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Coping with life span crises in a group at risk of mental and behavioral disorders: from the Lundby study
Author(s) -
Cederblad M.,
Dahlin L.,
Hagnell O.,
Hansson K.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1995.tb09789.x
Subject(s) - optimism , psychology , coping (psychology) , mental health , clinical psychology , population , wishful thinking , social support , psychiatry , developmental psychology , social psychology , medicine , environmental health
The subjects belong to a prospective, longitudinal population study on mental health, the Lundby study, performed in 1947, 1957 and 1972. In 1988–1989. 148 individuals, then 42–56 years of age, raised in families with at least 3 risk factors for mental or behavioral disorders, were interviewed about their life span coping style. Twenty‐two coping mechanisms were rated; optimism, substitution, wishful thinking, problem‐solving, planning, self‐reliance, humor, acceptance, resignation, social support, comparison with others, religion, catharsis, self‐criticism, value reinforcement, alcohol and drug consumption, professional help, endurance, information‐seeking, isolating activity, magic and minimizing. Together they contributed statistically significantly to mental health (explained variance 24%) and quality of life (explained variance 28 %). Problem‐solving, social support and optimism were frequently used and were statistically associated with positive mental health and lower frequencies of some mental disorders. Sense of coherence, a personal disposition factor, was also statistically associated (explained variance 22%) with the combined coping mechanisms.