What Coping Functions are Served when Health Behaviours are Used as Coping Strategies?

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Health Behavior Research

Background:

• Health behaviors are often employed as coping strategies.
• Understanding the specific functions these behaviors serve is crucial for psychological well-being.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify the coping functions served by health behaviors (unhealthy eating, exercise, self-care) when used as coping strategies.
• To differentiate the coping functions across different health behavior strategies.

Main Methods:

• Preliminary questionnaire to identify individuals using specific health behaviors for coping.
• Follow-up questionnaire to assess coping functions.
• Principal components analysis and discriminant analysis to analyze data.

Main Results:

• Five coping function variables were identified: Problem Solving, Feeling Better, Avoidance, Time Out, and Prevention.
• Exercise and self-care groups primarily utilized Prevention with Problem Solving functions.
• The exercise group also scored high on Time Out without Problem Solving, unlike the self-care group.

Conclusions:

• Health behaviors serve diverse coping functions beyond problem-focused, emotion-focused, and avoidance.
• Specific health behaviors are associated with unique combinations of coping functions.
• These findings enhance our understanding of how individuals use health behaviors to manage stress.