Trait anxiety and coping in anxiety relevant situations

The study concerned the relationship between trait anxiety and coping in anxiety relevant situation. Differences in coping styles between high and low trait anxious subjects as well as differences between coping strategies in two anxiety provoking situations were analyzed in a group of female students. It was found that high trait anxious students had a tendency to use more emotion and avoidance oriented coping. It was also found that when the situation was relevant to particular aspect of anxiety the tendency to use less adaptive forms of coping increased. High test anxious subjects used more emotion and avoidance oriented coping in the situation of exam failure and high social anxious subjects used those forms more intensively in the situation of social rejection but generally individual characteristics of a person influenced coping stronger than situation.