Defensive Coping Strategies Research Articles

The predictive power of coping strategies of pediatric oncology patients on their quality of life and their attitudes toward diseases.

Pediatric oncology patients face several physical and psychological challenges that can significantly impact their quality of life (QoL) and attitudes toward their illness. Coping strategies are pivotal in managing the emotional and physical burdens of disease. This study aimed to examine the impact of coping strategies of pediatric oncology patients on their QoL and attitudes towards their illness. The descriptive, correlational, and cross-sectional study was conducted with 112 pediatric oncology patients aged 10-18 years. The Sociodemographic Form, Pediatric Cancer Coping Scale (PCCS), Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL), and Child Attitude Towards Illness Scale (CATIS) were used for data collection. Significant correlations were identified between cognitive coping, defensive coping, and CATIS (p<.001). The PCCS and subdimensions significantly predicted CATIS (p<.001), accounting for 15.3% of the cognitive and defensive coping variation. However, there was no relationship between PCCS total and subdimension scores on PedsQL (p=.534). The PedsQL and subdimensions significantly predicted CATIS (p<.001) and accounted for 27.2% of the variation in physical health summary score, emotional functioning, psychosocial health summary score, and total PedsQL score. The study reveals that cognitive coping strategies positively predict attitudes toward illness, whereas defensive coping strategies have an inverse effect. The study proposes that comprehensive care models in pediatric oncology support effective coping mechanisms and enhance the QoL of those who receive them.

The Role of the Orbitofrontal Cortex in the Regulation of Fear Coping Strategies.

Under threats, individuals exhibit freezing behavior and prepare for active coping. The ability to flexibly shift between freezing and active coping increases survival chances in animals and decreases susceptibility to mental disorders among human beings. For example, patients with psychiatric disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder, often show maladaptive coping behaviors. The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is a critical hub to process higher cognitive functions, sensory inputs, reward learning, and decision-making. It also regulates negative emotions and its aberrant activation level often correlates with numerous mental disorders. The rodent OFC comprises different subdivisions with varying connections to cortical and subcortical regions. Among these subdivisions, the medial orbital area (MO) and the lateral orbital area (LO) have distinct functions in the regulation of fear. Here, we updated the existing rodent literature studying the function of the OFC, with a particular focus on the MO and the LO in different coping strategies of animals. By examining the role of the OFC in the mediation of defensive coping strategies, we aim to deepen the understanding of its functional importance on mental health.

Moving away from, moving towards and moving against others: An adaptive multi-strategy approach to defend and build resources in self-protection mode

In the face of extreme and enduring stressors, a self-protection coping mode can be entered to conserve resources (Conservation of Resources (COR) theory principle 4). Self-protection coping is underexplored in COR theory yet may offer insights about how people deal with the significant challenges posed by work today. We investigate this using a large-group collaborative auto-ethnography (CAE) with 15 academic workers during a period when resources were severely stretched or exhausted (the first four months of the Covid-19 lockdown). We identify three defensive coping strategies, applied in self-protection mode, that are akin to Karen Horney's neurotic trends of ‘moving away from’, ‘moving against’ and ‘moving towards’ others. We also identify that, even when in self-protection mode, workers engage in resource (re)investment activities, in an attempt to (re)gain control of, and (re)build resources. These multiple self-protection coping strategies are applied in a seemingly haphazard and interchangeable way but appear to serve an adaptive function for trying out how best to conserve resources, defend the self, and extend resources towards recovery. Our findings emphasize the need for organizations and society to provide support and resources at times of adversity, to help people rebuild their work, their lives and their well-being.

Self-stigma and coping strategies in remitted Tunisian patients with bipolar disorder

IntroductionPatients with bipolar disorder may adjust their behaviors and choose a coping strategy to face self-stigma and avoid unpleasant social and professional adversities. These coping orientations are either defensive, or active behavioral strategies.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to assess self-stigma in remitted patients with bipolar disorder and to investigate coping strategies to struggle the internalized stigma.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional, descriptive, and analytical study of 61 patients with bipolar disorder. Euthymia was verified using the Hamilton scale for depression and the Young scale for mania. We used the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness (ISMI) to evaluate self-stigma, the Stigma coping orientation Scale (SCOS) to assess coping strategies.ResultsThe mean age of patients was 43.4 years. The sex ratio was 2.4. The mean score on the ISMI was 2.36. More than half of our patients (59%) were self-stigmatized. Secrecy (57%) and withdrawal (56%) were the most adopted coping strategies. The mean self-stigma score was significantly associated with higher scores on defensive coping strategies such as secrecy (p&lt;10-3) and withdrawal (p&lt;10-3). However, scores on challenging (p&lt;10-3), education (p&lt;10-3) and distancing (p=0.014) strategies were inversely correlated with self-stigma scores. The logistic regression analyses revealed a significant association between defensive coping strategies (secrecy and withdrawal) and internalized stigma.ConclusionsThe relationship between defensive coping strategies and self-stigma appears to be bidirectional. Enhancing coping strategies oriented to education, challenging and engaging patients in social interaction and reducing the use of deleterious coping strategies focusing on secrecy and withdrawal may lead to restrict self-stigma.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Is the Sky Really the Limit? Exploring the Attitude-Achievement Paradox in the Belgian Context

