Abstract
We performed a series of meta-analyses examining the associations between coping and health-related outcomes in nonclinical adult samples. Results revealed that problem-focused coping was positively correlated with overall health outcomes, whereas confrontive coping, distancing, self-control, seeking social support, accepting responsibility, avoidance, and wishful thinking were each negatively correlated with overall health outcomes. Neither planful problem solving nor positive reappraisal was significantly associated with overall health outcomes in our analyses. However, type of health outcome (i.e., physical vs. psychological) and situational characteristics (i.e., stressor type, controllability, and duration) moderated many of the overall associations.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Aldwin, C. M., and Revenson, T. A. (1987). Does coping help? A reexamination of the relation between coping and mental health. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 53: 337–348.
Basson, C. J., and van der Merwe, T. (1994). Occupational stress and coping in a sample of student nurses. Curationis So. Afr. J. Nurs. 17: 35–43.
Billings, A. G., and Moos, R. H. (1981). The role of coping responses and social resources in attenuating the stress of life events. J. Behav. Med. 4: 157–189.
Billings, A. G., and Moos, R. H. (1984). Coping, stress, and social resources among adults with unipolar depression. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 46: 877–891.
Billings, A.G., Cronkite, R.C., and Moos, R.H. (1983). Social-environmental factors in unipolar depression: Comparisons of depressed patients and nondepressed controls. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 92: 119–133.
Bolger, N. (1990). Coping as a personality process: A prospective study. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 59: 525–537.
Carver, C. S., and Scheier, M. F. (1994). Situational coping and coping dispositions in a stressful transaction. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 66: 184–195.
Carver, C. S., Scheier, M. F., and Weintraub, J. K. (1989). Assessing coping strategies: A theoretically based approach. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 56: 267–283.
Christensen, A. J., Benotsch, E. G., Wiebe, J. S., and Lawton, W. J. (1995). Coping with treatment-related stress: Effects on patient adherence in hemodialysis. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 63: 454–459.
Clark, A. A., and Hovanitz, C. A. (1989). Dimensions of coping that contribute to psychopathology. J. Clin. Psychol. 45: 28–36.
Cohen, F. (1984). Coping. In Matarazzo, J.D., Weiss, S. M., Herd, J. A., Miller, N. E., and Weiss, S.E. (eds.), Behavioral Health: A Handbook of Health Enhancement and Disease Prevention, JohnWiley and Sons, New York, pp. 261–274.
Cohen, J. (1992). A power primer. Psychol. Bull. 112: 155–159.
Cohen, S. (1988). Psychosocial models of the role of social support in the etiology of physical disease. Health Psychol. 7: 269–297.
Conway, V. J., and Terry, D. J. (1992). Appraised controllability as a moderator of the effectiveness of different coping strategies: A test of the goodness of fit hypothesis. Austral. J. Psychol. 44: 1–7.
Cooper, H. (1998). Synthesizing Research: A Guide for Literature Reviews, 3rd ed., Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Cooper, H. M., and Hedges, L. V. (eds.) (1994). Handbook of Research Synthesis, Russell Sage Foundation, New York.
Coyne, J. C., and Gottlieb, B. H. (1996). The mismeasure of coping by checklist. J. Person. 64: 959–991.
Coyne, J. C., Aldwin, C., and Lazarus, R. S. (1981). Depression and coping in stressful episodes. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 90: 439–447.
Crumlish, C. M. (1993). Coping and emotion in women undergoing cardiac surgery: A preliminary study. MEDSURG Nurs. 2: 283–289.
Crumlish, C. M. (1994). Coping and emotional response in cardiac surgery patients. West. J. Nurs. Res. 16: 57–68.
Felton, B. J., and Revenson, T. A. (1984). Coping with chronic illness: A study of illness controllability and the influence of coping strategies on psychological adjustment. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 52: 343–353.
Folkman, S. (1992). Commentary to part three: Improving coping assessment: Reply to Stone and Kennedy-Moore. In Friedman, H. S. (ed.), Hostility, Coping, and Health, American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp. 215–223.
Folkman, S., and Lazarus, R. S. (1980). An analysis of coping in a middle-aged community sample. J. Health Soc. Behav. 21: 219–239.
Folkman, S., and Lazarus, R. S. (1985). If it changes it must be a process: Study of emotion and coping during three stages of a college examination. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 48: 150–170.
Folkman, S., and Lazarus, R. S. (1986). Stress processes and depressive symptomatology. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 95: 107–113.
Folkman, S., and Lazarus, R. S. (1988a). Coping as a mediator of emotion. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 54: 466–475.
Folkman, S., and Lazarus, R. S. (1988b). The relationship between coping and emotion: Implications for theory and research. Soc. Sci. Med. 26: 309–317.
Folkman, S., Lazarus, R. S., Dunkel-Schetter, C., DeLongis, A., and Gruen, R. J. (1986a). Dynamics of a stressful encounter: Cognitive appraisal, coping, and encounter outcomes. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 50: 992–1003.
