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Research suggests that both internal and external resources are important in determining the level and intensity of job search behaviors among unemployed individuals. Specifically, an external resource, social support, and an internal resource, self‐efficacy, can have positive, facilitative effects on job search efforts. While these relationships are well‐established, the psychological mechanisms that explain the link between these resources and job search behaviors are unclear. This paper aims to explore positive coping and distancing as potential mediators of this linkage in an African‐American sample.

Participants responded to a survey containing the variables of interest at two job fairs in the Southeastern USA (n=223). Of participants, 70 percent were female and the average age was 39. In total, 37 percent of respondents had an undergraduate degree or a more advanced degree, and the average length of unemployment was 9.9 months.

Results suggest that the effects of both social support and self‐efficacy on job searches may be due to their impact on positive coping behaviors, which in turn are significantly related to increased search behaviors. Thus, positive coping had a consistent mediational role in explaining how higher levels of social support and more favorable levels of self‐efficacy enhance the intensity of two forms of job search behaviors. Distancing coping had a less significant and less consistent role as a mediator.

This suggests that interventions meant to enhance self‐efficacy and social support of job seekers may have positive effects on actively applying for jobs and on enlisting the help of others in finding jobs among African‐Americans, as well as on the positive coping skills of the unemployed. Interventions should strive to increase these resources while simultaneously providing realistic expectations regarding the probability of finding a job well‐suited for the job seeker. This argues for the potential effectiveness of individually formulated plans for securing employment.

The paper emphasizes the importance of coping strategies used by unemployed individuals as a factor in job search intensity.

Research on caregiving has been considering the positive effects experienced by the mothers of children with disabilities. This paper aims to examine whether positive perceptions mediate the relationships between coping strategies used and psychological well-being among mothers of children with intellectual disabilities.

The study opted for a quantitative approach that includes a correlation research design to examine the relationships between the variables of coping, positive perceptions and well-being among mothers of children with intellectual disabilities attending special schools in the metropolitan city Bengaluru, India. The four-factor structure of Brief COPE examined were active avoidance coping, problem-focussed coping, positive coping and religious-denial coping. “Positive perceptions” refer to the positive contributions for the mother from the experiences of raising a child with intellectual disability. Mediation analysis explored the relationship between the variables.

Problem-focussed coping was the most commonly reported coping factor and was associated with higher levels of well-being. Active-avoidance coping was the least commonly reported coping strategy. Positive perceptions partially mediated the relationship between the four coping factors and maternal well-being. These findings indicate that positive maternal perceptions have important implications for the employment of effective coping strategies that are associated with enhancement of psychological well-being.

The focus on positive perceptions would help in understanding the use of coping strategies and planning of support services or interventions. The positive mental health of mothers paves the way for positive developments in the child’s physical and psychological health.

Despite the negative effects of toxicity on various aspects of esports communities, gamers continue to enthusiastically show their pride and engage with the game. Based on the stress and coping theory, the current study aims to shed light on how esports gamers cope with toxicity to develop toxicity tolerance by the mediation effect of positive reappraisal coping strategy.

A total of 456 gamers were included in the analysis. Structural equation modeling was performed to evaluate the hypothesized model. Gender differences in the toxicity-coping process were investigated using multi-group analysis.

The findings revealed the full mediation effect of positive reappraisal on the relationship between toxicity and toxicity tolerance, especially for male gamers. The empirical evidence of this study contributes to theorizing the transformative role of positive reappraisal in developing positive consumption outcomes when esports gamers experience toxicity in the game. The multi-group analysis provided further insights into differentiating the applicability and effectiveness of positive reappraisal based on gender.

The findings contributed to sport management and communication literature by allowing researchers and practitioners to move beyond a preventive coping mindset by facilitating a positive coping environment that encourages gamers to interpret the conversation and messages in a more positive manner.

Chronic consumption practice has been greatly accelerated by mobile, interactive and smartphone gaming technology devices. The purpose of this paper is to explore how chronic consumption of smartphone gaming produces positive coping practice.

Underpinned by cognitive framing theory, empirical insights from 11 focus groups (n=62) reveal how smartphone gaming enhances positive coping amongst gamers and non-gamers.

The findings reveal how the chronic consumption of games allows technology to act with privileged agency that resolves tensions between individuals and collectives. Consumption narratives of smartphone games, even when play is limited, lead to the identification of three cognitive frames through which positive coping processes operate: the market-generated, social being and citizen frames.

