Search results

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factor structure of the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ) among abused Iranian women.

This paper is a methodological study. The participants included 554 abused married women who were selected by convenience sampling from the women presenting to health centers and hospitals and their companions as well as women visiting mosques and parks in Shahroud, Iran. The exploratory factor analysis was used to investigate the factor structure of the WCQ. The reliability of the questionnaire was estimated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient.

Following the exploratory factor analysis, 36 items and 5 factors were extracted, which could explain 73.24% of the variance in the concept of coping with intimate partner violence. The extracted factors included distancing, planning, wishful thinking, seeking social support and problem-solving. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the questionnaire as a whole was 0.91.

This paper has practice and research implications for promoting coping among abused women. The factor structure of the WCQ obtained in this paper can validly measure coping with intimate partner violence among abused Iranian women. Learning about the coping strategies used by abused women can help design context-based interventions to assist these women in better coping with their husband’s violence and improving their well-being. This version of WCQ also enables assessing the effectiveness of the designed interventions.

The effects of stigmatisation regarding sex abuse and rape crimes have rarely been studied. This present study explores the effects of social stigma by examining coping style, thought suppression, depression and anxiety in those falsely accused of sex crimes compared with those convicted of sex crimes. A total of 60 males volunteered to complete a questionnaire. The questionnaires were given to participants from organisations that support people falsely accused and people who have been found guilty of sexual offending. The findings indicate that falsely accused individuals employ an emotion‐focused coping strategy significantly more than convicted sex offenders.

Prisoners from two institutions (a low security and a high security prison) were studied to explore the coping strategies used in stressful situations, and the relationship between prison sentence length and the coping strategies employed. Prisoners completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and the Ways of Coping Scale. Coping strategies that focused on emotions, rather than on the source problem, were found to be most often employed. Shorter‐term prisoners adopted problem‐focused strategies more than longer‐term prisoners, while longer‐term prisoners adopted emotion‐focused strategies more than shorter‐term prisoners. These results are discussed with reference to the influence of the environment on coping strategy.

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.

Practitioners who work with information technology (IT) are reported to be experiencing rising levels of work‐related stress. The origins of the stress coming from increasing demands from system users, advances in technology, and the growing use of information and communication technologies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of intra‐ and inter‐organizational business activities. In the field of information systems, stress‐related research has been limited and the way in which IT personnel cope with stress has not been explored. Thus, the research presented in this paper investigates whether coping and affect (both negative and positive) influence adjustment (anxiety, depression and stress) among IT personnel.

A sample of 100 IT personnel from Australia completed a questionnaire, which contained measures for adjustment, affect state, and coping strategies. The use of hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that specific individual characteristics influenced the psychological adjustment of the IT personnel sampled.

IT personnel who engaged in a more problem‐focused style of coping, such as active coping were found to be better adjusted than those who engaged in a more emotion‐focused styles of coping, such as cognitive‐avoidance coping, social coping, accepting responsibility, and self‐controlling coping. Serendipitously, the research revealed that increased depression of IT personnel was associated with positive affect.

The research shows that the psychological adjustment of IT personnel is influenced by the types of coping strategies they use, specific individual demographics and their affect state.

The paper examines coping strategies that consumers use within crowded retail stores. Specifically, this study explores and identifies coping strategies that consumers use, investigates whether the Folkman or Duhachek coping frameworks adequately capture all of the ways consumers cope, and looks at the implications these coping strategies may have on consumers and retailers.

A three‐stage qualitative study was conducted. Stage One consisted of informal interviews with customers. Stage Two was a pilot study of airport passengers. Stage Three was an online qualitative survey.

Many of Duhachek's and Folkman's coping strategies were operative within a crowded retail setting. The coping strategies that were frequently used were distancing, avoidance, social support, rational thinking, action, escape, positive thinking, emotional venting, and confrontive. The study also found that further refinement of coping strategies and scales is needed.

