Mediation Effect of Mindset on Coping Strategies Used by Consumers Experiencing Financial Hardship during the Economic Recession in 2008
Abstract
It is well known that experiences of financial hardship are negatively related to the quality of life (Kamberi, Martinovic, & Verkuyten 2015; Yeung & Xu, 2012). It is why many researchers investi-gated appropriate coping behaviors used during stressful situations caused by financial hardship (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989; Joo, & Garman, 1998; Kim, & Garman, 2003; Kling, Seltzer, & Ryff, 1997; Weiten, 2009). Additionally, one important issue of coping behavior is the willingness to execute coping strategies. The willingness is sturdily associated with the mindset (Crum & Langer, 2007). Positive mindset leads the willingness to execute positive coping behavior but the negative mindset is expected to be helpless in coping with a stressful situation. In other words, the mindset is expected to be a trigger for evoking an intention of coping behavior. Based on these findings, the re-search goals of this study are: (a) to identify the effect of coping behavior on the quality of life (e.g., life satisfaction, depression, and positive/negative affect) and (b) to examine the function of mindset on coping behavior.