Relationship between intensity of fear and coping-strategies implemented by high-school and university students

Moscow State University of Civil Engineering, 26, Yaroslavskoye shosse, 129337, Moscow, Russia

^* Corresponding author: romanova_e_v@mail.ru

Abstract

Fears warn and keep people away from threats to their lives and health. But sometimes fears are redundant and make people overcautious. Sense of fear is often driven by uncertainty or inability to control over the situation. The latter causes teenagers to worry and be afraid for health and possible negative outcomes of diseases of their loved ones as well as a need to carry responsibility also frightens them. The named fears prevail among the young generation in the beginning of the 21st century. Coping-strategies help people to be in control of their phobias, stress and other triggers of anxiety. Current paper is devoted to finding connections between fears and coping-strategy to fight them. Low tension proves adaptive application of coping-strategies, while high tension signals about their maladaptive use. Maladaptive strategies do not adequately deal with the case and fail to cope with anxiety. The most stressful strategy for school and university students to take is «Accepting Responsibility». «Self-control» (for school students) and «Approach to problem solving» (for university students) are also on the list. Decrease in anxiety level is followed by using fewer high-tension coping strategies. Students may turn to their phobias as passive coping-strategies in cases when the known methods fail to take effect. Fear mobilizes defense mechanisms and supplementary resources to protect one from anxiety.