between avoidance coping and drug use problems among women who experience intimate partner violence

Women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) are at heightened risk for drug use problems. While prevailing models of drug use suggest that IPV-exposed women use drugs in an effort to escape or avoid negative affect, a dearth of literature has examined the role of avoidance coping in drug use problems within this population. Given recent suggestions that flexible, situationally appropriate use of avoidance coping may be adaptive, particularly when confronted with highly stressful situations, we hypothesized that avoidance coping and drug use problems would demonstrate a curvilinear, U-shaped dose-response relationship. Participants were 147 community-recruited women experiencing IPV. Consistent with our hypotheses, moderate levels of avoidance coping were associated with lower levels of drug use problems, whereas high and low levels of avoidance coping were associated with higher levels of drug use problems. Findings highlight the complex relationship between avoidance coping and drug use problems and suggest that avoidance coping, when used in moderation, may be an adaptive strategy for coping with relational conflict among women who experience IPV.     

Psychological predictors of coping responses among Greek basketball referees

The authors examined the effects of situational appraisals (perceived control and intensity), coping styles (monitoring and blunting), and personal dispositions (optimism and self-esteem) on the approach and avoidance coping responses of skilled Greek basketball referees (N = 162) and the consistency of their responses following 3 game-related stressful situations. In an effort to clarify the variables involved in coping and to consider the theoretical principles both within and beyond sports, the authors replicated an earlier study among Australian basketball referees (A. Kaissidis-Rodafinos, M. H. Anshel, & A. Porter, 1997). The results were equivocal: The Greek referees were not consistent in using avoidance and approach coping responses across situations. Approach coping was more predictable than avoidance coping in accounting for both situational and personal variables.     

《儿童人际冲突应对策略量表》的编制

为研究儿童心理与行为发展的需要,对儿童人际冲突应对策略量表进行编制。抽取8-14岁小学儿童392名,采用团体测试的方法进行测量。通过因素分析提取5个因素:问题解决、求助、逃避、情绪内倾化和情绪外倾化。量表结构比较稳定。各分量表的内部一致性信度系数和分半信度系数分别为0.56-0.84和0.54-0.83;两周重测信度系数0.86。专家评定结果表明各分量表的内容效度理想。结果表明该量表是一种较实用的测量儿童人际冲突应对策略的工具。     

Hearing Impairment, Coping Strategies, and Anxiety Sensitivity

The aim was to study coping strategies among hearing-impaired individuals by using a validated coping instrument—The Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WOCQ; S. Folkman & R. Lazarus, 1988)—and to relate the use of coping with anxiety sensitivity and experience of hearing impairment. A questionnaire booklet was sent out to the members of the local branch of the Swedish Hard of Hearing Association. Ninety-four members responded to the questionnaire, yielding a 53% response rate. Primary outcome measures were the WOCQ, the Anxiety Sensitivity Index, and visual analogue scale rating of discomfort from hearing impairment. Repeated measures analysis of WOCQ subscales showed that the participants used planful problem solving and self-controlling coping strategies whereas escape/avoidance responses were less frequently used than the other coping strategies. Anxiety sensitivity was associated with escape/avoidance coping (r = .63, p < .0001). In conclusion, hearing-impaired individuals do not use escape/avoidance coping more than other coping strategies. However, escape/avoidance coping is associated with anxiety sensitivity, suggesting that sensitivity to anxiety sensations is an important associated factor. Coping strategies were not associated with discomfort from hearing impairment in any meaningful way.     

A test of sex differences in aggressive response to hypothetical conflict situations

Male (n = 289) and female (n = 268) college students were administered the Leifer-Roberts Response Hierarchy (Reinisch Revision) to evaluate the utility of this measure in reflecting sex differences in self-described potential for aggressive response. The Response Hierarchy provides a retrospective estimate of where physical and verbal aggression reside in an individual's hierarchy of possible behavioral responses to hypothetical conflict situations in adolescence. A score is obtained for: (a) physical aggression, (b) verbal aggression, (c) nonaggressive coping, and (d) withdrawal. When asked to respond as they would have or did at age 13 years, verbal aggression was the most frequent response with no significant sex difference in mean scores. Men selected physical aggression significantly more often than women (p less than .001). Using the binomial effect size display (BESD) to illustrate the magnitude of the sex difference, 69% of the men would be classified as physically aggressive (above the median), whereas only 31% of the women would be so classified. It was concluded that the Response Hierarchy consistently demonstrates sex differences among college students in retrospectively reported preference for choosing physical aggression versus other coping strategies as a response to hypothetical interpersonal conflict situations of adolescence.     

Through a different lens: Examining professional women's interrole coping by focus and mode

An alternative method for classifying women's interrole coping efforts is proposed based upon current stress and coping theory. This coping classification method is then used to examine the coping responses and reported satisfaction of a sample of 135 professional women employed full-time as college faculty. Distinctive patterns of coping response use emerged for this group of women when the coping response strategy was expanded to include whether the response was problem focused or emotion focused and active or passive. The women report greater use of problem-focused than emotion-focused coping responses across several different types of work role conflict situations. Differences in rated satisfaction were reported, with the highest satisfaction reported when active coping responses that involved others were used.     

