Coping Styles for Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to examine whether specific coping styles are associated with self-reported anxiety in a sample of older adults. A total of 210 community-dwelling older adults completed self-report measures of anxiety and depression and the Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced scale. Results indicated that a tendency to utilize dysfunctional coping strategies predicted anxiety symptomatology in late life, with older adults who reported high levels of anxiety more likely to report using dysfunctional coping. After controlling for depressive symptoms, use of venting and self-blame made an independent contribution in predicting anxiety symptoms. Overall, 65% of the variance in anxiety symptoms was explained by education, depressive affect, and use of self-blame and venting as coping strategies. Our findings indicate that specific coping styles such as venting and self-blame are associated with experiencing high levels of anxiety symptoms in late life. These results suggest that targeting specific dysfunctional copying styles may be useful for prevention strategies and interventions treating anxiety in late life.

KEYWORDS:

• aging
• anxiety
• coping style
• depression
• venting