The limits of 'adaptive' coping: well-being and mood reactions to stressors among women in abusive dating relationships.
Coping is typically thought to be adaptive if it reduces immediate distress and promotes well-being. However, coping strategies might appear beneficial in a given situation, but when considered in the broader stressor context, those situational benefits may actually undermine well-being. Two studies (N = 473 and N = 80 women) demonstrated that, in the context of psychologically or physically abusive dating relationships, coping orientations were rooted in women's stressor history (prior assault trauma) and elevated emotion-focused and lower problem-focused efforts were predictive of greater depressive symptoms. Yet, in response to a stressor video that acted as a reminder of women's abusive experiences (but not to a stressor video unrelated to abuse), affective benefits (lower hostility, higher positive agency) were associated with abused women's emotion-focused coping endorsements, but were not linked to problem-focused coping. It seems that in some contexts, reduced distress might limit active efforts to alter a dysfunctional situation.
Matheson
Kimberly
K
Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ont., Canada K1S 5B6.
Skomorovsky
Alla
A
Fiocco
Alexandra
A
Anisman
Hymie
H
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D018585:Battered Women / Q000523:psychology*; D003463:Cues; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008499:Medical Records; D008603:Mental Health; D011340:Problem Solving; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology*