Psychosocial Stressors and Coping Behavior among Bureaucrats: Evidence from Himachal Pradesh

The present study aimed at examining the seven sub variables of psychosocial stressors (i.e. strained interpersonal relationship, excessive responsibilities, financial constraints, marriage related stress, health related problems, adverse situations and perceived threat)as correlates of coping behavior (i.e., problem focused coping, emotion focused coping, & avoidance coping) among male and female bureaucrats of Himachal Pradesh. The sample comprised of 175 bureaucrats (128 male & 47 female bureaucrats). For the purpose of collecting data from the selected sample of bureaucrats two scales have been used, i.e., ICMR Psychosocial Stress Scale (Srivastava, 1992) and Cope Inventory (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989). Correlation and regression analyses were carried out to see the effect of psychosocial stressors on coping strategies among the selected officers. The results revealed that:1. Psychosocial stressors in terms of strained interpersonal relationships, health related problems and adverse situations were found to be negatively and significantly related to problem focused coping among male bureaucrats. Secondly, health related problems and perceived threats were negatively and significantly related to emotion focused coping among male bureaucrats. Among female bureaucrats no significant correlation emerged between seven sub variables of psychosocial stressors and three sub variables of coping behavior.