HUMAN RESPONSES TO AN ACUTE STRESSOR: UNCERTAINTY, COPING, HARDINESS AND FUNCTIONAL OUTCOME AMONG ADULT HOSPITALIZED PATIENTS.
Contributors: University of Pennsylvania.
Published: 1989
Number of pages: 145
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perceived uncertainty, hardiness, coping behaviors and functional outcome among adult surgical post hospitalization patients. Further, the mediating variables of hardiness and coping behaviors that exert an influence on the stressful event and the consequences following discharge from the hospital were explored. The Behavioral Science Model of Stress and Lazarus' theory of stress and coping provided the conceptual, theoretical basis for this research.

The sample was composed of 106 consecutively available female patients who underwent the same general type of surgery. The predictor variable in this study included four standardized scales: the Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale, the Health Related Hardiness Scale, the Jalowiec Coping Scale, and the Sickness Impact Profile to measure Functional Outcome. Also included was a questionnaire eliciting demographic data and data on stressful life events prior to hospitalization.

The findings of several multiple analyses indicated that each dimension or category of the functional outcome was predicted by different components of the independent variables. Of particular interest was the finding that the important predictor variable in this study was the ambiguity factor of the uncertainty scale.

As noted in other studies, both problem oriented and emotion oriented coping behaviors were used by patients. Problem oriented coping was more evident in situations that were appraised as changeable, while emotion oriented coping was more evident in situations appraised as unchangeable. The findings further indicate that different modes of coping were related to the varied contexts of interest to this study, and that different coping behaviors were associated with different functional outcomes.

Methodological issues regarding Pollock's hardiness measurement in this specific population are discussed.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-10, Section: B, page: 4454.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 1989.

School code: 0175.