Coping flexibility: Variability, fit and associations with efficacy, emotion regulation, decentering and responses to stress

Abstract

Coping flexibility is a promising approach to understanding risk and resilience, but it has been conceptualized in various ways. The aim of this study was to test convergence of coping-related flexibility measures with other coping-related competencies (coping self-efficacy, emotion regulation, decentering) and ways of coping.Participants were 885 students (M age = 21.5 years) who completed measures of flexibility (seven subscales), coping self-efficacy, emotion dysregulation, decentering, and ways of coping with recent interpersonal stressors. Breadth of coping was also examined, given its past use as a measure of flexibility. The seven flexibility subscales converged with each other as expected, and all were associated with greater coping-related competence, with moderate or large positive associations between the four measures of coping flexibility ability and other measures of coping-related competence. Regarding associations with ways of coping, multivariate models showed that perceived ability in coping flexibility had positive associations with engagement and negative associations with disengagement coping, but multiple situational/adaptive coping flexibility subscales were associated positively with both engagement and disengagement ways of coping. In addition, some findings were weak or counterintuitive, especially when ways of coping and breadth were considered, suggesting a need for more attention to precisely conceptualizing and appropriately measuring coping flexibility.

Diagnostics of psychological flexibility and the ability to cope with the inevitable changes among psychology students

“…Many studies indicate that emotional flexibility is either a predictor or a significant component for the effectiveness, self-awareness, self-confidence and psychological well-being of teachers and professions related to psychological competencies (Bullis et al, 2019 ; MacIntyre et al, 2019 ). This may be related both to the ability to transform the distress and disorders of patients, students and work partners, as well as to cope with one’s own stress (Zimmer-Gembeck, 2021 ). Teaching coping strategies should be closely related to the development of the psychological flexibility of professional psychologists.…”

“…Based on the foregoing, the researchers conclude that emotional flexibility presupposes dynamic and active behavior (Roth et al, 2019 ; Sheppes, 2020 ; Zimmer-Gembeck, 2021 ). Emotionally flexible person is able to adapt to a complex and rapidly changing world.…”

“…The problem under study is the degree of influence of psychology education, which deepens with each university course, on the personal emotional competence of students: their emotional intelligence and ability to cope with stress (Drigas & Papoutsi, 2020 ; Lea et al, 2019 ). These are the challenges that are most common and that almost every person has to face, and therefore a psychologist who can be professionally involved in counseling different personalities (Vigo et al, 2020 ; Zimmer-Gembeck, 2021 ).…”

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“…Decentering as a metacognitive capacity allows people to reflect on, evaluate and refine their judgment which can be applied to general stress coping (Keser et al, 2020;Zimmer-Gembeck, 2021). Numerous studies indicated the positive association between decentering and positive thinking, a reappraisal of stress, and constructive coping when facing stressful events (Bernstein et al, 2015;Duncan et al, 2021;.…”

Успешность Копинга

“…Люди с выраженной ригидностью копинга склонны к отрицанию стресса или избеганию, к предпочтению способов, которые ранее подтвердили свою эффективность (Екимчик, Крюкова, 2020). В то же время гибкость копинга положительно коррелирует с вовлеченностью и отрицательно -с уходом от стрессовых ситуаций (Zimmer-Gembeck, 2021).…”