Numerous studies have accumulated findings indicating that the way of coping is a critical mediator in the relation between these traumatic events and psychological outcomes. This study investigates the associations between coping strategies and post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in Korean adults.

Through an online survey, 554 non-clinical adult respondents were recruited. We assessed PTSS using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) scale and measured individual coping strategies using the Ways of Coping Checklist (WCCL). Based on the IES-R standard cut-off score, we categorized the respondents into 3 groups: normal (n=255), non-PTSS (n=185) and PTSS (n=144) after exposure to traumatic events.

The scores of each coping strategy in a PTSS group were generally higher than in either the normal or non-PTSS group. In the logistic regression analysis, PTSS group was 2.77 more likely to use Tension-reduction coping compared to the other two samples.

Our findings suggest that PTSS is associated with high inclination to apply emotion-focused coping such as tension-reduction contributing to psychological distress. These results point to the potential value of coping strategies in prevention of and therapeutic approach to PTSS for non-clinical adults.

The purpose of this study was to review the literature to improve the understanding of life events of early schizophrenia and identify the related factors using an integrative review.

The key words, ‘schizophrenia’ and ‘life events’ were used to search peer-reviewed evidence through six electronic databases and 11 papers were selected.

The factors related to the life events of the early schizophrenia were as follows 1) social isolation, lack of self-efficacy, lack of coping as antecedents 2) depression as a mediating factor 3) precipitating role of psychotic symptoms as a consequence.

It is difficult to identify the causal relationship between life events and psychotic symptoms because there are methodological limitations and conflicting results. In the future, it will be necessary qualitative research on life events of early schizophrenia and intervention study applying related factors identified in this study.