Oprah Winfrey is an example of an individual who overcame severe childhood adversity. Despite experiencing poverty, early separation from her parents, and repeated sexual abuse by relatives, a transition to a more structured environment with strict behavioral expectations helped stabilize her life. She subsequently achieved remarkable success, becoming the youngest and first African-American female news anchor at age 19 and eventually a highly influential media figure known for her empathy and intelligence.

Oprah Winfrey

- Having a negative, past-oriented approach to coping can cause a person to be stuck 
- A positive, future-oriented approach gives an individual hope and shows them there are opportunities in the future that will improve their quality of life
- This positive approach has been linked to increased psychosocial outcomes in psychological and social QOL, perceived well-being, life satisfaction, and negatively linked to depression and anxiety

University of Virginia, Charlottesville

New York University

Quality of life as a measure of overall well-being is a popular variable used in psychosocial research. Rarely, however, has it been used when assessing coping, specifically coping with chronic illness and/or a disability. Even less studied is the relationship between community level interventions and personal coping. 

Quality of Life and Coping With Chronic Illness and Disability: A Temporal Perspective

Coping refers to the conscious, deliberate, and purposeful regulation of emotions, especially in situations perceived as threatening or stressful.

Coping

Livneh, H. (2015). Quality of life and coping with chronic illness and disability. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 59(2), 67–83. https://doi.org/10.1177/0034355215575180 

Quality of Life and Coping With Chronic Illness and Disability Reference 

- Many researchers over the years have studied both community and personal level psychological interventions - often, community level interventions are viewed as broad and wide ranging while personal level interventions focus more on the day to day processes of individuals
- Coping strategies have been studied to see their effectiveness in reducing physical distress, cognitive distortions, and emotional stress
- It is essential to remember that coping is sequential and dynamic: that is, it changes as quickly as lived circumstances do 
- The lens of temporality has gained popularity due to increasing understanding that since stressful life experiences vary in duration and timing, so do the coping strategies used to respond to them


Community Interventions Personal-Level Interventions, and Coping

- People with chronic illness and disability are among the most amount of people who use coping strategies
- Specifically, these individuals use proactive coping: taking steps prior to a problem to prepare to deal with complications should they arise

Coping and Disability

Caplan tripartite model proposes a three-pronged temporal structure of community based intervention
- PP’s are strategies that strive to reduce and prevent the development of physical impairments, psychiatric disabilities, and chronic illness - they are used prior to an event
- SP’s, also referred to as crisis intervention, are strategies designed to be used when a crisis (non-chronic) is ongoing - they try to reduce harm impact and build resilience while the stressful circumstances are occurring 
- TP’s are the therapeutic phase as these strategies are implemented post-event - they try to reverse any harm experienced and restore quality of life

Temporal Aspects of Community Stress and Crisis

- Preventive Coping: coping with events far in the future such as age related milestones or expected functional losses
- Proactive Coping: coping that focuses on reducing the impact of events likely to occur - they are temporally removed from the stressor
- Anticipatory Coping: problem solving based methods that happen farther along the chain of coping when an event is imminent 
- Post - Impact Coping: can either be short term or long term; problem focused coping to resolve immediate impacts and cognitive coping to equip an individual for residual effects 

Temporal Aspects of Coping 

Coping and Adversity

The temporal aspects of coping are not a deeply researched area in psychology and disability studies. However, viewing coping as temporal, as well as adopting a future - oriented approach, can vastly improve the quality of care and life for people who are chronically ill and/or living with a disability. 

Conclusion for Quality of Life and Coping With Chronic Illness and Disability

- Accommodation
- Support-seeking
- Social Isolation
- Self-reliance
- Problem-solving
- Helplessness
- Escape
- Opposition
- Submission

Categorization of Loneliness Coping Strategies Among University Students

- Meaning-making coping model
- Emotion-focused coping
- Problem-focused coping 
- Transactional model of stress and coping 
- Dual process model of loss 


Coping Models/Strategies

Coping flexibility is an individual's ability to cope in different ways, and change their method of coping (E.g. Reframing), towards various stimuli.

Coping Flexibility 

Maladaptive coping includes attack self, attack other, withdrawal, and avoidance. Adaptive coping focuses on restoring relationships. 

Coping with Shame

Researchers have agreed that there are unhealthy and healthy ways of managing stress.

Ways of Coping with Stress

Ultimately, it is the individual's response to the high risk situation that affects whether or not they will relapse. For example, a person who uses effective coping skills, such as leaving the situation or positive self talk, is less likely to relapse than someone who does not use effective coping skills. A person who has coped successfully with a high-risk situation will experience a greater sense of self-efficacy, thereby decreasing their chance of relapse in the future.

Coping Skills and Relapse

- Seeking Connection
- Avoidance
- Support-seeking
- Cognitive Strategies
- Meaning-focused
- Distraction

Learn Before

Related

Learn After