HOST COMMUNITY RESIDENT STRESS AND COPING WITH TOURISM
DEVELOPMENT
By
Evan J. Jordan

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Sustainable Tourism and Protected Area Management – Doctor of Philosophy
2014

ABSTRACT
HOST COMMUNITY RESIDENT STRESS AND COPING WITH TOURISM
DEVELOPMENT
By
Evan J. Jordan
This dissertation utilizes stress and coping theory from the psychology discipline as a
framework from which to examine host community resident responses to tourism development.
Stress is one element of individuals’ overall quality of life that may be impacted by the
development and operation of tourism in host communities. The stress and coping framework
allows examination of emotional and behavioral responses that represent an important step
forward from using attitudes toward or support for tourism development as measures of resident
responses to tourism development. Stress is experienced through daily hassles, which, with long
term exposure, can result in negative outcomes like high-blood pressure, decrease in cognitive
function, accelerated aging, and loss of sleep. Factors such as personality, social support, stress
appraisal, and coping play a role in how stress affects individuals. A paper survey instrument
composed of short answer and scale-based questions about the stress and coping process was
administered face to face to 363 residents of Falmouth, Jamaica in February and March, 2013. A
new cruise port was recently developed in Falmouth that serves some of the largest cruise ships
in the world several days per week. Thematic analysis of stressors experienced by survey
participants; confirmatory factor analysis of latent constructs of personality, social support, stress
appraisal, and coping within the stress and coping process; and structural equation models
examining relationships within the stress and coping process were conducted.
Seventy-eight percent (78%) of surveyed Falmouth residents experienced stress from the
development and operation of the new cruise port. Residents indicated unmet expectations,

overtaxed infrastructure/crowding, increased cost of living, pollution, and police harassment
were major causes of stress. Stressors were inter-related with each other and exacerbated daily
hassles already faced by Falmouth residents. Confirmatory factor analysis supported construct
validity for measurements of social support, secondary stress appraisal, and coping with some
modification. Construct validity of measurements of personality and primary stress appraisal
were not supported. Two structural equation models revealed social support and the appraisal of
stress controllability each predicted coping responses. Individuals who perceived they had social
support available to discuss important personal issues were likely to utilize seek social support as
a coping response. Individuals who appraised stress as controllable by oneself were likely to
utilize problem-focused coping, keep a positive focus, and were less likely to employ wishful
thinking (emotion-focused coping). Individuals who appraised stress as being controlled by
others were likely to seek out social support.
Research findings indicate stress and coping is a suitable framework from which to
examine how individuals respond to tourism development. Researchers and practitioners can
utilize research findings to promote organization of pre and post-development activities to help
foster resident perceptions of social support and stress controllability, which predict coping
responses have been found to be more effective at mitigating stress and negative physical and
mental health outcomes. Future research should utilize a variety of frameworks from diverse
disciplines to further understand possible impacts of and responses to tourism development.
Further testing of the stress and coping framework is necessary to continue its use in the tourism
development context and eventually, tourism specific measurements of stress and coping should
be developed.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... vi
LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... vii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1
Problem Statement .......................................................................................................................... 2
Research Purpose ............................................................................................................................ 3
Conceptual Framework and Definitions ......................................................................................... 3
Stress Appraisal .......................................................................................................................... 5
Personality................................................................................................................................... 6
Social Support ............................................................................................................................. 7
Coping ......................................................................................................................................... 7
Research Questions ......................................................................................................................... 8
Research Beneficiaries .................................................................................................................... 9
De-Limitations ................................................................................................................................ 9
Limitations .................................................................................................................................... 10
Outline of Chapters ....................................................................................................................... 10
CHAPTER 2: HOST COMMUNITY RESIDENTS’ NOTIONS OF STRESS BROUGHT
ABOUT BY CRUISE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT ................................................................. 12
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 12
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................... 15
Economic Impacts ..................................................................................................................... 16
Sociocultural Impacts................................................................................................................ 17
Environmental Impacts ............................................................................................................. 19
Tourism Planning and Stakeholder Engagement ...................................................................... 21
Stress ......................................................................................................................................... 22
Method .......................................................................................................................................... 24
Study Site Background ............................................................................................................. 24
Procedure .................................................................................................................................. 27
Results ........................................................................................................................................... 28
Survey Participant Profile ......................................................................................................... 28
Discussion and Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 37
CHAPTER 3: CONCEPTUALIZATION AND MEASUREMENT OF A STRESS AND
COPING FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING RESIDENTS’ RESPONSE TO CRUISE
TOURISM DEVELOPMENT ...................................................................................................... 42
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 42
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................... 46
Stress ......................................................................................................................................... 46
Personality................................................................................................................................. 48
Social Support ........................................................................................................................... 50
Stress Appraisal ........................................................................................................................ 52

