Abstract
The objective of this study was to assess the choice of coping strategies in relation to daily stress, taking into account the influence of the primary and secondary appraisals and the Big Five traits of personality. Over 10 days, a cohort of 122 individuals filled out an online diary in which they recorded the most important stressful event each day, their primary and secondary appraisal of this, and how they chose to cope with it. The results indicate that problem-focused coping depends on a strong primary and secondary appraisal, and on extraversion, whereas emotion-focused coping depends on a strong secondary appraisal and on extraversion. Social support seeking depends on strong primary and secondary appraisal, and on extraversion, openness and neuroticism. Refusal to seek support is associated with a strong primary appraisal, a weak secondary appraisal and a low level of conscientiousness. The conclusions are that momentary appraisals have a stronger predictive capacity than the personality traits, and that different coping strategies are not mutually incompatible.
Highlights
Stress involves irritating or disturbing events that occur during an individual’s daily interaction with his/her environment (Kanner et al, 1981)
The intra-class correlation coefficients of Problem-focused Coping showed that 82.1% of the variation was at the moment level, whereas 17.9% was at the participant level
With models 3 and 4, which added primary appraisal and secondary appraisal as fixed/random effects as well as gender and the five personality traits, there was a significant change in -2LL (42.37** and 175.63**)
Summary
Stress involves irritating or disturbing events that occur during an individual’s daily interaction with his/her environment (Kanner et al, 1981). Different studies have shown that the cumulative effects of daily stress on health may be even more important than the effects of major acute stressors. The type of coping implemented is thought to be the key variable, which explains the emotional effects of stress, such that problem solving and positive reinterpretation are associated with positive emotions, whereas confrontation or self-blame are associated with unpleasant emotions (Folkman & Lazarus, 1988). It has been pointed out that stress is not faced by choosing between incompatible options, like for example, between solving the problem or restricting emotions, but rather, by adopting different approaches simultaneously, such as coordinating actions, conserving resources or adjusting expectations (Skinner et al, 2003). Some strategies considered to be focused on emotions involve focusing on the problem, such is the case of positive reinterpretation, while other strategies involve refusal, as in the case of self-blame (Carver & Connor-Smith, 2010)
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