The effectiveness of coping behavior depends not only on a successful strategy but also on the individual characteristics of a person. Age, sex, intelligence, social status, gender identity - all these influence the coping ability and resilience of an individual. In mo- dern psychological research, there is some confusion between the concepts of ‘sex’ and ‘gender.’ Despite numerous studies on male and female coping strategies, gender differences in coping behavior are still poorly understood. The purpose of the study was to analyze gender-specific coping strategies of middle-aged men and women. Russian men and women (N = 286) were divided by gender (masculine, androgynous, feminine). The research was made using The Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BPRT) and Lazarus Folkman’s Test Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ). This study employed a cross-sectional design. Differences among the groups were assessed using the Kruskal - Wallis H test, Mann - Whitney U test and Student t-test. The specificity of coping behavior was found to be determined by the gender identity of the study participants. The results of the present study support the gender differences hypothesis, since people with differences in biological sexual identity (male and female) use gender-specific coping strategies (masculine, feminine, or androgynous) if their gender orientations are the same. The research of masculinity, androgyny and femininity can become an important step in the long-term study of coping behavior and the basis for a better understanding of the dynamics of human behavior in a stressful situation.

This article is based on knowledge in the field of social psychology and sports psychology. The purpose of the study was to identify and determine socio-psychological reasons for the termination of partnership of high-class dancers by the survey of respondents and further processing of the data obtained by the content analysis method. As a result of the conducted scientific research, 13 "socio-psychological" reasons were identified which can negatively influence dance partnership. In total, the survey participants identified 27 reasons for the ending of dance partnership. They can be distinguished to 3 different groups depending on their "objectivity". The relevance and scientific novelty of the study lies in the accurate calculation and differentiation of ambiguous reasons for the termination of dance partnership, which are associated with the inability or unwillingness of dancers to come to a consensus.