Goal Striving and Maladaptive Coping in Adults Living With Spinal Cord Injury: Associations With Affective Well-Being

OBJECTIVE: The current study examined how goal engagement and two coping strategies (self-blame and denial) hypothesized to prevent successful disengagement relate to affective well-being among adults with a functional disability. METHOD: Ninety-nine community-dwelling adults (23 to 76 years old, 66 men) with spinal cord injury participated in structured interviews assessing affective well-being using the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (Watson, Clark, goal engagement using a modified version of the Optimization, Primary, and Secondary Control Scale (Heckhausen, Schulz, and self-blame and denial using items from Carver's (1997) Brief COPE Inventory. RESULTS: Greater goal engagement was significantly associated with positive but not negative affect. Greater use of self-blame and denial coping was associated with lower positive affect for older adults and higher negative affect across the age range.