Personality, Stress, and Coping: Implications for Education

Front Cover
......Page 1
Series Editor: Gordon Gates, Washington State University, Spokane......Page 2
CONTENTS......Page 6
Personality, Stress, and Coping in Children and Young People......Page 16
INTRODUCTION......Page 18
Leon Mann, Laura Nota, Salvatore Soresi, Lea Ferrari, and Erica Frydenberg......Page 40
David Scott Yeager and Adriana S. Miu......Page 64
Katherine Poynton and Erica Frydenberg......Page 82
Nicola Cogan and Matthias Schwannauer......Page 106
Meredith O’Connor, Ann Sanson, and Erica Frydenberg......Page 126
Personality, Stress, and Coping Among Adults......Page 146
Melina Condren and Esther R. Greenglass......Page 148
Crystal L. Park and Craig L. Esposito......Page 168
Joanne Chan Chung Yan......Page 192
Gretchen M. Reevy......Page 206
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND......Page 232
Russell L. Carson, Stefanie Plemmons, Thomas J. Templin, and Howard M. Weiss......Page 254
Linda Lantieri, Eden Nagler Kyse, Susanne Harnett, and Charlotte Malkmus......Page 282
LIFE AS AN INHERENTLY STRESSFUL PHENOMENON......Page 308
Research on Stress and Coping in Education......Page 3
Charlotte, North Carolina • www.infoagepub.com......Page 4
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 8
Nevertheless the pressures on individuals in educational contexts may be greater than ever before. In the United States and other countries such as Australia, students in primary and secondary education must now take achievement tests regularly. Due .........Page 10
Personality can change over time, but, as an integrating aspect of the person, it is resistant to change. Personality traits can be learned, even in adulthood, as Maddi (chapter 14), discusses in regard to the personality construct, “hardiness.” .........Page 11
Each chapter teaches us something about relationships between personality and stress and/or coping. Two chapters explore relationships between the Big Five personality constructs and coping in different educational contexts. Reevy, studying a college.........Page 12
Cogan and Schwannauer (chapter 5) draw clear conclusions about the relationship between risk-taking behavior in its many forms, such as alcohol and substance abuse, and sexual practices leading to risk of HIV/AIDS and teen pregnancy. These behaviors .........Page 13
References......Page 14
Theoretically, the number of coping responses (including thoughts, feelings, and actions) that can be used by an individual to manage stress is unlimited. Hence, there are both theoretical and practical reasons for researchers and clinicians to group.........Page 19
One way of examining the links between personality and coping is to identify how the two fundamental coping styles described above relate to particular personality traits. In their meta-analysis of the relationships between the Big Five personality t.........Page 20
However, to be of use to educators, it is necessary to provide clear evidence that coping styles impact students’ on-task responses. What is the relationship between coping style and students’ thoughts, feelings and behaviors during an academic t.........Page 21
Research investigating the concept of interest in educational settings has tended to distinguish between two forms of interest, individual interest, which is a relatively enduring predisposition to engage and re-engage with a specific domain, and sit.........Page 22
THE PRESENT STUDY......Page 23
All of the variables in this study were monitored and recorded using a modified version of the interactive computer program, Between the Lines (BTL). The original version of BTL was developed by Ainley, Hidi, and Berndorff (2002). Each version of BTL.........Page 24
After students completed the ACS, they were presented with two open- ended problem-solving tasks. Each task required students to use their thinking and research skills to investigate a real-life issue. The tasks were designed to be equally interestin.........Page 25
RESULTS......Page 26
Using the criterion level of ±.45, 8 coping strategies loaded on the first factor (self-blame, worry, wishful thinking, seek spiritual support, keep to self, tension reduction, not cope, and ignore the problem), and 6 strategies loaded on the second.........Page 27
Correlations between either gender or age and the other variables were not significant, apart from a small positive correlation between age and task performance. The strongest correlations between coping styles and on-task variables were for the adap.........Page 28
Consistent with expectations, adaptive coping style was positively associated with self-efficacy and both measures of interest. On the other hand, maladaptive coping style was negatively associated with self-efficacy. The set of significant positive .........Page 29
Table 1.3. Individual Characteristics and Task-Specific Responses: Summary of Regression Analyses (N = 163)......Page 30
Figure 1. 1. Significant regression paths between individual characteristics and task-specific responses.......Page 31
Until now, it would appear that there has been little attempt to investigate whether coping styles influence students’ thoughts, feelings and behaviors during an academic task. Examination of the relationships between coping styles, self-efficacy, .........Page 32
Another limitation was that only one school, located in an outer south- eastern suburb of Melbourne, Australia, was surveyed. Data from feeder primary schools suggests that religious participation among families is low. Furthermore, almost all of the.........Page 33
REFERENCES......Page 34
We made no prediction about differences between boys and girls in strength of relationship between coping style and decision-coping pattern. But we found some differences. The relationship between productive coping style and vigilance was generally s.........Page 52
There are several reasons for bringing together in a single analysis these two different but related models. First, both models are grounded in an examination of how stress impacts information processing and evaluation, and emotional and behavioral r.........Page 41
