Chapter 5 Coping and social support
support
5
CHAPTER PLAN
Chapters 3 and 4 examined a range of theories relating stress to health outcomes.
However, not everyone reacts in the same way to the pressures of life. This chapter
explores ways in which different approaches to coping and the availability of social
support can affect health.
In the course of normal life we are all faced with a range of stressors and challenges.
When faced with a threat such as failing an important exam or having an argument
with a friend, how do you cope? Do you try to think calmly about how you can address
the problem, do you feel angry and distressed and express your feelings, do you talk
to a friend or do you go for a drink or cigarette? Perhaps you use several of these
strategies? These are just a few of the many ways of coping that have been identified
by researchers in a range of different typologies of coping strategies. Does the way you
cope depend on the circumstances or do you behave consistently across different
situations? For example, do you tend to adopt a problem-solving approach or,
alternatively, deny the threat? Consistent (or dispositional) coping tendencies are
known as coping styles that are related to personality. How we cope affects the
outcomes we experience. In this chapter we will consider a range of coping approaches
and their implications for health.
Friends, family and work colleagues are, for most people, particularly important in
times of stress. We may seek out our friends to listen to us express our feelings, distract
us from insoluble problems or help us to find solutions. Thus, for many people, using
social support is an important coping strategy and most measures of coping ask people
about the extent to which they use social supports. Of course, social support depends
on having a friend or network of friends who we can call on. Thus friends and family
are regarded as coping resources. The availability of these resources seems to be
important for our well-being regardless of whether they are providing social support
in times of stress or whether we deliberately draw on them as a coping strategy. The
chapter is divided into two sections: (1) coping; and (2) social support.