T his article reports four longitudinal field studies and one experimental study designed to shed light on the functional roles of social support within the stress and coping context. First, the enabling hypothesis is examined that assumes a facilitating effect of support on self-efficacy, which, in turn, promotes coping with the aftermath of cardiac surgery. Second, we discuss the support cultivation hypothesis that regards support as a mediator between self-efficacy and various outcomes, such as depressive mood, as illustrated by a finding on the experience of macrosocial stress during the East German transition. Third, support is highlighted as a coping resource by specifying provided partner support as a predictor of patients' coping with cancer. It was found that the direct effect of provided support on coping needs to be mediated by received support in order to become effective. Fourth, coping efforts of a target person are found to be predictive of support intentions of a potential provider. The better a victim appears to cope with various stigmas, the higher the likelihood that a significant other is willing to help. Fifth, in a dyadic study on coping with cancer, partners were found to provide high levels of support to patients, but received support was affected only at later points in time. Time-lagged partner effects may characterize resource transfer in asymmetric social situations in which only one element of the dyad is under severe stress.C et article fait état de quatre études longitudinales sur le terrain et une étude expérimentale qui avaient pour but de clarifier les rô les fonctionnels du soutien social au sein du contexte du stress et de l'adaptation. Premièrement, nous avons examiné l'hypothèse d'habilitation qui assume un effet facilitateur du soutien sur l'auto-efficacité. Celle-ci, en retour, promouvoit l'adaptation des patients en postopératoire de chirurgie cardiaque. Deuxièmement, nous discutons l'hypothèse d'une culture de soutien selon laquelle le soutien serait un médiateur entre l'auto-efficacité et les divers résultats, comme l'humeur dépressive, telle qu'illustrée par un résultat concernant l'expérience de stress macrosocial pendant la transition de l'Allemagne de l'Est. Troisièmement, le soutien est souligné comme une ressource d'adaptation en spécifiant le soutien donné par le conjoint comme prédicteur de l'adaptation des patients au cancer. Les résultats indiquent que l'effet direct du soutien donné sur l'adaptation a besoin d'être médié par le soutien reçu pour devenir efficace. Quatrièmement, on a trouvé que les efforts d'adaptation d'une personne-cible prédisent les intentions de soutien d'un donneur potentiel. Le mieux la victime paraît s'adapter aux divers stigmas, plus grande est la probabilité qu'une personne significative est disposée à l'aider. Cinquièmement, dans une étude dyadique sur l'adaptation au cancer, on a trouvé que les conjoints offrent des niveaux élevés de soutien aux patients mais le soutien reçu était affecté seulement à des moments ultérieurs. Les effe...

Personality and coping were specified as predictors of emotional outcomes of a mildly stressful medical procedure. Situation‐specific coping was examined in contrast to dispositional coping, and it was tested whether one or the other would mediate the relationship between higher‐order personality factors and stress outcomes. Cataract patients (N=110) participated at four measurement points in time during a six‐week period surrounding their scheduled surgery. Dispositional coping did not mediate the personality–outcome relationship. In contrast, situation‐specific coping acquired a mediator status between personality and adaptational criteria and accounted for independent outcome variance once personality traits were included as predictors in the models. Thus, the data suggest that whether or not coping mediates between personality factors and affective outcomes may be related to the methodological approaches of its operationalization. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Coping can be defined as an effort to manage and overcome demands and critical events that pose a challenge, threat, harm, loss, or benefit to a person (Lazarus, 1991). The term coping often has been used in a more narrow sense as a response required of an organism to adapt to adverse circumstances. In the context of a recent positive psychology movement, however, the conceptualization of coping is broadening and now includes self-regulated goal attainment strategies and personal growth as well (for reviews see Snyder, 1999;Snyder & Lopez, 2002).Coping can occur as a response to an event or in anticipation of upcoming demands, but it also can involve a proactive approach to self-imposed goals and challenges. Many attempts have been made to reduce the universe of possible coping behaviors to a more parsimonious set of coping dimensions. Researchers have come up with two basic distinctions, such as (a) instrumental, attentive, vigilant, or confrontative coping on the one hand; as opposed to (b) avoidant, palliative, and emotional coping on the other (for an overview, see Schwarzer & Schwarzer, 1996). A well-known approach has been put forward by Lazarus (1991), who separates problem-focused from emotion-focused coping. Another conceptual distinction is between assimilative and accommodative coping, whereby the former aims at modifying the environment and the latter at modifying oneself (Brandtsta ¨dter, 1992). Assimilative coping implies tenacious goal pursuit, and accommodative coping flexible goal adjustment. Similarly, the terms primary control versus secondary control (Rothbaum, Weisz, & Snyder, 1982) or mastery versus meaning (Taylor, 1983) have been defined.This chapter is organized into two parts, using the terms mastery and meaning as proxies for the two broad processes of coping described previously. Mastery pertains to problem-focused or assimilative coping with demands, whereas meaning refers to accommodative coping. These coping processes need not be applied exclusively. They may occur more or less simultaneously, or in a certain time order, for example, when individuals first try to alter the demands that are at stake and, after failing, turn inward to reinterpret their plights and find subjective meaning in them. We will not discuss the abundance of possible thoughts and behaviors but will focus on an innovative 393