A third reason for bringing the two models together is the interest in examining the convergence and validation of different instruments and approaches for measuring self-reported coping strategies (e.g., Folkman & Lazarus’s [1988] Ways of Coping C.........Page 42
As regards the relationship between personality and self-efficacy, low levels of self-efficacy are generally accompanied by high levels of trait anxiety/neuroticism, anxiety disorders and depressive symptoms (Muris, 2002). Page, Monroe, and Haase (20.........Page 43
In this study we focus on adolescence. During early to mid adolescence there are many personal worries and struggles with painful choices pertaining to school, employment, and family relations. By focusing on adolescents we have the opportunity (unli.........Page 44
Self-efficacy beliefs play an important role during adolescence. When teenagers have to make decisions about their future, low efficacy beliefs in their academic and social abilities contribute to avoidance behaviors, depression, anxiety, poor school.........Page 45
Last, we will examine the empirical relationships between coping strategies, decision-making patterns and self-efficacy. Three main hypotheses guide the study.......Page 46
The students were administered a battery of instruments in group testing sessions as part of their school-based vocational guidance activities. Questionnaires administered included coping strategies (Frydenberg & Lewis, 1993), decision-coping pattern.........Page 47
The ACS general form comprises 18 scales which are generally referred to as strategies. Based on Frydenberg and Lewis’ categories (1993) and the Italian validation of ACS (Ferrari, Nota, Soresi, & Frydenberg, 2007) coping strategies were classified.........Page 48
Two independent judges (the second and the fourth authors) classified the problems reported by the students into the 11 categories identified in the ACS specific form. An agreement index was computed between the classifications made by the two judges.........Page 49
RESULTS......Page 50
Table 2.1. Mean Scores on Decision-Coping Patterns, General ACS (Short Form) Coping Strategies and Self-Efficacy Beliefs......Page 51
These data are consistent with findings from other Italian adolescent studies, which indicate that female students, compared to male students, have greater social difficulties, lower levels of assertiveness, higher social discomfort and lower self-ef.........Page 53
Table 2.3. Weighted Correlations Between Coping Strategies Across Four Specific Adolescent Concerns and Decision Coping Patterns (Boys n = 138; Girls n = 156)......Page 54
Our data for testing hypotheses 3a and 3b pertaining to the role of self-efficacy are taken from a subsample of 114/268 boys (43%) and 141/ 298 girls (47%) who completed the ACS, the MDMQ and the self-efficacy instrument. Tables 2.4 and 2.5 show that.........Page 55
Table 2.5. Correlations Between Self-Efficacy Beliefs and General ACS (Short Form) Coping Strategies (Boys n =115, Girls n = 141)......Page 56
Clearly there are many factors that determine the expression in adolescence of coping strategies and decision-coping patterns used in response to problems. Habitual patterns of coping with problems and decision making are only one factor. The serious.........Page 57
There are several interventions for building self-efficacy among adolescents like The Best of Coping (Frydenberg, & Brandon, 2007), aimed to strengthen coping strategies; GOFER (Mann, 2002; Mann, Harmoni, & Power, 1988) aimed to encourage adaptive de.........Page 58
REFERENCES......Page 59
Recent incidents of planned violence and suicide in schools have turned the public’s eye toward the troubles adolescents have when coping with bullying and victimization. Although these highly violent retaliations are unpredictable and exceedingly .........Page 65
When such interventions are effective, however, it is often because the school culture has been changed, such that bystanders “call out” bullying when they see it and become active participants in the creation of a safe school environment (Sweare.........Page 66
For example, Blackwell et al. (2007) found that when adolescents held an entity theory about their intelligence—believing that their intelligence is fixed—they tended to respond to setbacks in more unproductive ways than those who held an increme.........Page 67
In another study, college students responded to a scenario in which they were victims of others’ wrongdoing (Loeb & Dweck, 1994). The authors found that entity theorists were significantly more likely than incremental theorists to wish harm to the .........Page 68
THE PRESENT INVESTIGATION......Page 69
To measure prosocial confrontation responses to conflict, participants read a hypothetical incident of bullying and then wrote an essay response to the question: “What would you feel like doing?” Using a hypothetical incident allowed us to have m.........Page 70
STUDY 2......Page 71
Participants completed the survey via the Internet in the school’s computer lab, ostensibly as a part of a “reading comprehension task.” Half of participants (the incremental group) were randomly assigned to read an incremental theory induction.........Page 72
Randomization was effective. Assignment to the incremental or control group was independent of sex, c2(1, N=86) = .047, ns, race, c2(3, N = 83) = 2.50, ns, grades in school, c2(3, N = 86) = 2.11, ns, and mother’s education, c2(5, N = 85) = 1.83, ns.........Page 73
Nevertheless, the present research is subject to some important limitations. First, we did not measure actual behavior, but instead we measured the motivation to use prosocial confrontation and vengeance in response to a peer bullying. So it is not c.........Page 75
CONCLUSION......Page 76
REFERENCES......Page 77
Figure 3. 1. Motivation to use prosocial coping strategies after a bullying incident as a function of experimental condition.......Page 74
A growing body of literature has focused on identifying the coping strategies used by victims in response to incidents of bullying, however, comparisons between the range of studies has proven to be somewhat challenging due to the different ways copi.........Page 83
