LINKS BETWEEN STRESS COPING SKILLS AND CONTINGENCIES OF SELF-WORTH IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

In different stages of human development individual's self-esteem depends on different things. At one time a central place occupies such areas as physical appearance, effectiveness of body functioning, interpersonal relationships, another - academic competence, success in professional activities, and so on. There are the individual differences also. For example, for some people self-esteem may depend on being physically attractive, for others self-esteem may depend on being virtuous. If an individual's self-esteem is strongly contingent, it may come at a high stress and psychological vulnerability (Crocker, & Luhtanen, 2003). The current study aims to examine stress coping skills concerning different contingencies on which students of Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences base their self-esteem. The study was based on the idea that some kinds of contingencies of self-worth enforce more or less effective stress coping strategies. The Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale (Crocker et al., 2003) was applied for assessing seven contingencies on which individuals base their self-esteem. The authors identified seven domains which contribute to individual's global self-esteem: approval from others, appearance, competition, academic competence, family support, virtue, and God's love. Appearance, competition, and approval from others are the most external contingencies of self-worth. They have high costs for stress. Family support is also external but stable enough source of self-esteem. Virtue and God's love are internal and relatively stable sources of self-esteem. Academic competence is associated with internal but more strongly with external contingencies (Crocker, 2002). The Coping with Stress Questionnaire (Grakauskas, & Valickas, 2006) was applied for measuring stress coping strategies (social support, problem solving, emotional discharge, and avoidance) in the current study. The results show associations between contingencies of self-worth and stress coping strategies among university students. It was found that some contingencies of self-worth lead to a better prediction of appropriate stress coping strategies. Although dependent self-esteem may cause high levels of stress, nonetheless dependency on academic competence and virtue predict effective stress coping strategy - problem solving. Family support allowed prediction of also effective stress coping strategy - social support. Only dependency on religious faith predicts less effective stress coping strategies such as emotional discharge and avoidance.