Coping and Psychological Disturbance in People With Physical Disabilities: Implications for Treatment and Rehabilitation

Given the huge variation in how people cope with acquired physical disability, researchers have moved away from stage models of adaption to consider the role of individual differences in personality, coping style and life experience in predicting adjustment to physically disabling conditions such as spinal cord injury (SCI) and multiple sclerosis (MS). Several cognitive factors have been identified as potential mediators between disability and psychological distress, including locus of control (LOC) and self-efficacy beliefs. Whilst, in general, the research on SCI suggests that an internal LOC is predictive of lower levels of depression and anxiety, this is not necessarily the case in MS due to the contrasting nature and demands of the condition. It also appears that the role of control cognitions may vary over time and across settings. Such findings have important treatment implications in terms of promoting mental health and for rehabilitation more generally