Objective: Personality type D may be associated with a predisposition to develop stress under external adverse influences, for example, in the COVID-19 pandemic. Likewise, type D personality is associated with higher burnout levels; thus, it may contribute to the development of diseases symptoms. The current study was designed to examine the coping strategies in young healthy persons with personality type D.
Methods: The study included 98 medical students, with 30 being males. The participants completed questionnaires to identify personality type D (DS-14) and the coping strategies. Depending on the results of the DS-14 questionnaire, four subgroups were distinguished with different levels of points on the NA and SI subscales.
Results: For persons with type D personality, the escape-avoidance strategy was used more often, the accepting responsibility and self-controlling strategies were less common compared with non-type-D individuals. When type D was adjusted for the NA and SI subscales, the correlation remained only with escape-avoidance strategy. We did not find a synergistic effect of the NA and SI subscales in regard to coping.
Conclusions: This study demonstrated a link between personality type D and maladaptive coping strategies. The predominance of the maladaptive coping strategy in type D is a possible point of application for psychosocial training in such individuals that requires further research.
Keywords: case-control; coping strategies; medical students; negative affectivity; personality type D; social inhibition; stress.