Assessing coping strategies: a theoretically based approach.

We developed a multidimensional coping inventory to assess the different ways in which people respond to stress. Five scales (of four items each) measure conceptually distinct aspects of problem-focused coping (active coping, planning, suppression of competing activities, restraint coping, seeking of instrumental social support); five scales measure aspects of what might be viewed as emotional-focused coping (seeking of emotional social support, positive reinterpretation, acceptance, denial, turning to religion); and three scales measure coping responses that arguably are less useful (focus on and venting of emotions, behavioral disengagement, mental disengagement). Study 1 reports the development of scale items. Study 2 reports correlations between the various coping scales and several theoretically relevant personality measures in an effort to provide preliminary information about the inventory's convergent and discriminant validity. Study 3 uses the inventory to assess coping responses among a group of undergraduates who were attempting to cope with a specific stressful episode. This study also allowed an initial examination of associations between dispositional and situational coping tendencies.

Associations of blood pressure with self-report measures of anger and hostility among black and white men and women.

This study examined associations between blood pressure (BP) and dispositional variables pertaining to anger and hostility. Black and White 25- to 44-year old male and female normotensives and unmedicated mild to moderate hypertensives completed four reliable self-report scales--the Cook-Medley Hostility (Ho) Scale, the Trait Anger subscale of the State-Trait Anger Scale (STAS-T), and the Cognitive Anger and Somatic Anger subscales of the Cognitive-Somatic Anger Scale--plus the Framingham Anger Scale and the Harburg Anger Scale. They also engaged in three laboratory tasks--Type A Structured Interview (SI), a video game, and a cold pressor task--that elicit cardiovascular reactivity. Ambulatory BP readings at home and at work were also obtained from most subjects. Blacks had significantly higher Ho and lower STAS-T scores than did Whites. Women reported higher levels of somatic anger than did men. White women showed significant positive correlations between STAS-T and systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) both at rest in the laboratory and during the SI. Black women revealed significant positive relationships between STAS-T and SBP and DBP at rest in the laboratory and at work as well as with DBP during the cold pressor test. For Black men, cognitive anger and DBP at rest were positively related. In contrast, White men revealed significant negative correlations between Ho scores and SBP at rest and during the video game; these men also showed significant negative relationships between somatic anger and SBP and DBP reactivity during the cold pressor test. Women, but not men, showed significant positive relationships between all four anger measures and ambulatory BP at work. Whereas main effects relating anger and cardiovascular measures were not apparent as a function of race, Blacks demonstrated significantly greater SBP and DBP reactivity than Whites during the cold pressor test, with the converse occurring during the SI. Men demonstrated significantly greater DBP reactivity than women during the video game. The present findings indicate that self-reports on anger/hostility measures and cardiovascular responses to behavioral tasks differ as a function of race but that relationships between anger and BP regulation need to take into account possible race-sex interactions and selection of anger/hostility measures.

Coping with stress: divergent strategies of optimists and pessimists.

Previous research has shown that dispositional optimism is a prospective predictor of successful adaptation to stressful encounters. In this research we attempted to identify possible mechanisms underlying these effects by examining how optimists differ from pessimists in the kinds of coping strategies that they use. The results of two separate studies revealed modest but reliable positive correlations between optimism and problem-focused coping, seeking of social support, and emphasizing positive aspects of the stressful situation. Pessimism was associated with denial and distancing (Study 1), with focusing on stressful feelings, and with disengagement from the goal with which the stressor was interfering (Study 2). Study 1 also found a positive association between optimism and acceptance/resignation, but only when the event was construed as uncontrollable. Discussion centers on the implications of these findings for understanding the meaning of people's coping efforts in stressful circumstances.

The vibratory perception threshold in young diabetic patients: associations with glycemia and puberty.

The vibratory perception threshold, an indicator of sensory neuropathy, was measured in young type I diabetic patients (N = 55) and nondiabetic control subjects (N = 34) of similar age. Values were significantly higher in the diabetic patients (P less than 0.01), and 20% had values greater than that of any control subject. This difference was most marked among those postpubertal and persisted with allowances for age and gender in an analysis of covariance. Although the vibratory perception threshold was not related to hemoglobin A1 in younger diabetic patients (Tanner stage less than 5), there was a highly significant positive relationship in postpubertal patients (r = 0.72, P less than 0.001). There were also associations of the vibratory perception threshold with age in diabetic and control subjects (r = 0.44 and r = 0.43, respectively, P less than 0.01 for both) and with diabetes duration (r = 0.36, P less than 0.01). These data indicate that vibratory perception threshold abnormalities occur early in the course of type I diabetes mellitus; however, they are more evident in those patients who are postpubertal. In addition, they suggest that the association between the vibratory perception threshold and glycemia may be modified by developmental factors.