Petra Buchwald

The relationship of individual and communal state-trait coping and interpersonal resources as trust, empathy and responsibility

Prior research and theoretical considerations revealed important information about the role of individual state-trait coping and personal resources for coping with an examination. However, the relationship between communal coping strategies and interpersonal resources has yet to be investigated. In order to understand the relationship between state-trait coping and interpersonal resources, several statistical analyses were used. The German Strategic Approach to Coping Scale (GSACS, GSACS-Exam), the Interpersonal Trust Scale (ITS), and exam-specific Empathy and Responsibility Scales (RESP-Exam, EMP-Exam) were combined for collecting data from a sample of 122 examiner-examinee-dyads. Data on empathy and responsibility of examiners were gathered as well as dispositional coping styles and trust of examinees eight weeks prior to an oral examination. Dispositional coping predicted comparable situational coping, reported immediately after the examination at a low-moderate level. Communal coping strategies tended to vary more than individual ones. Interpersonal resources were found to predict specific communal coping responses and a path model revealed the mediating effect of interpersonal trust. The results are discussed in the light of communal coping theory and educational significance.

Towards a theory-based assessment of coping: The german adaptation of the strategic approach to coping scale

Although coping has become one of the central constructs in the area of research on life events, emotions, and health, it is yet not clear how to conceptualize coping in the most powerful way. Coping instruments often lack a clear underlying theory or are confounded with the stress process itself. Therefore, a theoretical as well as empirical framework is needed. The study at hand presents cross-sectional data from a German version of a coping scale that is constructed in line with the Strategic Approach to Coping Scale (SACS) developed by Hobfoll et al. The German scale findings support those of the original, US version, but also indicate potential cultural distinction. The findings suggest that the GSACS is theory syntonic and has potential for elaborating coping research.

The exam-specific strategic approach to coping scale and interpersonal resources

We addressed the role of interpersonal resources and coping during an oral examination. Assessing exam-specific coping strategies with a German adaptation of the Strategic Approach to Coping Scale (GSACS-Exam), examinees were given the opportunity to rate their individual as well as communal coping efforts facing an oral examination of personal significance. Interpersonal resources of examiner and examinee such as mutual trust and dyadic coping assistance had an impact on individual and communal coping. Examinees who expressed trust in their examiner 8 weeks prior to an oral examination relied more on prosocial than antisocial coping strategies during their oral examination. Supportive and delegated dyadic coping assistance were determinants of both functional and dysfunctional coping. The implications for educational practice are discussed.

Examination stress: Measurement and coping

Oral examinations are highly evaluative situations with important consequences for performance at school and university, for a person’s goals and future career, and for possible damages to self-concept and motivation. The importance of test anxiety in understanding examination stress is apparent and there exists a large body of studies showing that high levels of test anxiety during examinations are negatively correlated with performance, and that the worry component is the one being inversely related to performance (Seipp, 1991; Zeidner, 1998). However, oral examinations do not only test the intellectual power of a person to memorize and achieve certain topics, but assess at the same time the motivation to overcome adverse situations, to deal with negative emotions like anxiety, anger, guilt or shame (Pekrun and Hofmann, 1999) and provoke the coping competencies as well as the self-efficacy of the examinee. This is why some researchers have found relationships between thoughts and performance (Sarason, 1984). The goal of this special issue of Anxiety, Stress, and Coping is to shed more light onto the measurement and the process of coping with examinations. Coping with examination stress can be seen as a complex interaction between personality variables, coping capacities, psychobiological responses and environmental variables such as the time allowed for this special interactional session. In addition, coping with examination stress is not only an individual, but also a communal process (Hobfoll, 1998), e.g., between examinee and examiner. Therefore, the assessment of both, individual and communal coping strategies is relevant. Within this new theoretical framework for coping with examination stress gender-related perspectives emerge, which might not be detected by exploring traditional coping strategies such as repression-sensitization. Moreover, the findings for examination and anxiety are mixed, giving some evidence for the debilitating effect of anxiety and the importance of an appropriate measurement of test anxiety. By relating coping and anxiety to psychobiologicial responses and linguistic parameters, the relevance of physical as well as cognitive processes during examination phases can be valued.

Gesundheitsförderung und Beratung

Gesundheit wird in den letzten 25 Jahren nicht nur im Zusammenhang mit der Reform der Krankenversicherung diskutiert, sondern steht auch im Bildungs- und Erziehungsbereich im Zentrum von Forschungs- und Lehrbemuhungen, wie folgende kleine Auswahl zeigt: 1995 nahm das Bundesministerium fur Familie, Senioren, Familie und Jugend im „Funften Familienbericht„“ erstmals den Zusammenhang Familie und Gesundheit auf, 1997/98 forderte die Europaische Union ein Projekt mit dem Titel „Zum Gesundheitsstatus junger Menschen in der Europaischen Gemeinschaft“ (vgl. Deutsches Jugendinstitut 1999), im Internet findet sich mit Supersource ein web-basiertes Unterrichtsprogramm fur die weltweite Gesundheit (vgl. Gesellschaft fur Public Health 2000, S. 19) und die regionalen und uberregionalen Projekte zu „gesunden Schulen“, „bewegtem Unterricht“, zu „gesunden Beschaftigten und gesunden Unternehmen“ oder zur Drogen- und Suchtpravention lassen sich kaum noch luckenlos sammeln. Gesundheitserziehung gehort laut Bericht der Kultusministerkonferenz vom 5. Juni 1992 an den allgemeinbildenden Schulen zum Pflicht-, Wahlpflicht- oder Wahlbereich. Auch die deutschsprachigen padagogischen Zeitschriften dokumentieren das Interesse der Padagogik an der Gesundheitsthematik. Die „Empirische Padagogik“ widmete z.B. im Jahre 1998 das Heft 4 der „Gesundheitsforderung bei Kindern und Jugendlichen“ und die „Zeitschrift fur Padagogik“ reagierte bereits 1994 (Heft 6) mit einem Thementeil zur Gesundheitserziehung.