While immigrant students in Belgium have expressed high educational aspirations, if we compare them with ethnic majority students, those aspirations are not reflected in their achievement results. Ethnographic observations and semi-structured interviews with students from 10 class groups in three Flemish schools (northern part of Belgium) were used to understand why these high aspirations are not translated into actual examination results, also known as the attitude-achievement paradox. Our findings indicate that all students generally believe in the importance of education to get ahead in Belgian society. Analyses reveal, however, that although students of immigrant descent want to achieve in society, they perceive more barriers—such as labor market discrimination—than those of non-immigrant descent to becoming successful. They have figured out distinct defensive coping strategies to circumvent those barriers, such as choosing jobs that do not invite discrimination and attempting to achieve in school in order to prove one’s worth or prove someone wrong, all of which eventually seemed to affect their educational outcomes. The particular choices students made to deal with perceptions and experiences of discrimination should be understood within the local immigrant networks in which they live and depends on the (perceived) nature of discrimination.

Paradoxical mineralocorticoid receptor-mediated effect in fear memory encoding and expression of rats submitted to an olfactory fear conditioning task

There is general agreement that the substantial modification in memory and motivational states exerted by corticosteroids after a traumatic experience is mediated in complementary manner by the mineralocorticoid (MR) and glucocorticoid (GR) receptors. Here we tested the hypothesis that pharmacological manipulation of MR activity would affect behavioral strategy and information storage in an olfactory fear conditioning (OFC) task. Male Wistar rats were submitted to the OFC with different training intensities. We observed that following high intensity OFC acquisition, a set of defensive coping strategies, which includes avoidance and risk assessment behaviors, was elicited when subjects were exposed to the conditioned stimulus (CS) 48 h later. In addition, following either OFC acquisition or retrieval (CS-I test) a profound corticosterone secretion was also detected. Systemic administration of the MR antagonist spironolactone altered the behavioral coping style irrespective the antagonist was administered 60 min prior to the acquisition or before the retrieval session. Surprisingly, the MR agonist fludrocortisone given 60 min prior to acquisition or retrieval of OFC had similar effects as the antagonist. In addition, post-training administration of fludrocortisone, following a weak training procedure, facilitated the consolidation of OFC. Fludrocortisone rather than spironolactone reduced serum corticosterone levels, suggesting that, at least in part, the effects of the MR agonist may derive from additional GR-mediated HPA-axis suppression. In conclusion, the present study suggests the involvement of the MR in the fine-tuning of behavioral adaptation necessary for optimal information storage and expression, as revealed by the marked alterations in the risk assessment behavior.

Emotional adjustment after stroke: The role of early neuropsychotherapeutic interventions in patients following brain damage

von Wild KRH, Kemper B. Emotional adjustment after stroke: The role of early neuropsychotherapeutic interventions in patients following brain damage. Jpn J Compr Rehabil Sci 2011; 2: 42�47. Objective: Post-stroke depression has been considered the most common neuropsychiatric consequence of stroke, even in the presence of successful neurological recovery and good health-related quality of life. This report describes a patient’s catastrophic reactions to his unexpected illness, with a focus on the therapeutic process, to provide an understanding of managing denial and how to approach and engage brain-damaged patients. Methods: This is a case study of a 65-year-old businessman with mental-cognitive and behavioral impairments following hypertensive cerebellar massive hemorrhage and secondary hydrocephalus, who made a complete recovery following psychotherapeutic intervention. Results: Our supportive psychotherapeutic approach combined with cognitive interventions enabled this patient overcome moderate mental-cognitive and behavioral defi cits and extreme defensive coping strategies, and facilitated his successful social reentry. Conclusions: Brain-damaged patients with preserved self-awareness and a high level of independence in activities of daily living (ADL), who do not have preexisting psychiatric conditions, can benefi t from individualized psychotherapy over time. Attention needs to be focused on a recovery beyond functional outcomes, with an understanding of holistic neurorehabilitation as a method of reconstructing lives within a social context. Further research and education is needed for the development of proper psychotherapeutic approaches to address aspects such as emotional coping and fi nding sense in life following brain damage.

