An empirical assessment of stress-coping styles in military pilots

Although aircraft pilots are generally regarded as having superior stress-coping skills, there has been relatively little empirical research on how pilots cope with stress. New stress-coping models and measures for understanding and assessing these previously elusive processes greatly facilitate the empirical study of stress-coping styles. This study employed a new measure of stress-coping style, rationally developed from an integrative model of coping, to study stress-coping in U.S. Army pilots. Results indicated that the pilots preferred problem-focused stress-coping strategies oriented towards direct action to master stressful situations. Also, the pilots tended to deemphasize emotion-focused forms of coping with stress. Differences in stress-coping between pilots and samples of aircrewmen and non-rated military personnel suggest that this coping style reflects differences in psychological functioning independent from the pilots' adaptation to the aviation and military environment.