Coping and Stress Interventions

Abstract

At the turn of the century Lazarus described the volume of research on coping as “awesome” (Lazarus 1999, p. 118). In the decade that followed his remarks no one would find reasons to disagree with his comment, or think that the pace of research into coping has slowed. Coping is of “intrinsic interest” to all of us. How each of us copes with the ebb and flow of everyday life is, as Aldwin suggests, of “immediate personal relevance” (2000, p. 73). This continued “preoccupation” with coping may have been heightened over the last decade by the sheer force of social, economic, and organizational change and the turbulence and upheaval in roles, values, responsibilities, and relationships that accompanied it (Aldwin 2009). Yet despite this “boundless enthusiasm for coping research” (Somerfield and McCrae 2000, p. 620) coping still remains increasingly complex (Snyder 2001) and investigating it is not without its difficulties (Aldwin 2000). The debate continues as to the progress that has been made (Coyne and Racioppo 2000), and whether as researchers we set our goals too high (Burke 2002).