Coping strategies, time perspective and psychological well-being: a comparative study in belarusian and portuguese university students

Sych, Kseniya

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/7762

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Authors

Sych, Kseniya

Advisor(s)

Vieira, Luís Sérgio

Abstract(s)

With the aim to investigate bivariate relationship of coping strategies, time perspective and psychological well-being (PWB), two studies were conducted in Belarusian (n=82) and Portuguese (n=75) university student samples. The Belarusian participants demonstrated a lower level of current as well as ideal PWB than the Portuguese counterparts. Besides, lower scores on Present-Hedonistic and a higher level on Present-Fatalistic were captured in the Belarusian sample. Also, the Portuguese students showed a less use of distancing, escape-avoidance as well as positive reappraisal strategies than their Belarusian colleagues. In turn, the Belarusian participants were found to perform a planful problem-solving more frequently though this difference was of marginal significance. In the Belarusian sample emotion- as well as problem-focused types of coping were positively associated with some PWB scales. The same links were just for the Portuguese participants, in addition to which the search and use of social support were directly related to definite dimensions of PWB. Besides, in both samples the seeking and use of social support and some strategies of emotion-focused coping were negatively associated with the definite PWB areas. In turn, among the Belarusian participants ideal PWB was positively connected with strategies aimed to problem solution and emotion regulation, while a negative link was revealed with the search and use of social support. In the Portuguese sample, emotion-focused coping demonstrated direct and inverse associations with the dimensions of ideal PWB, while the seeking and use of social support had a positive link with PWB a person would like to have. Past-Negative as well as Present-Fatalistic revealed negative correlations with both current and ideal PWB scales in the Belarusian as well as in Portuguese samples. However, Present-Hedonistic was proved to have different association with dimensions of PWB among the Belarusian and Portuguese participants. Besides, differently from the Belarusian participants, in the Portuguese sample, Future and Past-Positive did not reveal any statistically significant links with current PWB. But, in both samples, a positive image of past was directly associated with some dimensions of ideal PWB. For the participants from both countries emotion-focused coping was positively associated with Past-Negative while in the Belarusian sample problem-focused coping revealed a negative link with this temporal frame. In turn, Past-Positive was directly associated with the seeking and use of social support strategies and emotion-focused coping in the Belarusian and Portuguese samples. For the latter problem-focused coping was also directly linked with this temporal frame. Different groups of coping were found to be associated with Present-Fatalistic among two countries. Namely, in Belarus the search and use of social support demonstrated a positive association, while problem-focused coping – a negative link with this time orientation. For Portuguese participants only emotion-focused coping was directly related to Present-Fatalistic. Finally, for both samples the seeking and use of social support and emotion-focused coping strategies were positively linked to Future orientation. For the Belarusian sample problem-focused coping was also directly connected with this time frame.