Hardiness and the response to stressful situations: Investigating mediating processes

The present study investigated mediating processes that explain how hardiness influences the way people respond to a stressful situation. Coping style and coping self-efficacy were investigated as mediating variables. Using a longitudinal design, hardiness, coping style and coping self-efficacy, and responses (i.e., appraisal and coping behavior) to a stressful military exercise were assessed at different points in time during basic military training in two independent samples (n = 109, n = 98). As hypothesized, coping self-efficacy mediated the relationship between hardiness and appraisal, whereas coping style mediated the relationship between hardiness and coping behavior. By showing that the relationships between hardiness and responses to a specific stressful situation are mediated by contextual person characteristics such as coping style and coping self-efficacy, the present study contributes to existing theories about hardiness and its effects.