Relationship between coping strategies and thinking styles among university students

Objective: This study aims at exploring the correlation between coping strategies and thinking styles. Methods: The study sample consisted of 62 students (30 females and 32 males) from the Medical Science College in Hodeidah University, Yemen. They responded to the Scale of Coping styles and Inventory of Thinking styles quetionnaire. Results: Active coping strategy was affected significantly by legislative, local and hierarchical thinking styles, while avoidance strategy was affected significantly by oligarchic thinking styles, behavioral conducts by judicial, global and anarchic thinking styles. Significant gender differences were found in behavioral conducts (from coping strategies), anarchic and internal thinking styles with advantage with females. Conclusion: Coping strategies are not independent of thinking styles. These results offer justification and support for future research in larger samples. Potential implications of the impact of thinking styles on coping strategies are also considered. ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 15 (1): January - June 2014: 14-22