iv

Coping ....................................................................................................................................... 53
Method .......................................................................................................................................... 56
Study site background ............................................................................................................... 56
Procedure .................................................................................................................................. 57
Population ................................................................................................................................. 58
Participant profile...................................................................................................................... 58
Instruments ................................................................................................................................ 59
Data analysis ............................................................................................................................. 61
Results ........................................................................................................................................... 62
Personality................................................................................................................................. 62
Social Support ........................................................................................................................... 64
Stress Appraisal ........................................................................................................................ 66
Coping ....................................................................................................................................... 69
Discussion and conclusions .......................................................................................................... 73
CHAPTER 4: SOCIAL SUPPORT AND APPRAISAL AS PREDICTORS OF COPING
RESPONSES TO STRESS BROUGHT ABOUT BY CRUISE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT 77
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 77
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................... 81
Stress ......................................................................................................................................... 81
Social Support ........................................................................................................................... 83
Appraisal ................................................................................................................................... 85
Coping ....................................................................................................................................... 86
Method .......................................................................................................................................... 88
Study site background ............................................................................................................... 88
Procedure .................................................................................................................................. 89
Participant profile...................................................................................................................... 90
Instruments ................................................................................................................................ 91
Stressors .................................................................................................................................... 93
Data analysis ............................................................................................................................. 94
Results ........................................................................................................................................... 98
Social Support and Coping ....................................................................................................... 98
Discussion and Conclusions ....................................................................................................... 103
Theoretical Implications ......................................................................................................... 105
Management Implications ....................................................................................................... 105
Limitations .............................................................................................................................. 106
Future Research ...................................................................................................................... 107
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................. 108
Theoretical Implications ............................................................................................................. 111
Implications for Management and Practice ................................................................................ 113
Limitations .................................................................................................................................. 116
Recommendations for Future Research ...................................................................................... 117
BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 120

v

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 - Self reported monthly income of survey participants.................................................... 29
Table 2 - Stressor themes and frequencies .................................................................................... 30
Table 3 - Self reported monthly income of survey participants.................................................... 59
Table 4 - Descriptive statistics for the Mini International Personality Item Pool (Mini-IPIP)..... 63
Table 5 - Fit statistics of CFA models of the Mini International Personality Item Pool (MiniIPIP) .............................................................................................................................................. 64
Table 6 - Descriptive statistics for the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL) ................. 65
Table 7 - Fit statistics of CFA models of the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL)....... 65
Table 8 - Descriptive statistics for the Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM) .................................... 67
Table 9 - Fit statistics of CFA models of the Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM) .......................... 68
Table 10 - Descriptive statistics for the four-factor Ways of Coping (WoC) ............................... 70
Table 11 - Descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha coefficients, and correlation coefficients of
scales in successfully fitted models .............................................................................................. 72
Table 12 - Profile of survey participants....................................................................................... 91
Table 13 - Stressor themes and frequencies .................................................................................. 93
Table 14 - Fist statistics of CFA models of the ISEL, SAM, and WoC ....................................... 95
Table 15 - Descriptive statistics for the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL) ............... 96
Table 16 - Descriptive statistics for the Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM - Secondary) .............. 97
Table 17 - Descriptive statistics for the four-factor Ways of Coping (WoC) ............................... 98
Table 18 - Fit statistics of social support and coping structural equation models ........................ 99
Table 19 - Fit statistics of secondary appraisal and coping structural equation models ............. 101

vi

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1- Stress and coping process conceptual framework (Adapted from Folkman et al., 1986)5
Figure 2 - Stress and coping framework (Adapted from Folkman, et al., 1986) .......................... 43
Figure 3 - Completely standardized CFA of the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL) . 66
Figure 4 – Completely standardized CFA of the Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM) .................... 68
Figure 5 – Completely standardized CFA of the four-factor Ways of Coping (WoC)................. 71
Figure 6 - Completely standardized solution of social support and coping structural equation
model........................................................................................................................................... 100
Figure 7 - Completely standardized solution of secondary appraisal and coping structural
equation model ............................................................................................................................ 102

vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
A great deal of research has explored the ways tourism development affects individuals
within host communities and their responses. While some frameworks like Doxey’s Irridex
(1975) predict residents of host communities will respond in increasingly negative ways as
tourism development grows within a community, little empirical evidence has substantiated this
theory (Sharpley, 2014). Other frameworks like social exchange theory, power theory, and
identity theory have all been extensively utilized as a basis for research examining tourism
developments’ impacts on host community residents (Nunkoo & Gursoy, 2012; Nunkoo &
Ramkissoon, 2012; Ward & Berno, 2011). Research utilizing these frameworks generally use
attitudes toward or support for tourism development as measures of resident responses. While
attitudes toward and support for tourism development are no doubt useful, this vein of research
has largely ignored how individuals emotionally and behaviorally experience and respond to the
myriad impacts of tourism development.
Tourism specific development usually leads to increased tourist visits that can lead to
additional positive and negative impacts. Tourism development is used throughout this research
to describe both the physical development of tourism resources but also the resulting increased
visitation by tourists that is brought about by physical development. Some tourism specific
impacts that occur include more recreation and park opportunities (McCool & Martin, 1994),
substance abuse among workers in the tourism industry (Belhassen & Shani, 2013), and
crowding of public spaces and facilities (Lindberg, Andersson, & Dellaert, 2001). Some tourism
impacts like the demonstration effect (a phenomenon where residents of host communities try to
copy the behavioral patterns of tourists) are especially prevalent in areas where locals have fewer
socioeconomic resources than tourists who visit (Fisher, 2004). Whether through physical

