Coping

Purpose/Objectives: Although frameworks for understanding survivorship continue to evolve, most are abstract and do not address the complex context of survivors’ transition following treatment completion. The purpose of this theory adaptation was to examine and refine the Illness Trajectory Theory, which describes the work of managing chronic illness, to address transitional cancer survivorship.

Data Sources: CINAHL, PubMed, and relevant Institute of Medicine reports were searched for survivors’ experiences during the year following treatment.

Nurses often help patients cope with loss. Recent research has cast doubt on the validity of early theories about loss and grief commonly taught to nurses. We systematically examined the accuracy of information on coping with loss presented in 23 commonly used undergraduate psychiatric nursing books. All 23 books contained at least one unsupported assumption (myth) about loss and grief. In 78% of these books, authors described four or more myths and only one evidence-based finding about coping with loss.

Context The September 11, 2001, attacks against the United States provide a unique opportunity to examine longitudinally the process of adjustment to a traumatic event on a national scale.
Objective To examine the degree to which demographic factors, mental and physical health history, lifetime exposure to stressful events, September 11–related experiences, and coping strategies used shortly after the attacks predict psychological outcomes over time.

 CONTEXT: The September 11, 2001, attacks against the United States provide a unique opportunity to examine longitudinally the process of adjustment to a traumatic event on a national scale.
OBJECTIVE: To examine the degree to which demographic factors, mental and physical health history, lifetime exposure to stressful events, September 11-related experiences, and coping strategies used shortly after the attacks predict psychological outcomes over time.

Collective traumas can negatively affect large numbers of people who ostensibly did not experience events directly, making it particularly important to identify which people are most vulnerable to developing mental and physical health problems as a result of such events. It is commonly believed that successful coping with a traumatic event requires expressing one's thoughts and feelings about the experience, suggesting that people who choose not to do so would be at high risk for poor adjustment.

This article describes stress and coping by decider status. Participants were 154 women aged 34 to 54 years who were recently divorced from their first marriage and were married 3 years prior to divorce. Participants self-selected into decider statuses as initiators, noninitiators, or mutual deciders. Noninitiators indicated not knowing the divorce experience was going to occur, not having enough time to get ready for it, saw it as something someone else did, and perceived it as a threat. Initiators and mutual deciders viewed the divorce as a challenge.