“We Were All in the Same Boat”: An Exploratory Study of Communal Coping in Disaster Recovery

Coping in Teams: Exploring Athletes’ Communal Coping Strategies to Deal With Shared Stressors

“…Some of these communal coping strategies identified in the present research have been reported in previous studies conducted on communal coping in different contexts and social groups (e.g., Afifi et al, 2006 , 2012 ; Rentscher et al, 2015 ; Richardson and Maninger, 2016 ). For example, problem-focused communal effort strategies, such as information sharing, material assistance, searching for contact, instrumental support or advice (e.g., Richardson and Maninger, 2016 ; Wlodarczyk et al, 2016 ) have previously been reported in disaster survivors’ actions to change or resolve stressful situations. Nevertheless, the sport context revealed specific forms of problem-focused communal effort strategies (e.g., refocusing, going back to basics, effort expenditure) depending on the specificity of the sport context which forces its athletes to remain collectively involved in the task to have a chance to perform together.…”

“…Although previous research has investigated communal coping processes in a sport context within coach–athlete dyads (e.g., Nicholls and Perry, 2016 ) or within families ( Neely et al, 2017 ), to date no work has explored these processes within team sports. In addition, in comparison to other fields (e.g., Afifi et al, 2006 , 2012 ; Rentscher et al, 2015 ; Richardson and Maninger, 2016 ; Wlodarczyk et al, 2016 ), it is important to recognize the specificity of communal coping in the particular context of team sport, where performance goals, exceeding limits and confronting adversity are ubiquitous. Thus, team sport athletes use specific communal coping strategies to deal with shared stressors by pooling their resources and developing cooperative actions in an attempt to achieve strong team performances.…”

“…To date, this concept has mainly been investigated in the fields of family psychology, health psychology and disaster psychology. Research has focused on circumstances where individuals deal with shared stressful events, such as divorce (e.g., Afifi et al, 2006 ), health problems (e.g., Rentscher et al, 2015 ) or natural disasters (e.g., Afifi et al, 2012 ; Richardson and Maninger, 2016 ; Wlodarczyk et al, 2016 ). For example, Wlodarczyk et al (2016) examined the communal coping strategies of people affected by an earthquake in Chile in 2010.…”

Women’s place-making through craft in post-earthquake Christchurch

“…Crafting provided a medium for some people to connect with others in a range of ways, including donating materials to be used in crafting endeavours or simply attending a group without actually making anything. The significant therapeutic contribution offered by self-generated community groups such as the ones we met with remain unaccounted for and invisible in the disaster recovery literature yet clearly reflect the notion of communal coping identified in the disaster literature (Richardson & Maninger, 2016).…”

“…In a city and region heavily impacted by the devastation of the earthquakes, creative and generative activity quickly emerged through a range of community-led initiatives (Beatley, 2014). Within the disaster context, the notion of communal coping as distinct from social support views problems as shared concerns where people together take responsibility for developing action or an intervention (Richardson & Maninger, 2016). The crafting groups and creative community initiatives we engaged with post-earthquake resonated with this conceptualisation of communal coping where the act of sewing a heart and giving it to a stranger on the street, or carefully choosing a subject to embroider in a collective work was integral to fostering both personal and collective coping and wellbeing.…”