In the past, a large body of research has examined how individuals deal with past stressors. More recently a newer line of research has examined how individuals deal with upcoming stressors. However, to date only a limited number of studies has concerned itself with this question. The present three studies were intended to add to the current literature on future-oriented coping by investigating predictors, mediators, and psychological outcomes related to future-oriented coping styles. Study 1 used an internet-based, cross sectional design to gain insight into the relationship between internal (goal-orientation and maximizing) and external resources (social support) and competencies (proactive competencies and goal adjustment) and three future-oriented coping styles, future-oriented avoidance coping, preventive coping, and proactive coping. We predicted that the three future-oriented coping styles would be related differently to resources and competencies. The results only partially supported our hypotheses, and particularly the inverse relationship between proactive coping and social support was surprising. Furthermore, proactive and preventive coping were related to maximizing. Study 2 and Study 3 extended the findings of Study 1. These studies used a lab-based, prospective design. In Study 2, the relationship of several additional internal resources in addition to maximizing were examined (irrational beliefs, values, optimism, and the Big Five personality traits) to gain further insight into their / text

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This study applied proactive coping theory (E. R. Greenglass, 2002; R. Schwarzer, 2000) to the domain of career development in domestic and international student transition-to-university. Participants were recruited from a large southeastern state university. No significant between-group differences were identified in the present study. Within both groups, proactive coping, work hope, and career planfulness were positively correlated. The role of work hope as a mediator between proactive coping and career planfulness was tested in domestic and international students respectively. For domestic students, a partial mediation model was established with a direct effect of proactive coping on career planfulness and an indirect effect through work hope. However, work hope fully mediates the effects of proactive coping on career planfulness for international students. Potential implication of the findings and future research directions are discussed.

Thesis advisor: Gilda Morelli / Although trying to survive on a low income is challenging for all individuals, the experience of losing government supports can propel households into a crisis situation which may cause them to act or react in distinctive ways. This study used a survey of 78 low-income women followed by in-depth interviews with 18 of these women to explore how two groups of women--those close to losing government supports (i.e., within three months) and those further from losing government supports (i.e., experienced at least one year ago)--plan for and cope with financially vulnerable periods in their lives and how they fare as a result. There are two parts to this research. First, information on government support use, social support, proactive coping, and overall well-being were gathered using survey techniques. Linear regression and mediation analyses were conducted to further explore the association between these constructs. Proactive coping was found to be a significant predictor of well-being (R2=.305, &#946;=.552, p<.01), but social support did not mediate this relation. Findings from the survey also demonstrated the women in the near loss group scored higher on proactive coping and well-being measures, and the far from loss group scored higher on measures of social support. Second, a sub-sample of the survey participants were chosen for an in-depth interview based on when they lost (or were anticipating to lose) government supports. This sub-sample was invited to discuss their resource loss experience, how they planned for and coped with this loss, and what role other factors such as social support, consideration of future consequences, choice deferral, and perceived transaction costs played in this process and what it meant for their well-being. The conversations with the women revealed that the group near a loss situation deferred decisions less frequently and had shorter planning horizons focusing more on the immediate (and less on the future) consequences of their decisions. While the far from loss group discussed, with less urgency, their plans as being distant and spoke of their more extensive social support networks. Both groups discussed similar sentiments of shame, degradation, and inconvenience associated with their experiences at the welfare office, and although the cost of this transaction outweighed the benefit for the women in the far from loss group, the near loss participants chose to endure it to receive the assistance. This research demonstrated that individuals who face government support loss because of an increase in income and who proactively plan make better strides towards becoming economically self-sufficient and investing in the health and well-being of their families now and in the future. This, in turn, may continue to encourage and promote the ability to act in proactive ways and may lead to greater overall well-being. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Psychology.