Various studies have been conducted to investigate the range of coping strategies used by young people in response to bullying experiences. A study by Naylor, Cowie, and Del Ray (2001) aimed to assess coping strategies employed by young people who ha.........Page 84
Overall, the literature indicates a pattern of results which suggest that young females who are victimized by their peers are more likely than young males to report using seek social support/reference to others coping style, internalizing strategies,.........Page 85
While anxiety is a necessary and normal part of life, some individuals experience responses where the anxiety has become pathological, causing significant distress and preventing them from functioning normally (Jones & Frydenberg, 2004). The individu.........Page 86
A report prepared by Hawker and Boulton (2000) investigated the relationship between peer victimization and psychosocial maladjustment in young people from infancy through to adolescence. Using a meta-analysis of findings from previous research paper.........Page 87
AIMS OF THE RESEARCH......Page 88
A questionnaire titled the “About Me and School Questionnaire” was developed based on existing inventories and background theory. This questionnaire was designed and used to provide a measurement of each of the variables assessed in this study, i.........Page 89
After recording their responses to the 18 items, participants were also asked to describe what else they did to cope when they had worries and concerns, other than those listed in the previous items. This open-ended item was included to collate furth.........Page 90
Data were first analyzed using SPSS (Version 16.0 for Windows) to obtain descriptive statistics for the study variables. Information relating to these variables is summarized throughout this section of the report. Data were also initially screened fo.........Page 91
Table 4.1. Results of Independent-Samples t Tests Comparing High-Victim and Low-Victim Groups on Coping Styles and Anxiety (N = 352)......Page 92
The first direct discriminant analysis included the three coping styles (solving the problem, reference to others, and nonproductive coping) and anxiety as the independent variables. The dependent variable was categorized into high victim and low vic.........Page 93
Table 4.2. Partial Correlations Between Total Victim Groups and Solving the Problem Coping Style, Reference to Others Coping Style, Nonproductive Coping Style, and Anxiety (N = 352)......Page 94
Preliminary analyses indicated that a significant minority of female adolescents surveyed reported being bullied frequently at school, with 14.8 % of the sample population being classified as high victims of bullying. This statistic is consistent wit.........Page 95
Results from this study provided support for the hypothesis that female adolescents who experience a high level of bully victimization will report using more reference to others style of coping in comparison to low victims. Reference to others coping.........Page 96
The hypothesis that young females who experience a high level of bullying victimization will report a more nonproductive style of coping in comparison to low victims was also supported by the results of this study. Nonproductive coping style has been.........Page 97
Given these results and the potential impact that use of a nonproductive style of coping can have for female adolescents who have been victimized, it is essential that practitioners focus on appropriate interventions which aim to reduce and minimize .........Page 98
This study also aimed to assess the role of each of the study variables in discriminating between high victims and low victims of bullying. The results of the first discriminant analysis indicated that nonproductive coping style had the strongest ass.........Page 99
There are a number of limitations associated with this current study that should be considered and have also shed light on areas for future research. Firstly, information was obtained using self-report measures which may have lead to some bias and mi.........Page 100
The outcomes of this study are considered particularly useful and provide additional information that can be applied within a practical setting. Increased knowledge of the factors and characteristics that are associated with frequent victimization am.........Page 101
REFERENCES......Page 102
Although there has been increasing interest in the U.K. concerning the different types of risk taking behaviors young people engage in (Hewitt et al., 2006), the majority of studies in this field stem from the United States. While young people partak.........Page 107
From this perspective, young people alternate between opposite psychological states which are operative and entail distinctive motives, perceptions, and emotions. Thus, different states represent opposite ways of experiencing the same level of a part.........Page 108
Such research has indicated that coping mechanisms influence adolescent engagement in risk taking (Steiner et al., 2002) and highlights the importance of clinical interventions which promote adaptive coping strategies, maintaining healthy behaviors, .........Page 109
The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS—modified) (Eaton et al., 2005) targets those health behaviors that are considered risky, in that they result in the most significant impacts on health, well being, and longevity. These include behaviors that res.........Page 110
The Negativistism Dominance Scale (NDS) (McDermott, 1988a; McDermott & Apter, 1988), also known as the Social Reactivity Scale, was also used to measure state dominance. It is an 18 item measure consisting of two seven item subscales which relate to .........Page 111
A total of 416 young people took part in the study, however, 9 respondents were excluded (N = 407) as their survey packs were incomplete (female n = 205; male n = 202). The age range1 of participants was 14-17 years old (m = 15.02, sd = .90). The dis.........Page 112
