Factors Influencing Farmers’ Use of Adaptive and Maladaptive Coping Strategies

Details

• Personal Author:
  Holmstrom AJ ; Lim JI ; Shelle G ; Zhang Y
• Description:
  Objectives. Chronic stress is associated with a variety of negative outcomes for farmers in the United States (U.S) and worldwide, who face near-constant exposure to internal (e.g., family conflict) and external (e.g., weather) stressors. Research indicates that farmers' stress may be reduced by engaging in adaptive coping strategies and avoiding maladaptive coping strategies. However, little is known about what predicts their coping strategy use. Informed by the transactional theory of stress and coping, the present manuscript seeks to identify factors associated with U.S. farmers' use of adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies.Methods.U.S. farmers (N = 135) completed survey assessments of factors theorized to be associated with coping strategy choice (maladaptive beliefs about farm stress management, farm stress management self-efficacy, age, and sex) as well as measures of adaptive and maladaptive coping. Results. Farm stress management self-efficacy was a significant, positive predictor of adaptive coping, and maladaptive beliefs about farm stress management were a significant, positive predictor of maladaptive coping. Maladaptive beliefs about farm stress management and farm stress management self-efficacy interacted to predict maladaptive coping, such that the positive relationship between maladaptive beliefs about farm stress management and maladaptive coping was significant at higher levels of self-efficacy. Sex was unrelated to coping strategies, and age was negatively associated with maladaptive coping strategies but unassociated with adaptive coping strategies. Conclusion. The findings point to the utility of increasing farm stress self-management self-efficacy to increase farmers' adaptive coping and reducing maladaptive beliefs about farm stress management to reduce maladaptive coping. Efforts to promote adaptive coping by increasing self-efficacy should also target maladaptive beliefs farmers hold toward stress management, because increasing self-efficacy may also increase the likelihood of maladaptive coping when maladaptive beliefs are present. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Agriculture Farmers Mental Health Nervous System Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Agirculture Agricultural Workers Author Keywords: Coping Coping Behavior Mental Health Self-efficacy Stress
• ISSN:
  1059-924X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Iowa ; Michigan ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 7
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  28
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20068117
• Citation:
  J Agromedicine 2023 Oct; 28(4):903-914
• Contact Point Address:
  Amanda J. Holmstrom, Department of Communication, Michigan State University, 404 Wilson Rd. Rm. 473, East Lansing, MI, 48823
• Email:
  holmstr6@msu.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2024
• NORA Priority Area:
  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• Performing Organization:
  University of Iowa, Iowa City
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20010930
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Agromedicine
• End Date:
  20270929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:67bb6df6ba8ea1b5750e86f97948c55d61ed86cc551a9c680b0805a713546f579afc059a77be9ef6364d9326ed0ae8b4019130d8498615d4a1c8407dc426522e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/230332/cdc_230332_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 806.72 KB ]