Experiencing stress has been associated with a range of adverse
outcomes for health and wellbeing. Directly implicated in the health
consequences of stress is the coping behavior individuals utilise in an
attempt to manage their stress. Interventions to aid in coping with stress
often aim to teach coping skills and promote the uptake of particular
behaviours for coping. Despite such approaches relying on an individual
to change their behaviour, these interventions have rarely incorporated
behavior change methods targeting the complex processes
underpinning engagement in these behaviours. Given their ability to
explain behaviour as a function of reasoned conscious and automatic
non-conscious processes, integrated dual process models have
substantive practical value for intervention design in this context. This
presentation will demonstrate two tests of integrated dual process
models predicting two distinctive types of coping behavior: problem
focused coping behaviour and emotion-focused coping behavior. The
models were tested in a sample of university students in Australia, a
population who consistently reported high levels of stress, well
exceeding population norms. Participants were aged 17 and older (N =
332), and a prospective correlational design with a 1-week follow-up was
adopted. At Time 1 (T1) participants completed measures of constructs
from the theory of planned behaviour reflecting reasoned psychological
processes (intention, attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral
control), and behavioral automaticity, regarding problem-focused coping
behaviour and emotion-focused coping behaviour. At Time 2 (T2)
participants completed follow up measures of problem-focused and
emotion-focused coping behavior. Well-fitting structural equation models
revealed that both reasoned and automatic psychological processes
predicted problem-focused and emotion-focused coping behaviour, with
stronger effects for automatic processes. Future research aiming to
increase uptake of particular coping behaviours should use behaviour
change techniques known to influence constructs reflecting reasoned
and automatic psychological processes as opposed to just imparting
coping skills.