Gender, Stress, and Coping

Abstract

Despite an extensive literature on stress and coping, it is difficult to pinpoint ways of coping that, as a rule, are adaptive or maladaptive. Coping is a dynamic process, one that is shaped by characteristics of the person and situation (DeLongis & Holtzman, 2005; Folkman, Lazarus, Dunkel-Schetter, DeLongis, & Gruen, 1986). What is stressful to one individual in one situation may not be stressful to another person or to the same person in a different situation. This dynamic nature of stress and coping poses many challenges and requires that researchers pay adequate attention to the personal and situational context in which stress and coping occur. Across all cultures, to various degrees, there are differences in the stressful situations to which men and women are exposed. It follows, then, that gender may be an important factor to consider in understanding the dynamics of the stress process.