Sociodemographic characteristics
The socio-demographic characteristics of the sample are presented in Table 1. The number of participants who agreed to participate was 112. Participants were recruited from different training centers and regions in Romania: Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Tîrgu Mures, and Sibiu. The average age for the lot was 27 (26 - 30) years, and there were 71 females (63.4%), with an average period of work in the field of 7 (3 - 42) months. Most of the residents were in the first year (38.4%), while 27.2% and 20.2% of the residents were in the fourth and third years, respectively.
Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of the participants
Number of participants
|
112
|
Age [years](a)
|
27.0 (26.0 - 30.0)
|
Gender (female)(b)
|
71 (63.4%)
|
Citizenship(b)
|
Romanian
|
110 (98.2%)
|
Other
|
2(1.8%)
|
Education(b)
|
Bachelor's degree
|
108 (96.5%)
|
Master's degree
|
3 (2.6%)
|
PhD
|
1 (0.9%)
|
Year of residency(a)
|
2 (1 - 4)
|
Experience in psychiatry [months](a)
|
24 (7 - 41)
|
Civil status(b)
|
Married
|
32 (28.6%)
|
Unmarried
|
70 (62.5%)
|
Single
|
4 (3.6%)
|
Cohabiting partnership
|
6 (5.3%)
|
Number of children(a)
|
None
|
94 (83.9%)
|
One
|
14 (12.5%)
|
Two
|
4 (3.6%)
|
Working period [months](a)
|
7 (3 - 42)
|
Religion(b)
|
Orthodox
|
86 (76.8%)
|
Catholic
|
5 (4.5%)
|
Greco-catholic
|
1 (0.9%)
|
Reformed
|
3 (2.7%)
|
Agnostic
|
2 (1.8%)
|
Independent
|
1 (0.9%)
|
Atheist
|
5 (4.4%)
|
Undeclared
|
9 (8.0%)
|
(a)Continuous variables (with non-Gaussian distribution) are
indicated by their median (interquartile range-IQR).
(b)Categorical variables are presented by absolute frequency and
percentage in the sample.
More than half of the participants were unmarried (62.5%) and without children (83.9%). Also, we observed that more than half of the participants had a Christian orthodox religion (76.8%).
Table 2 presents the description of all the coping strategies with problem-focused and emotion-based coping styles having a median of 36 (33 – 40), and 51 (47 – 56), respectively.
Table 2. Description of coping strategies.
Coping style
|
Median
|
25%
|
75%
|
Minimum
|
Maximum
|
Problem-focused
|
36
|
33
|
40
|
22
|
48
|
Emotion-focused
|
51
|
47
|
56
|
31
|
74
|
Social support
|
32.5
|
29
|
37
|
17
|
46
|
Avoidant
|
27
|
24
|
31
|
17
|
44
|
The dominant coping style was ‘problem-focused’ for almost half of the participants (46.1%). The emotion-focused coping style was the dominant coping style for 26.3% of the participants, while for 25% of the participants; the dominant coping style was social support. A percentage of 2.6% of the participants used avoidance-type coping as their dominant coping style.
Table 3 includes a description of the defensive mechanisms for both adaptive and non-adaptive strategies. Superior adaptation has a median of 95 (86 - 105), while mental inhibition and minor distortion presented a median of 52.5 (41 – 63) and 20 (15 - 26.5), respectively.
Table 3. Description of defensive mechanisms
Defensive mechanism
|
Median
|
25%
|
75%
|
Minimum
|
Maximum
|
Superior adaptation
|
95
|
86
|
105
|
61
|
129
|
Disavowal
|
23
|
19.5
|
28
|
10
|
52
|
Mental inhibition
|
52.5
|
41
|
63
|
28
|
92
|
Major distortion
|
21
|
14
|
28
|
8
|
51
|
Minor distortion
|
20
|
15
|
26.5
|
8
|
43
|
Action
|
27.5
|
22
|
36
|
10
|
59
|
We observed significantly consistent correlations (ranging from 0.2 to 0.5) between adaptive defense mechanisms and coping focused on the problem, on the emotion, or on seeking social support. Firstly, a positive significant correlation between superior adaptation and problem-focused coping style (Spearman’s r = 0.381, p < 0.01) was observed. Also, we noticed a positive significant correlation between superior adaptation and emotion-focused coping (Spearman’s r = 0.266, p < 0.01), as well as social support coping (Spearman’s r = 0.255, p < 0.01). Also, the superior adaptation mechanism negatively poorly correlated with avoidant coping strategy (Spearman’s r = -0.091, p = 0.338) (Table 4).
The avoidant coping strategies correlated with defense styles that are not adaptive (correlations between 0.2 and 0.5). More exactly, we observed a positive significant correlation between major distortion and avoidant coping style (Spearman’s r = 0.420, p < 0.001), between mental inhibition and avoidant coping style (Spearman’s r = 0.415, p < 0.001), and between action and avoidant coping style (Spearman’s r = 0.410, p < 0.001).
Another positive significant correlation was found between major distortion and social support coping mechanisms (Spearman’s r = 0.222, p = 0.019), as well as minor distortion and social support coping mechanisms (Spearman’s r = 0.202, p = 0.033). On the contrary, disavowal and mental inhibition were not significantly correlated with the social support coping style (Spearman’s r = 0.163, p = 0.086; and Spearman’s r = 0.143, p = 0.134, respectively). Also, disavowal, mental inhibition, major and minor distortion were not significantly correlated with problem-focused coping neither with an emotion-focused coping strategy.
Table 4. Correlations between defensive mechanisms and coping strategies
Parameters
|
Problem-focused
|
Emotion-focused
|
Social support
|
Avoidant
|
Superior adaptation
|
0.381**
|
0.266**
|
0.255**
|
-0.091
|
Disavowal
|
0.027
|
0.059
|
0.163
|
0.191*
|
Mental inhibition
|
0.035
|
0.109
|
0.143
|
0.415**
|
Major distortion
|
-0.158
|
-0.112
|
0.222*
|
0.420**
|
Minor distortion
|
0.057
|
0.098
|
0.202*
|
0.277**
|
Action
|
-0.070
|
-0.069
|
0.198*
|
0.410**
|
*significant correlation at 0.05 level
** significant correlation at 0.01 level
We grouped coping and defense mechanisms into two types of adaptive processes: one type of adaptive processes includes mature (or well adaptive) defenses and all forms of active coping (focused on the problem, focused on emotion or focused on seeking social support); the other type includes non-adaptive defense mechanisms and avoidant coping (Figure 1).
Our model presented good fit indices, X2(34) = 64.324, p < 0.001, GFI = 0.93, RMSE = 0.08. Moreover, the results indicated a very weak association, r = 0.07, p < 0.001, between the two types of adaptive processes. Correlation values close to zero were found between avoidant coping and adaptive defense mechanisms, and between non-avoidant coping (problem-focused, emotion-focused) and non-adaptive defenses.