Descriptive statistics were conducted to examine the prevalence of health risk behaviors and chi-square analyses were performed to determine whether differences existed in terms of the sex and age of adolescents. In support of previous work (Lowry, W.........Page 113
Of 8.1% of adolescents who were physically inactive (i.e., in last week had not engaged in exercise for at least 20 minutes that made them sweat or breathe hard), females were significantly more likely to be physically inactive compared to males (c2 .........Page 114
Table 5.1. Items Loading for Each Factor and Abbreviations Used in Testing of Hypotheses.......Page 115
Hierarchial linear regression was used to examine the relationship between coping styles and health risk behaviors. Adolescents with high scores on reference to others and low scores on nonproductive coping style were less likely to engage in substan.........Page 116
Inspection of Table 5.2 indicates that the indices reflecting the model fit accord with one another, which serves as an indication of the robustness of the model. The comparative fit index (CFI) score was .896 and the root mean-square error of approx.........Page 117
Figure 5.1. Path diagram of mediation model.......Page 118
Table 5.2. SEM Goodness of Fit Indices......Page 119
Clinicians, educators and other professionals working with young people should be fully aware of the developmental and social context in which adolescent risk taking takes place. Risk, risk taking, and risk behavior are important and relevant topics .........Page 120
REFERENCES......Page 121
Table 6.1. Hierarchical Linear Regression Predicting Positive Development in Emerging Adulthood From Temperament and Educational Factors in Childhood......Page 136
Schools are a key source of the skills and competencies that can aide young peoples’ capacity for successful adaptation as they traverse the path to adulthood (Hamilton & Hamilton, 2009). They also play an important role in facilitating young peopl.........Page 127
Most studies of academic competency have been concerned with achievement as an outcome, and few have examined it as a potential antecedent of positive development. Those studies that have investigated it as a predictor again suggest that academic ach.........Page 128
THE CURRENT STUDY......Page 129
Participants in the current study were the 1,158 participants who completed the thirteenth survey at age 19-20 years, and thus had data on positive development in emerging adulthood. Questionnaire booklets were mailed to participants, together with r.........Page 130
“Social competence” was assessed with three subscales derived from Smart and Sanson (2003), including empathy (5 items, a = .78, e.g., “I show my concern for others when they experience difficulties”), responsibility (4 items, a = .72, e.g., .........Page 131
“Temperament and personality” was assessed using measures of temperament drawn from both infancy and later childhood. Whereas temperament in infancy appears to provide a “starting point” for the developmental process, characteristics in later.........Page 132
Educational competencies assessed in childhood included school readiness, which was measured at 5-6 years on an ATP devised scale (a = .94) that asked teachers to rate 13 items (e.g., “following instructions”) on a 5- point scale from very well t.........Page 133
RESULTS......Page 134
DISCUSSION......Page 135
A number of dimensions of school connectedness were associated with higher positive development, including strong relationships with teachers and feeling that school was a place where they had status in mid adolescence, and school bonding in late ado.........Page 139
Nevertheless, the current study provided a rare opportunity to examine the contributions of temperament, personality, and educational factors across childhood and adolescence to positive development in emerging adulthood. It employed an empirically t.........Page 140
Acknowledgments......Page 141
REFERENCES......Page 142
Table 6.2. Hierarchical Linear Regression Predicting Positive Development in Emerging Adulthood From Personality and Educational Variables during Adolescence......Page 138
Figure 6. 1. The relationship between school readiness and positive development for males and females.......Page 137
Hypotheses......Page 155
Dispositional optimism was measured using the revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R; Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994), a 10-item measure designed to examine the extent to which individuals focus on good versus bad outcomes. Participants are asked to .........Page 156
STUDENT STRESS......Page 149
Stress in students adversely affects academic performance, and is the most common health-related problem reported by students as a barrier to their academic success (American College Health Association, 2006). Higher levels of stress are associated w.........Page 150
In a recent survey conducted at an American university, 13.8% of undergraduate students and 11.3% of graduate students were identified as suffering from a major depressive episode or other depressive disorder at the time of the survey. In addition, o.........Page 151
POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL RESOURCES......Page 152
One way in which optimism may lead to lower levels of depression is through its relation with social support. Optimists have been found to report greater levels of social support than pessimists (Park & Folkman, 1997), as well as greater increases in.........Page 153
THE PRESENT STUDY......Page 154
Table 7.1. Participant Demographics......Page 157
3. Depression (Time 2)3......Page 158
Since emotional support and depression were both assessed at Time 2, a causal relation between the two variables cannot be inferred. Thus, an alternative mediation model (Model II) was tested, in which the mediator and the outcome of Model I were rev.........Page 159
Table 7.3. Regression Outcomes for Model I......Page 160
Table 7.4. Regression outcomes for Model II: Outcome Emotional Support at Time 2......Page 161
REFERENCES......Page 162
Figure 8. 1. Meaning making model of loss.......Page 171
