Stability of coping style 33 years after prolonged exposure to extreme stress

Respondents who were in hiding or in the armed resistance movement in Nazi occupied Europe are assumed to have had avoidant and confronting coping styles, respectively. Responses to questionnaire items tapping behavior, attitudes and perceptions were examined in the two groups for the persistence of these same traits 33 years after World War II, in a study of randomly selected community sample of Jews. Taken as a whole, but not individually, responses to the questionnaire items suggested that the traits did persist (P less than 0.001). The results highlight the importance of distinguishing individual differences in coping style when studying the long-term effects of prolonged, stressful experiences.