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Depressive and anxiety symptoms as two psychological variables have an additional impact on domain-specific life satisfaction. Further investigation is needed regarding the impact of psychological variables on domain-specific life satisfaction.

Applying structural equation modeling, the fit of the HAPA model was satisfactory-χ²(191) = 569.93, p < .05, χ²/df = 2.98, comparative fit index = .91, normed-fit index = .87, and root mean square error of approximation = .06 (90% CI = .06, .07)-explaining 30% of the variance in intention and 18% of the variance in physical activity. Motivational self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, and social support were related to intention. An association between maintenance self-efficacy and coping planning was found. Recovery self-efficacy and social support were associated with physical activity. No relationships were found between risk perception and intention and between planning and physical activity. The assumptions derived from the HAPA were partly confirmed and the HAPA may, therefore, constitute a theoretical backdrop for intervention designs to promote physical activity in adults with obesity.

Objective: This systematic review analyzed the relationships between social support and quality of life (QOL) indicators among lung cancer patients. In particular, the patterns of relationships between different social support facets and sources (received and perceived support from healthcare professionals, family, and friends) and QOL aspects (emotional, physical symptoms, functional, and social) as well as the global QOL index were investigated.Methods: The review yielded 14 original studies (57% applying cross-sectional designs) analyzing data from a total of 2759 patients.Results: Regarding healthcare professionals as support source, corroborating evidence was found for associations between received support (as well as need for and satisfaction with received support) and all aspects of QOL, except for social ones. Overall, significant relations between support from healthcare personnel and QOL were observed more frequently (67% of analyzed associations), compared with support from families and friends (53% of analyzed associations). Corroborating evidence was found for the associations between perceived and received support from family and friends and emotional aspects of QOL. Research investigating perceived social support from unspecified sources indicated few significant relationships (25% of analyzed associations) and only for the global QOL index.Conclusions: Quantitative and qualitative differences in the associations between social support and QOL are observed, depending on the source and type of support. Psychosocial interventions may aim at enabling provision of social support from healthcare personnel in order to promote emotional, functional, and physical QOL among lung cancer patients.

To evaluate a theory-guided intervention on oral self-care and examine the possible mechanisms among self-regulatory factors, two brief intervention arms were compared, an information-based education treatment and a self-regulation treatment focusing on planning and action control. Young adults (N = 284; aged 18-29 years) were assessed at baseline and 1 month later. The self-regulation intervention improved levels of oral self-care, dental planning and action control. Moreover, a moderated mediation model with planning as the mediator between experimental conditions and dental outcome, and self-efficacy as well as action control as moderators elucidated the mechanism of change. More self-efficacious participants in the self-regulation condition benefitted in terms of more planning, and those who monitored their actions yielded higher levels of oral hygiene. Dental self-efficacy, dental planning and action control are involved in the improvement of oral self-care. Their joint consideration may contribute to a better understanding of health behavior change.