Coping strategies in the management of traumatic events and cognitive and emotional processing from disclosure

Abstract

Introduction: People use coping strategies to adapt themselves to adverse circumstances. The Cognitive and Emotional Processing from Disclosure helps to understand how to think about certain life events has implications for coping and psychosocial adjustment facing traumatic experiences [1]. The main objective of this study is to identify the most used coping strategies and cognitive and emotional processing by individuals who have experienced traumatic events.

Materials and methods: This study comprised 465 Portuguese adults (M = 31.04, SD = 13.87). The sample was divided in two groups: G1 – participants who had experienced a traumatic event (n = 439, 94.4%) and G2 – participants who had not experienced a traumatic event (n = 26, 5.6%). The participants responded online to the sociodemographic questionnaire, the Cognitive and Emotional Processing from Disclosure [2] and the Brief-COPE [3]. The study was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki.

Results: The results of one way ANOVA showed that are significant differences between groups in what regards coping strategies and that G1 mostly used the following coping strategies: Planning [F(1.464) = 6.477, p = .011]; Positive Reframing [F(1.464) = 5.096, p = .024]; Acceptance [F(1.464) = 7.993, p = .005]; Behavioral Disengagement [F(1.464) = 5.408, p = .020] and Substance Use [F(1.464) = 6.158, p = .013]. From the G1, we compared the coping strategies in relation to the different types of trauma and we obtained the following results: The Emotional Processing was the most used strategy in the traumatic experience of voluntary interruption of pregnancy [F(13.464) = 4.680, p = .031], the Active Coping [F(13.464) = 8.190, p = .004] and the resource to Religion [F(13.464) = 8.260, p= .004] were the most used strategies on severe illness of one’s own, the Planning was the most used strategy on Severe illness of a close person [F(13.464) = 12.465, p < .001], the Emotional Social Support was the strategy most often used in autoimmune disease [F(13.464) = 5.686, p = .018], the Positive Reframing was the most used strategy in divorce [F(13.464) = 5.310, p = .022], the Self-Blame was the most used strategy when experiencing a crime of theft or robbery [F(13.464) = 6.274, p = .013], the Denial was the strategy most used in persecution [F(13.464) = 7.681, p = .006], and the Self-Distraction was the strategy most used when experiencing aggression [F(13.464) = 9.264, p = .002].

Discussion and conclusions: The coping strategies most used by the participants were the planning, acceptance, substance use and the behavioral disengagement. We verified statistically significant differences between the different coping strategies in the different types of trauma. Coping strategies are important so that individuals can develop skills to manage traumatic experience effectively [4]. Further studies with a larger and similar sample on both groups are recommended.