Stress-Resilience, Illness, and Coping: A Person-Focused Investigation of Young Women Athletes

Abstract

Coping correlates of resilience, defined as resistance to illness in the face of exposure to high numbers of negative life events, were studied in a sample of 404 young women high school athletes. Negative life events and coping strategies were assessed preseason, and daily illness data were collected during the course of the season. Among athletes with high levels of exposure to negative life events, resilient (no illness time loss) and nonresilient (upper third of time loss distribution) groups were compared on 6 scales of the Ways of Coping Checklist. Coping profiles of the groups differed significantly, with resilient athletes favoring Problem-focused Coping and Seeking Social Support, and nonresilient athletes reporting greater use of Avoidance and Blaming Others. Correlations among Problem-focused Coping, Seeking Social Support, and Minimize Threat were higher in the resilient group. Results suggest that certain coping strategies may contribute to illness-resistance in the face of high life stress.

Variability Over Time-Since- Diagnosis in the Protective Effect of Psychological Resilience Against Depression in Australian Prostate Cancer Patients

“…As well as having been reported to intervene between the experience of traumatic events and the individual's later return to optimism in the face of such occurrences as old age (Jopp & Rott, 2006), chronic pain (Karoly & Reuhlman, 2006), and terrorist attack (Bonanno et al, 2007), resilience assists individuals to overcome the experience of trauma during early childhood and to progress to normal and satisfying lives (Watt, David, Ladd, & Shamos, 1995) and can reduce depression induced by stressful events (Andreescu et al, 2007). Resilience has also been reported to influence physical health, for example, as a protective effect against coronary heart disease in a 10-year study of 1,306 men (Kubzansky, Sparrow, Vokonas, & Kawachi, 2001), chronic illness in adults (Becker & Newsom, 2005) and children (Vinson, 2002), and in helping avoid the onset of illness (Yi, Smith, & Vitaliano, 2005). Initially investigated as a psychological variable, resilience has a biological basis that relies on plasticity of the reward and fear circuits in the brain (Bergstrom, Jayatissa, Thykjaer, & Wiborg, 2007), suggesting that resilience may be learnt and that preventative as well as treatment modalities should be considered (Haglund, Nestadt, Cooper, Southwick, & Charney, 2007).…”

Resiliency against stress among athletes

“…In the research by Yi, Smith and Vitaliano (2005), resilient female competitors more often applied adaptive stress coping strategies (focused on the problem, seeking social support, minimizing threat) than non-resilient competitors. In the case of applying non-adaptive strategies such as blaming others or avoiding, the interrelations were opposite.…”

Relação entre esporte, resiliência, qualidade de vida e ansiedade

“…Entretanto, não se sabe o papel do esporte de alto nível na prevenção de transtornos mentais. O alto nível é documentado como uma atividade física extenuante e prolongada 5 , na qual os atletas em geral precisam estar preparados para enfrentar uma série de fatores estressantes, para aprimorar o rendimento e, consequentemente, alcançar os resultados esperados 6,7 . Esses fatores estressantes desencadeadores do desempenho podem ser mecânicos, siológicos, emocionais e psicossociais 6,8 .…”