Social support, threat, and coping responses and effectiveness in the functionally disabled

A causal model based on Lazarus' (1966) cognitively oriented theory of psychological stress and coping was tested in a functionally disabled population to determine the effects of social support variables, threat appraisal, and coping responses on coping effectiveness. Social support variables (perceived availability of social support, perceived effectiveness of social support, and personal constraints to the use of social support) were hypothesized to effect coping responses both directly and through the variable of threat appraisal. Coping responses (use of social support, cognitive reappraisal, emotion-focused coping, and problem-focused coping) were hypothesized to directly effect coping effectiveness and to mediate the effect of all other variables. Data from 50 functionally disabled, wheel-chair-bound individuals discharged within 3 years from two rehabilitation facilities were analyzed using path analysis. The model fit the data and accounted for 61% of the variance in coping effectiveness. Findings indicated that perceived availability of social support, but not the use of social support, was significantly and positively related to coping effectiveness through the mediating variables of problem- and emotion-focused coping. In contrast to the relationship of marital status to coping effectiveness usually found in the literature, nonmarried subjects coped more effectively and perceived less threat.