P~ychologicalReports, 1988, 62, 1007-1009.

@ Psychological Reports 1988

MODIFYING EFFECTS OF COPING STRATEGIES

O N T H E RELATION OF ORGANIZATIONAL
ROLE STRESS AND MENTAL HEALTH1

A. K. SRI'VASTAVA AND H. S. SINGH

Banasas Hindu Univer~ity

Summary.-The study examined the modifying effects of 'approach' and

of 'avoidance' coping srrategies on the relation of organizational role stress
and mental health in a sample of 300 industrial supervisors. A significant
positive relationship was noted between role stress and mental ill health. The
approach-coping group reported more role stress but scored lower on the meas-
ure of mental ill health in comparison to avoidance-coping group. Analysis
also showed that approach-coping markedly alleviated and avoidance-coping
strategies intensified the harming effects of role stress on mental health.

After the pioneering work of Khan, et al. (1964) on organizational stress

a substantial number of studies were conducted to examine the relationship
between job/role stress and psychological and physical strains. Most studies
showed positive relation of job stress with tension, anxiety, depression, dis-
satisfaction, etc. In recent years, researchers have initiated assessing the mod-
ifying effects of various psychological and organizational variables on the re-
lation of stress and these strains. The present study examined the relation of
organization role stress and mental ill health and also the moderating effect of
approach- and avoidance-coping strategies.
The study was conducted on a sample of 300 technical supervisors. Ho-
mogeneity among the subjects with regard to their personal and job demo-
graphic characteristics was maintained as much as possible.
The subjects' organizational role stress and mental health were assessed
through self-reporting inventories, standardized on a sample similar to the
present sample. The Organizational Role Stress Scale (Pareek, 1981), com-
prised of 50 items to be rated on five-point scale, was employed to assess the
extent of subjects' role stress. The index of retest reliability of the scale was
.73. The Mental Health Questionnaire (Srivastava & Bhatt, 1973) of 48 items
each of which had three alternative responses, was administered to assess the
symptoms of neuroticism. The odd-even reliability was .76. The subjects'
mode of coping with role stress was ascertained through a semiprojective tech-
nique (Pareek, 1983), using 24 pictures in which two persons were shown
interacting. One person is asking questions (pertaining to role stress) and
the subject is to assume he is the second person and give an answer (expressing
his strategy for dealing with that role stress). The strategies expressed by the

'Department of Psychology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India.

1008 A. K. SRIVASTAVA & H. S. SINGH

subject are categorized into 'avoidance' and 'approach' modes of coping. The
strategy frequently used by the subject is considered his dominant mode of
coping. An increase in the score on one strategy decreases the score on the
other. The odd-even and split-half reliabilities of the tool were .93 and .71,
respectively.
A Pearson correlation of 337 was obtained between organizational role
stress and mental ill health ( p < .001). The means of mental ill health score
for high ( n = 9 9 ) , moderate ( n = 9 9 ) , and low ( ~= t 102) role stress

groups were 60.3 ( U = 11.1), 49.2 ( U = 9.08) and 27.8 (U = 14.79), re-
spectively (P3,297 = 192.99, p < .001). The avoidance- and approach-coping
groups differed significantly with respect to role stress and mental health. The
approach group (lz = 157) perceived more role stress ( M = 153.5, u =
20.0) than the avoidance group ( M = 114.5, u = 22.8, n = 143; t = 15.9,
9 < .001). But, the approach group scored lower on the measure of mental
ill health ( M = 34.77, u = 15.9) than the avoidance group ( M = 57.5, u
= 11.59; t = 17.4, p < .001).
The results of moderated multiple regression analysis (Cohen, 1968; Ze-
deck, 1971), done to ascertain the effects of the two modes of coping on the
relation between role stress and mental health, shown in Table 1, indicate that
use of avoidance- and approach-coping strategies markedly altered the associa-
tion between perceived role stress and mental ill health. The addition of the
product of role stress and avoidance-coping to the basic equation of Role stress,
Avoidance led to a noticeable increase in the variance of mental ill health. An
identical increase in the variance of mental ill health was observed after adding
the product of role stress and approach-coping to the basic equation of Role
stress, Approach.
Since the multiple regression analysis does not specify the direction of
the interactional effects of two modes of coping, correlations for the two coping
groups were obtained. Pearson correlations between role stress and mental

TABLE 1
MODERATED MULTIPLEREGRESSION ANALYSES FOR
AVOIDANCE AND APPROACH COPING S ~ T E G I E(SN = 300)
Strategies Mental ill Health
R Rn b df
Avoidance Strategy
Role stress .837 -701
Role stress, Avoidance .849 .721 .01 2/297
Role stress X Avoidance .859 .738 .O 1 3/296
Approach Strategy
Role stress .837 .701
Role stress, Approach .849 .721 .01 2/297
Role stress X Approach ,859 .738 .01 3/296
 COPING STRATEGIES AND STRESS 1009

ill health for avoidance- and approach-coping groups were .57 and 3 5 , respec-
tively. The comparison of the two coefficients yielded a significant difference
(CR = 2.64, p < .05),from which we conclude that use of avoidance-coping
strategies markedly intensifies and use of approach-coping strategies attenuates
the adverse effects of role stress on mental health of the focal employees.
REFERENCES
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PAREEK, U. ( 1 9 8 1 ) Organizational role stress scale: rnanrtal. Ahmedabad: Navin Publ.
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Accepted May 19, 1988.