Coping flexibility and stress responses during a teacher traning practicum

Abstract

'Coping flexibility' was newly defined. Moreover, the effect of decreasing stress responses were investigated from the following points: (a) variation of cognitive appraisal and coping in different situations, (b) variations in cognitive appraisal and coping using an unsuitable coping strategy, (c) goodness of fit between cognitive appraisal and coping, (d) discriminating between problem-focused and emotion-focused coping, (e) variation of coping from a tri-axis perspective University student participants (n - 88) responded to the coping flexibility questionnaire, which identified their coping pattern for three stressful events Stress responses were measured on four occasions during teaching practice Cluster analysis of coping flexibility patterns indicated four groups 'inflexible and emotion-focused', 'flexible', 'cognitively flexibility and problem-focused', 'cognitively flexibility and not fit' Results of an analysis of variance revealed that the 'flexible' group experienced less somatic symptoms and social dysfunction than the 'cognitive flexible and not fit' group These results suggest that coping flexibility contribute to mental health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)