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This study adopts the components of protection motivation theory to examine the differences between coping strategies used by males and females when dealing with four unique work-related fearful situations: fear of separation, fear of punishment, fear of embarrassment and fear of harm. Specifically, the components that are referenced include coping appraisal (self-efficacy) and threat appraisal (severity and vulnerability). Four different vignettes and a series of questions related to each of the fearful situations were presented to individuals willing to participate in the study. A total of 235 working professional graduate students and a group of full time professionals representing industries such as telecommunications, health care, and retail contributed to the study. While the first group (graduate students) was presented with the traditional paper-pencil questionnaire, the latter group was solicited to participate in the study via a sophisticated web-based instrument. Once the responses were received, the Chi-square, t-test, and a series of ANOVA tests with post hoc testing were computed to investigate where there were differences across all the dependent measures, which includes severity of threat, vulnerability to threats, and self efficacy. Sex was mainly applied as an independent variable in most analyses. The findings suggest that among the three coping strategies, problem solving is the most dominant strategy used by males and females across all situations as a group. However, females prefer seeking support as a coping strategy more than males do regardless of type of fears. In contrast, males prefer avoidance coping strategies to deal with situations that provoke fear of punishment. With regard to severity of the four fearful situations, both males and females perceived that the fear of harm scenario is the least severe while the remaining fearful scenarios are perceived as having a similar level of severity. In terms of vulnerability to the four fearful situations, males feel slightly more vulnerable to the fear of punishment scenario. Besides, males and females have comparable levels of self-efficacy. There are weak negative relationships between self-efficacy and seeking support, and avoidance strategies. However, self-efficacy has a positive correlation with problem solving strategies in both males and females. Research found that, the Asian ethnic group prefers to use seeking support strategy over the Black/African American and Caucasian ethnic groups. When comparing the latter two ethnic groups, Caucasians favor seeking support strategies. / Ph. D.

This study examined the joint effects of background factors, chronic strains, psychological resources, and coping responses on emotional stress among 99 adoptive parents who responded to a mailed questionnaire. Factor analysis identified use of three problem-focused coping strategies (planful problem-solving, cognitive reappraisal, confrontive coping) and four emotion-focused coping strategies (accepting responsibility, emphasize positives, wishful thinking, distancing). Multiple regression analysis revealed that parents reporting higher levels of emotional distress were significantly more likely to indicate a pile-up of chronic stressful circumstances related to their status as adoptive parents. More highly stressed parents were also significantly more likely to say-that they made greater use of emotion-focused coping strategies, had adopted an older age child, and received less support from family members. These findings support Pearlin’s (1989) model of the stress process. Implications for additional research in the area of stress and coping among adoptive parents were discussed. / Master of Science

Adolescents face many challenges in their communities, families and individually during the complex developmental stage of adolescence. It is during this time that their sense of self and an identity apart from their parents become more strongly developed and they become more autonomous. As adolescents separate more and more from their parents they move progressively towards their peer relationships, which is an important part of identity formation. However, during this period they are exposed to many healthy and unhealthy influences in the community, especially when engaging with their peers and other social structures outside of the family. During childhood they were less likely to engage in undesirable or risk behaviour for fear of disapproval and rejection from their parents but during adolescence there is a strong need for approval from their peers, who might engage in and encourage risk behaviour. Effective coping strategies can be an important protective factor aiding them in making the right choices and decisions and resisting peer pressure. Previously, many models of adolescent coping have been taken from coping studies done with adults, which have not accounted for the developmental differences between adults and adolescents. Now as literature on coping with regards to adolescence is growing, the studies often ignore religious coping strategies and their potential impact on functioning. Yet, recent data suggests that religious behaviour and beliefs have a protective influence that moderates the impact of adverse interpersonal life events and social adversity as well as physical and mental health. Thus, this qualitative study applied case study methods to explore and describe the different coping strategies used by a group of church-going adolescents from branches of a non-denominational church in Durban. Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the North-West University and informed consent was obtained from the parents and the adolescent minors before they participated in the study. Data was collected using a visual representation technique, two individual interviews and a focus group discussion with twelve participants. The data was analysed using thematic analysis and three main themes and various subthemes emerged. The first theme was understanding of coping as indicated by participants while the second theme identified the sources of their coping strategies and the third theme involved their specific coping strategies, which included religion, leisure activities, physical coping, social support systems, creativity and behaviour. These findings provide a greater understanding of the coping strategies and modalities used by church-going adolescents. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Background: Migraine is a chronic disaese, often described as a growing publich health problem. One of the suffering groups are adolescents and the prevalence of the migraine is one of the most common reasons why school based health clinics are contacted. The state is related to an extensive, physical and psychological suffering. Objectives: The aim with the presented study was to illuminate the experienced life situation of the adolescent migraineurs. Method: The exploration of articles were done with restriction in databases as Pubmed, CINAHL and psycINFO. The 13 chosen articles were viewed, analyzed and compiled in four different categories with eight sub-categories. Results: The presented outcome reveals that migraine effects the life of adolescents in four different dimensions. The state impacts negatively on the physical and psychological well-being. Furthermore it influences school and leisure of the suffered group. A tendency of isolation and denial is seen as a repeated behaviour in the adolescent migraineurs. Conclusion: Embracement and acceptance ought to be present for the possibility, to create and develop an individual lasting coping strategy. This way of thinking might improve the life situation of the adolescent migraineurs. Keywords: Migraine, adolescents, life changing events, coping strategies, effects. / Bakgrund: Migrän är en kronisk sjukdom och den beskrivs som ett växande folkhälsoproblem. En grupp individer som drabbas är ungdomar och åkomman är en av de vanligaste orsakerna till uppsökt skolvård. Tillståndet är nära bundet till ett omfattande fysiskt och psykiskt lidande. Syfte: Syftet med litteraturstudien var att belysa den upplevda livssituationen hos ungdomar med migrän. Metod: Artiklar har sökts i databaserna Pubmed, CIHNAL och psycINFO och därefter kvalitetgranskats. 13 utvalda artiklar analyserades och sammanställdes i fyra kategorier med åtta underkategorier. Resultat: Resultatet visar att migrän påverkar livet för ungdomar i fyra olika dimensioner. Åkomman påverkar den fysiska och psykiska hälsan negativt och inverkar på ungdomarnas skola och fritid. En tendens av isolering och förnekelse kunde ses som upprepade beteenden. Slutsats: Bemötande och acceptans bör infinnas hos den migränsjuke för att vidare kunna skapa och utveckla en individuellt hållbar copingstrategi som förbättrar livssituationen. Nyckelord: Migrän, ungdomar, livshändelser, copingstrategier, effekt.

