Asha Ravi and Manjula M.
National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore
Defensive pessimism is considered as a cognitive coping strategy found to be useful
in performance related stressful situations. In the background of scanty literature
in the Indian context the study aims to examine defensive pessimism, coping and
psychological functioning among youth and also to examine the relationship between
defensive pessimism, perceived stress, coping and psychological functioning. The
study was exploratory in nature, conducted with 200 undergraduate students. They
were assessed on Defensive Pessimism Questionnaire, Cohen’s’ Perceived Stress
Scale, Proactive Coping Inventory, Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale andAdult Self Report.
Descriptive statistics, correlation and t test were used to analyze data. Results indicate
that the participants have high defensive pessimism and perceived stress. With respect
to coping strategies used, strategic planning was used more. Defensive pessimism has
high correlation with perceived stress and proactive, preventive, reflective, and strategic
coping. There was average self esteem among the participants. On Adult Self Report,
anxiety depression was found more in females, so was perceived stress and instrumental
coping. Defensive pessimism is associated with thought problems.Anxiety/depression,
withdrawal and attention problems had negative correlation with proactive, preventive
and emotional coping. The findings have implications in planning interventions keeping
the coping patterns and the nature of stress in mind.
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