HARDINESS AND THE SENSE OF COHERENCE AS MODERATORS OF THE STRESS-ILLNESS RELATIONSHIP.
Contributors: Boston University.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 172
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Staying well under conditions of stress is a phenomenon which has received little attention from nurse researchers. Two theories which suggest that personality may play a health-promoting role under stressful conditions formed the theoretical base for a study investigating the relationship between hardiness, a sense of coherence, and self-reported physical and psychological symptoms in a sample of 157 female graduate nurses undergoing national licensure examinations.

Four research hypotheses predicted significant negative relationships between hardiness and physical and psychological symptoms, and between the sense of coherence and symptoms before and after the examinations. A fifth hypothesis predicted a positive correlation between hardiness and the sense of coherence. Two hypotheses predicted that symptoms would be greater after the examinations than before them.

Data analysis using correlational techniques resulted in a significant negative relationship between the sense of coherence and psychological symptoms, and between hardiness and psychological symptoms. Correlation between the sense of coherence and physical symptoms and between hardiness and physical symptoms was negative, as predicted, but not significant.

Path analysis using standardized regression coefficients tested the first four hypotheses together as a 2-stage causal model. Hardiness and the sense of coherence had direct effects on pretest psychological symptoms and indirect effects on posttest psychological symptoms through the direct effect of pretest psychological symptoms on posttest scores. With respect to physical symptoms, the only effect present was the direct effect of pretest symptoms on posttest symptoms.

The relationship between hardiness and the sense of coherence predicted by the fifth hypothesis was supported. Hypotheses which predicted that symptoms would be significantly greater after the examinations than before them were not supported.

We concluded that the sense of coherence and hardiness are significant predictors of psychological symptoms in this sample; that hardiness and the sense of coherence are positively correlated; and that graduate nurses report symptoms more frequently during the last few weeks of school than after the examinations.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-01, Section: B, page: 0076.

Thesis (D.N.SC.)--BOSTON UNIVERSITY, 1987.

School code: 0017.