HIPPOCAMPAL DYSFUNCTION IN CA1 IS ASSOCIATEDWITH SCHIZOPHRENIA

There is general agreement that the substantial modification in memory and motivational states exerted by corticosteroids after a traumatic experience is mediated in complementary manner by the mineralocorticoid (MR) and glucocorticoid (GR) receptors. Here we tested the hypothesis that pharmacological manipulation of MR activity would affect behavioral strategy and information storage in an olfactory fear conditioning (OFC) task. Male Wistar rats were submitted to the OFC with different training intensities. We observed that following high intensity OFC acquisition, a set of defensive coping strategies, which includes avoidance and risk assessment behaviors, was elicited when subjects were exposed to the conditioned stimulus (CS) 48 h later. In addition, following either OFC acquisition or retrieval (CS-I test) a profound corticosterone secretion was also detected. Systemic administration of the MR antagonist spironolactone altered the behavioral coping style irrespective the antagonist was administered 60 min prior to the acquisition or before the retrieval session. Surprisingly, the MR agonist fludrocortisone given 60 min prior to acquisition or retrieval of OFC had similar effects as the antagonist. In addition, post-training administration of fludrocortisone, following a weak training procedure, facilitated the consolidation of OFC. Fludrocortisone rather than spironolactone reduced serum corticosterone levels, suggesting that, at least in part, the effects of the MR agonist may derive from additional GR-mediated HPA-axis suppression. In conclusion, the present study suggests the involvement of the MR in the fine-tuning of behavioral adaptation necessary for optimal information storage and expression, as revealed by the marked alterations in the risk assessment behavior.

Defensive copers show a deficit in passive avoidance learning on Newman's go/no-go task: implications for self-deception and socialization.

The present study investigated whether passive avoidance learning was retarded by defensive coping strategies designed to minimize exposure to negatively valenced stimuli. High-anxious individuals, low-anxious individuals, and defensive copers completed a computerized go/no-go task, in which they learned when to press or not to press a button, in response to contingent positive and negative feedback. The duration that feedback remained onscreen was self-regulated. Defensive copers showed preferential reflection away from negative feedback, committed more passive-avoidance errors, and were characterized by impaired learning, overall. Further, the ratio of reflection on negative feedback to reflection on positive feedback directly mediated both passive-avoidance errors and overall learning. Defensive coping strategies, therefore, appear to interfere with passive avoidance learning, thereby fostering perseverative, dysfunctional action patterns by reducing knowledge gained from previous mistakes. Implications for the learning of effective socialization strategies, and for psychopathy-which is commonly characterized by similar passive-avoidance deficits-are subsequently considered.

Guarding against threatening HIV prevention messages: an information-processing model.

Previous research has suggested that fear-provoking HIV prevention messages can lead to defensive coping strategies among sexually active students who encounter such messages. An information-processing model of defensive responses is proposed that identifies and operationally defines four mediating processes--attention avoidance, blunting, suppression, and counterargumentation--that may lead to the rejection or denial of threatening health messages. Attention avoidance occurs when people indiscriminately avoid all messages; blunting is the use of distraction to avoid only threatening information in the message. Suppression occurs when people try to stop thinking about the information and avoid forming inferences about its self-relevance; counterargumentation is the biased assessment that follows comprehension and arises along with self-relevant elaboration. Situational influences on people's choice of defensive coping strategy are considered, and implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

A Nondefensive Personality: Autonomy and Control as Moderators of Defensive Coping and Self-Handicapping

Previous work (Knee & Zuckerman, 1996) found that the combination of high autonomy and low control was associated with fewer self-enhancing attributions after success and fewer self-protective attributions after failure. The present research again found strong support for a synergistic effect of causality orientations on defensive behavior through a prospective examination of defensive coping strategies (e.g., denial, behavioral disengagement, and mental disengagement) and self-handicapping tendencies. Individuals who were high in autonomy and low in control engaged in less defensive coping strategies (particularly denial) and exhibited less self-handicapping compared to all other individuals. The present findings support the proposition that self-determined individuals are less defensive in their behavior compared to others. Implications for self-determination theory as well as the controversy over the relation between positive illusions and well-being are discussed.

The influence of divorce on coping in adolescence

The present study explored the relations between family status and coping processes in adolescence. Given the inconsistent findings with regard to the divorce experience, our intent was to determine if coping strategies endorsed by adolescents are related to family status. Further, appraisals of stressfulness, controllability, and perceived outcome of stressful situations were examined in relation to family status and coping strategies endorsed. Adolescents of divorced parents more frequently endorsed theoretically less mature, defensive coping strategies. Sex differences were noted in the intact group, while males and females in the divorce group were more alike in their coping responses. Appraisal variables were differentially related to coping behaviors in each group.