1

development or increased tourist visits, there is little doubt tourism brings about a variety of
positive and negative impacts (Sharpley, 2014).

Problem Statement
This study utilizes stress and coping theory from the psychology discipline as a
framework from which to examine host community resident responses to tourism development.
Stress is defined as anything that causes an individual psychological distress. “Psychological
distress is a negative psychological response…and can include a variety of affective and
cognitive states, such as anxiety, sadness, frustration, the sense of being overwhelmed, or
helpless” (Kemeny, 2003, p. 124). Coping is defined as “cognitive and behavioral strategies used
to manage stressful situations” (Shaw, Brown, & Dunn, 2013, p. 243). Impacts of tourism
development have rarely been cited as causing stress within the tourism literature. Using the
definition “anything that causes an individual psychological distress,” a great deal of the negative
impacts brought about by tourism development can be considered stress. Stress and its affect on
individuals play an important role in individuals emotional and psychological well being and
overall quality of life (QOL) (Schalock, 1997).
The stress and coping framework utilized in this research is situated within the greater
tourism and QOL research paradigm, an area of research making important steps forward from
measuring attitudes and support to measuring how the lives of host community residents are
affected by tourism development (Andereck & Nyaupane, 2011). This is not the first time a
stress and coping framework has been utilized in the greater tourism and leisure body of
literature, as a handful of studies have examined stress and coping responses of recreationists
negotiating constraints and hassles (Schneider & Hammitt, 1995; Schneider & Stanis, 2007;
Schuster, Hammitt, Moore, & Schneider, 2006; Schuster, Hammitt, & Moore, 2003, 2006).

2

However, this research marks the first time a stress and coping framework has been used to
examine host community residents stress and coping with impacts of tourism development.

Research Purpose
While a great deal is understood about tourism impacts, little is known about how
residents of host communities respond to those impacts emotionally or behaviorally. The purpose
of this research is to understand individual psychological stress and coping responses when large
developments that benefit primarily tourists and developers (outsiders) are introduced in a local
community setting. Large developments in attractive destinations are becoming more common
and range from new airports, new cruise docking facilities, new resort developments, or
shopping malls for tourists. Sometimes local residents are taxed for these tourism developments,
other times investment comes from outside the country or by a central government. Often
promises are made about the positive impacts that locals can expect, like job creation, new
shopping opportunities, and increased quality of life. Physical development and non-delivery of
promised positive impacts (or the negative impacts that may not have been explained or
anticipated) can cause stress in a local area. This is the first step toward building a body of
research that ultimately seeks to mitigate stress for tourism host community residents either by
preventing its occurrence through sustainable development practices or, in instances of stress that
are not preventable, determining coping responses and influencing factors that mitigate stress
and negative health outcomes.

Conceptual Framework and Definitions
The modern concept of stress dates to the 17th century, when engineers sought to
understand the maximum physical stress under which their man-made structures would function
(Hinkle, 1974). This concept provided the basis from which theorists have derived their
3

definitions of stress throughout the last century. In the early 1900s, neurologists adapted
engineer’s definition of stress to the brain. Soldiers returning from the trenches of World War I
were thought to have suffered from physical brain damage as a result of ‘shell shock’ from
exploding artillery shells (Myers, 1915). In the second half of the 20th century, stress began to be
perceived as a cognitive psychological phenomenon rather than neurological issue, and this
paradigm as persisted until today (Lazarus, 1993). The experience of psychological stress leads
to the release of the hormone cortisol from the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, which
prepares individuals to address their stressor (Kemeny, 2003). In many instances, the experience
of stress is a positive reaction (i.e., fight or flight) to potentially harmful situations (Sapolsky,
2000). When stress and the resultant hormone release is experienced over a long period of time
in response to situations that don’t merit a full response, a variety of negative health (i.e.,
increased blood pressure) and psychological (i.e., cognitive impairment) outcomes can occur.
Stress is by nature a subjective phenomenon, as an event may cause stress for one individual and
not another. Researchers have determined several important elements within the stress process
that affect if and how individuals are affected by stress (Figure 1) (Folkman, Lazarus, DunkelSchetter, DeLongis, & Gruen, 1986).

