Coping with Stress Essay

This come across lead take an issue that is very prominent in todays gild and attempt to look, in detail, how families of military war casualties are make do with the death of their loved ones and which coping strategies seem to be nigh influential in circumstances them get back to leading a flavor that closely resembles what they had before departure. This topic of military coping is beta, especi eachy in this time, because on that point have been so many casualties due to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan (see Appendix A) By looking at these conflicts, but also those such as the Vietnam War and the Gulf War, we would essentially expect to find common themes or strategies that make coping just a little bit easier for those who are left on the home front.This topic is valuable to investigate because of the amount of plenty affected each day by military death- the total deaths are in the thousands and rising every moment. War is a phenomenon that is not going to be d isappearing anytime soon, and if there is a way to cooperate those being influenced by tragedy in a more in force(p) and effectual way, the benefits are immense. The audience for this study is most likely going to be students, but there is also the potential for the military to take an involvement in order to help the families of the victims. Mental health counselors, community counselors and psychiatrists may find the studyfrom the study helpful because of the implications it will have on how people write out with death and how it may be possible to engage those dealing with death in purify coping strategies.Much of what has been studied in the body politic of coping and emphasize management has been done with the focus on the individual and how people deal with stress in general. This begs the question what is stress?. Stress is most commonly defined as a physical, mental, or sensational factor that causes bodily or mental tension, and for the sake of this study that is th e way it would be defined. legion(predicate) look forers still ascertain that the term stress is highly ambiguous because there can be so many different levels. Stress can be caused by an proceeds such as abuse, a natural disaster, an attack, a life threatening ordeal, or even just a dramatic upset(prenominal) change in lifestyle. Most of these topics have been studied, and through looking at this previous research, it is seen how very few researchers focus on how people parcel out with the stress of losing a loved one to an event such as war.Perhaps documentation of how people have coped with death throughout history is rare, or peradventure there has just not been a lot of studies done on the topic. When searching keywords such as coping, death, and military into a mental search engine, only seven results were retrieved, and of those seven, there were only two or three that seemed they would benefit this research positively. These few articles that that were found that gen erally focused on post-traumatic- stress disorder, or PSTD. They studied (both quantitatively and qualitatively) how families felt they were influenced by the war, whether it by deployment, responsibility at home, the unknown, and of course, death.It was found that it is indeed important to look at everyone tangled and try to work together to get through the trauma of war. The researches should not forget parent-child relations and should not forget that it takes time and understanding of an individual to help cope with the loss (Dekel et al., 2010, page). The other article that was looked at did not focus so much on a study, but the history of coping with loss during both war and peace times. It c overed a broad range of time and explained how the military had continually developed counseling and groups to help those who were affected by the war. It looks at how the loss can be integrated into ones life as a whole, and is looked at as positive for thes hoarier (Bartone et al., 199 4, page).This tip for coping, also known as big(p)iness in another article, seems to be a reoccurring paper when coping with trauma. If one can integrate the tragic event into their life and think of positive ways to let it influence them, they seem to be more likely to be able to deal with their stress or loss. Optimism was another element of this article, focusing on how if people believe that something is going to be positive, it has a greater impact on how they deal with stress (Maddi et al., 1999, page). to date another strategy that can be involved with coping is forgiving. It is often through the idea of forgiving the person or people that harmed someone important to you can be a strong motivator to getting over a stressful situation because it allows some sort of closure and understanding (Hodgson et al., 2007, page). totally of these factors- hardiness, forgiveness, empathy- must be taken into consideration while doing this research on coping.Historically research often focused on negative consequences of specific factors. We all know the effect that trauma, poverty, abuse, divorce, and other factors of such sort have on psychological development and what life long effects it has for an individual. In the last 20 to 30 familys researchers finally began to shift their focus on resiliency and how people develop positive coping skills despite adverse life events. The late broadening of coping theory might be a reaction to to earlier conceptualizations of coping that neglected to include such aspects as goals, purpose, and meaning. (Schwarzer & Luszczynska, 2008, p22) muckle want to feel successful in their lives and will look for opportunities for growth. They work hard for more resources, desire to maximize gains, and build up resistance factors all to ward off future crisis or to grow and cultivate their capabilities for their own sake (Schwarzer & Luszczynska, 2008, p22).Resilience studies with children and adolescents have identified the foll owing major factors to play a role in buffering how they cope with stress and trauma IQ, parental quality, connection to other competent adults, internal locust of control, and brotherly skills (Tiet et al., 1998, p1191). In addition there have been many studies that focused on genderdifferences