The present study proposed an integrated coping framework that included both personal and social resources and explored the interaction of these constructs with future-oriented, proactive coping processes. Expressive writing was utilized as a cost-effective and minimally intrusive intervention to encourage individuals to facilitate proactive coping in cognitive and behavioral domains. One-hundred and eighty five participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: 1) Proactive Writing (N = 63) to facilitate processing of a significant future stressor that is anticipated but is not certain to occur in the immediate future, 2) Expressive Writing (N = 53) to facilitate processing of the most difficult problem or situation experienced in the previous twelve months, or 3) Control Writing (N = 69) regarding time management as a credible placebo condition. The current study had three empirical aims. First, the current study experimentally tested whether implementing expressive writing as a proactive coping intervention increased proactive coping. Second, the current study tested whether proactive coping was positively related to adaptive functioning. Third, the current study vii examined reactive coping and perceived social support as mediators of the proactive coping to adaptive functioning relationship. Findings indicated that proactive coping and cognitive and behavioral coping efforts were associated with several clinical outcomes in the domains of psychological affect, life satisfaction, and physical health. Significant group differences in days per week of exercise and overeating behavior were present following the intervention, with a marginally significant trend found for social network size. Percentage of approach-oriented cognitive and behavioral coping towards anticipated and extant stressors, and perceptions of available support, enacted support, and satisfaction with one's social network were examined for mediational properties. Overall findings did not support the proposed mediation model of proactive coping. Implications of findings, limitations and future directions are discussed. / text

Researchers have not been able to ascertain how survivors of childhood trauma, especially sexual abuse, develop resilience. To explore resilience and what influences its development, this mixed-method study investigated the roles of cognitive emotion regulation and proactive coping by using a critical-realist ontology. The data was collected from eight women (between ages 25 and 56) who considered themselves to be resilient survivors of severe child sexual abuse. Harvey’s (2000) Multidimensional Trauma Recovery and Resiliency Interview (MTRR-I), the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Garnefski, Kraaij&Spinhoven, 2002) and Greenglass’s (1999) Proactive Coping Inventory were used to gather the data necessary to determine whether resilience is influenced by cognitive emotion regulation strategies and proactive coping and to attempt to define what could be considered as traits of resilience in survivors or child sexual abuse. Through thematic analysis, approximately 50 a-priori codes were generated and grouped into 23 themes using the Atlas.ti program. The objective of this study is to explore the relationship between cognitive emotion regulation, proactive coping and resilience in order to better understand, and develop intervention processes that can provide survivors of child sexual abuse and other trauma with the resources needed to be more resilient. Although causality could not be determined between these variables, it became evident that the more often a participant employs adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and the higher the scores on the Proactive Coping Inventory are, the more resilient the participant tends to be. The participants who displayed higher levels of resilience also verbalised that they felt they had dealt with the abuse and had managed to move on in their lives. Even though all the participants considered themselves to be resilient, half of them were functioning at a noticeably lower rate of resilience than the others. All the participants claimed to rely on spiritual strength in some way and attribute their resilience to their faith in God. The higher the levels of resilience, the more the participants used adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and proactive coping; and the more optimistic their views of the future and the more they considered their lives to be meaningful. Because the study was based on the ecological model of human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1995, 2005,) the interplay of the proximal environment, the individual, the social context and the changes that have taken place over time, were all taken into consideration because resilience, cognitive emotion regulation and proactive coping skills all develop within and between the same systems in which an individual develops. However, Bronfenbrenner (2005) states that the family is no longer taking the responsibility for the upbringing of children as it should and that other settings in society have had to step in to fulfil the role. One aspect of mental health is the ability to develop spiritually and since schools may not include religious instruction because it is the responsibility of the family, it happens that children are not being developed spiritually and this could influence the way in which individuals deal with traumatic childhood experiences. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