4

Figure 1- Stress and coping process conceptual framework (Adapted from Folkman et al., 1986)

Stress Appraisal
Appraisal is defined as a process through which individuals evaluates if and how a
stressful event is relevant to their well being (Folkman, Lazarus, Dunkel-Schetter, DeLongis, et
al., 1986). Individuals utilize primary and secondary appraisal in their evaluation of stress.
Primary appraisal is utilized to determine the importance of the stressor to the well being of the
individual under stress (Newton & McIntosh, 2010). Secondary appraisal is utilized to determine
the level of controllability the individual has over the stressor (Edward J. Peacock & Wong,
1990) There are three types of primary appraisal (threat, challenge, and centrality) and three
types of secondary appraisal (controllable by self, controllable by other, and uncontrollable)
developed on the framework of cognitive relational theory. Threat refers to the potential for harm
or loss to the individual. Challenge refers to the possibility of growth from the interaction with
stress. Centrality refers to the perceived importance or “stake” of the individual in a particular
stressor or stressful situation. Stressors that are controllable by self are appraised to be something

5

that the individual has the power to change (i.e., addiction). Stressors that are controllable by
others are within someone else’s power to change (i.e., a spouse asking for a divorce). Stressors
that are uncontrollable are within nobody’s power to change (i.e., a tornado). Primary and
secondary appraisal are not necessarily undertaken in chronological order as the names imply,
and individuals often reappraise stressors as circumstances change (Endler, Speer, Johnson, &
Flett, 2000).
Personality
Personality is defined as “the dynamic organization within the person of the
psychological and physical systems that underlie that person’s patters of actions, thoughts, and
feelings” (Allport, 1961; Carver & Connor-Smith, 2010, p. 680). The five factor model of
personality traits commonly known as The Big Five has emerged as the most prominent model
of personality in the psychology domain (Digman, 1990). The Big Five personality factors are
Extraversion (E), Neuroticism (N), Agreeableness (A), Conscientiousness (C), and Openness to
Experience (O). Extraversion is exemplified by several types of behavior, usually assertiveness,
confidence, and dominance (Carver & Connor-Smith, 2010; Depue & Collins, 1999). It is
unclear whether sociability is a core element of extraversion or rather a byproduct of it (Cohen,
Doyle, Turner, Alper, & Skoner, 2003; Lucas, Diener, Grob, Suh, & Shao, 2000). Neuroticism is
exemplified by a moodiness, depression, anxiety, and a propensity for becoming upset or
distressed (Carver & Connor-Smith, 2010). Agreeableness is exemplified by friendliness,
cooperativeness, empathy, and the ability to avoid interpersonal conflict (Graziano, Habashi,
Sheese, & Tobin, 2007; Graziano, Jensen-Campbell, & Hair, 1996; Parks & Guay, 2009).
Conscientiousness can vary greatly between measurements, but typical conscientious behaviors
include responsibility, impulse control, or taking future contingencies into account (Carver &

6

Connor-Smith, 2010). Finally, Openness to Experience is exemplified by vivid fantasy, depth of
feeling, behavioral flexibility, curiosity, and unconventional attitudes (McCrae, 1996).
Social Support
Social support is defined as “an exchange of resources between two individuals perceived
by the provider or the recipient to be intended to enhance the well being of the recipient”
(Shumaker & Brownell, 1984, p. 11). This research utilizes a three part conceptualization social
support that includes appraisal, belonging, and tangible support (Langford, Bowsher, Maloney,
& Lillis, 1997a). Appraisal support is the perceived availability of similar individuals that can
discuss important personal issues (Cohen & Hoberman, 1983). Belonging support is the
perception that a peer group exists that an individual can identify and socialize with (Brookings
& Bolton, 1988). Tangible support is the perceived availability of direct aid or services through
various resources, monetary or otherwise (Schaefer, Coyne, & Lazarus, 1981). While similar, the
small variations in types of social support allow for a comprehensive understanding of
individuals’ perception of the availability of several types of social resources (Gottlieb & Bergen,
2010).
Coping
Coping is defined as “cognitive and behavioral strategies used to manage stressful
situations” (Shaw et al., 2013, p. 243). Lazarus (1966) shifted the focus of coping research from
early ego-psychology conceptualizations of coping as unconscious processes that individuals
utilized to defend themselves from stress to a continually changing cognitive process (Folkman
& Moskowitz, 2004; Vaillant, 1995). Although there are many ways of classifying coping
responses (see Skinner, Edge, Altman, & Sherwood, 2003 for a review), perhaps the most widely
utilized and recognized are Folkman and Lazarus’ (1980) meta-categories of problem-focused

