Coping styles of Chicago adults: effectiveness.

With a sample of 2,299 Chicago adults, a quantitive exploration is made of the effectiveness of different coping styles in dealing with stressor situations and feelings of distress associated with marriage, parenting, finances, and job; psychiatric symptomatology; and feelings of low self-efficacy. The specific measure of effectiveness is the extent to which one or more coping styles predicts a given dependent variable in a multiple regression analysis. As a group. coping strategies are more predictive of the stressor situation and feelings of personal distress than of psychiatric symptomatology or feelings of low self-efficacy. Also, coping styles relate differentially among the four life areas; they are more predictive of levels of stressors in marriage and parenting than in finances or job. Some coping styles are strongly predictive of low amounts of stressors; this is particularly true of the use of strategies that invoke direct action.