COPING STYLES AND HEALTH

The present study aims to clarify whether strategies that people use t o handle stressful situations cluster into global coping styles and wh ether such coping styles would be related to subjective health paramet ers. In previous literature 'coping styles' have been treated under ma ny labels (e.g, ways of coping, defence mechanisms, personality traits , appraisal strategies) and have been assessed by many instruments. Th ere are, however, few studies on the relationships between these conce pts and instruments In this study 254 male high school teachers were t ested with the Utrecht Coping List, the Defence Mechanism Inventory, t he Life Style Index and the Internal, Powerful Others and Chance locus of control scales. In addition, the teachers filled out questionnaire s on stressful events and on psychological and physical health complai nts. Factor analysis showed four interpretable clusters of coping styl es: two clusters with defensive strategies ('cognitive defence' and 'd efensive hostility') and two clusters with coping styles ('instrumenta l mastery-oriented coping' and 'emotion-focused coping'). The 'instrum ental mastery-oriented coping' and the 'cognitive defence' factor play ed a positive moderating role in the effect of stressful situations on subjective health parameters.