Psychological Predictors of Coping Responses Among Greek Basketball Referees

Abstract

The authors examined the effects of situational appraisals (perceived control and intensity), coping styles (monitoring and blunting), and personal dispositions (optimism and self-esteem) on the approach and avoidance coping responses of skilled Greek basketball referees (N = 162) and the consistency of their responses following 3 game-related stressful situations. In an effort to clarify the variables involved in coping and to consider the theoretical principles both within and beyond sports, the authors replicated an earlier study among Australian basketball referees (A. Kaissidis-Rodafinos, M. H. Anshel, & A. Porter, 1997). The results were equivocal: The Greek referees were not consistent in using avoidance and approach coping responses across situations. Approach coping was more predictable than avoidance coping in accounting for both situational and personal variables.     

Relational antecedents of appraised problem-focused coping potential and its associated emotions

The present study examined a relational model of appraisal that specifies the situational and dispositional antecedents of appraised problem-focused coping potential, itself a hypothesised antecedent of the emotions of hope/challenge and resignation. The hypothesised relational antecedents of this appraisal were tested in a quasi-experiment in which individuals varying in self-perceived and objectively assessed math ability attempted to solve math problems on which difficulty was manipulated. Findings for the critical test problem largely conformed to predictions: Under difficult conditions, but not easy ones, increasing math ability was generally associated with elevated appraisals of problem-focused coping potential, increased hope/challenge, reduced resignation, and increased likelihood of solving the problem. However, problem-focused coping potential, hope/challenge, and the likelihood of solving the problem were all lower, and resignation was higher, for the highest ability participants, than would be predicted from their ability levels. Comparable findings were not observed for appraisals of emotion-focused coping potential or its theoretically associated emotion of anxiety, providing evidence of discriminant validity for the examined model. The results of a mediational analysis supported the hypothesis that the effects of the quasi-experimental design on hope/challenge and resignation were mediated by their effects on appraised problem-focused coping potential, lending support to the proposition that appraisals play a causal role in emotion elicitation.     

Individual differences in coping with criticism of one's physical appearance among Taiwanese students

When someone is criticized for some failure or deficiency, he or she is faced with a dilemma about whether or how to respond. To date, most research on responses to criticism has adopted a communication approach and has focused on general social complaints. The present study instead adopted the perspective of stress and coping and aimed to delineate possible responses to criticism pertaining to one's physical appearance. We investigated the efficacy of three coping styles, namely acceptance, avoidance, and retaliation in explaining emotional reactions towards such criticism, and we additionally controlled for personality characteristics, in particular assertion and harmony beliefs. A sample of Taiwanese university students (N = 300) was surveyed for their coping styles and psychological outcomes, and personality traits were examined as possible predictors of response options. We found that (1) acceptance, retaliation, and avoidance were three broad coping styles in this problematic social situation; (2) the individual trait of assertion was negatively related to the use of avoidance, while harmony beliefs were positively related to acceptance and avoidance, but negatively related to retaliation; and (3) the use of acceptance and avoidance were positively related to positive emotions, whereas retaliation was positively related to negative emotions. Males tended to use more acceptance. Implications of these findings were discussed in relation to existing studies of communication, stress and coping. Possible influences of the Chinese collectivist culture on people's responses to criticism were also delineated, such as valuing interpersonal harmony and face-work in social situations.     

Anger and irrational thought: Questionnaire and interview ratings

From an initial pool of 96 students, 36 subjects were selected based on Novaco Anger Scale scores to form high-, moderate-, and low-anger groups (n=12). They completed self-report questionnaires and participated in a structured interview designed to elicit cognitive and affective responses to hypothetical situations involving interpersonal conflict. High- and moderate-anger groups scored significantly higher than low-anger subjects on a questionnaire measure of irrational thinking. High-anger subjects scored higher than low-anger subjects on general anxiety, suspiciousness, fear of negative evaluation, hostility, and criticism of themselves and others. Interview ratings showed that there were no group differences in self-reports of anger or ability to cope with conflict, yet raters judged high-anger subjects to display more anger than low-anger subjects in their stated response actions. Estimates of coping ability varied inversely with reports of anger experienced. Generally, results support a relationship between irrational thinking patterns and anger in feeling and action. Implications for treatment are discussed.     

Changes in Event-Based Prospective Memory Across Adulthood

Conflicting results in the literature raise the possibility of a nonmonotonic relationship between adult age and event-based prospective memory performance. In this study, young (n = 45; mean age = 20), middle-aged (n = 56; mean age = 59), and elderly (n = 59; mean age = 76) volunteers were shown slides of famous people. The background task was to name each face while the prospective memory task was to mark the trial number if the person was wearing glasses. Although the stimuli were selected to favor the older participants, the proportion of prospective memory responses to target events declined monotonically with increasing age (.77, .62, and .26, for the young, middle-aged, and elderly, respectively). Analysis of the prospective memory data in terms of hazard functions for the first failure and the first success also revealed some significant age deficits. The elderly group reported thinking less about the prospective memory component than the young and middle-aged groups. Also, the elderly group was less likely to blame the demands of the background task for their prospective memory failures than the young and middle-aged groups. However, age differences in prospective memory performance remained significant after controlling (in separate analyses) for past experience (hazard functions), memory for the task instructions, self-rated thoughts, and reasons for failure. The results are discussed in relation to work on goal neglect, and possible explanations for the conflicting results in the literature are presented.     

