Men Are From Mars...



I'm sure you've heard the saying men are from Mars and women from Venus. Just how true is it?

That's exactly what Jon Hammermeister and Damon Burton wanted to know. So they rounded up a group of 184 triathletes, 69 distance runners, and 65 cyclists and put it to the test. Are there gender differences in coping with endurance sport stress?

Before we get to the answer, here's some background.

In the mid 80's Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman suggested that stress occurs when there is an imbalance between our resources and the demands placed upon us or when pressure exceeds our ability to cope. Rather than seeing stress as a direct result of a stressor, they maintained that stress was mediated by our resources and our ability to cope -- both things that can be brought under our control.

According to their model, known as the Transactional Model, stress is determined by how we appraise a stressful situation as well as how we appraise our abilities to cope with the situation. Change your appraisal or perception of a situation so that instead of seeing it as a "threat" you now see it as an "opportunity" or "challenge" and you're likely to be less stressed or not stressed at all.

What should we do when we appraise a situation as taxing or exceeding our resources? Find a way to cope! Lazarus and Folkman make a distinction between two types of coping: problem-focused (or action-based) and emotion-focused. Problem-focused-coping involves actually dealing with the problem that is causing stress and includes such things as: planning, suppression of competing activities, confrontation, self-control, and restraint. In contrast, emotion-focused coping aims to reduce the symptoms of stress without necessarily doing anything about their source. Examples include denial, wishful thinking, distraction, relaxation, reappraisal, religion, and humor.

Finally, Lazarus maintained that while both problem-focused-coping (PFC) and emotion-focused coping (EFC) should be used in most stressful situations,PFC strategies (e.g., increasing effort, maintaining a task focus) may be more helpful in situations in which athletes have higher levels of control over reducing the sources of threat, and EFC (e.g., relying on emotional support, positive reinterpretation) should be used most prominently in low control situations.
With that out of the way, how did men and women stack up?

First, the authors report that even when, "the types and degree of threat are similar for both genders, females perceive less control over environmental threats than do males".

Second, females are more likely than males to use three emotion-focused-coping strategies: positive reinterpretation, emotional social support and dissociation (thinking about something other than the present circumstances).

Third, males are more likely than females to use two problem-focused-coping strategies: suppression of competing activities and association. Males were less likely than females to use instrumental social support (also a problem-focused-coping strategy).

Before anyone makes too big a deal about these differences, there are some definite limitations to the study that make generalizing too much from the results unadvised.

Hammermeister and Burton conclude that "gender differences do seem to moderate the coping process." Referring back to the Lazarus and Folkman model I explained earlier, they write that


in low control situations, emotion-focused coping mechanisms should predominate, whereas in events where control is high, problem-focused coping should be preferred. The coping patterns of participants in this study mirrored these predictions closely, with females seemingly perceiving less control and using predominantly EFC strategies, whereas males believed they had more control and made greater use of PFC mechanisms.


Why does this happen? My hunch is one word.

Socialization.

In our society, women are socialized to predominantly use emotional-focused coping strategies to deal with stress as opposed to men who are taught to use more problem-focused strategies.

So how does all this apply to you as an athlete?

Whether male or female, take the time to understand your strategies for coping with stress. Remember that one strategy is not necessarily better than the other. The key is to match the correct strategy with the given situation. Expand your coping skills repertoire. Learn new strategies for dealing with stress -- both problem -focused and emotion-focused.

And most of all, remember that stress is all about how you perceive it.



Your turn. How do you cope with stress? What strategies have you used? As always, your comments are welcome. And be use to check out the SportsMinded Survey in the column to your right and let us know what you are!




Reference: Burton, D., & Hammermeister, J. (2004). Gender differences in coping with endurance sport stress: Are men from Mars and women from Venus?. Journal of Sport Behavior, 27(2), 148-164.

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