Impact of demographic factors on usage of stress coping strategies chosen by elderly people

Abstract

Background. Old age is a particular time in which people experience plenty of changes -both progressive and regressive. Their social and economic position is changing, and human beings are confronted with a lot of difficult situations, such as the death of a spouse, illness, retirement -which particularly require them to apply a proper strategy of coping with stress. Objectives. The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between the demographic factors and strategies of coping with stress used by elderly people. Material and methods. The study was carried out on a group of 296 residents of Szczecin who are over 60 years old. It was conducted by means of a diagnostic survey with the use of the Inventory to Measure coping Strategies with Stress -Mini-cOPE, as well as an original questionnaire form. The statistical analysis was conducted by means of SPSS Statistics 21.0 (p ≤ 0.05). Results. The results have proven the existence of a relationship between the strategies of coping with stress used by individuals over 60 and factors such as gender, level of education, economic status and financial situation. Conclusions. When coping with stress, men and women apply different strategies. In case of individuals over 60, the higher level of education and financial status they declare, the more eager they are to use active strategies of coping with stress. Seniors with a lower level of education and lower economic status have more trouble adapting to difficult situations. They have problems with taking the initiative and actively dealing with stressful events. They also more often use psychoactive substances as part of their coping mechanism. Key words: strategies of coping with stress, elderly people, demographic factors, economic status.

Stress appraisal as a mediator between the sense of coherence and the frequency of stress coping strategies in women and men duringCOVID‐19 lockdown

“…Previous findings also confirmed that pandemic changes emotion recognition in a confinement situation (Meléndez, Satorres, Reyes‐Olmedo, Delhom, Real & Lora , 2020 ). Although the consequences of the restrictive lockdown and protracted pandemic affect both women and men, based on previous research, we suppose to observe some gender differences in the level of stress experienced, its evaluation, and the stress‐coping intensity (Asturias, Andrew, Boardman & Kerr, 2021 ; Ishiguro, Inoue, Fisher et al ., 2019 ; Lembas, Starkowska, Mak et al ., 2017 ).…”

The influence of psychosocial factors on distress expression

“…individual factors are emphasized as stressful factors at work by others as well [4]. another study has revealed that younger age and female gender are significant predictors of a greater stress score [21][22][23]. What is more, lack of knowledge was seen as a factor influencing stress in yet a further study [26].…”

“…Stress expression is influenced by various psychosocial and demographic factors. Herein, education, age, and gender have a different correlation with the distress expression [21,22]. psychosocial factors have a direct effect on stress by changing posture through stress.…”

The use of religious and personal resources in coping with stress during COVID-19 for Palestinians

“…Moreover, people with higher levels of education turn to religion less often, whereas individuals with lower levels of education use positive reframing less often. Therefore, people with lower levels of education are perceived to be less capable of coping quickly with stressful situations than those with higher levels of education (Lembas et al, 2017 ; Nielsen et al, 2008 ).…”