Healthline: Studies ID ways to help young adults avoid health impacts of stress

Proactive coping is an umbrella term for behaviors that allow people to avoid future stressors or prepare themselves to respond to those stressors. These can be behavioral, such as saving money to deal with unexpected expenses, or cognitive, such as visualizing how to deal with potential challenges.

"You can also think of proactive coping as a way of helping people continue to work toward their goals, even when dealing with challenges," Neupert says.

The first of the two studies focused on skills that allowed people to concentrate on their goals when dealing with stressors. For this study, the researchers enlisted 223 people: 107 younger adults (ages 18-36) and 116 older adults (ages 60-90). Study participants completed an initial survey that focused on understanding goal-oriented proactive coping behaviors that the participants engaged in. The participants then completed daily surveys for the next eight days, recording the stressors they experienced each day, as well as their physical health symptoms.

"We found that younger adults who consistently engaged in proactive coping, such as thinking about what they need in order to be successful, experienced fewer negative physical health symptoms on stressful days," Neupert says. "However, there was no positive or negative effect of proactive coping for older adults.

Some Insights From This Article

• Proactive coping strategies are described as behaviors that allow for people to anticipate and prepare for future stressors to minimize the probability of that event occurring. A good example is anticipating any financial circumstances by saving money and planning your finances early. This small action can save you a whole lot of distress if that circumstance ever does come to fruition.

• Learning to think proactively helps us anticipate the events that life throws at us. Alongside the preparation, proactive planning can help instill confidence within us as well as being well prepared comes with a strong sense of control in our life events.

What are some examples of proactive preparation in your life?

Full article is here!

#Stress #Proactive #Behaviors