Coping Flexibility: Match Between Coping Strategy and Perceived Stressor Controllability Predicts Depressed Mood

Abstract

Individual differences in coping responses can predict psychological distress, anxiety, and depression; therefore, it is vital to explore adaptive coping strategies. Recent research suggests that an individual’s ability to choose strategies based on the context may be more important than the ability to use any one strategy, an ability termed coping flexibility. For example, problem-focused coping is adaptive for situations of high control, while emotion-focused coping is adaptive for situations of low control. This conceptualization of coping flexibility, termed strategy-situation fit, consists of the match of strategy to situation. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate if daily fluctuations in strategy-situation fit for daily stressors would be associated with daily levels of depressed mood. A seven-day diary study in a sample of undergraduate students (n = 75) was completed. The results of generalized linear mixed models demonstrated that in situations of high stress and high control, more use of emotion-focused coping was related to higher levels of depressed mood. Additionally, in situations of high stress and low control, more use of emotion-focused coping was related to lower levels of depressed mood. These findings suggest that the match between emotion-focused coping and perceived stressor controllability can be a predictor of daily experiences of depressed mood when faced with high-level stressors.