when coping with stress and this are well documented when it comes to adults. look for concerning gender differences that may influence coping in children and adolescents revealed mixed results. (Eschenbeck et al., 2007, p18) This could be attributed to level of development, environmental factors, and gender socialization.The study completed by Eschenbeck and coleagues (2007) however demonstrated that girls scored higher in seeking social support and problem solving (Eschenbeck et al., 2007, p20). Other studies also identified that social supports and problem solving skills were most influential factors in coping with adverse life events and linked these factors with greater social compete nce and fewer internalizing and externalizing behavior problems (Clarke, 2006, p12) for children and adolescents. pip-squeakren in military families are more often exposed to stressful situations. Yet fit in to reports from counselors and other school personnel military children tend to be resilient. They are used to changing schools, enduring long separations from a parent, and saying goodbye to old friends and making new ones. (Hardy, 2006, p11) These children often are being taken care of by family members other than their mothers and fathers, such as aunts, uncles, grandparents, or close family friends. They may familiarity relationship conflicts within the setting of their families as the boundaries of the family is shifted due to temporary and permanent losses.The effects of this kind of loss are displayed in ways that potentially prevent successful adolescent development. (Huebner et al., 2007, p121) Much of the work with these youths have been focused on concept of foste ring resiliency. This approach focuses on (a) finding meaning, (b) tempering mastery, (c) reconstructing identity, (d) normalizing ambivalence, (e) revising attachment, and (f) discovering hope (Huebner et al., 2007 p 120).It seems to be that choosing to research along the lines of how military death influences families will be a topic that has been studied little before, and thus hopefully the information that we run into will be helpful in organizing more constructive ways for families to cope with loss.Study DesignIt was determined that the setting for the research project would be twenty families with adolescents ages 12-18 chosen from the upstate New York region (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse). The families selected would be those who have lost someone in the war within the last year. We would gather information through the use of personal interviews, family interviews, group discussions and observation. Using qualitative methods in this research will be more beneficial because it will better help us understand what people are directly feeling- we will be able to see their reactions and work with them and empathize with them to hopefully make them feel more comfortable. Using qualitative studies will also help us to see the reactions of those in the groups and if there are certain individuals who benefit from the interaction with others.We will also be able to better compare the depth of grief and the coping strategies to the others in the groups. Since it would be necessary to see how coping skills develop over a period of time, it seems that this study would be longitudinal, over the period of 6 months to a year. This would help us to see the do of the individuals and of families in their ability to cope with having lost someone. Analysis of the study will be based on how well individuals and families are able to overcome loss and what social factors allowed them to get to a more stable state of being.To figure the results we will have looked at how th e individual or family functioned when they first learned of the loss compared to how they functioned 6 months to a year down the road. If we have chosen someone who has lost their loved one more than 6 months ago at the beginning of the study, they will be a good point of reference as to where those who more recently lost someone should be in six months. It is easy to see this study in a circular formation due to the fact that deaths are still occurring and there are constantly more people and families to interact with.Potential LimitationsThe idea behind this research allows many different paths to explore, but that is also a challenge that must be faced. Each term we use in the research has to be clearly defined so that the people we are studying do notget confused or put off by anything that may be asked. Also, it has to be taken into consideration that many people react different ways to trauma to begin with, and that may be hard to determine at first. Some people may get depre ssed, others may get angry, and yet others may just try to go on spiritedness as they were before. Each person spoken with will have to be individually looked at to determine their premier coping style and from that point progress will have to be determined.The type of death that each soldier faced is yet another factor to consider, as it may be easier for the family to deal with death of someone who was injured and then died from those injuries. If that is the case, there is more of a chance that the family got to say goodbye than if the soldier was killed unexpectedly by enemy troop in another country. One of the other important limitations to consider is the openness of the people and families being interviewed. They may see the death as a one-on-one family matter and thus have a hard time letting an outsider into the mix. All of these limitations, though, can hopefully be avoided or at least overcome, with patience, empathy and respect for all involved.ReferencesBartone, P. & Ender, M. (1994). Organizational Responses to Death in the Military. Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, D.C. Death Studies, 18, 25- 39.Cameron, A., Palm, K. & Follette, V. (2010). Reaction to stressful life events What predicts symptom severity? ledger of Anxiety Disorders, 24, 645649.Clarke, Angela (2006). Coping with interpersonal stress and psychosocial health among children and adolescents a meta analysis. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35(1), 11-24.Dekel, R. & Monson, C. (2010). 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