Abstract
Previous studies of coping, hostility, and depressive symptoms have highlighted the significant relations between all possible pairs of these 3 variables. To more completely explore the nature of depressive symptoms, we link them all together in this study by testing a coping→hostility→depressive symptoms path model.
One hundred forty participants completed psychological questionnaires measuring coping strategies, hostility, and depressive symptoms. While controlling age and social class as covariates, SPSS stepwise regression analyses were used to examine relations among these 3 constructs.
Results suggest that coping has a direct relation with depressive symptoms as well as an indirect relation mediated by hostility. Passive coping may lead to increased hostility, resulting in depressive symptoms. Active coping may have the opposite effect.
These findings suggest that the inclusion of measures of both coping strategies and hostility yields a more thorough understanding of concomitants of depressive symptoms. From a clinical perspective, knowing what coping strategies a person uses and how much anger they experience and express may be useful in guiding the management of depressive symptoms.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abraham, K. (1911). Notes on the psychoanalytic investigations and treatment of manic depressive insanity and allied conditions. In Selected papers on psychoanalysis (pp. 137–156). New York: Basic Books (1968).
Biaggio, M. K. (1980). Assessment of anger arousal. Journal of Personality Assessment, 44, 289–298.
Buss, A., & Durkee, A. (1957). An inventory for assessing different kinds of hostility. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 21, 343–349.
Clark, K. K., Bormann, C. A., Cropanzano, P. S., & James, K. (1995). Validation evidence for three coping measures. Journal of Personality Assessment, 65, 434–455.
Cohen, D. J. (1990). Enduring sadness—early loss, vulnerability, and the shaping of character. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 45, 157–178.
Comijs, H. C., Jonker, C., van Tilburg, W., & Smit, J. H. (1999). Hostility and coping capacity as risk factors of elder mistreatment. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 34, 48–52.
Fava, G. A., Kellner, R., Munari, F., Pavan, L., & Pesarin, F. (1982). Losses, hostility, and depression. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 170, 474–478.
Fernando, S. J. M. (1977). Hostility, personality and depression. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 50, 243–249.
Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1988a). The relationship between coping and emotion—implications for theory and research. Social Science & Medicine, 26, 309–317.
Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1988b). Ways of coping revised questionnaire. Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists.
Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S., Dunkelschetter, C., Delongis, A., & Gruen, R. J. (1986). Dynamics of a stressful encounter-cognitive appraisal, coping, and encounter outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 992–1003.
Freud, S. (1917). Mourning and melancholia. In J. Strachey (Ed.), Collected papers (pp. 245–269). 1950. London: Hogarth.
Golding, J., & Aneshensel, C. (1989). Factor structure of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale among Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic whites. Psychological Assessment, 1, 163–168.
Hollingshead, A. B. (1975). Four-Factor Index of Social Status. New Haven, CT: Yale University Department of Sociology.
Jacobs, S., Kasl, S., Schaefer, C., & Ostfeld, A. (1994). Conscious and unconscious coping with loss. Psychosomatic Medicine, 56, 557–563.
Kendell, R. (1970). Relationship between aggression and depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 22, 308–318.
Knight, R. G., Williams, S., McGee, R., & Olaman, S. (1997). Psychometric properties of the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) in a sample of women in middle life. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 373–380.
Lazarus, R., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal and coping. New York: Springer.
Littrell, J., & Beck, E. (2001). Predictors of depression in a sample of African American homeless men: Identifying effective coping strategies given varying levels of daily stressors. Community Mental Health Journal, 37, 15–29.
Lyketsos, G. C., Blackburn, I. M., & Tsiantis, J. (1978). Movement of hostility during recovery from depression. Psychological Medicine, 8, 145–149.
Lyons, H. (1972). Depressive illness and aggression in Belfast. British Medical Journal, 1, 342–344.
Maiuro, R. D., Osullivan, M. J., Michael, M. C., & Vitaliano, P. P. (1989). Anger, hostility, and depression in assaultive vs. suicide-attempting males. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 45, 531–541.
