Stress-Coping Model - Essay Example

?Stress and Coping The transition from high school to college is extremely stressful. Each takes a different style of coping with this life-changing event and it in turn has different impacts on their lives. A common conception is that those students that go to college experience the “partying” atmosphere and drink large quantities of alcohol. What would normally be classified as alcohol abuse and abnormal behavior, cultural norms dictate that this is acceptable behavior. In order to understand the link between stress and alcohol, many psychologists have been trying to find if there are certain variables, which will make someone more susceptible to heavy drinking as a coping mechanism. There have been many studies done in order to determine these. The first article was entitled “Further Refining the Stress-Coping Model of Alcohol Awareness”. In this article, it was shown that coping measures as far as alcohol consumption and stress differ in regards to the type of stress that is encountered. It was hypothesized based on previous experimentation that men are more likely to encounter heavy drinking as a coping mechanism than females due to their limited coping abilities. There have also been inconsistencies in trying to diagnose whether specific people are more prone to this kind of coping measure than others. The first deals with the variability, which is experienced across the board when people deal with stress. This being that coping measures are not just maladaptive or adaptive, but each are tailored to deal with a certain type of stressor. The second is that there has not been substantial evidence and consistency in showing that gender factors play a role in coping and drinking. The experimental design for this study was a short-term design, which was based on self-reporting measures. In particular, three variables were hypothesized that could take into account for gender differences. The first is coping using the support of others. It has been shown that students that are experiencing a stressor in regards to a relationship or social situation are less likely to turn to alcohol if their coping mechanisms are more guided towards the support of others. In particular, it has been shown in women that experience an interpersonal stressor that they are less likely to drink as a coping measure due to greater social support seeking. The second hypothesis shows that the more in control of the external stressors that a person is experiencing, the less likely they are to turn to alcohol as a coping measure. The third hypothesis is based on previous research which states that men are more likely to use active seeking coping strategies and women are more likely to seek social supporting strategies for coping. Thus the use of alcohol was found to be higher in males than in females. The population had a sample size of 83 participants from different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. These participants were tested using many different types of surveys and testing batteries. They were prescreened with the Michigan Alcohol Screening Tests and the College Students’ Recent Life Experiences test. These stressful factors were then broken down into four core areas: life management, social relationships, school, and general social adjustment. Then, they returned for three weeks and were asked how many times they engaged in heavy drinking, which was defined as five or more alcoholic drinks. The final survey that had to take was the COPE to assess their skills in active coping, avoidant coping, and social support seeking coping. The statistics were analyzed using mixed modeling interactions and this took into account correlation coefficients and t-test values. Men that had higher scores in active coping and social support seeking coping were less likely to engage in dangerous activities involving alcohol. If men using avoidant coping measures, they were more likely to engage in the use of alcohol. For women, the same statistical data was also recorded. There is some validity to the measures that were taken. The researchers took into account the major variables that are likely to cause stress in an individual. Stress is defined as when a person’s perceived coping resources are not effective in the light of their perceived demands. With increased socialization and “partying” alcohol provides students with an outlet to release stress. In addition, alcohol has been a topic of controversy due to its glorification in the news and in music. The way in which a person deals with stresses in college is related to the ways in which they cope. What this study found out was that depending on what kind of coping measure a person uses, would cause whether or not they would heavily binge drink based on gender. The statistical findings show that there is a high statistical significance for all the values, which shows that there is a good chance these findings were not just due to chance. Even though it was an interesting study, there were many points that needed to be made. The first is that the sample size is too small and there is a non-response bias, which affects the results. Secondly, the idea of the social construct of stress is hard to assess, especially in terms of gender. Every person, regardless of gender, acts in a way that is best for him or her. This does not mean that everyone will follow a certain pattern based on gender. There are other variables that have to be accounted for as well. The study also shows the common myth and fear that college students have become the main source of studying in psychological experiments, which brings into question whether all psychological studies are viable these days. The article had a very good flow and pace to it. It was not too technical where the layman could not understand it, but it was complex enough to show what they were trying to research. The main researchers name and contact information were included at the top, which would allow anyone with a question on the research to contact them. This also allows people to do research on the author to determine whether the article that they wrote was in their field or not. For example, the author of this article, Andrea Hussong, studies substance use in adolescents and the article is on alcohol use as a result of coping in students. This means that she is writing an article in her field, thus she is probably conducting valid research. One thing that the article does not list on the main researcher is any credentials as far as what she has accomplished. However, you can easily search for any credentials on the Internet because it lists not only her name, but also where she teaches. There is a good amount of information where the article was found. There were almost no advertisements and any sources that were cited in the article had a hyperlink, which allowed you to access that article. This is an extremely useful feature in research. After looking at Andrea Hussong’s credentials, I believe that the research has a little bit of bias in it. She has children which means that natural parenting instinct is probably why she selected the topic and the point she is probably trying to make is that consumption of large amounts of alcohol is a bad way of coping and proving it through statistical and psychological reasoning. Lastly, the accessibility of the article was not easy to find. First, it required looking at a psychology article-searching database via the school. Then, it was shown that it did not have access to the article, so it was transferred to another web page. This was another private server, which had the article, therefore the accessibility of this article to is limited to the public. Overall, it was a very interesting article and has the potential to bring a lot of research into showing students how to develop better coping habits based on interpersonal skills and gender. References Hussong, A. M. (2003). Further refining the stress-coping model of alcohol involvement. Addictive Behaviors, 28(8), 1515-1522. doi:10.1016/S0306-4603(03)00072-8 Read More