Relationship between coping with interpersonal stressors and depressive symptoms in the United States, Australia, and China: a focus on reassessing coping.

Tsukasa Kato,Judith Homberg

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0109644

Abstract

ObjectiveReassessing coping involves efforts to wait patiently for an appropriate opportunity to act or for a change or improvement in the situation, and can be observed in individuals encountering a stressful relationship event. It was hypothesized that reassessing coping would be negatively associated with depressive symptoms.MethodsA cross-sectional Web-based survey was conducted in order to test this hypothesis by examining relationships between coping strategies including reassessing coping, distancing coping and constructive coping for stressful relationship events and depressive symptoms. Participants were 1,500 individuals recruited from the general populations of the United States, Australia, and China.ResultsStructural equation modeling analysis revealed that scores on coping strategies predicted depressive symptom scores in the samples from all three countries with medium or large effect sizes. Further, the beta values for reassessing coping scores were negative and significant in all samples, indicating that the hypothesis was supported for each of the population samples surveyed. In addition, distancing coping, which reflects strategies that attempt to actively damage, disrupt, and dissolve a stressful relationship, was associated with high levels of depressive symptoms.ConclusionsReassessing coping for interpersonal stressors was be negatively associated with depressive symptoms in sample from general populations of the United States, Australia, and China.

Highlights

Several researchers [1,2,3,4] have proposed mechanisms by which interpersonal stressors increase the risk of depression and provided evidence for their relationships
Coping strategies individuals employ and the effects on psychological distress are dependent on the nature of the stressors [6,7], conventional research has measured and categorized coping strategies for interpersonal stressors using a broadly applicable coping scale [8], such as the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ) [9]
Kato’s approach [8] presented unique coping strategies for interpersonal stressors. Focusing on these three coping strategies proposed by Kato [8], in particular the strategy of reassessing coping, we examined the relationships between coping strategies for interpersonal stressors and depressive symptoms in general populations of the United States, Australia, and China

Summary

Introduction

Several researchers [1,2,3,4] have proposed mechanisms by which interpersonal stressors increase the risk of depression and provided evidence for their relationships. 100); he proposed three types of coping strategies, based on the transactional theory, for dealing with interpersonal stressors. According to research on how college students and workers deal with interpersonal stressors, the following coping strategies were identified: reassessing coping, distancing coping, and constructive coping. Kato’s approach [8] presented unique coping strategies for interpersonal stressors. Focusing on these three coping strategies proposed by Kato [8], in particular the strategy of reassessing coping, we examined the relationships between coping strategies for interpersonal stressors and depressive symptoms in general populations of the United States, Australia, and China

Methods

Results

Conclusion