People are by nature meaning-making creatures, holding strong beliefs about how things are and expectations about how they should be (Baumeister, 1991). People experience levels of negative emotions such as depression, anger, or fear following percep.........Page 169
The third aspect of global meaning is the extent to which people experience a sense of meaning or purpose in life. This felt meaning or purpose has been referred to as the emotional aspect of global meaning (Reker & Wong, 1988). A sense of meaningful.........Page 170
Situational meaning refers to meaning in the context of a particular occurrence, and encompasses the meaning assigned to that situation (appraised meaning), assessing discrepancies between appraised and global meaning, meaning-making efforts to reduc.........Page 172
A TEST OF THE MEANING-MAKING MODEL......Page 173
The study employed the Meaning Assessment Scale (MAS) (Park, Mills, & Edmondson, in press) to assess participants’ (a) global beliefs, (b) appraised meaning, and (c) discrepancy. Global beliefs for were assessed by the following five items on the M.........Page 174
To examine whether participants who returned at Time 2 differed on any study variables from participants who participated at only Time 1, a series of t tests were conducted on all 17 outcome variables (Table 8.1, five global beliefs, global sense of .........Page 175
Model 1 used Time 1 measures of the 3 meaning-making coping strategies and intrusive thoughts to predict the Time 2 global beliefs, and Model 2 added the Time 1 level of that global belief variable (effectively assessing change in that belief) to pre.........Page 179
To examine whether the three meaning-making coping strategies (positive reinterpretation, acceptance, or religious) and automatic coping (intrusive thoughts) predicted Time 2 global beliefs for each of the five global belief variables and changes in .........Page 180
To examine whether the three meaning-making coping strategies (positive reinterpretation, acceptance, or religious) and automatic coping (intrusive thoughts) predicted Time 2 global sense of life meaning (a composite that was the mean of 5 subjective.........Page 181
Adding the Time 1 level of appraised meaning to the regressions (Model 2) to predict appraised meaning at Time 2 washes away most of the effects of the other predictor variables. The effects of positive reinterpretation coping and intrusive thoughts .........Page 182
To examine whether the three meaning-making coping strategies (positive reinterpretation, acceptance, or religious) and automatic meaning making (intrusive thoughts) predicted Time 2 goal violation and changes in goal violation, a multiple regression.........Page 183
DISCUSSION......Page 184
In addition, this study only examined four types of meaning-making (i.e., positive reinterpretation, religious coping, acceptance, and intrusive thoughts), but there are many others that could be included in future research (e.g., deliberative rumina.........Page 185
For students who have already experienced a loss, there is much to be done. First, many students who have experienced significant loss do not identify loss as an issue that may need attention, but rather simply consider it part of their life story (B.........Page 186
REFERENCES......Page 187
Table 8.1. Global Meaning......Page 176
Table 8.2. Appraised Meaning......Page 177
Table 8.3. Violation of Views......Page 178
After the first clinical placement, academic stress and family stress had a significant positive correlation which is consistent with Chinese parents’ academic expectation of students. Chinese parents place high demands and expectations on their ch.........Page 198
Entity theorists tend to exhibit a helpless coping style, ineffective striving or even self-stigmatization (Dweck & Leggett, 1988; Dweck et al., 1995). For example, people who believed that romantic relationships are destined tend to adopt avoidance .........Page 193
The current study focused on first-year Chinese nursing students in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, most nursing education programs that were part of hospitals have been suspended and transferred to universities (Chan, 2002). Therefore, most nursing student.........Page 194
The questionnaires were set in Chinese. Four questionnaires were used to gather the study’s data (a) sources of stress, (b) stress and personality, (c) implicit theories of personality, and (d) coping.......Page 195
RESULTS......Page 196
Results showed that first-year Chinese nursing students perceived themselves to be quite susceptible to stress. They also perceived their susceptibility to stress as highly related to personality. Among the different types of stressors, nursing stude.........Page 197
The malleability of personality was positively correlated with using religion to cope. The more malleable students believed personality to be, the more they used religion to cope. According to Carver, Scheier, and Weintraub (1989), religion may provi.........Page 199
The present study only included quantitative data. Future research can include qualitative data, for example, from interviews to enrich the understanding of stress and coping of nursing students. The current analyses on stress and coping were correla.........Page 200
Prior to clinical placement, it would be beneficial to identify nursing students who are at risk of depression or anxiety and provide them with counseling and teach them coping skills (Shikai, Shono, & Kitamura, 2009). In preparation for clinical pla.........Page 201
REFERENCES......Page 202
COPING AND GPA......Page 207
The current research investigated the conjoint influence of personality and coping mechanisms on GPA. Coping mechanisms were conceived as potential mediators of the relationship between personality traits and GPA, meaning that coping mechanisms were .........Page 208
Poropat (2009) reports on explanations that other researchers have provided for why academic class level moderates the relationship between either personality and academic performance or intelligence and academic performance (with academic performanc.........Page 209