Coping responses and problem appraisal in Spanish adolescents

This study uses Moos's Coping Responses Inventory (Youth Form, 1993) to examine coping behavior in Spanish adolescents. 1362 adolescents were recruited from the metropolitan area of Barcelona, Spain. All subjects were in high school and ages 12 to 16 years. The socio-economic status was primarily middle class. Adolescents' coping behaviors were examined by sex and age, and the relationship between problem appraisal and choice of coping strategy was analyzed. Girls used more approach, avoidance, and behavioral responses than boys, especially Logical Analysis, Seeking Guidance and Support, and Emotional Discharge strategies. At older ages, Logical Analysis and Emotional Discharge became more frequent in girls and Cognitive Avoidance less frequent in boys. The results also suggest that problem appraisal has only a limited effect on the selection of coping strategies and that only few strategies are related to the problems' outcomes.     

Predictors of Coping with Work Stress: The Influences of Sex,Gender Role,Social Desirability,and Locus of Control

This investigation examined the influence of 4 personal attributes—sex, gender role, social desirability, and locus of control—as predictors of coping with work stress. Participants were 208 employed adult students (154 females and 54 males), primarily European Americans (90.4%) from working-class backgrounds. Theresults indicated that men were more likely to use alcohol and women more likely to use direct action. Femininity and/or masculinity scores predicted control-related coping butwere unrelated to escape-related coping. High social desirability scores predicted direct action coping, whereas low scores predicted alcohol use. In terms of locus of control, an internal orientation predicted help-seeking and positive thinking, a powerful others orientation predicted avoidance/resignation, and a chance orientation predicted alcohol use.     

Coping among children and adolescents with chronic illness

The present study was aimed to investigate age and gender effects on coping with everyday stressors among children and adolescents with chronic illness and healthy controls. Patients (8–13 years of age) with asthma (n=47), atopic dermatitis (n=52), and cancer (n=57) were compared to healthy controls (n=158) matched by age, gender, and grade. Self-report data on coping with academic and interpersonal stressors were collected. The primary results indicated that coping with everyday stressors was improved in children and adolescents with chronic illness compared to healthy controls. Thus, patients reported less passive avoidance on cross-situational coping and tended to show more situation-specific coping with social and school-related stressors than healthy controls. Additionally, among the clinical groups, patients with atopic dermatitis and cancer scored higher on positive self-instructions than patients with asthma. Conclusively, the results suggest that coping with a chronic illness may lead to more effective coping with everyday stressors. Implications for evaluating coping styles in patients with chronic illness are discussed.     

Perceived Racist Discrimination,Coping, Stress,and Life Satisfaction

In this study, avoidance coping and problem‐solving coping (inversely) predicted stress, and stress and avoidance coping inversely predicted life satisfaction among 114 African American students. Coping did not moderate racial discrimination stress or stress‐life satisfaction relationships. Fostering problem solving and reducing avoidance may help to alleviate racism‐related stress and foster well‐being. En este estudio, evitar sobrellevar y sobrellevar la resolución de problemas (a lo inverso) de estrés predicho, estrés, y el evitar sobrellevar a la inversa predicha de la satisfacción de vida, entre 114 estudiantes Afro‐Americanos. El sobrellevar no moderó el estrés de la discriminacion racial ni relaciones de satisfacción en el estrés de vida. Fomentar la resolución del problema y reducir el evitar puede ayudar a aliviar el estrés relacionado al racismo y fomentar el bienestar.     

Psychological distress,problem solving,and coping reactions: Sex role differences

Previous research has demonstrated that psychological well-being and distress are strongly associated with masculinity, but unrelated to femininity. The present study provides for a replication of this literature in that results from 211 undergraduate students revealed that high-masculine subjects, compared to low-masculine persons, reported significantly lower scores on self-report measures of depression, state anxiety, and trait anxiety. No differences in distress were found as a function of sex or the femininity dimension. Further, high-masculine subjects, relative to low-masculine subjects, were also found to rate their problem-solving ability as more effective, to engage in more active-behavioral and less avoidance methods of coping in response to previously experienced stressful reactions and to engage in more problem-focused and less emotional-focused coping styles regarding stressful situations. Sex and femininity differences were not found related to differences in problem solving and coping. However, the relation between masculinity and distress was found to be nonsignificant when the variance due to coping was partialed out, suggesting that sex role relations to distress may be mediated by coping skills.Completion of this article occurred while Christine M. Nezu was affiliated with Beth Israel Medical Center-Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York.