The Dynamic Nature of Coping with Gender Discrimination: Appraisals, Strategies and Well-being Over Time

Female introductory psychology students at a Canadian university (N?=?31) participated in a lab simulation of discrimination, completed coping and well-being measures and then an online survey of well-being 1 year later. Expectations were that active (inactive) coping would initially be related to decreased (increased) well-being. A reverse pattern was expected for relationships between coping and well-being 1 year later. Results showed that among those perceiving high pervasive discrimination, active and inactive coping was related to decreased well-being immediately after the discrimination was portrayed, but among those perceiving low pervasiveness inactive coping was related to increased well-being. One year later inactive coping was related to decreased well-being among those perceiving high pervasiveness. Implications for short and long-term coping were discussed.