Specialists’ basic behavioural coping strategies when handling stressful situations

Abstract

The professional activity of a modern specialist is significantly impacted by various stressful situations. Professional stress causes specialists’ anxiety, which negatively affects their well-being. The choice of adaptive strategies for handling stressful situations is the key to successful professional activity and emotional stability. The ability to choose the most productive coping strategies enables a specialist to quickly handle any stressful situations. The aim of this study is to identify the anxiety level and prevailing coping strategies of specialists with different stress levels. Methods. The research involved the method of analytical information processing and methods of empirical diagnostics. The following statistical methods were used: the Kruskal–Wallis test and the Spearman correlation coefficient. Results. The obtained results revealed that specialists with a high stress level have high personal and situational anxiety, the prevailing coping strategies are confrontation, escape, seeking social support and distancing (р≤0.001). Specialists with a low stress level showed low anxiety and coping strategies of self-control, problem solving, and positive reappraisal (р≤0.001). Conclusions. It was empirically proved that the stress level affects the choice of coping strategy. Specialists with high stress levels have high anxiety and maladaptive coping strategies. Prospects. The obtained results can be implemented in the creation of a programme for the development of adaptive coping strategies of specialists in order to productively handle stressful situations.