A longitudinal study of the situational specificity of coping strategies

This longitudinal study examines the situational specificity of coping strategies for 3 943 male employees of the research and development division of an industrial company. The Job Stress Scale-Revised version (JSS-R) was administered twice to the same subjects 40 months apart to assess chronic job stressors (qualitative and quantitative) and coping strategies (problem-solving, support-seeking, and problem-leaving). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine changes in coping strategies corresponding to changes in chronic job stressors. The results suggest a situational specificity of coping strategies. (a) With decreasing qualitative stressors, "problem-solving" coping increases and "problem-leaving" coping decreases. (b) With increasing qualitative stressors, "problem-leaving" coping increases and "problem-solving" coping decreases. (c) With increasing quantitative stressors, "support-seeking" coping increases. (d) With decreasing quantitative stressors, "problem-leaving" coping decreases. (e) There is no variance in "problem-leaving" coping attributable to the change in the quantitative stressors when the qualitative stressors decrease or increase. "Problem-leaving" coping is more strongly related to qualitative than quantitative stressors.