[Coping with stress strategies among female patients suffering from a depression]

Within the past few years there was an ever increasing number of scientific publications focusing on the question of stress, new theories were created as well as efforts were taken to classify them. According to stress researchers, finding out how to manage with stress and with difficulties (the strategy of coping) plays an even more important role than the phenomenon of stress itself. This is due to the fact that the former decides about the quality of one's life. Stressful transactions in the aspect of a disease seem to differ from everyday stressful problems. The intensity of stress and the capability of taking control over stress itself are different in the case of a danger of disease compared to an experience of disease, which influences applying certain coping strategies (task-aimed strategies).

The purpose the study was to determine the relationship between the social functioning of female patients suffering from depression with their coping style.

60 female patients with a diagnosed depression and 60 mentally ordered female patients were tested with the use of Endler's and Parker's Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations Questionnaire (CISS).

The study presents and describes the result of the research concerning female patients suffering from depression. The analysis of the results indicated the existence of differences in choosing coping strategies (task-aimed strategies) in both the studied groups of women.

The study shows that female patients with depression cope with stress mostly using emotional strategies, and the avoidance strategies are used the least often. Mentally ordered women however, most commonly use problem (task)-focused strategies.