Objectives: This study aimed to clarify what type of coping profile can reduce the stress reaction caused by job stress.
Methods: Using the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire and the Brief Scales for Coping Profile Questionnaire, 1,319 male workers in Japanese manufacturing companies were surveyed. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were used for the statistical analysis.
Results: Six factors for coping profile and job stress were extracted by EFA. Three factors of job stress were thought to correspond to job overload, good human relations and stress reaction, and three factors of coping profile were thought to correspond to problem-focused coping, emotion-focused active coping and escape-avoidance coping. These factors showed good agreement (GFI=0.947, AGFI=0.915, RMSEA=0.070) in CFA. A path diagram showing that coping profile influenced human relations and job overload, and that these conscious stress factors caused the stress reaction was constructed. The validity of this path model was shown (GFI=0.937, AGFI=0.904, RMSEA=0.074) using SEM. In the path analysis, the emotion-focused active coping profile created good human relations and reduced job overload, and either or both of these stress factors worked in the direction in which the stress reaction was reduced. The emotion-focused active coping profile acted finally to reduced the stress reaction (standardized total effect: -0.205). On the other hand, the escape-avoidance coping profile influences human relations harmfully and increased job overload. The escape-avoidance coping profile remarkably deteriorated the stress reaction (standardized total effect: +0.160). The problem-focused coping profile created good human relations though it increased job overload. Through both stress factors the problem-focused coping profile only increased slightly the stress reaction (standardized total effect: +0.019). However, a correlation existed among the three coping profiles. The problem-focused coping profile positively correlated with the emotion-focused active coping profile, that decreases the stress reaction, but negatively correlated with the escape-avoidance coping profile, that increases the stress reaction. Because it was thought that a worker who tends to use a problem-focused coping profile also often adopted other coping profiles that simultaneously reduced the stress reaction, the many workers who tend to use a problem-focused coping profile finally have reduced stress reactions.
Conclusions: The emotion-focused active coping profile reduced the stress reaction caused by job stress, but the escape-avoidance coping profile intensified the stress reaction. The problem-focused coping profile, that has often been reported to reduce the stress reaction, finally increased the stress reaction slightly because job overload increased as a cost.