This study represents a shift in focus with regard to studies related to traumatic events such as childhood sexual abuse (CSA). It endeavours to go beyond documenting the prevalence of CSA to understanding the moderating factors that encourage adaptive adjustment to CSA. The rationale of this study was to understand how personal beliefs in a just world, future aspirations and proactive coping in the context of an earlier traumatic event such as CSA, are related. My secondary interest was to understand how the aforementioned constructs feature in the development of resilience. I strove to do this by exploring the relationship between proactive coping, just-world beliefs (with specific reference to personal belief in a just world) and future aspirations of a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. I made use of an instrumental case study design. A single participant was purposively selected for this study due to her unique features of being a self-identified resilient survivor of child sexual abuse. Data was collected over a period of three months by means of semi-structured interviews, drawings and theory-based scales. In this study I made use of qualitative data analysis to explore the theoretical relationships amongst the constructs. The results of the study suggest that there is a relationship between personal belief in a just world and religiosity, and that this relationship may mediate the optimistic orientation in the participant of the present study. There also appears to be a relationship between the personal belief in a just world and future aspirations of the participant in this study, suggesting that the role of just world beliefs in terms of the active pursuit and investment in future goals need to be further examined. Finally, the relationship between positive future aspirations and proactive coping was less clear, requiring further investigation to elucidate this relationship. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

Most employers agree that the effectiveness and success of their organisations depend on the effective utilisation of their human resources. Ill health in the workplace is a threat to optimal productivity, reduced absenteeism, provision of sustainable employee benefits, a motivated workforce, staff retention and maximisation of profits. Burnout and engagement are therefore important fields of investigation in the industrial psychology field. The aim of this study was to: test a model of work-related well-being; develop and evaluate a resilience intervention programme for a large financial services institution in South Africa. Article 1 used a cross-sectional survey design. The participants were predominantly in the administrative, call centre and IT divisions (N = 192). Article 2 was the development of a resilience model, which was based on the integration of thinking from an extensive literature review by the researcher. Article 3 used an experimental design, with a control group (n=51) and an experimental group («=55). Information was collected in a longitudinal research. The research method for each of the three articles of this study consisted of a brief literature review and an empirical study. The measuring instruments used in this study were the Maslach Burnout Inventory - General Survey (MBI-GS), Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), Job Demands-Resources Scale (JD-RS), Health subscales, Organisational Commitment subscales, the ASSET questionnaire, the Life Orientation Test - Revised (LOT-R) and a biographical questionnaire. In both article 1 and article 3, descriptive statistics were computed to describe the data; as were Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients to specify the relationship between the variables. In article 1, multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine the proportion of variance in the dependent variable that is predicted by the independent variables. In article 3, paired-samples f-tests were used to determine the difference in results for year 1 and year 2. Article 1 showed the central role that low optimism plays in contributing to burnout, and high optimism plays in work engagement. Interestingly, high social support was linked to increased cynicism, whilst low social support contributed to dedication. Burnout contributed to both physical and psychological ill health. Dedication and low cynicism contributed to affective commitment, whilst engagement and low cynicism contributed to behavioural commitment. Article 2 was the development of a multidimensional, proactive coping approach which consistently strives to develop and enhance the individual's resilience coping reservoir pools (mental, spiritual, socio-emotional and physical) leading to improved resilience, wellness and quality of life. Each reservoir pool has activities that enhance the fitness of the individual, namely physical (rest and relaxation, exercise and nutrition), mental (stimuli, reflection and empowering thinking), spiritual (coat of arms, pay it forward and gratitude), socio-emotional (breaking destructive relationships and nurturing relationships, responsibility). Article 3's results showed that the resilience intervention resulted in a statistically significant difference decrease in psychological ill health. Recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Most employers agree that the effectiveness and success of their organisations depend on the effective utilisation of their human resources. Ill health in the workplace is a threat to optimal productivity, reduced absenteeism, provision of sustainable employee benefits, a motivated workforce, staff retention and maximisation of profits. Burnout and engagement are therefore important fields of investigation in the industrial psychology field. The aim of this study was to: test a model of work-related well-being; develop and evaluate a resilience intervention programme for a large financial services institution in South Africa. Article 1 used a cross-sectional survey design. The participants were predominantly in the administrative, call centre and IT divisions (N = 192). Article 2 was the development of a resilience model, which was based on the integration of thinking from an extensive literature review by the researcher. Article 3 used an experimental design, with a control group (n=51) and an experimental group («=55). Information was collected in a longitudinal research. The research method for each