Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine predictors of somatic symptoms and psychological symptoms of stress among Korean adults. A cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted. A sample size of 815 male and 1,554 female adults residing in South Korea completed the instruments of perceived stress, symptoms of stress, and way of coping. Data was analyzed by multivariate regression. Influencing factors for eleven symptoms of stress were as follows: a) subjective health status, having disease, perceived stress level were significant influencing factors for all symptoms of stress; b) problem-focused coping was a significant influencing factor for psychological symptoms of stress; c) emotional-focused coping was significant influencing factor for both psychosomatic and psychological symptoms of stress; d) age, gender, subjective health status, having disease, and perceived stress level were significant influencing factors for psychosomatic symptoms of stress; e) emotion-focused coping predicted psychosomatic symptoms of stress. Feeling healthier and perceiving a lower stress level predicted more psychological symptoms of stress. In contrast, using more emotion-focused coping was significantly associated with more psychosomatic symptoms of stress. The findings suggest that community health providers need to develop interventions to aware coping strategies and to enforce problem-focused coping skills for community-dwelling Korean adults with psychosomatic complaints. (Korean J Str Res 2012;20:179∼186)

• Keywords: Coping skills, Emotional stress, Life stress, Physiological stress;