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Implications of Coping Strategies and Perceived Community Cohesion for Mental Health in Colombia

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Enlarging the Scope of Peace Psychology

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Abstract

In the face of mass human rights violations and constant threats to security, there is growing recognition of the resilience of people and communities. This paper builds on such work by investigating the effects of individual coping strategies, perceived community cohesion, and their interaction on mental health symptoms in Colombia. The study was conducted 5 years after the mass demobilisation of the former paramilitaries and takes an exploratory quantitative approach to identify two distinct forms of coping approaches among participants living in the Caribbean coast of Colombia. A constructive coping approach included active engagement, planning behaviours, emotional support, acceptance, and positive reframing of daily stressors. A destructive coping approach in this study entailed denial of problems, substance use, and behavioural disengagement from day-to-day stress. In addition, the strength of perceived community cohesion, or how close-knit and effective the individuals feel about the community in which they live, was examined. Structural equation modelling revealed that a constructive coping approach was significantly related to lower depression, while a destructive coping approach predicted more symptoms of depression. Although there was not a significant direct effect of perceived community cohesion on mental health outcomes, it did enhance the effect of constructive coping strategies at the trend level. That is, individuals who used constructive coping strategies and perceived their communities to be more cohesive reported fewer depression symptoms than those who lived in less cohesive settings. Implications for promoting constructive coping strategies, as well as fostering cohesion in the community, are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by a Kellogg Institute Graduate Research Grant, Kroc Institute Graduate Research Summer Funding, and Institute for Scholarship in the Liberals Arts Graduate Student Research Award from the University of Notre Dame. I would like to thank the many individuals who have participated in the project, including the support of the Citizens Commission for Reconciliation in the Caribbean (CCRC), the research teams at the University of Sinú, Córdoba, and CECAR, Sucre, and David Backer for his consultation. I am grateful to John Paul Lederach and the members of the Peacebuilding Apprenticeship programmes for their guidance and support.

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  1. School of Psychology, Queen’s University, Belfast, UK

    Laura K. Taylor

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  1. Laura K. Taylor
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Correspondence to Laura K. Taylor .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Social and Health Sciences, University of South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Mohamed Seedat

  2. South African Medical Research Council-University of South Africa Violence, Injury and Peace Research Unit, Cape Town, South Africa

    Shahnaaz Suffla

  3. Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

    Daniel J. Christie

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Taylor, L.K. (2017). Implications of Coping Strategies and Perceived Community Cohesion for Mental Health in Colombia. In: Seedat, M., Suffla, S., Christie, D. (eds) Enlarging the Scope of Peace Psychology. Peace Psychology Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45289-0_4

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