Abstract

This review focuses on coping with stress, with particular emphasis on mechanisms facilitating constructive coping with stress. An important area of contemporary research is the attempt to identify factors that make it possible to stay mentally healthy or preventing the weakening of the cognitive and social functioning. The currently prevailing approach to stress is the relational approach. According to this approach, the criterion for the occurrence of stress is the cognitive assessment of the situation made by an individual. This review presents the most recent proposals concerning the analysis of specific methods of coping with stress, in particular from the perspective of their adaptiveness. Particular attention is paid to meaningfocused coping. We also discuss the presence of positive emotions in difficult situations. Positive emotions may play many adaptive functions especially in long-term stress situations: they make it possible to rebuild physical, intellectual and social resources, and they also extend the scope of attention and action. Positive emotions may also, to a certain extent, mitigate psychological and physiological consequences of stressful events. Finally we discuss the main directions of research related to factors determining well-being and sample experiments aimed at intensifying the feeling of happiness.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-2015

Notes/Citation Information

Published in International Journal of Child and Adolescent Health, v. 8, no. 1, p. 41-47.

© 2015 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

The copyright holders have granted the permission for posting the article here.

Reprinted as a book chapter in Child and Adolescent Health Yearbook 2015. Joav Merrick, (Ed.). p. 43-52.

Reprinted as a book chapter in Public Health: Some International Aspects. Joav Merrick, (Ed.). p. 125-133.

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