COPING STYLES AND HEALTH

The present study aims to clarify whether strategies that people use to handle stressful situations cluster into global coping styles and whether such coping styles would be related to subjective health parameters. In previous literature 'coping styles' have been treated under many labels (e.g, ways of coping, defence mechanisms, personality traits, appraisal strategies) and have been assessed by many instruments. There are, however, few studies on the relationships between these concepts and instruments In this study 254 male high school teachers were tested with the Utrecht Coping List, the Defence Mechanism Inventory, the Life Style Index and the Internal, Powerful Others and Chance locus of control scales. In addition, the teachers filled out questionnaires on stressful events and on psychological and physical health complaints. Factor analysis showed four interpretable clusters of coping styles: two clusters with defensive strategies ('cognitive defence' and 'defensive hostility') and two clusters with coping styles ('instrumental mastery-oriented coping' and 'emotion-focused coping'). The 'instrumental mastery-oriented coping' and the 'cognitive defence' factor played a positive moderating role in the effect of stressful situations on subjective health parameters.