A sociological perspective on stress, health, and coping, and an examination of a proposed coping framework: the coping repertoire approach

• Main Author: Melnyk, Timothy Steven
• Other Authors: Roberts, Lance W. (Sociology)
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: stress; coping; health
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1993/4847

Coping is understood to be a protective measure against internal or external demands perceived as stressful. As such, mental health outcomes are partially dependent on one’s choice of coping strategies. The work of Folkman and Lazarus provides the theory which frames the stress-coping relationship, while Corey Keyes’ “complete state model of health” guides the conceptualization and interpretation of mental health. The study’s data come from the Survey on Health and Well-Being (Peter, 2008), with a sample size of 1,245 undergraduate students. Using multiple regression, this project explores the hypothesis that coping will moderate the stress-health relationship, or that stress will modify the coping-health relationship. Furthermore, discriminant analysis was used to determine whether a new coping ‘repertoire’ classification could be derived from the Ways of Coping subscales. Results did not reveal an interaction effect between stress and coping. Findings were supportive of the proposed six category coping ‘repertoire’ classification.