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The hypothesis that the ability to comfortably spend and use time alone is a buffer against effects of stress, comparable to social support, was tested. A 20-item instrument was developed to evaluate the capacity to be alone (Winnicott, 1958) and was then administered by telephone survey to 500 U.S. adults. Findings differed for two dimensions of the capacity to be alone. Reported comfort in being alone was found to be related to lower depression, fewer physical symptoms, and greater satisfaction with life. Reported ability to use time alone to deal with stress was not related to well-being. Neither dimension showed the expected interaction with stress, and individuals with high stress who reported high solitary coping exhibited greater vulnerability on one dimension of well-being, suggesting that this coping style may reflect maladjustment.

A 15-year-old girl's daily life is a vivid testimony to the hardships the Korean high school student is faced with. She leaves home for school at 7 A. M., taking two lunch bags, one for supper, with her. After regular classes end at 5 P.M., she attends the "autonomous study classes" studying by herself until 10 P.M. The exhausted young girl returns home at about 10:30 P.M. and gets to bed around midnight at the earliest. Under the current system, this will be her life for three years. Of course, there is no guarantee she will be able to enter the university she wants. She has no family life, except for Sundays, and they hardly ever see each other, let alone get together at the dining table for dinner. People call this "ipsi chiok," entrance examination hell. ["High School Students Deprived of Spring," 1996, p. 13].

This study tested the hypothesis that coping is related to a reduction in psychological distress and physical symptoms, as experienced by adolescents while enduring highly demanding examination stress. Using the university entrance examination stress faced by Korean adolescents, the study examined whether specific coping strategies for exam stress are related to psychological and physical adjustment and whether these strategies moderate the relationship between additional life event stress and adjustment. A sample of 358 Korean students in the 12th grade reported their level of additional life event stress, the coping strategies they were using to cope with exam and non-exam stress, and their levels of depression and physical symptoms. Problem-solving and information-seeking coping were found to be related to reduction in depression; however, emotional-discharge coping was related to increase in physical symptoms. Coping with exam stress was found to be related to adjustment and independent of the level of additional life event stress.

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