Adjusting To a New Racial Climate: Maintenance of Personal Integrity

This paper will focus on the writer’s experience as a native New Yorker relocating to Montgomery, Alabama. The writer will share how he adjusted and coped with overt discrimination and racism in the context of the high school in which he attended there-a majority white high school on the “other” side of town. The writer will share how he employed the following coping mechanisms as methods of adjusting to his new environment: translating emotional experiences into words (relaxation and talk therapy), involvement with other black positive peers, careful assessment before acting, withdrawal and avoidance, and consuming African-American literature.     

Parent and Adolescent Responses to PovertyRelated Stress: Tests of Mediated and Moderated Coping Models

We tested several models of the associations among economic strain, life stress, coping, involuntary stress responses, and psychological symptoms in a sample of 57 parent-adolescent dyads from rural, lower-income families. Economic strain and life stress predicted symptoms for both parents and adolescents. Stressor-symptom specificity was found for parents, such that economic strain uniquely predicted depression, whereas negative life events predicted hostility. Involuntary stress responses were associated with higher levels of symptoms for both parents and the adolescent children. Secondary control coping was associated with fewer symptoms for both parents and adolescents. Results support a mediational role of coping and responses to stress during adolescence, with a shift to moderational status in adulthood. Implications of these results are discussed with regard to developmental coping theory and potential interventions with at-risk families.     

Relations Between Coping and Positive and Negative Outcomes in Carers of Persons with Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

This study examined relations between stress and coping predictors and negative and positive outcomes in MS caregiving. A total of 222 carers and their care-recipients completed questionnaires at Time 1 and three months later, Time 2 (n = 155). Predictors included care-recipient characteristics (age, time since diagnosis, course and life satisfaction), and Times 1 and 2 carer problems, stress appraisal and coping. Dependent variables were Time 2 negative (anxiety, depression) and positive outcomes (life satisfaction, positive affect, benefits). Regressions indicated that, overall, the hypothesised direct effects of stress appraisal and coping strategies on positive and negative outcomes were supported. The hypothesised stress-buffering effects of positive reframing coping were also supported. All but one of the coping strategies were related to both positive and negative outcomes; specifically, practical assistance coping emerged as a unique predictor of distress. Of the model predictors, care-recipient life satisfaction emerged as the strongest and most consistent predictor of both positive and negative outcomes except benefit finding. Findings support the role of care-recipient characteristics and the carers appraisal and coping processes in shaping both positive and negative outcomes. The guiding framework and findings have the potential to inform interventions designed to promote well-being in carers.     

The norms and stability of new measures of the multidimensional body image construct

The measurement of the body image construct has become increasingly multidimensional. New assessments are available to measure various facets of body image functioning: The Body Image Disturbance Questionnaire, Appearance Schemas Inventory-Revised, Body Image Coping Strategies Inventory, and Body Image Quality of Life Inventory. The present article reports normative data and acceptable internal reliabilities across seven completed investigations using these measures with female and male college students. Sex differences were examined and found, as expected, for most of the measures. In addition, a study evaluated an undetermined but essential psychometric property of these facets of the construct—their test–retest reliability. In a sample of 107 college students, the 2-week stability of these measures was found to be acceptable. Several directions for future research with these assessments are identified.     

Acculturation strategies, coping process and acculturative stress

Using structural equation modeling, this study examines the influences of motivational factors (Need for Cognitive Closure--NCC--and Decisiveness), coping strategies and acculturation strategies on levels of acculturative stress. Two groups of immigrants in Rome (Croatians n= 156 and Poles n= 179) completed a questionnaire that included scales for the various factors. Although our initial hypothesized model was not confirmed, a modified model showed that the motivational factors of NCC and Decisiveness indirectly influence acculturative stress. The modified model with good fit indices indicated that the relationship between NCC and Decisiveness are mediated by coping strategies and acculturation strategies. Specifically, NCC is associated positively with avoidance coping, which in turn is negatively associated with the host group relationships and positively with the original culture maintenance. The last two dimensions predicted lower levels of acculturative stress. Decisiveness was positively associated with the problem-oriented coping and, negatively, with emotional and avoidance coping.     

