IMPOSED AND CHOSEN MONITORING AND BLUNTING STRATEGIES IN THE DENTAL SETTING - EFFECTS, SELF-EFFICACY, AND COPING PREFERENCE

In the present study, 94 dental patients received either monitoring (i .e., paying attention) or blunting (i.e., distraction) coping instruct ions during treatment. Half of the patients were given the possibility of choice, whereas the other half were offered one of both strategies without choice. A majority of the patients (n=61) indicated that the intervention had resulted in a decrease of their anxiety. Some indicat ions were found for the monitoring strategy to be more effective than the blunting strategy. More specifically, monitoring strategy subjects reported that they had experienced less distress during treatment tha n blunting strategy subjects. In agreement with this finding, self-eff icacy ratings of monitoring strategy subjects were higher than those o f blunting strategy subjects. Possibility of choice and coping prefere nce had no substantial influence on effectiveness of the interventions .