of the three articles of this study consisted of a brief literature review and an empirical study. The measuring instruments used in this study were the Maslach Burnout Inventory - General Survey (MBI-GS), Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), Job Demands-Resources Scale (JD-RS), Health subscales, Organisational Commitment subscales, the ASSET questionnaire, the Life Orientation Test - Revised (LOT-R) and a biographical questionnaire. In both article 1 and article 3, descriptive statistics were computed to describe the data; as were Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients to specify the relationship between the variables. In article 1, multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine the proportion of variance in the dependent variable that is predicted by the independent variables. In article 3, paired-samples f-tests were used to determine the difference in results for year 1 and year 2. Article 1 showed the central role that low optimism plays in contributing to burnout, and high optimism plays in work engagement. Interestingly, high social support was linked to increased cynicism, whilst low social support contributed to dedication. Burnout contributed to both physical and psychological ill health. Dedication and low cynicism contributed to affective commitment, whilst engagement and low cynicism contributed to behavioural commitment. Article 2 was the development of a multidimensional, proactive coping approach which consistently strives to develop and enhance the individual's resilience coping reservoir pools (mental, spiritual, socio-emotional and physical) leading to improved resilience, wellness and quality of life. Each reservoir pool has activities that enhance the fitness of the individual, namely physical (rest and relaxation, exercise and nutrition), mental (stimuli, reflection and empowering thinking), spiritual (coat of arms, pay it forward and gratitude), socio-emotional (breaking destructive relationships and nurturing relationships, responsibility). Article 3's results showed that the resilience intervention resulted in a statistically significant difference decrease in psychological ill health. Recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Parents of children diagnosed with autism, a disease characterised with difficulty in speech, behaviour and language, experience chronic stress more than in any other developmental disorder. Outcomes of chronic stress in this regard are often associated with uncertain expectations of the future where current stressors are exuberated and future expectations are negated. Thinking about the future has been noted to contribute positive psychological functioning. Authors have, however, noted that some parents of autistic children are able to conceptualise positive future expectations in the mists of stressful current realities whilst using proactive coping strategies. Proactive coping literature has predominantly focused on situational characteristics and, to a lesser extent, on dispositional characteristics The relationship between dispositional characteristics - belief in just world, sense of coherence in relation to proactive coping is investigated in parents raising a child diagnosed with autism. Constructs were operationalised through the Orientation to Life Questionnaire (Antonovsky, 1987), Global Belief in Just World Scale (Lipkus, 1991), Reactions to Daily Life Questionnaire (Greenglass, 2002) and a demographic questionnaire. A cross-sectional correlational design consisting of a sample of 30 (n = 30) parents with children with autism was conducted. SPSS ver12 was used for analysis, which included both descriptive and inferential analysis. Inferential statistics included the Independent T-Test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to analyse independence of the sample, and Spearman Rho correlations were used to test possible correlations between constructs. The small sample size precluded more advanced statistical manipulation of data. Open ended questions were analysed through a process of content analysis. The interpretation of results showed no significant differences between independent variables (e.g. age, gender, adjustment level of child) and constructs measured. Results of the correlational analysis indicated positive correlations between (i) belief in just world andproactive coping, (ii) sense of coherence and proactive coping as well as (iii) the sense of coherence (meaningfulness) subscale and proactive coping. No relationship was found between belief in just world and proactive coping. These results indicate that these dispositional characteristics can be associated with proactive coping and that belief in just world and sense of coherence who share similar theoretical underpinnings may have different predictor values. Qualitative results suggest that parents who engage in future oriented thinking and proactive coping strategies such as planning activities and social engagements often display higher levels of just world beliefs. The present study contributes to theoretical knowledge by providing insight into the relationships between constructs with regards to proactive coping in parents who experince chronic stress, by illustrating convergence and distinctiveness between constructs. Furthermore, knowledge was gained on the influence of dispositional characteristics on proactive coping strategies, seeing as how previous research primarily focused on situational characteristics. Practical applications of the results offer insight into coping processes of parents of children diagnosed with autism with specific reference to proactive coping which ultimately implicates the applicability value of future oriented therapeutic interventions for these families. Insight into the goals of parents and the daily challenges they face will furthermore assist the helping profession and support groups to provide effective support strategies. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted