Personality and coping with a common stressor: Cardiac catheterization

The association between coping and personality was examined in a sample of 204 cardiac cathererization patients who were asked to evaluate the rise of specific coping strategies used to deal with their cardiac catheterization . Personality, as measured by the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (FFI), was mode rately correlated with coping measures. In multivariate analyses, after con sidering confounding factors, Neuroticism was positively and Extraversion w as negatively related to avoidance coping and Neuroticism was negatively as sociated with counting one's blessings as a coping strategy. Personality wa s not related to either problem solving or seeking social support coping st rategies for individuals experiencing a cardiac catheterization. However, i mportant covariates were associated with coping strategies. Not being marri ed was negatively correlated with use of seeking social support and not hav ing a confidant was negatively related with seeking social support and posi tively with avoidance. These results suggest that there are specific relati onships between personality and coping, but these relationships are, for th e most parr, moderate in persons coping with a cardiac catheterization, and that coping processes are associated with individual differences in availa ble social resources