Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 9, 2026

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test
Published on: November 19, 2015
The Longitudinal Examination of Associations Among Coping Styles, Sociocultural Context, and Re-Entry Stress After
Adela Černigoj1, Paul E Jose1, Ágnes Szabó1
1Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Abstract:
This research explored how approach, acceptance, and avoidance coping styles predicted re-entry stress. Second, it examined how home country sociocultural factors (individualism/collectivism, flexibility/monumentalism, cultural heterogeneity, and Human Development Index) predicted re-entry stress. Third, interaction effects between coping styles and country-level variables on re-entry stress were explored. We analyzed data from an 18-month longitudinal study which followed 1485 high school students before going abroad, while staying abroad, and after returning home. Students came from 45 home countries and studied abroad for 8-10 months. When controlling for baseline levels of stress, multilevel modeling analyses showed that acceptance coping predicted lower re-entry stress while avoidance coping predicted greater re-entry stress. Participants returning home to countries with higher collectivism and cultural homogeneity experienced greater re-entry stress. Collectivism moderated the effect of approach coping on re-entry stress, so that coping by not approaching the stressor was associated with greater stress in collectivist cultures.
Related Concept Videos
Introduction to Stress and Lifestyle
Psychological and Sociocultural Causes of Schizophrenia
Psychological Responses to Stress
Longitudinal Research
Coping Strategies: Emotion Focused
Attachment Styles

