Predictors of the process of coping in surgical patients

The present study examined predictors of coping in 482 surgical patients in which coping with different surgical conditions was measured at four points of time. Previously, conceptually consistent and psychometrically adequate coping scales from the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ), that grouped into correlated ‘passive’ and ‘active’ coping strategies, had been derived. Both strategies declined significantly over time and shared three of six different psychological predictors: emotional symptoms, stress, and the personality factor, extraversion. Chance health locus of control and neuroticism predicted passive while openness predicted active coping. Emotional symptoms predicted a prolongation in the use of active coping. The findings indicate that coping is multifactorially determined and that there is a substantial general coping-response in the stressed individual, who tends to use all of the available strategies during an acute coping response to stress.