Folkman, S., Lazarus, R. S., Gruen, R. J., and DeLongis, A. (1986b). Appraisal, coping, health status, and psychological symptoms. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 50: 571–579.
Friedland, J., Renwick, R., and McColl, M. (1996). Coping and social support as determinants of quality of life in HIV/AIDS. AIDS Care, 8: 15–31.
Frost, M. H., Kelly, A. W., Mangan, D. B., and Zarling, K. K. (1994). An analysis of factors influencing psychosocial adjustment to cardiomyopathy. Cardiovasc. Nurs. 30: 1–7.
Garity, J. (1997). Stress, learning style, resilience factors, and ways of coping in Alzheimer family caregivers. Am. J. Alzheimer's Dis. 12: 171–178
Glass, G. V., McGaw, B., and Smith, M. L. (1981). Meta-Analysis in Social Research, Sage, Beverly Hills, CA.
Goldstein, M. J. (1973). Individual differences in response to stress. Am. J. Commun. Psychol. 1: 113–137.
Goplerud, E. N. (1980). Social support and stress during the first year of graduate school. Profess. Psychol. 11: 283–290.
Gottlieb, B. H. (1997). Conceptual and measurement issues in the study of coping with chronic stress. In Gottlieb, B. H. (ed.), Coping with Chronic Stress, Plenum Press, New York, pp. 3–4.
Grummon, K., Rigby, E. D., Orr, D., Procidano, M., and Reznikoff, M. (1994). Psychosocial variables that affect the psychological adjustment of IVDU patients with AIDS. J. Clin. Psychol. 50: 488–502.
Haan, N. (1969).A tripartite model of ego functioning:Values and clinical research applications. J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. 148: 14–30.
Holahan, C. J., and Moos, R. H. (1987). Personal and contextual determinants of coping strategies. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 52: 946–955.
Houston, B. K. (1987). Stress and coping. In Snyder, C. R., and Ford, C. E. (eds.), Coping with Negative Life Events, Plenum Press, New York, pp. 373–399.
Hunter, J. E., and Schmidt, F. L. (1990). Methods of Meta Analysis: Correcting Error and Bias in Research Findings, Sage, Beverly Hills, CA.
Janoff-Bulman, R. (1979). Characterological versus behavioral self-blame: Inquiries into depression and rape. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 37: 1798–1809.
Johnson, J. A. (1994). Appraisal, moods, and coping among individuals experiencing diagnostic exercise stress testing. Res. Nurs. Health 17: 441–448.
Jones, M.C., and Johnston, D.W. (1997). Distress, stress and coping in first-year student nurses. J. Adv. Nurs. 26: 475–482.
Kampfe, C. M., and Mitchell, M. M. (1991). Relationships among coping strategies and selected variables in clinical internships. Rehab. Educ. 5: 29–41.
Kelly, K. S., Carter, A. P., Guarnaccia, C. A., and Ennis, M. (1996). Stress, social support, psychological resources, health, and antibody titers to Epstein-Barr virus in active older women. J. Ment. Health Aging 2: 29–37.
LaMontagne, L. L., Hepworth, J. T., Pawlak, R., and Chiafery, M. (1992). Parental coping and activities during pediatric critical care. Am. J. Crit. Care 1: 76–80.
Lapp, W. M., and Collins, R. L. (1993). Relative/proportional scoring of the Ways of Coping Checklist: Is it advantageous or artifactual? Multivar. Behav. Res. 28: 483–512.
Lazarus, R. S. (1991). Emotion and Adaptation, Oxford Press, New York.
Lazarus, R. S. (1993). Coping theory and research: Past, present, and future. Psychosom. Med. 55: 234–247.
Lazarus, R. S., and Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, Appraisal, and Coping, Springer, New York.
Lazarus, R. S., and Launier, R. (1978). Stress-related transactions between person and environment. In Pervin, L. A., and Lewis, M. (eds.), Perspectives in Interactional Psychology, Plenum Press, New York, pp. 287–327.
Leana, C. R., and Feldman, D. C. (1995). Finding new jobs after a plant closing: Antecedents and outcomes of the occurrence and quality of reemployment. Hum. Assoc. 48: 1381–1401.
Malcarne, V. L., and Greenbergs, H. L. (1996). Psychological adjustment to systemic sclerosis. Arth. Care and Res. 9: 51–59.
Manne, S. L., and Zautra, A. J. (1989). Spouse criticism and support: Their association with coping and psychological adjustment among women with rheumatoid arthritis. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 56: 608–617.
Manne, S. L., and Zautra, A. J. (1990). Couples coping with chronic illness: Women with rheumatoid arthritis and their healthy husbands. J. Behav. Med. 13: 327–342.
McCrae, R. R., and Costa, P. T., Jr. (1986). Personality, coping, and coping effectiveness in an adult sample. J. Person. 54: 385–405.
