Relationships between Stress Coping Skills and Stress Reactions in Clinical Training

Abstract

[Purpose] This study investigated stress reactions and stress coping skills frequency, and their relationship during clinical training. [Subjects and Methods] The subjects were 88 fourth year students of two physical therapy vocational schools. Stress reactions and stress coping skills were surveyed during clinical training, and differences in the use of stress coping skills for the main stress reactions, as well as the strength of their correlations were investigated. [Results] In the main reactions to stress, the frequency of use of affirmative assessment and acceptance of responsibility type behaviors were significantly high. Regarding the relationships between general stress reactions and coping skills, significant positive correlations were found with confrontation, acceptance of responsibility, and avoidance type behaviors, and significant negative correlations were found with planning and affirmative assessment type behaviors. [Conclusion] The results suggest that negative coping strategies easily increase stress reactions, whereas positive coping strategies easily decrease them.