Reliance On Self or Seeking Help From Others: Gender Differences in the Locus of Coping in Chinese Working Parents

ABSTRACT In the present study, I examined gender differences in the coping behavior of Chinese working parents in Hong Kong. The Chinese Coping Scale (CCS; Shek & Mak, 1987), which assessed internal locus of coping (reliance on self) and external locus of coping (seeking help from others) in Chinese people in marital, familial, interpersonal, and occupational domains, was administered to 1,000 subjects. The results showed that men had higher internal coping scores in the marital, familial, and occupational domains, and that women had a stronger tendency to seek help from others (i.e., external coping) when facing stress in all four domains.