Materazzo, F., Cathcart, S., & Pritchard, D. (2000). Anger, depression, and coping interactions in headache activity and adjustment: A controlled study. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 49, 69–75.
McCormick, R. A., & Smith, M. (1995). Aggression and hostility in substance abusers—the relationship to abuse patterns, coping style, and relapse triggers. Addictive behaviors, 20, 555–562.
Meissner, W. W. (1977). Psychoanalytic notes on suicide. International Journal of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, 6, 415–417.
Metropolitan Life Foundation. (1983). Metropolitanheight and weight tables. Statistical Bulletin, 64, 1.
Mills, P. J., Dimsdale, J. E., Nelesen, R. A., & Dillon, E. (1996). Psychologic characteristics associated with acute stressor-induced leukocyte subset redistribution. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 40, 417–423.
Moreno, J. K., Selby, M. J., Fuhriman, A., & Laver, G. D. (1994). Hostility in depression. Psychological Reports, 75, 1391–1401.
Ntoumanis, N., & Biddle, S. J. H. (2000). Relationship of intensity and direction of competitive anxiety with coping strategies. Sport psychologist, 14, 360–371.
Parker, G. B., & Brown, L. B. (1982). Coping behaviors that mediate between life evens and depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 1386–1391.
Patterson, T. L., Semple, S. J., Temoshok, L. R., Atkinson, J. H., McCutchan, J. A., Straits-Troster, et al. (1993). Depressive symptoms among HIV-positive em: Life Stress, Coping, and Social Support. Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research, 1, 64–87.
Pedder, J. (1992). Psychoanalytic views of aggression—some theoretical problems. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 65, 95–106.
Pugh, R. (1983). An association between hostility and poor adherence to treatment in patients suffering from depression. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 56, 205–208.
Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D Scale:Aself-report depression scale for research inthe general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385–401.
Reber, A. S. (1985). Dictionary of psychology. New York: Penguin.
Richman, J. & Flaherty, J. (1985). Copingand depression’the relative contribution of internal and externalresources during a life-cycle transition. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 173, 590–595.
Riley, W. T., Treiber, F. A., & Woods, M. G. (1989). Anger and hostility in depression. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 177, 668–674.
Roberts, R. E. (1980). Reliability of the CES-D Scale in different ethnic contexts. Psychiatry Research, 2, 125–134.
Roy-Byrne, P. P., Vitaliano, P. P., Cowley, D. S., Luciano, G., Zheng, Y., & Dunner, D. L. (1992). Coping in panic and major depressive disorder—relative effects of symptom severity and diagnostic comorbidity. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 180, 179–183.
Rowland, J., & Massie, M. J. (1998). Breast Cancer. In J. Holland (Ed.), Psycho-oncology (pp. 380–401). New York: Oxford University.
Schill, T., Ramanaiah, N., & Olaughlin, S. (1985). Relation of expression of hostility to coping with stress. Psychological Reports, 56, 193–194.
Sherbourne, C. D., Hays, R. D., & Wells, K. B. (1995). Personal and psychosocial risk factors for physical and mental-health outcomes and course of depression among depressed-patients. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 63, 345–355.
Suarez, E. C., Williams, R. B. (1990). The relationships between dimensions of hostility and cardiovascular reactivity as a function of task characteristics. Psychosomatic Medicine, 52, 558–570.
Vitaliano, P. P., Maiuro, R. D., Russo, J., & Becker, J. (1987). Raw versus relative scores in the assessment of coping strategies. Journal of Behavior Medicine, 10, 1–18.
Wineman, N. M., Durand, E. J., & McCulloch, B. J. (1994). Examination of the factor structure of the ways of coping questionnaire with clinical populations. Nursing Research, 43, 268–273.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mao, WC., Bardwell, W.A., Dimsdale, J.E. et al. Coping strategies, hostility, and depressive symptoms: A path model. Int. J. Behav. Med. 10, 331–342 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327558IJBM1004_4
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327558IJBM1004_4