7

and emotion-focused coping. “Problem-focused coping included efforts to manage the stressor
and change the person-environment relationship causing the stress, while emotion-focused
coping was found to regulate emotional distress caused by stressors” (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980,
p. 223). Those coping with stressful situations almost always utilize both problem and emotionfocused coping, as they not only cope with that situation but their own emotional response.
Problem focused coping has generally been found to be more effective at mitigating stress and
resultant negative health and psychological outcomes (Penley, Tomaka, & Wiebe, 2002).
Coping responses to stress play an important role in if or how individuals are affected by
health and psychological outcomes that stress produces. Researchers have generally found
problem-focused coping to be more effective at mitigating stress and negative outcomes than
emotion-focused coping (Penley et al., 2002). The congruence of coping response and appraisal
are of particular importance, as individuals who utilized problem focused coping to address
stressors appraised as uncontrollable experienced increased instances of negative health and
psychological outcomes (Endler et al., 2000; Forsythe & Compas, 1987). Similarly, those who
utilize emotion-focused coping to respond to stressors that are appraised as controllable tend to
experience greater instances of negative outcomes like depression (Vitaliano, DeWolfe, Maiuro,
Russo, & Katon, 1990). Perhaps most importantly, coping responses that are found to be
successful at mitigating particular stressors and outcomes can be taught to individuals under
stress, and stress management/coping workshops have been found to help individuals cope
effectively and mitigate negative outcomes like work burnout (Rowe, 1999).

Research Questions
Three research questions were crafted to address the problem and purpose of this research.

8

Research question 1: How do residents of a host community experience stress from cruise
tourism development?
Research question 2: How do established measures of elements within the stress and coping
process (personality, social support, stress appraisal, and coping) perform in the context of cruise
tourism development in a Caribbean island nation?
Research question 3: What are the relationships between social support, stress appraisal, and
coping responses by residents of a community developed for cruise tourism?

Research Beneficiaries
This research will benefit residents of communities developed for tourism, organizations
devoted to maintaining individuals’ quality of life, tourism development agencies, tour operators,
governmental organizations focused on individual welfare, and the academic community.
Understanding stress and coping responses to tourism development can help inform and shape
future development activities in a way that minimizes stress. For community organizations,
understanding stress and coping responses to tourism development can help inform the design of
social programs aiding individuals in their coping processes and helping to mitigate the stresses
brought about by tourism development and already existing tourism activities.

De-Limitations
This research was delimited to the study of cruise tourism as a form of tourism
development. Only international tourism was studied, as domestic tourists are not likely to be on
a cruise ship in the country studied. Data were collected during a peak time of the tourism
season, not across an entire year of tourism demand. Only those residents who self-identified as
experiencing stress caused by cruise tourism were included in this study. This research did not
seek to measure any variables related to the tourist or the developer. There were no elements of
9

attitudes or support for tourism development included in this research. Appraisal and coping is
just one way to conceptualize and measure responses to impacts of tourism development. Coping
responses were measured at the individual level rather than the community level.

Limitations
This was a cross sectional study, and as such was unable to measure the transactional
nature of the stress process as individuals navigate their stressors on a day-to-day basis. This
research represents the stress and coping process that individuals were engaging in on the
particular day they answered the survey, rather than a long-term process. This research did not
explore characteristics of individuals who do not experience stress. Physical and mental health
outcomes of individuals under stress were not measured. Any individuals who may have moved
away from the community to escape tourism development were not surveyed. Individuals who
may have worked in the community but did not live there were also not surveyed and may be
different than those surveyed. Each element of the stress and coping process was measured
through self-reports, meaning certain responses may be under or over represented. Individuals
may have used coping responses that were not included in the scale-based measurement. Some
stresses discussed by survey participants were likely already present within the community prior
to tourism development. Some survey participants had difficulty understanding the language
used in survey instruments.

Outline of Chapters
This dissertation follows a three article format, with each article addressing a portion of
the problem statement and research questions. The first article (Chapter 2) examines the notion
of stress brought about by tourism development and how residents experienced stress (Submitted
to Journal of Sustainable Tourism September 3, 2013; revise and resubmit decision received
10

November 4, 2013; revisions pending). The second article (Chapter 3) outlines the
conceptualization of the stress and coping process and examines the construct validity of each
scale used to measure constructs within the process (Submitted to Tourism Management
February 7, 2014). The third article (Chapter 4) examines the relationships between social
support, appraisal, and coping with stressors brought about by tourism development (Formatted
for submission to Annals of Tourism Research). Chapter 5 discusses the findings of all three
articles holistically and provides conclusions, implications, and recommendations for future
research.