Adolescents face many challenges in their communities, families and individually during the complex developmental stage of adolescence. It is during this time that their sense of self and an identity apart from their parents become more strongly developed and they become more autonomous. As adolescents separate more and more from their parents they move progressively towards their peer relationships, which is an important part of identity formation. However, during this period they are exposed to many healthy and unhealthy influences in the community, especially when engaging with their peers and other social structures outside of the family. During childhood they were less likely to engage in undesirable or risk behaviour for fear of disapproval and rejection from their parents but during adolescence there is a strong need for approval from their peers, who might engage in and encourage risk behaviour. Effective coping strategies can be an important protective factor aiding them in making the right choices and decisions and resisting peer pressure. Previously, many models of adolescent coping have been taken from coping studies done with adults, which have not accounted for the developmental differences between adults and adolescents. Now as literature on coping with regards to adolescence is growing, the studies often ignore religious coping strategies and their potential impact on functioning. Yet, recent data suggests that religious behaviour and beliefs have a protective influence that moderates the impact of adverse interpersonal life events and social adversity as well as physical and mental health. Thus, this qualitative study applied case study methods to explore and describe the different coping strategies used by a group of church-going adolescents from branches of a non-denominational church in Durban. Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the North-West University and informed consent was obtained from the parents and the adolescent minors before they participated in the study. Data was collected using a visual representation technique, two individual interviews and a focus group discussion with twelve participants. The data was analysed using thematic analysis and three main themes and various subthemes emerged. The first theme was understanding of coping as indicated by participants while the second theme identified the sources of their coping strategies and the third theme involved their specific coping strategies, which included religion, leisure activities, physical coping, social support systems, creativity and behaviour. These findings provide a greater understanding of the coping strategies and modalities used by church-going adolescents. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

In a world where every inch of work and every bit of performance is measured by the quantity rather than the quality there is a stress factor for humans. In social work where woman are overrepresented burnout or stress syndromes are over representative in diagnosis from sick leave. When these people can’t get the work-life balance together it sometimes ends up in exhausting decease, this mental decease effects people different but all of them use strategies, good or bad, to try and live with and overcome it. This candidate paper reaches out to investigated the strategies used by these woman to overcome and deal with the workload they are experiencing, both off and on work.

The overall aim of this thesis was to investigate quality of life, coping and emotional distress (i.e. anxiety and depression) among newly diagnosed ALS patients. An additional aim was also to investigate relatives’ experiences of the care for the patient and the support they received for themselves during the disease progression. The most nominated areas of importance for the patient’s overall QoL were family, friends and own physical health. Most patients rated their QoL as good, which did not change at subsequent measurement, despite their physical function having changed for the worse during disease progression. Some patients had symptoms of clinical anxiety and depression during the first year after diagnosis. The total quality of life score did not correlate with physical function but with depression early on after diagnosis. Most patients used support and independence as strategies to cope with the disease during the first six months after diagnosis. There were few changes early on after the diagnosis, and the patients used several different strategies. The results show that the use of coping strategies remained stable over time. Both physical function and emotional distress correlated significant with different coping strategies, with some variation during the disease progression. Relatives experienced the care of their loved one as positive and based on the patient’s needs and desires. The treatment, knowledge, support and help from the staff were important for the relatives’ feeling of security. Different factors influence the use of support for themselves. The relatives did not think of their own needs, but their focus was rather on the patient. The results of the thesis highlight the importance of providing support both to patients and their relatives during the disease progression. With early and regular evaluation on quality of life, coping and emotional well-being among the patients, the health professionals may be able to support the patients based on their specific needs, which probably will increase their quality of life.

This thesis aimed to explore the coping strategies of leaders in situations in which their authenticity is put out of balance. Specifically, this means that this thesis describes the different actions shown by the leaders in order to deal with these particular situations. The literature suggests that leaders either stay with their own values and try to persuade them to the followers (Eagly 2005) or adapt to the group values and avoid showing damaging emotions (Gardner et al. 2005). As expected, this thesis shows that the leaders’ behavior does not simply fit into one group or the other. Instead, this research found that there are more nuances in how leaders respond to situations in which their values are challenged. The first action taken by leaders consists of learning, during which leaders discover and try to make sense of the new environment. Subsequently, roughly five categories of actions could be distinguished from the data. Leaders tend to adapt to small differences, adapt to large differences, avoid relationships, try to change followers or break relationships. Although these are five clearly defined categories, this does not imply that one leader only adopts one kind of strategy. This research found that the kind of strategy chosen by the leader highly depends on the conditions surrounding the leader. The coping strategy chosen has an effect on the relationship between the leader and the followers, and the leader’s emotions. Furthermore, it should be noted that in this research it is stated that leaders choose or decide upon certain actions leading from conditions; this does mean that the decision for actions can be taken both intentionally or unconsciously.