The current study, which utilizes college students (“tertiary” students), investigates associations between personality and GPA across college levels (i.e., freshman (first year), sophomore (second year), junior (third year) and senior (fourth ye.........Page 210
Participants......Page 211
The NEO-PI-F (Costa & McCrae, 1992) was used to measure Big Five traits. The NEO-PI-F consists of 240 items, such as “I like to have a lot of people around me, “I rarely experience strong emotions” and “I often enjoy playing with theories and.........Page 212
Table 10.1. Factor Loadings for Exploratory Factor Analysis With Varimax Rotation of the 15 Variables of the COPE Scale......Page 213
Carver, Sheier, and Weintraub (1989) report college norms for COPE scales. Norms on each of the scales are 11.89 for active coping, 12.58 for planning, 9.92 for suppression, 12.40 for growth, 11.84 for acceptance, 6.07 for denial, 6.11 for behavioral.........Page 214
Multiple regressions were conducted to determine if academic class level moderated the relationships between Big Five personality traits or coping mechanisms and GPA. In these analyses, cases of missing data were excluded listwise. Academic class lev.........Page 216
Table 10.8. Step 2 of Regressions Testing for Class Level as a Moderator of the Relationships Between Personality/Coping Variables and GPA......Page 222
Several mediation analyses were conducted. In these analyses, cases of missing data were excluded listwise. As described by Kenny (2009), partial mediation exists under the following conditions: (1) The initial variable (in this case, a Big Five vari.........Page 223
For freshmen, both conscientiousness and openness to experience correlated with GPA. The coping mechanisms that correlated with GPA for freshmen were planning, behavioral disengagement, denial, and the broad factor, disengagement. Among these three c.........Page 224
Table 10.9. Mediation Analysis Steps for the Relationship Between Conscientiousness, Planning, and GPA for Freshmen......Page 225
Although engaging with one’s own thoughts and emotions (i.e., utilizing the coping mechanisms growth, acceptance, and humor) is likely to be helpful in many life contexts such as coping with grief or with trauma (e.g., Park, 2010), it is not clear .........Page 226
Given that conscientiousness is a known correlate of college performance, the question arises regarding mechanism: Through what mechanism does conscientiousness impact college GPA? In the current study, one mechanism has been revealed, the coping mec.........Page 227
Some shortcomings are associated with the current study. The sample sizes for academic class levels are small, particularly for freshmen (n = 30) and seniors (n = 27). A weak association exists between academic class level and sex of participant, and.........Page 228
REFERENCES......Page 229
Table 10.3. Correlations Between GPA, Personality, and Coping Variables for the Total Sample......Page 217
Table 10.2. Means and Standard Deviations for Big Five Traits, Coping Mechanisms, and GPA......Page 215
Table 10.4. Correlations Between GPA, Personality, and Coping Variables for Freshmen......Page 218
Table 10.5. Correlations Between GPA, Personality, and Coping Variables for Sophomores......Page 219
Table 10.7. Correlations Between GPA, Personality, and Coping Variables for Seniors......Page 221
Table 10.6. Correlations Between GPA, Personality, and Coping Variables for Juniors......Page 220
The FFM suggests that personality can be understood through a higher-order factor structure of five traits, which include neuroticism, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. Research suggests, primarily from using the NEO-Perso.........Page 233
Lazarus (2006) stated that stress refers to a conjunction of personal characteristics and cognitive appraisals of environmental threat or harm. The stress response is triggered by a person’s appraisal of the relationship between encountered demands.........Page 234
The above discussion of the relationship between personality and coping mainly refers to coping that takes place after a life demand has been engaged, and Matheny et al. (1986) and Aspinwall and Taylor (1997) both noted that most research and interve.........Page 235
In parallel, counseling instructional materials have argued that both personal and professional self-care are cornerstones to the mental health profession (Hill, 2001; Kottler, 2003). Self-care physical, emotional, and financial domains align with th.........Page 236
There were four key constructs of interest in this study. The first construct was the personality factors of the counselor trainees, which were operationalized through the FFM by facet scores on the NEO-FFI. The second construct was the global, perce.........Page 237
Online survey links were emailed to a random sample of counselor trainees. Participants were volunteers, and they were instructed that their answers would be anonymous and not affect their status or training evaluations. They were incentivized for th.........Page 238
Two studies aimed at investigating reliability and validity evidence for the PRI were conducted by McCarthy et al. (2002), who conducted a factor analysis that lent support to the initial factor structure of the measure, and Lambert et al. (2006), wh.........Page 239
The examiners constructed a 30-item self-care behavior inventory that asked respondents to rate their overall health (excellent, good, fair, poor) and mood (very happy, happy, neutral, sad, very sad), as well as the average weekly frequency (last 30 .........Page 240
RESULTS......Page 241
Table 11.1. Sample Means and Standard Deviations for NEO-FFI, Perceived Stress Scale, Preventive Coping Resources......Page 242
To explore these results further, we examined PRI T scores for practica levels 1, 2, and 3. Students enrolled in Practicum 2 reported the highest levels of coping resources (t = 53.36; SD = 8.76), compared with Practicum 1 students (t = 52.52; SD = 7.........Page 243
Table 1.2. Correlations Between PRI and Personality Factors (Pairwise Deletion) (n = 31)......Page 244