11

CHAPTER 2: HOST COMMUNITY RESIDENTS’ NOTIONS OF
STRESS BROUGHT ABOUT BY CRUISE TOURISM
DEVELOPMENT
Introduction
The host community is an integral component of the sustainable tourism system, and
community residents are equally as important as hotels, attractions, tourists, and transportation
(Cole, 2006; Saufi, O’Brien, & Wilkins, 2014). While some frameworks like Doxey’s Irridex
(1975) predict negative impacts of tourism development will create conflict between residents of
host communities and tourists, little empirical evidence has substantiated this theory (Sharpley,
2014). A variety of other frameworks like social exchange theory, power theory, and identity
theory have been utilized as a basis for research examining the impacts of tourism development
on host community residents (Nunkoo & Gursoy, 2012; Nunkoo & Ramkissoon, 2012; Ward &
Berno, 2011). Research utilizing these theoretical frameworks tends to explore a wide range of
perceived impacts and resident responses through attitudes toward or support for tourism
development. Despite the wealth of research exploring the impacts of tourism and its affect on
resident attitudes toward and support for tourism development, little is understood about
emotional and psychological effects of tourism development (Berno & Ward, 2005).
Tourism development is used throughout this research to describe both the physical
development of tourism resources and the resulting increased visitation by tourists that is brought
about by physical development. Tourism development can create positive and negative economic,
sociocultural, and environmental impacts. Some tourism specific impacts that occur include
increased sense of cultural heritage (Wang & Bramwell, 2012), substance abuse among workers
in the tourism industry (Belhassen & Shani, 2013), and crowding of public spaces and facilities
(Lindberg et al., 2001). Some tourism impacts like the demonstration effect are especially

12

prevalent in areas where locals have fewer socioeconomic resources than tourists who visit
(Fisher, 2004). Cruise tourism brings about a variety of unique impacts, such as the a decline in
overnight stays in cruise tourism destinations (Bresson & Logossah, 2011), short term people
pollution, when large quantities of tourists enter a small area for a short period of time (Klein,
2011), discharge of waste into waterways (Johnson, 2002), and leakage of a significant portion
of cruise passenger spending back to cruise companies and other external organizations (Marsh,
2012).
This study utilizes stress theory from the psychology discipline as a framework from
which to examine how residents of Falmouth, Jamaica, recently the site of a major cruise port
development, are emotionally and psychologically affected by tourism development. Stress is
defined as anything that causes an individual psychological distress. “Psychological distress is a
negative psychological response to such threats and can include a variety of affective and
cognitive states, such as anxiety, sadness, frustration, the sense of being overwhelmed, or
helpless” (Kemeny, 2003, p. 124). Using this definition, a great deal of the negative impacts
previously examined in research examining tourism development can be considered stressors. In
addition to these impacts, the stress framework expands the nomological network of tourism
impacts to include states of affect that have not previously been considered as impacts of tourism
or tourism development.
Stress and its affect on individuals play an important role in individuals emotional and
psychological well being and overall quality of life (QOL) (Schalock, 1997). The stress
framework utilized in this research is situated within the greater tourism and QOL research
paradigm, an area of research making important steps forward in measuring how the daily lives
of host community residents are affected by tourism development (Andereck & Nyaupane, 2011).

13

This is not the first time a stress framework has been utilized in the greater tourism and leisure
body of literature (see Iwasaki & Schneider, 2003; Schneider & Hammitt, 1995; Schneider &
Stanis, 2007; Schuster, Hammitt, Moore, et al., 2006; Schuster et al., 2003; Schuster, Hammitt,
& Moore, 2006), however, this is the first time such a framework has been utilized to examine
residents of a tourism host community.
Stress has been ubiquitous in the everyday lives of humans since our genesis as a species.
In the not so distant past, stressful events like an attack from a predator elicited a fight or flight
response that could mean the difference between life and death. Today, stress is more likely to
come from a struggle to meet basic needs like food, water, or shelter, from difficulty with
personal relationships, or from ever increasing demands in the workplace. The experience of
stress leads to the release of the hormone cortisol, which physiologically prepares individuals to
respond to their stressor(s) (Kemeny, 2003). In many instances, the experience of stress is a
positive reaction (i.e., fight or flight) to potentially harmful situations (Sapolsky, 2000). When
stress and the resultant hormone release is experienced over a long period of time in response to
situations that don’t merit a full response (i.e., being stuck in a traffic jam), a variety of negative
health (i.e., increased blood pressure) and psychological (i.e., cognitive impairment) outcomes
can occur (Fraser et al., 1999; Hanson & Chen, 2010; Thoits, 2010).
The purpose of this research is to understand how individuals experience psychological
stress when a large-scale tourism development is introduced in a small community setting.
Large-scale developments in small but attractive destinations are becoming increasingly common,
and range from cruise docking facilities to resorts or shopping malls for tourists. Sometimes
local residents are taxed for these tourism developments, other times investment comes from
outside the country or by a central government. Promises are often made about the positive

14

impacts that local residents can expect, like job creation, new shopping opportunities, and
increased quality of life. Physical development and lack of promised positive impacts (or
negative impacts that may not have been explained or anticipated) can cause stress in a local area.
This is the first step toward building a body of research that ultimately seeks to mitigate stress
for tourism host community residents either by preventing its occurrence through sustainable
development practices or, in instances of stress that are not preventable, exploring coping
responses and influencing factors that mitigate stress and negative health outcomes.

