ABSTRACT
The idea of attachment theory, attachment styles, and coping strategies have been areas of interest to many since the time of John Bowlby (1969);however, the literature is limited when considering the aspect of teaching and stress. The research is limited when considering how coping strategies may change in times of stress depending on one's attachment style. It has been decades since a global issue has affected entire populations, and linking attachment style to how one copes during periods of extreme stress, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, has not occurred. This study examined whether a teacher's attachment style influences the positive and negative coping strategies used while teaching in a pre-COVID environment and whether those strategies changed with new stressors of quarantine and online teaching during the COVID lockdown. There were 147 fully completed surveys used in the data analysis. The participants were provided with informed consent prior to data collection. Participants completed a Demographic Questionnaire Form, followed by Brief COPE Questionnaire (prior to COVID-19), then Self-Report Measure of Adult Attachment, followed by the Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI), and lastly, Brief COPE Questionnaire (during COVID-19 lockdown). The means and standard deviations for pre-adaptive coping, post-adaptive coping, pre-maladaptive coping, post- maladaptive coping, the ten areas of stress, and total stress were reported in the results section. An independent t-test using a one-tailed test of significance, an alpha level of .05, were used to analyze whether coping strategies changed from being more or less adaptive or more or less maladaptive for each of the three attachment styles (Secure, Anxious-Avoidant, and Avoidant). The results indicated that all three attachment styles would have no change in their use of adaptive or maladaptive coping strategies during the increased stress of COVID-19. Lastly, all three types of Attachment Styles had overall moderate stress levels for each stress category. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
The idea of attachment theory, attachment styles, and coping strategies have been areas of interest to many since the time of John Bowlby (1969);however, the literature is limited when considering the aspect of teaching and stress. The research is limited when considering how coping strategies may change in times of stress depending on one's attachment style. It has been decades since a global issue has affected entire populations, and linking attachment style to how one copes during periods of extreme stress, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, has not occurred. This study examined whether a teacher's attachment style influences the positive and negative coping strategies used while teaching in a pre-COVID environment and whether those strategies changed with new stressors of quarantine and online teaching during the COVID lockdown. There were 147 fully completed surveys used in the data analysis. The participants were provided with informed consent prior to data collection. Participants completed a Demographic Questionnaire Form, followed by Brief COPE Questionnaire (prior to COVID-19), then Self-Report Measure of Adult Attachment, followed by the Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI), and lastly, Brief COPE Questionnaire (during COVID-19 lockdown). The means and standard deviations for pre-adaptive coping, post-adaptive coping, pre-maladaptive coping, post- maladaptive coping, the ten areas of stress, and total stress were reported in the results section. An independent t-test using a one-tailed test of significance, an alpha level of .05, were used to analyze whether coping strategies changed from being more or less adaptive or more or less maladaptive for each of the three attachment styles (Secure, Anxious-Avoidant, and Avoidant). The results indicated that all three attachment styles would have no change in their use of adaptive or maladaptive coping strategies during the increased stress of COVID-19. Lastly, all three types of Attachment Styles had overall moderate stress levels for each stress category. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)