Stress, Coping, and Health

This chapter addresses the confluence of two sets of processes-stress and coping-as they come to bear on health. It first addresses the following questions: What defines the experience of stress? What defines coping? What sorts of distinctions among coping responses are useful, or even necessary? Finally, how do processes of stress and coping interweave to influence health? Addressing this last question entails confronting at least two further issues: What boundaries must be placed around the construct of "health," and by what pathways might health be affected by stress and coping? After considering these issues, the chapter describes selected evidence from several areas of research on how stress and coping influence health.