中華心理衛生協會

 Purpose: Research on coping strategies in Chinese societies suggests that prosocial coping strategies, such as forbearance, play a crucial role in stress and coping processes. Prosocial coping strategies are culturally emphasized, but whether they predict favorable adjustment in the long run awaits empirical scrutiny. The dual axis coping model divides Chinese coping strategies into 4 categories: active-prosocial, passive-prosocial, active-antisocial, and passive-antisocial. We investigated whether changes in the use of these 4 coping strategies differentially predict changes in psychological adjustment. We argued that passive-prosocial and active-antisocial coping strategies may not influence immediate adjustment, but that the effects unfold over time, which differs from the results of Hsu et al.'s (2008) cross-sectional study. Methods: We utilized a one-year longitudinal design to investigate whether changes in the use of coping strategies predicts changes in mental health in a sample of Taiwanese undergraduate students (N = 271). We assessed their coping strategies using the Coping Strategies in the Chinese Social Context measure, and we assessed their psychological distress with the Symptom Checklist-90 Revised, and their perceived social support with the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ) short form. We used hierarchical regression to test the hypotheses. Results: An increase in active-prosocial coping significantly predicted both a decrease in psychological symptoms and an increase in perceived social support. An increase in any of the other 3 types of coping (passive-prosocial, active-antisocial, and passive-antisocial coping) significantly predicted an increase in psychological symptoms. Conclusions: Relationship-oriented coping encompasses strategies aimed at maintaining interpersonal harmony and avoiding conflict, which are emphasized and encouraged in Chinese culture. We found that the long-term impact of prosocial coping strategies depends on whether the interpersonal harmony achieved is real or superficial. Active-prosocial coping may lead to real harmony, thereby reducing psychological distress. Passive-prosocial coping may result in superficial harmony, increasing psychological distress over the long term. Engaging in active- or passive-antisocial coping behaviors disrupts harmony, resulting in maladaptive outcomes over time. Relationship-oriented coping is adaptive only when it achieves real harmony.