Literature Review
Impacts of tourism development have historically been placed into three categories:
economic, sociocultural, and environmental (Pearce, 1995). In concert with a variety of other
factors, each type of tourism impact and the interplay between them plays an important role in
host community residents’ quality of life (K. Kim, Uysal, & Sirgy, 2013; Klein, 2013). Tourism
development in the Caribbean has resulted in a unique combination of impacts based on a variety
of factors like the history of development in the Caribbean, the nature of small island states, and
the type of tourism that has been developed (Bishop, 2010; Duval, 2004). While there is a dearth
of research examining the cruise industry, researchers have identified several important issues
within the cruise tourism segment that could create additional strains for residents of
communities hosting commercial cruise ships (Papathanassis & Beckmann, 2011). Cruise
tourism is unique in that it represents four separate aspects of the tourism industry: transportation,
accommodation, foodservice, and attractions (Dwyer & Forsyth, 1998), and there is potential for
cruise tourism development to have distinct impacts on host communities due to the increasing
size and number of ships sailing, their often short duration of stay, and seasonal nature (Chase &
McKee, 2003).

15

Economic Impacts
On the national level, tourism development has long been an attractive option for
stimulating economic growth in both developing and developed nations. While there is evidence
of a positive relationship between tourism development and GDP growth in both developed
countries and less developed countries, the economic impacts of tourism development are often
more pronounced in less developed countries (Lee & Chang, 2008). In the Caribbean, much of
the tourism infrastructure has been developed through foreign investment encouraged by
government incentives and lack of regulation (Dann & Potter, 2001). Physical development of
cruise ports, especially to accommodate more and larger cruise vessels, may not reap economic
benefits equal to the cost of port development for local or national governments (Nowak & Sahli,
2007). Investment and development by private external organizations in the Caribbean has
undertones of neo-colonialism and dependency for the region (Duval, 2004). The ownership of
Caribbean resources and businesses by foreign nationals or companies with greater resources
than many local individuals or organizations serves to shape Caribbean identity and preclude
local participation in tourism and other economic activities, thus minimizing economic options
for many Caribbean community residents (Smith, 2013).
At the community level, even cases where tourism development is designed to be locally
focused and sustainable, research has shown distributional inequalities in economic benefits
between local residents, local elites, and foreign tourism businesses (Lee, Hampton, & Jeyacheya,
2014; Walpole & Goodwin, 2000). Power structures within communities in developing nations
are such that tourism development ultimately benefits a select few individuals, while the
remaining economic gains leak out of the community, region, and nation (Jamal & Camargo,
2014). Despite the recent growth of tourism in the Caribbean, many families within Jamaica

16

struggle to meet basic needs and receive little help from the federal government, which has
prioritized provisioning larger tourism developments over aiding its citizenry (Dodman, 2009).
While the majority of major cruise companies operating in the Caribbean are based in the
United States (and owned by a small cabal of parent companies), most ships are registered and
flagged in countries with lax labor laws, essentially eliminating the bulk of labor rights for cruise
ship based employees, many of whom come from Caribbean communities (Chin, 2008; Wood,
2000). In spatial terms, tourists tend not to stray far from their cruise ship ‘bubble’ of comfort,
generally either booking excursions from the ship itself or venturing only into a tightly controlled
area surrounding the port where there is less risk of becoming lost, language barriers, and fear of
crime (Jaakson, 2004). As a result, tourists generally spend their money either on the cruise ship
itself or on businesses that are economically tied to cruise companies, resulting in significant
economic leakage away from communities hosting cruise tourism (Nicely & Palakurthi, 2012).
Those individuals who are involved in selling merchandise and craft goods to cruise passengers
in Jamaica, cultural differences prevent many from success; the often outgoing and sometimes
aggressive nature of many Jamaican vendors decreases the likelihood that cruise passengers
(especially individuals traveling alone) will purchase their goods (Henthorne, George, & Smith,
2013; Henthorne, 2000).
Sociocultural Impacts
Sociocultural impacts of tourism development are often measured in the form of attitudes
or perceptions rather than change in GDP or job creation. In any given community, there are
likely to be individuals who perceive they are negatively affected and individuals who perceive
they have been positively affected by tourism development. A vast array of positive social
impacts of tourism development like increased participation in community decision making

