- 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

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

- 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 

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

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

- 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

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. 

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