After checking for assumptions, a chi-square test for independence was conducted to examine the physical, emotional, and financial self-care factors of the counselor trainees, regardless of training level. Results indicated a statistically significan.........Page 245
DISCUSSION......Page 246
These results suggest that beginning practicum students who reported more neuroticism may be experiencing less emotional stability, which the literature suggests may tend to make them vulnerable to more psychological distress and negative affective s.........Page 247
The primary limitation of this study included the attrition rate and low number of counselor trainees who completed the study (N = 31). Given the smaller sample size in this study, it is unclear whether relationships between coping and personality co.........Page 248
REFERENCES......Page 249
Job stress does not automatically lead to burnout in everyone. There is the possibility that certain individuals may endure stressful situations and continue to function effectively in their job. For example, depending upon an individual’s goals, n.........Page 255
A related and equally significant approach to understanding the individual attributes of burnout, especially given the centrality of emotional exhaustion (Lee & Ashforth, 1996; Taris, Le Blanc, Schaufeli, & Schreurs, 2005), is the affective dispositi.........Page 256
To our knowledge, only two studies have examined the specific construct of affectivity in teachers or its relationship with teacher burnout. Both investigated whether the relationship between work characteristics and burnout was dependent upon (i.e.,.........Page 257
Generally speaking, resources refer to objects, characteristics, conditions, or energies that are “valued by the individual” (Hobfoll, 1989, p. 516). According to Hobfoll’s (1988) conservation of resources (COR) theory, stress occurs when such .........Page 258
Based on the latter form of coping, we believe there is another transactional factor: the management of emotion as part one’s job, termed emotional labor. Based on the idea that human service occupations, such as teaching, have organizationally-imp.........Page 259
It is important to note that emotional labor does not always entail emotional dissonance. Ashforth and Humphrey (1993) argued that there are many cases when employees accomplish emotional labor through a third strategy: authenticity, or the genuine e.........Page 260
A MIXED METHOD STUDY......Page 261
Afterward, qualitative data were collected via individual interviews using stratified purposeful sampling (Patton, 2002). Six teachers who ranked at the most extreme “low” end of the emotional exhaustion subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory .........Page 262
Emotional labor strategies were measured via the deep acting and surface acting subscales of the Emotional Labour Scale (ELS) (Brotheridge & Lee, 2003). Each three item measure was rated on a scale of 1 (never) to 5 (always) in response to the stem, .........Page 263
As for the study’s main variables, participants scored above the midpoint on deep acting and slightly above on positive affectivity and surface acting. This indicates that the sampled teachers had higher perceptions on all of these subscales. Paire.........Page 264
Table 12.2. summarizes the results obtained from three separate hierarchical regression analyses for each burnout dimension, where all significant affectivity, job demands, job resources, and emotional labor variables obtained from the bivariate corr.........Page 266
All six low burnout teachers emphasized the importance of happiness in their daily functioning. For instance, Donna (English) said, “I think I’m happy for the most part and I think my students probably perceive me as being a happy person.” Kenn.........Page 268
To these teachers, this constant effort of summoning positive feelings did not seem to be bothersome or detrimental, but rather, just something that positively oriented teachers do. Therefore, maybe positive affectivity teachers are more capable of d.........Page 269
DISCUSSION......Page 270
There are additional findings that deserve mention. Qualitative results seem to suggest that PA and deep acting together might be the best combination for reducing teacher burnout. However, given that the correlation between the two only approached s.........Page 271
Lastly, although job features were not the emphasis of this study, frequent student discipline, low administrative support, and poor salary/ fringe benefits surfaced as significant predictors of teacher burnout. In general, these findings provide emp.........Page 272
First, rooted in positive psychology principles (Schaufeli et al., 2009), build positive qualities in NA teachers by fostering work engagement opportunities. Administrators and teacher educators can come to learn what kinds of work activities are of .........Page 273
2. Based on statistics posted either on the school’s or state’s department of education website.......Page 274
REFERENCES......Page 275
Table 12.1. Descriptive Statistics and Bivariate Correlations Between Burnout Dimensions and Study Variables (N = 85)......Page 265
Table 12.2. Summary of Hierarchical Liner Regression Analyses Using the Stepwise Procedure for the Study Predictors of Burnout Dimensions in Teachers (N = 85)......Page 267
Teachers and students from the treatment and control groups completed a battery of surveys in the fall and spring of the school year. The surveys were designed to tap participants’ perceptions of their own wellness, as well as their perceptions of .........Page 290
The evidence that teachers have an especially great risk of experiencing stress may stem from the depersonalization and sense of isolation that is common in the profession (Demarrais & LeCompte, 1999). The scheduling demands of the work day; the cons.........Page 283
Notably, recent research suggests that people are capable of acquiring a stress-hardy mindset, or a kind of resiliency, rather than seeing it as a fixed, inborn trait. For example, in their qualitative study of resilient teachers (i.e., teachers who .........Page 284
