Samuel-Hodge et al Coping Styles, Well-Being, and Self-Care Behaviors Among African Americans With Type 2 Diabetes Purpose

The purpose of this study was to describe how coping styles among African Americans with type 2 diabetes relate to diabetes appraisals, self-care behaviors, and health-related quality of life or well-being. Methods This cross-sectional analysis of baseline measures from 185 African Americans with type 2 diabetes enrolled in a church-based randomized controlled trial uses the theo-retical framework of the transactional model of stress and coping to describe bivariate and multivariate associations among coping styles, psychosocial factors, self-care behaviors, and well-being, as measured by validated questionnaires. Results Among participants who were on average 59 years of age with 9 years of diagnosed diabetes, passive and emotive styles of coping were used most frequently, with older and less educated participants using more often passive forms of coping. Emotive styles of coping were signifi-cantly associated with greater perceived stress, problem areas in diabetes, and negative appraisals of diabetes con-trol. Both passive and active styles of coping were asso-ciated with better diabetes self-efficacy and competence in bivariate analysis. In multivariate analysis, significant proportions of the variance in dietary behaviors and men-tal well-being outcomes (general and diabetes specific