The impact of cognitive-behavioural stress management coaching on changes in cognitive appraisal and the stress response: a field experiment

Figures & data

Table 1. Means (standard deviations) and within-condition effects over time for the primary (goal attainment, chronic stress) and secondary (cognitive stress appraisal) outcomes.

Outcome	T0	T1	T2	df	F	p, ${\eta }_p^2$
Goal attainment
Coaching condition^a,b	3.92 (1.86)	7.04 (0.91)	7.13 (1.85)	2	31.08	.000, .58
Control condition^a,b	4.45 (2.11)	6.40 (2.11)	6.90 (1.97)	2	16.69	.000, .47
Chronic Stress Screening
Coaching condition^a,b	2.04 (0.82)	1.58 (0.67)	1.52 (0.71)	2	6.88	.002, .23
Control condition	1.83 (0.85)	1.60 (0.89)	1.93 (0.81)	2	2.27	.117, .11
High work demands
Coaching condition^a,b	2.25 (0.70)	1.91 (0.67)	1.84 (0.64)	2	5.14	.010, .18
Control condition	2.00 (0.58)	1.83 (0.77)	2.15 (0.76)	2	2.78	.074, .13
Lack of need satisfaction
Coaching condition^a,b	1.46 (0.43)	1.25 (0.52)	1.20 (0.51)	2	5.10	.010, .18
Control condition	1.45 (0.63)	1.29 (0.56)	1.53 (0.82)	2	1.15	.329, .06
Chronic worrying
Coaching condition^a,b	2.32 (0.95)	1.72 (0.80)	1.60 (0.95)	2	6.70	.016, .23
Control condition	2.09 (0.96)	1.71 (1.13)	2.16 (0.94)	2	3.17	.053, .14
Cognitive stress appraisal
Coaching condition^a,b	0.65 (1.37)	−0.18 (1.19)	−0.73 (1.29)	2	7.50	.012, .25
Control condition	0.48 (1.55)	0.19 (1.29)	0.21 (1.15)	2	< 1	.487, .03

Note. T0 = pre-treatment; T1 = post-treatment; T2 = 4-week follow-up. ^a T0 vs. T1 p < .050. ^b T0 vs. T2 p < .050. The response format of the goal attainment measure was from 1 (not at all achieved) to 10 (fully achieved), of the chronic stress screening measure was from 0 (never) to 4 (very often), and of the cognitive stress appraisal measure was from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). The cognitive stress appraisal was calculated by the difference between the Primary Appraisal and Secondary Appraisal scales (PASA index); the lower the difference score, the lower an individual`s cognitive stress appraisal.

Figure 1. The effects of the coaching condition on chronic stress subscales via cognitive stress appraisal. Participants’ change in cognitive stress appraisal was expressed by the difference between participants’ PASA Index scores at T0 and T2. The intervention condition was entered as independent variable to examine the effects on the dependent variables Chronic Stress Screening, High Work Demands, and Chronic Worrying scores at T2 (with T0 scores as a covariate). Values in square brackets represent the 95% bias-corrected confidence interval for indirect effects. †p < .10, *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.