Emotions, coping, and psychological well-being in elderly people with arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis, the most destructive and crippling of all forms of arthritis, poses a number of stressful demands on individuals. In a sample of elderly women (N = 59) and men (N = 19) with rheumatoid arthritis, the relationship between social economic status, severity of impairment, sex, stress emotions, type of coping strategy, and psychological well-being was explored. Path analysis results indicated that higher social economic status was directly related to greater use of confrontive types of coping strategies. Severity of impairment had a direct, negative influence on psychological well-being, but sex was not an important factor. Optimistic coping strategies were used most often and emotive coping strategies the least.