The 2008 Economic Tsunami in Hong Kong: The Way Young and Middle Adults Cope with Stress, and the Influence of Demographic Factors and Personality Traits on Coping and Well-Being

Abstract

Objectives: This study examined how Hong Kong adults coped with 2008 economic tsunami. It identified the types of coping strategies used by participants. It further revealed how demographic factors and personality traits would affect choice of coping strategies. Demographic factors used in this study were gender, age, occupation, years of financial investment and types of investors. Personality traits used in this study were self-efficacy, emotion regulation and resilience. Finally, this study examined the predictive power of personality traits and coping for personal well-being after the outbreak of economic tsunami. Methods: Participants were asked to complete questionnaires with five scales (1) General self-efficacy scale (2) Emotion regulation questionnaire (3) Ego-resiliency scale (4) Personal wellbeing index and (5) Brief COPE. Factor analysis, independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA were conducted. Results: Overall speaking, participants used social support coping most frequently and avoidant coping least frequently. There were gender difference in social support coping and age difference in planning under problem-focused coping. Problem-focused coping was positively correlated with self-efficacy and resilience; social support coping was negatively correlated with suppression emotional regulation; and avoidant coping was negatively correlated with self-efficacy. Finally, self-efficacy was found to be the strong predictor for personal well-being of participants. Conclusion: Under similar stressors of economic tsunami, participants were found to cope differently. This was explained by differences in gender, age, personality traits and other demographic variables. Further researches could be done to examine the ways to improve qualities of personality traits together with effective coping.