Abstract
When children receive dental treatment, they frequently express anxiety, fear, and other emotions via recognizable physical behavior, and this behavior often interferes with effective dental treatment. We have previously examined the extent to which the interfering physical behavior of children during treatment produces psychological stress in dentists. When people are subjected to stress, however they tend to engage in coping behavior that helps to process and control that stress. The present study thus focused on the relationship between the stress produced in dentists by children during treatment and concomitant coping behavior of the dentists. The following results were obtained.
1. The dentists' psychological stress scores significantly correlated (at the.01 level of significance)to the frequency of coping behavior related to that stress. However, no significant correlation was found to the total quantity or intensity of that behavior.
2. Among members of the problem-oriented group, no significant correlation was found between any of the coping behavior and psychological stress scores. Among members of the emotion-oriented group, a significant difference was found between the high-stress group and low-stress group in both total quantity (at the.05 level) and freqency (at the.01 level) of coping behavior.
3. In examining six coping patterns, a significant difference (at the.05 level) was found between the high-stress and low-stress groups in the extent (total amount) to which they “diverted attention”. A diffence in frequency at the.01 level was found between the group that sought to control emotion by diverting attention versus the group that remained rigidly on task. No significant diffences in intensity were found among any of the groups.
The above findings suggest a relationship between dentist psychological stress scores (for stress received from children during treatment) and coping behaviors related to that stress, with the incidence of coping behavior increasing in proportion to stress. Problem-oriented coping and emotional-oriented coping were also mutually facilitating and controlling. This supports the notion that human beings are most successful when they use both problem-oriented and emotion-oriented coping mechanisms to handle the stressful situations they encounter in their everyday lives.
