Well-being and Health: Proactive Coping

Abstract

Proactive coping refers to a set of processes through which people detect potential stressors and act in advance to prevent them or to mute their impact. In contrast to a traditional view of coping as efforts to master or minimize existing demands perceived as exceeding resources, proactive coping comprises the processes through which people develop resources, attend to incipient or potential problems, and learn from preliminary efforts to prevent or offset them. Consisting of five stages (resource accumulation, recognition of potential stressors, initial appraisal, preliminary coping, and elicitation and use of feedback concerning initial efforts), the model provides a framework for understanding how individual differences, skills, resources, emotions, physiological reactivity, and cognitive processes such as attention and mental simulation may work together as people attend to and address potential threats to well-being. Successful proactive coping may reduce an individual's total exposure to stress and thus have important relations to both mental and physical health. Proactive coping may also play an important role in preventive health behavior, as well as early detection and treatment. Finally, proactive coping has been a useful framework for understanding individuals' efforts to manage important life transitions such as entry into new work settings and aging.