This paper adds to previous research by providing an understanding of positive coping practice in the smartphone chronic gaming consumption.

In smartphone chronic gaming consumption, cognitive frames enable positive coping by fostering appraisal capacities in which individuals confront hegemony, culture and alterity-morality concerns.

This research paper aims to contribute to the literature on emotions in the service experience. The extant literature has extensively discussed how the service experience can drive singular emotions. However, the investigation of the combined effects of mixed emotions – that is, emotions of antagonistic valence (positive and negative) – remains scarce. To fill this gap, this research focuses on the combined effects of the negative emotion of guilt and the positive emotion of pride, two affective reactions that can be felt during a service experience but that differ from each other in terms of valence. Specifically, this research examines how consumers who simultaneously feel these two emotions cope with them and more precisely if they engage in a positive reappraisal of their own behavior during the service experience or if they rather prefer adopting the avoidance strategy of mental disengagement. Finally, this research paper examines how these coping strategies to the mixed emotions of pride and guilt affect satisfaction with the service.

A series of hypotheses relating guilt, pride and the coping strategies of mental disengagement and positive reappraisal, as well as their effect on satisfaction toward the service, are testes using two scenario-based experiments.

The findings show that the effects of guilt on the coping strategies of mental disengagement and positive reappraisal are moderated by pride. Importantly, the results show that these two interacting effects are distinct. Precisely, while pride moderates the effect of guilt on mental disengagement such that a negative effect of guilt is observed mainly among people who feel strong guilt feelings, the moderating effect of pride in the guilt-positive reappraisal relationship is positive and mainly among those who feel low guilt feelings. Further, mental disengagement mediates the effects of guilt on satisfaction and differently according to the level of pride.

This research makes a contribution through the investigation of mixed emotions. This approach appears of value because services can drive different emotions simultaneously, and in a context where most extant research focuses on singular emotions.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of hospitality employees’ emotional intelligence (EI) on their stress-coping styles and job satisfaction.

The sample consisted of 366 food and beverage employees in the Korean hospitality industry. The validity and reliability of the respondents’ replies regarding EI, stress-coping styles and job satisfaction were tested through exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Once the measure was validated, a structural equation model was used to test the validity of the proposed model and hypotheses.

The results showed that the elements of EI (i.e. self-emotion appraisal [SEA], use of emotion [UOE], regulation of emotion [ROE] and others’ emotion appraisal [OEA]) had a significant, positive effect on the cognitive-appraisal coping style, whereas only SEA and UOE had a significant, positive effect on the problem-solving coping style. Meanwhile, SEA had a significant, negative effect on the emotion-focused coping style. In addition, employees’ problem-solving and cognitive-appraisal stress-coping styles showed a significant, positive effect on their job satisfaction. Employees’ UOE and ROE demonstrated a significant, positive effect on job satisfaction.

The generalizability and, therefore, implications are limited to the Korean hotels and family restaurants. Future research needs to closely examine models and variables which may become the causes of individual traits, relationship traits and leadership.

Strategies to cope with stress and job satisfaction used by family restaurant employees showed more sensitive effects of control than hotel employees did in the organic causal relationships between EI and strategies to cope with stress/job satisfaction. The results of this study, which indicate that hospitality companies can increase employees’ job satisfaction by enhancing their employees’ EI, suggest detailed and practical alternatives to human resource management, as employees with higher degrees of EI can bring positive outcomes to both organizations and employees. Hospitality employees’ EI is significant in terms of organizational performance.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships between four general coping styles, work and family conflict, and work and family facilitation in a simultaneous equations framework

Data from the MIDUS study were analyzed using two‐staged least squares regression to incorporate the reciprocity between the work and family domains into the model. Hypotheses about direct action, advice seeking, positive thinking, and cognitive reappraisal as they affect work family (W‐F) and family‐work (F‐W) conflict were tested. The impact of the coping styles on work and family facilitation has not been studied before and was also included.

