Stress and Coping with Existential Issues
Stress and Coping with Existential Issues

Summary/Abstract: The relationship of selected demographic, psychosocial, and environmental variables to the willingness to confront existential issues was examined in 174 undergraduates who had experienced or anticipated encountering a significant life event. Existential openness was predicted by gender, social confidence, and low monitoring; men were more willing to confront existential issues than women. Existential openness among men was related to social confidence, cognitive flexibility, and low blunting; social confidence and low monitoring predicted women's existential openness. Women reported using more strategies to cope with existential issues, particularly emotion-focused and maladaptive responses. Participants identified the personal domain as most often affected by significant life events and freedom-responsibility as the existential issue most often activated by such events. Freedom-responsibility was associated with the most perceived control. Perceived control over existential issues was related to greater use of problem- and emotion-focused coping. Resourceful individuals reported using more problem- and emotion-focused coping; resourceful individuals with high perceived control over existential issues rated such issues as least threatening. The implications of these findings are discussed.

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