An understanding of consumer coping strategies can help retailers to promote beneficial consumer coping strategies and avoid or limit detrimental coping strategies. The limitation of the study is that it is exploratory in nature.

The paper provides a rich and vivid understanding of how consumers cope in a crowded environment, and demonstrates the importance of crowds and consumer coping and how these variables affect retailers. The study identifies new coping strategies, relabels existing coping strategies with more descriptive and comprehensive titles, and confirms established coping strategies.

Expands on research which has demonstrated that employment has positive or neutral effects on women’s health. This pilot study examines whether these positive effects could also be found in employed mothers by comparing working mothers with non‐working mothers on measures of mental health, self‐esteem, and mother role satisfaction. Also this study assesses the stress experienced by these mothers and examines the coping strategies used by them. Of the 200 questionnaires distributed, 101 were returned giving a 50.5 per cent return rate of which 78 per cent were working mothers and 22 per cent non‐working mothers. The working mothers had better mental health and reported less depression than the non‐working mothers. The most frequently reported source of stress for working mothers was not having enough time to do everything, whereas for non‐working mothers lack of social life was a major stressor. The findings of this study support the expansion hypothesis, which emphasizes the benefits rather than the costs of multiple role involvement.

This study investigates the relationship between workplace context and how people cope with their concerns. It does so by examining the coping behaviour of a group of 137 Australian middle managers within one organisation and 236 community‐based adults, none of whom were managers. In general, the managers, irrespective of gender and age, are more likely to respond to their general concerns by applying themselves and engaging in problem solving. They are less likely to engage in non‐productive strategies like worry, letting off steam and wishful thinking. Whether those selected as managers are people who use different coping strategies to others, or whether immersion in the corporate climate leads to development of specific coping strategies, is discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the predictors of punitive attitudes towards young offenders among police officers. This included an examination of variables such as officers’ coping styles, mental health, rank and age. It was predicted that indirect coping styles, mental health difficulties, higher age and higher rank would negatively impact on punitive attitudes towards young offenders. Officers reporting direct coping strategies, low levels of mental health difficulties, lower rank and lower age were expected to have less punitive and more rehabilitative attitudes towards young offenders.

A sample of 83 police officers and community support officers from the UK completed standardised self-report measures.

Indirect coping strategies, high levels of mental health difficulties and high rank were all associated with more punitive attitudes, whilst age had no impact.

Results are discussed with regard to their research and real world implications. These include an impact of these findings on the job performance, community safety, approaches to policing, and the well-being of police officers. The importance of mental well-being, direct coping and positive attitudes towards young offenders is indicated in order for police officers to employ more proactive, consistent and fair behaviour with this group, leading to less punitive outcomes for young offenders, as well as improved police-youth relations.

The research findings link mental health, coping styles and rank to officers’ attitudes towards young offenders, which had not been fully examined in the literature previously. Results suggest that mental well-being and direct coping styles may serve as a protective factor against the development of punitive attitudes. This highlights the importance of providing support for mental well-being, as well as training in the areas of effective coping styles and issues surrounding young offenders.

Despite an evident increase in the number of women joining Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) majors at universities, the recruitment and retainment of women in STEM occupations continue to be a substantial challenge. The aim of this research is to investigate several individual and contextual factors that could increase the representation of women in STEM fields.

The authors report the results of a questionnaire survey of women (n = 375) working in STEM industries in the Middle East and North Africa region who have or had a mentor during their careers. Structural equation modelling is used to examine the proposed hypotheses.

The results indicate that both mentoring and coping self-efficacy positively influence affective occupational commitment. Coping self-efficacy is also found to partially mediate the relationship between mentoring and affective occupational commitment.

The authors recommend that researchers and practitioners give more attention to the contextual factors such as mentoring and its contribution to the coping self-efficacy and affective occupational commitment of employees in STEM occupations.

In this study, the authors investigate individual and contextual factors that have potential to enhance women's occupational commitment in STEM industries based on the Career Self-Management Model.