THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COPING AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING AMONG PEOPLE WITH OSTEOARTHRITIS - A PROBLEM-SPECIFIC APPROACH

We examined the strategies that people with osteoarthritis (OA) use to cope with illness-related problems in four areas: household activitie s, leisure activities, pain management, and social relationships. We a lso examined the relationship between the coping strategies participan ts reported using upon entry to the study (Time 1) and psychological w ell-being reported six months later. Three hundred people, aged 50 and over, with OA participated in the study. Data were collected via two mailed questionnaires, administered at six-month intervals. We found t hat two of the coping strategies examined, self-criticism and social w ithdrawal, were used more frequently for social relationship problems than for any of the other three types of problems. None of the other c oping strategies (i.e. problem solving, cognitive restructuring, socia l support, emotional expression, problem avoidance, fuming to religion , information seeking) were used differentially across problem areas. Multivariate analyses revealed that the coping strategies people used at Time 1 significantly predicted psychological well-being, as assesse d by measures of positive affect, negative affect, and depressive symp toms, six months later. However, the specific strategies that predicte d positive affect were different from those that predicted negative af fect and depressive symptoms. Implications of these findings for futur e research on coping with chronic illness are discussed.