The role of meaning-focused coping in significant loss

Abstract

When individuals face uncontrollable situations such as natural disasters, meaning-focused coping (MFC) can contribute to individuals' adjustment. The objectives of the current study were to examine the role of MFC in post-traumatic growth and to explore how three different types of coping (problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, and MFC) affected the mental health of earthquake victims following the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that MFC had a significantly incremental value in predicting positive affect (ΔR2=7.6%, p<.01) and well-being (ΔR2=3.1%, p<.01), above and beyond problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping. In contrast, for negative affect and depression, these incremental effects were not significant. Path analysis was conducted to test the mediating role of post-traumatic growth among the three coping styles and the outcome variables (well-being, positive affect, negative affect, and depression). The results showed that post-traumatic growth mediated the path from MFC to well-being and positive affect (for positive affect: Sobel z = 3.74, p<.001; for well-being: Sobel z = 5.02, p<.001). In addition, post-traumatic growth mediated the path from problem-focused coping to depression (Sobel z = 2.21, p<.001). The hypothetical model of emotion-focused coping did not converge.