COPING WITH THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LIFE EVENTS, COPING STRATEGIES AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS

Abstract

The aims of this paper are to distinguish between effective and ineffective coping strategies for dealing with adverse life events occurring in different domains of a person's environment; to identify persons most at risk for deploying ineffective strategies; and to indicate interventions designed to promote effective strategies and limit the use of ineffective strategies. Recent research has suggested that different strategies may be effective for dealing with different events (stressors) and, in particular, that instrumental strategies are effective for events which present mainly cognitive problems; that affective strategies are effective for emotional problems and that avoidance strategi..