The efficacy of individual coping styles on conflict and the relationships between coping and facilitation were not uniform and varied depending on the source domain. Positive thinking was associated with higher W‐F and F‐W facilitation. Direct‐action was associated with lower F‐W conflict and higher F‐W facilitation. Reappraisal and advice seeking were associated with higher F‐W conflict, but advice‐seeking was related to higher W‐F facilitation. As expected, significant reciprocal effects for conflict were found; both W‐F and F‐W conflict are significant predictors of F‐W and W‐F conflict, respectively. And, an increase in F‐W conflict was predicted to have twice the impact of factors increasing W‐F conflict. W‐F facilitation was significant in predicting levels of F‐W facilitation; F‐W facilitation did not influence levels of W‐F facilitation.

The paper suggests the family domain should be the target for problem‐focused coping strategies, most likely because greater control can be exercised at home. Practical suggestions to help employees identify strategies to lower conflict and raise facilitation, thus promoting balance, are discussed.

Construction tradesmen are exposed to high levels of stress that can worsen mental health, negatively impacting safety compliance and organization productivity. Hence, effectively coping with stress to prevent mental ill-health becomes an essential point of reference. Thus, this study aims to examine the role of factors such as resilience and coping strategies in protecting tradesmen against mental ill-health.

Using a cross-sectional survey design, 110 tradesmen from 65 construction companies were surveyed using the Patient Health Questionnaire, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Brief Resilience Scale and Ways of Coping Questionnaire.

The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis. With a 74.5%, 36.4% and 14.6% prevalence rate of self-reported depression, anxiety and suicide ideation among the tradesmen, only positive reappraisal, accepting responsibility coping behaviors and resilience would mitigate the likelihood of developing mental ill-health symptoms.

This study has extended existing literature by providing information vital to building interventions to deal with stressors effectively. This information would benefit individuals, organizations and the economy and equip policymakers with a deeper knowledge base toward improving mental health.

This paper aims to test the relationship of the personality variable of cognitive hardiness to job satisfaction, performance and intention to turnover. These relationships are to be tested via two alternative models, with a sequential and simultaneous structure for appraisal and coping processes.

Employees (n=297) from a range of large New Zealand organisations completed a questionnaire on hardiness, appraisal, coping and affect.

Bivariate correlations revealed significant positive relationships between hardiness and job satisfaction, hardiness and performance, and a significant negative relationship with intention to turnover. Structural equation modelling revealed that the direct positive relationship between hardiness and job satisfaction was the strongest path. The simultaneous model provided best fit to the data, revealing a positive path from hardiness through challenge appraisals to positive affect, and a negative path through threat appraisal and emotion‐focused coping.

Higher levels of hardiness were associated with more positive appraisals and more effective coping responses. However, the cross sectional nature of this research and the use of a single measurement source pose potential limitations in terms of common method variance and study generalisability.

The paper investigates the relationship of hardiness to outcomes such as job satisfaction, self‐rated work performance and intentions to leave and explores the processes that underlie the relationships between hardiness and outcomes.

The primary aim of this chapter is to explore stigmatization, stress, and coping among adolescent mothers and to identify positive coping mechanisms that not only resist stigmatization but also generate positive affect.

Fifty-two pregnant and parenting adolescents in an urban county in the Midwestern United States were recruited to participate. A journaling tool was developed and used to allow participants to express their thoughts and concerns in a real-time, reflexive manner. Data were coded at different “nodes” or themes. Concepts, such as stigma, stress, strength, and empowerment were operationalized into key words and “themes” based on previous published literature. Key phrases were used to code the journaling data.

Adolescent mothers used positive reappraisal of life circumstances to create a positive self-image and resist the stress of stigma and parenting. Overcoming stereotypes and success in parenting were reappraised as “strength,” which allowed the young women to feel empowered in their caregiving role.

The chapter also contributes to the sociological literature on positive coping responses to stigma and stress. Indeed, very few studies have employed the sociological imagination of pregnant and parenting adolescents by describing not only their lives but also seeking their understanding and explaining their lives sociologically. This chapter also has direct implications for several health care providers, including nurses and social workers. For example, nurses and social workers are a vital part of the healthcare team for pregnant and parenting adolescents, and they often serve as the link between the adolescent, her family and significant others, and healthcare and social service agencies.

This chapter described the mechanisms that adolescent mothers use to cope with stress with a focus on how caregiving generates positive affect through the voices of these young mothers themselves. This chapter contributed to the sociological literature on stress and coping. In particular, our findings were also in line with the work of sociologist Antonovsky’s Sense of Coherence concept. SOC is a global measure that indicates the availability of, and willingness to use, adaptive coping resources as a key variable in maintaining health.