Ways of copyng with stress amongst displaced persons

Abstract

The research project sought to establish the applicability of Endler's scale of ways of coping with stress (CISS) in a specific, extremely stressful situation, such as war and to discover what were the siartegies used by displaced persons to cope with wartime stress. The investigation targeted a sample of 379 persons between the ages of 18-60 who were divided into two groups according to their exposure to different kinds and to various intensities of wartime stress. The first group was made up of displaced persons, i.e. people who were forced to flee their homes and relocate to settlements (N=190), while the second group encompassed undisplaced persons, i.e. the citizens of Zadar and Split who did not leave their homes during the period of war operations. Endler's scale (CISS) was used to measure the ways of coping with wartime stress, while the evaluation of the threat of aspects of war was obtained by a Scale construed within the wider project of measuring wartime stress. A factor analysis of Endler's scale extracted four factors which were defined, in accordance with the author's interpretation, as Coping directed at the problem. Coping directed at the emotions, Distraction and Social diversion. However, it was established that the number of applied units is determined by the specificity of the situation. On the basis of the results of covariance analysis it was discovered that the frequency of relying on different ways of coping with stress amongst displaced persons is determined by the characterisics of the stress situation.