McMahon, R. C., Kelley, A., and Kouzekanani, K. (1993). Personality and coping styles in the prediction of dropout from treatment for cocaine abuse. J. Person. Assess. 61: 147–155.
Menninger, K. (1963). The Vital Balance: The Life Process in Mental Health and Illness, Viking, New York.
Mikulincer, M., and Florian, V. (1995). Stress, coping, and fear of personal death: The case of middle-aged men facing early job retirement. Death Stud. 19: 413–431.
Narsavage, G., and Weaver, T.E. (1994). Physiologic status, coping, and hardiness as predictors of outcomes in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Nurs. Res. 43: 90–94.
Neundorfer, M. M. (1991). Coping and health outcomes in spouse caregivers of persons with dementia. Nurs. Res. 40: 260–265.
O'Brien, T. B., and DeLongis, A. (1997). Coping with chronic stress: An interpersonal perspective. In Gottlieb, B. H. (ed.), Coping with Chronic Stress, Plenum Press, New York, pp. 161–190.
O'Leary, A. (1990). Stress, emotion, and human immune function. Psychol. Bull. 108: 363–382.
Pearlin, L. I., and Schooler, C. (1978). The structure of coping. J. Health Soc. Behav. 19: 2–21.
Prattke, T. W., and Gass-Sternas, K. A. (1993). Appraisal, coping, and emotional health of infertile couples undergoing donor artificial insemination. JOGNN 22: 516–527.
Ptacek, J. T., Patterson, D. R., Montgomery, B. K., and Heimbach, D. M. (1995). Pain, coping, and adjustment in patients with burns: Preliminary findings from a prospective study. J. Pain Sympt. Manage. 10: 446–455.
Rapley, P. (1990). Adapting to diabetes: Metabolic control and psychosocial variables. Austral. J. Adv. Nurs. 8: 41–47.
Redeker, N. S. (1992). The relationship between uncertainty and coping after coronary bypass surgery. West. J. Nurs. Res. 14: 48–68.
Sander, A. M., High, W. M., Jr., Hannay, H. J., and Sherer, M. (1997). Predictors of psychological health in caregivers of patients with closed head injury. Brain Injury 11: 235–249.
Scheck, C. L., Kinicki, A. J., and Davy, J.A. (1995). A longitudinal study of a multivariate model of the stress process using structural equations modeling. Hum. Assoc. 48: 1481–1510.
Schwarzer, R., and Leppin, A. (1991). Social support and health: A theoretical and empirical overview. J. Soc. Person. Assoc. 8: 99–127.
Stewart, M. J., Hirth, A. M., Klassen, G., Makrides, L., and Wolf, H. (1997). Stress, coping, and social support as psychosocial factors in readmissions for ischaemic heart disease. Int. J. Nurs. Stud. 34: 151–163.
Stone, A. A., Greenberg, M. A., Kennedy-Moore, E., and Newman, M. G. (1991). Self-report, situation-specific coping questionnaires:What are they measuring? J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 61: 648–658.
Stone, A. A., and Kennedy-Moore, E. (1992). Commentary to part three: Assessing situational coping: Conceptual and methodological issues. In Friedman, H. S. (ed.), Hostility, Coping, and Health, American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp. 203–214.
Taylor, S. E., and Brown, J.D. (1988). Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health. Psychol. Bull. 103: 193–210.
Vaillant, G. E. (1977). Adaptation to Life, Little, Brown, Boston.
Vassend, O., Eskild, A., and Halvorsen, R. (1997). Negative affectivity, coping, immune status, and disease progression in HIV infected individuals. Psychol. Health 12: 375–388.
Vitaliano. P. P., Russo, J., Carr, J. E., Maiuro, R. D., and Becker, J. (1985). The ways of coping checklist: Revision and psychometric properties. Multivar. Behav. Res. 20: 3–26.
Vitaliano, P. P., Maiuro, R. D., Russo, J., and Becker, J. (1987). Raw versus relative scores in the assessment of coping strategies. J. Behav. Med. 10: 1–18.
Vitaliano, P. P., DeWolfe, D. J., Maiuro, R. D., Russo, J., and Katon, W. (1990). Appraised changeability of a stressor as a modifier of the association between coping and depression: A test of the hypothesis of fit. J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 59: 582–592.
Voyer, M., and Vézina, J. (1995). Contribution of hassles, appraisal, and coping to psychological distress among elderly widows. Can. J. Aging 14: 498–510.
Wortman, C. B., and Dunkel-Schetter, C. (1987). Conceptual and methodological issues in the study of social support. In A. Baum and J. E. Singer (eds.), Handbook of Psychology and Health, Vol. 5, Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 63–108.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Penley, J.A., Tomaka, J. & Wiebe, J.S. The Association of Coping to Physical and Psychological Health Outcomes: A Meta-Analytic Review. J Behav Med 25, 551–603 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020641400589
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020641400589