Psychological reactions in Icelandic earthquake survivors

The aim of this study was to explore the psychological consequences of two earthquakes in Iceland in two probability samples of subjects--residents in the exposed area and a control group from an unexposed area. The sample was composed of 52 adults exposed to the earthquakes and 29 adults in a control group. Three months after the earthquakes, both groups were approached with questions from a survey consisting of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ), the Trauma Symptom Checklist (TSC), the Coping Styles Questionnaire (CSQ), the World Assumption Scale (WAS), and the Crisis Support Scale (CSS). The results revealed that 24% in the exposed group had Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and none in the control group had PTSD. Earthquake-related anxiety, inability to express one's thoughts and feelings, and emotional coping predicted 81% of the HTQ variance for both groups. Previous life events, low self-worth, and luck attributions, together with numbing and the feeling of being let down, predicted 56% of the symptom variance for both groups. When degree of traumatization and emotional coping were added to the model, another 30% of the variance could be explained.     

Pain coping and social support as predictors of long-term functional disability and pain in early rheumatoid arthritis

Pain-related avoidance factors and social resources, as assessed by pain coping and social support, are supposed to have lasting effects on functional disability and pain in chronic pain disorders. As a follow-up to a prospective study demonstrating short-term effects after one year (Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36, 179-193, 1998), the role of pain coping and social support at the time of diagnosis was investigated in relationship to the long-term course of functional disability and pain after three and five years in 78 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), taking into account personality characteristics of neuroticism and extraversion, clinical status and use of medication. In line with findings at the one-year follow-up, results showed that more passive pain coping predicted functional disability at the three-year, but not the five-year follow-up. In addition, low levels of social support at the time of diagnosis consistently predicted both functional disability and pain at the three and five-year follow-ups. Results indicate that pain coping and social support, assessed very early in the disease process, can affect long-term functional disability and pain in RA, and suggest that early interventions focusing on pain-related avoidance factors and social resources for patients at risk may beneficially influence long-term outcomes in RA.     

Personality and stress

Recent years have witnessed an upsurge of interest in how personality affects the stress process. This paper reports on a broad spectrum of findings on the relationships between personality and stress, taking transactional stress theory as the point of departure. A first part outlines the different approaches stress research has taken within personality psychology as opposed to research based on transactional stress theory and discusses the debate between these two paradigms. The second part gives an overview of empirical findings, with a focus on the Big Five personality factors, in order to demonstrate that personality affects the stress process in every aspect. The discussion suggests that we address unresolved problems of transactional stress research in the framework of interactionist personality psychology. Special attention ought to be given to developing a better understanding of situational characteristics, stress-producing mechanisms, and the functions of situational choices and coping strategies for personality.     

Coping and emotional distress in a sample of Swedish unemployed.

The study investigated the associations between coping and symptoms of emotional distress within a sample of 166 unemployed men and women (mean age 40 +/- 10 years, range 22 to 63 years, 52% males). All variables were measured with a questionnaire comprising sociodemographic background, length of unemployment, financial strain, coping style ("Ways of Coping Checklist"), and emotional distress (Hopkins Symptom Check List-25). Emotional distress was positively related to financial strain and more common among younger subjects, divorced subjects and those with foreign background, but less frequent among subjects who had been unemployed for more than three years. After controlling for age, gender, education, foreign background, length of unemployment and financial strain, hierarchical regression analyses showed that emotion-focused coping, i.e. self-blame and wishful thinking, was positively related to emotional distress. Problem-focused coping and cognitive restructuring were negatively associated with emotional distress. Younger subjects and divorced subjects made frequent use of both emotion-focused and problem-focused coping. Female subject and subjects with mandatory school made frequent use of emotion focused coping, if exposed to high financial strain. Problem-focused coping was less frequent among subjects with a low education coupled with low financial strain. Cognitive restructuring was less common among subjects who had been unemployed for more than three years. Younger subjects who were also divorced made less use of both problem-focused coping and cognitive restructuring. The results confirm that coping style has importance for the mental health of the unemployed, and indicate a differential use of coping strategies among subjects with different sociodemographic backgrounds and different levels of financial strain.