Coping Styles Used for Mediation Dental Anxiety and Stress in School Children

Abstract

The ability to adapt to stress and adversity is a central facet of human development. Coping can be defined as a set of cognitive and affective actions that arise in response to a particular disquiet.The aim of this research was to evaluate coping patterns used to mediate anxiety and stress level in two groups of patients: orthodontic and dental.Psychometric instruments applied in the research are: Sarason’s anxiety questionnaire, Stress-test for children, as well as A-Cope questionnaire.Obtained scores confirmed important level of anxiety, and moderate stress level. It was shown that coping mechanisms used for moderate stress and anxiety were productive and influenced the scores for the stress level and anxiety to be diminished.As far as our knowledge is concerned, this is the first study for coping styles in children in our country.