INVESTIGATION OF METHODS OF COATING WITH STRESS IN INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES

Abstract

Stress may affect everyone differently. Stress can be described as adapting to changes in life by disrupting the physical and psychic balance in situations where the individual cannot adapt. Stress experienced by people with disabilities may be psychic or individual barriers caused by the person's disability. Exposure to stress by a person’s disability affects many systems. Individuals with disabilities must have strong stress-coping methods to be less affected by these systems. This study aims to examine the methods of coping with stress in individuals with disabilities in Turkey. In this quantitative study, 477 disabled individuals (visual, orthopedic, hearing, or speech and chronic) were reached through purposive sampling. The stress Coping Scale developed by Moss in 1993 was used as a data collection tool to examine the coping methods of individuals with disabilities. Most of the participants were male, high school graduates, married, and had social security. Moreover, although the rate of those who have experienced any traumatic event causing stress is high, most of the participants try to cope with stress without getting help from their social circle. This study will contribute to both the field of social work in Turkey and literature in a multidisciplinary sense.