STUDENT RISK AND RESILIENCE, AND CLASSROOM CLIMATE......Page 285
THE PROMISE OF MINDFULNESS-BASED PRACTICES......Page 286
There is evidence that teaching mindfulness-based techniques to individuals with temperamental tendencies toward negative emotional states can be especially effective (Feltman, Robinson, & Ode, 2009). Recent studies in the field of neuroscience have .........Page 287
Third, treatment group members attended a fall weekend residential retreat. The retreat was designed to honor the genuine need for rest and rejuvenation while also introducing educators to practical strategies for staying calm, strong, and creative w.........Page 288
Teachers were recruited to participate in the study through a variety of methods, including flyers, advertisements in teacher newsletters, and e- mails to the Inner Resilience community. Recruitment took place over the course of 5 months prior to the.........Page 289
Repeated measures statistical analyses indicated that the program had a statistically significant and meaningful impact for participating treatment teachers (in comparison to control group teachers) on three teacher wellness factors: reducing teacher.........Page 295
Table 13.5. Classroom Climate Qualities Measured and Results......Page 297
Table 13.6. Student Wellness Qualities Measured and Results......Page 298
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION......Page 300
The within-treatment analyses provided the most useful results with regard to effectiveness of the program on specific populations. Analyses comparing “high-risk” students to the rest of the treatment group suggest that the most vulnerable studen.........Page 302
While this study provided interesting and important preliminary results, much research remains to be done. For example, further research is needed to examine whether increased strength and duration of treatment would demonstrate greater impact. It is.........Page 303
REFERENCES......Page 304
Table 13.2. Demographic Composition of the Student Sample by Group......Page 291
Table 13.3. Instruments and Scales......Page 292
Table 13.3. (Continued)......Page 293
Table 13.4. Teacher Wellness Qualities Measured and Results......Page 296
Table 13.7. Student Academic Outcomes Results......Page 299
Table 13.8. Summary Table for High-Risk Analyses......Page 301
These stressful school experiences continue through high school and college, and become even harder to deal with, as you are increasingly separated from your parents and safe-house. Before you realize it, you have reached the age wherein you are expe.........Page 309
Another ongoing megatrend of our time is globalization. Its upside is our greater knowledge of, and interaction with people all around the world. But, the downside constituted by globalization to societies and communities is the threat to their value.........Page 310
In summary, the combination of ongoing developmental requirements, and imposed megatrends, makes living a continual experience of stressful changes that is quite consistent with the existential assumption that life is by its nature a stressful phenom.........Page 311
Figure 14.1. The Hardiness model.......Page 312
Further, as depicted in Figure 14.1, the most basic and direct of the hardy strategies is hardy (problem solving) coping (Khoshaba & Maddi, 2004). This involves perceiving stresses accurately and fully, figuring out what is the most advantageous thin.........Page 313
IMPLICATIONS OF HARDINESS FOR SCHOOL PERFORMANCE AND QUALITY OF LIFE......Page 314
In contrast, students and teachers high in the existential courage of hardiness will have the motivation to do the hard work involved in turning school stresses to advantage in the learning process. Specifically, they will engage in Hardy (problem-so.........Page 315
This consistent parental approach of assisting and encouraging their children to stay involved, try to turn stresses to their advantage, and grow in the process, will lead to hardiness in the youngsters. This initially positive approach to schooling .........Page 316
In the 6 years of the study following the deregulation, roughly two- thirds of the IBT managers in the research sample were severely disrupted, disoriented, demoralized, and showed health deterioration. These problems showed up in increased “wear a.........Page 317
MEASUREMENT OF HARDY ATTITUDES......Page 318
The most recent hardy attitudes measure, the Personal Views Survey, third edition revised (PVS III-R), is an 18 item questionnaire showing adequate reliability and validity (Maddi, Harvey, Khoshaba, Lu, Persico, & Brow, 2006; Maddi, Harvey, Khoshaba,.........Page 319
There are also accumulated findings indicating that hardiness renders self-confidence and resiliency to people experiencing stressful changes. For example, hardy attitudes have a buffering effect on both strain and illness symptoms (e.g., Bartone, Ur.........Page 320
There have also been two studies done so far with the express purpose of comparing hardiness and other relevant factors in their relative effects on performance and health. One study (Maddi & Hightower, 1999) showed that, in samples of students and w.........Page 321
Since that time, the hardiness training procedure has expanded to include exercises that include not only hardy attitudes and problem-solving coping, but also socially supportive interactions, and effective self- care (Khoshaba & Maddi, 2004). Recent.........Page 322
The first step in the problem-solving coping is for the trainee to make a list of all the stressful circumstances that are currently being experienced, and have not yet been solved. Then they engage in the following pattern for each of the stressful .........Page 323
In the social support component of HardiTraining (Khoshaba & Maddi, 2004), trainees evaluate, and improve as necessary, the effectiveness and value of their interaction networks with such significant others as family members, coworkers, friends, and .........Page 324
CONCLUDING REMARKS......Page 325
REFERENCES......Page 326
ABOUT THE AUTHORS......Page 330
Back Cover
......Page 339