Not all disengagement coping strategies are created equal: positive distraction, but not avoidance, can be an adaptive coping strategy for chronic life stressors

ABSTRACT

Background: Positive distraction involves distracting oneself from a stressor by thinking about or engaging in activities that induce positive emotion. We hypothesized that although it is a disengagement coping strategy, which have been historically viewed as maladaptive (e.g., avoidance), positive distraction can be an adaptive version that predicts positive outcomes.

Design: To test this hypothesis, we developed a scale to measure positive and neutral distraction (distracting oneself by engaging in daily activities) in response to chronic stressors in 3 samples (MTurk1, N = 206; undergraduate, N = 376; MTurk2, N = 200). We then correlated the use of these strategies with outcomes in these samples and another undergraduate sample (N = 370).

Results: Exploratory SEM confirmed that the scale consists of two factors corresponding to positive and neutral distraction, which were positively correlated with avoidance. However, unlike avoidance, positive distraction (and to a lesser degree neutral distraction) was related to positive outcomes such as higher well-being and positive emotions, and fewer depressive symptoms especially when controlling for avoidance.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that positive distraction can be an adaptive disengagement coping strategy for chronic stressors when controlling for avoidance and should be incorporated into coping studies and interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• Positive distraction
• avoidance
• coping
• chronic stress
• well-being
• depression

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Thomas McLean for his contributions to previous versions of this scale, Dr. Melissa Masicampo for helping with data collection, and the Emotional Adaptation and Psychophysiology lab at Wake Forest University for helping to generate the initial items for the scale. Elaine Shing is now at Atrium Health, [email protected].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by an internal grant from Wake Forest University awarded to Christian Waugh and the Louis Argenta Physician-Scientist Fellowship from Wake Forest School of Medicine awarded to Elaine Z. Shing.