Chronic pain patients (n=94) completed measures of physical and psychological functioning, health care utilization, pain beliefs, and use of pain coping strategies at admission and three to six months after inpatient pain treatment. Improved functioning and decreased health care use were associated with changes in both beliefs and cognitive coping…

Conducted convergent/divergent study on 6 Coping Resources Inventory for Stress (CRIS) scales using 68 graduate students as subjects. Each of CRIS scales converged with its validating test and diverged from test that measures different construct. Results support construct validity of CRIS scales and suggest it may be promising research and…

Conducted semistructured interviews with 100 young prisoners, 50 of whom had attempted suicide. Found that suicide attempters differed from general young prisoner population by extent of background deprivation and inability to cope or make constructive use of their sentence. Combined effects of hopelessness, history, current situation, and…

Proposes that death anxiety is related to degree of individuation and self-actualization. Sees concerns about death increasing as people relinquish defenses, reach new levels of differentiation of self, and expand their lives and personal power. Notes that therapeutic progress poses existential dilemma. (Author/NB)

Examined obituary and in-memoriam announcements in Nigerian newspapers to determine dimension of content used to manage grief. Abstracted 10 dimensions of content that represented specific cultural behavior of people who exhibit a significant degree of similarity in management of grief. Findings suggest that openness to death is appropriate…

Examined personality factors and coping strategies among 50 spouse caregivers of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or related dementia. Results showed that personality traits explained 60% of variance in emotion-focused coping, 30% of variance in problem-focused coping, and 15% of variance associated with social support coping.…

Confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate alternative factor structures, based on previous exploratory factor analyses and coping dimensions derived from the theory of R. Lazarus, for the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (S. Folkman and R. Lazarus, 1988). Results from responses of 654 college graduates provide little support for the factor…

Harren's (1979) model of career decision making was tested with 107 female and 98 male college students. Path analysis revealed that personal growth initiative predicted environmental exploration and vocational identity. Coping style predicted self-exploration. The model was a better fit for women than for men. (SK)

Examines the relationship between counseling and research strategies with the context of a qualitative study of people coping with the aftermath of child sexual abuse. Identifies the counseling potential of the research situation. This is linked to the need for both researcher and research supervisor to develop additional skills. (Author/MKA)

This study examined relationship between a sense of humor and symptoms of depression among adolescents. Findings on measures of humor and depression for 140 adolescents revealed that a sense of humor can be reliably measured and may be inversely related to symptoms of depression. (LBT)

Comparison of 15 adults with acquired brain injury who learned internal compensatory strategies for deficits in visual processing with 15 controls showed significant improvements in both groups. (JOW)

Explores how couples cope with marital conflict from the early years of their relationships to the present time. Focuses on conflict management styles from face-to-face confrontation to avoidance, as well as gender and ethnicity influences on styles of coping with conflict. Implications for social work practice are discussed. (Author/MKA)

Discusses Erikson's theories on aging, Baltes and Baltes' concept of successful aging, and Warnick's work on counseling issues for successful aging. (SK)

A survey of 322 British women found some uniformity of opinion about aging and coping with age-related changes. Their attitudes were largely pragmatic rather than pessimistic and they saw positive as well as negative aspects of aging. (SK)

A retired elementary principal who was actively tied to her community for decades explains how to put a positive spin on retirement. New retirees should treasure their gifts and talents, develop new ones, take advantage of travel opportunities, mentor a new principal, and/or go back to college. (MLH)