17

activities (Hwang, Stewart, & Ko, 2012), increased sense of cultural heritage (Wang & Bramwell,
2012), more recreation and park opportunities (Kuvan & Akan, 2012), and improved community
services (Andereck, Valentine, Knopf, & Vogt, 2005) have been examined extensively. Similarly,
negative social impacts of tourism development like increased crime rates (Brunt & Courtney,
1999), loss of resident identity and culture(M. Park & Stokowski, 2011), degradation of morality
(Mok, Slater, & Cheung, 1991), substance abuse among workers in the tourism industry
(Belhassen & Shani, 2013), and crowding of public spaces and facilities (Woosnam, Norman, &
Ying, 2009) are frequent topics of inquiry.
The nature of tourism in small island states like many Caribbean nations tends to magnify
sociocultural impacts (i.e. the demonstration effect or privatization of previously public spaces)
of tourism on the quality of life of island residents (Kerstetter & Bricker, 2012). Though
Jamaican tourism has been marketed extensively to the international community, industry and
government officials have not marketed tourism to Jamaican residents, leading many to resent
tourists in their community as consumers of Jamaican resources without bothering to learn
anything about the culture or people (Stupart & Shipley, 2012). The massive growth of allinclusive, cruise, and other types of ‘enclave’ tourism by multinational corporations in Jamaica
and throughout the Caribbean has served to exacerbate the resentment of tourism and tourists, as
such products isolate tourists from local residents and possible acculturative activities (Harrison,
Jayawardena, & Clayton, 2003). A great deal of research has found residents and tourists alike
have expectations and assumptions of what tourism will be like in a given location, and in many
instances those assumptions and expectations are unsubstantiated (Deery, Jago, & Fredline,
2012; Johnson, Snepenger, & Akis, 1994).

18

Cruise tourism has had a unique social impact on many Caribbean islands through the
propagation of Caribbean fantasyland that mirrors works of fiction like Disney’s Pirates of the
Caribbean more closely than reality (Klein, 2011; Wood, 2000). This marginalization of real
local culture and fabrication of a fantasy culture enables the promotion of the ship and port
facilities as the cruise destination, rather than the port host community (Lester & Weeden, 2004).
Other sociocultural impacts of cruise tourism include crowding of public spaces and strain on
social services, particularly in cases where small communities host large cruise ships (Klein,
2013). Research indicates local residents tend to avoid areas used by cruise ships and excursions
when cruise ships are in town, and the road, water, and sewage systems often are unable to cope
with the additional stress brought about by a significant increase in users (Brida & Zapata, 2009).
Environmental Impacts
Just as with economic and sociocultural impacts, both positive and negative
environmental impacts can result from tourism development. Development of an area for tourism
purposes can lead to increased protection of local natural resources (Mbaiwa, 2011). In some
cases, tourism development can even lead to restoration and preservation of natural areas that
had either been neglected or degraded by other industries (Liu et al., 1999). Over taxation of
resources (Briassoulis, 2002), pollution (Buckley & Pannell, 1990), and destruction of wildlife
habitats are also not uncommon at development sites. After physical development, the presence
of tourists and operation of tourism businesses like ports, resorts, and attractions can create an
array of environmental problems if not conducted sustainably (Williams & Ponsford, 2009).
Many tourists express their commitment to consume environmentally sustainable tourism
products and services, but their behaviors suggest otherwise (Budeanu, 2007).

19

Tourism activities are often based upon the very resources they protect or degrade; one of
the most important attractions for Caribbean islands are their sparkling blue water, white sand
beaches, and coral reefs (Cater, 1993). The small island states of the Caribbean often have
unique ecosystem, and insularity makes them particularly vulnerable to changing seasonality and
rising sea levels brought about by climate change (Amelung, Nicholls, & Viner, 2007; Scott,
Simpson, & Sim, 2012). The large scale developments recently conducted by multinational
corporations in many Caribbean nations have created unique environmental issues – Not only are
the geographic footprints of such development often vast, but they consume a great deal of
resources and import what cannot be generated locally (Dodman, 2009; Timms, 2006).
As with many other types of tourism, cruise tourism can affect the natural environment
both during and after physical development of port facilities. The environmental regulations in
many less developed countries where new cruise ports are often built do not necessarily require
the completion of environmental impact assessments prior to construction, and many private
organizations choose not to conduct such assessments if they are not required (Zubair, Bowen, &
Elwin, 2011). In many instances, dredging of harbors to accommodate massive new ships can
create sedimentation and turbidity, affecting coral reefs, reef based fisheries, and in turn the
fisherman who depend on them for their livelihoods (Erftemeijer, Riegl, Hoeksema, & Todd,
2012). The operation of cruise ships, generally powered by large diesel engines, and cruise ship
tourism creates high levels of greenhouse gasses that affect local, regional and global
environmental sustainability (Eijgelaar, Thaper, & Peeters, 2010). Although the management of
waste from ships has recently improved, illegal dumping of hazardous waste remains a problem.
There have recently been a variety of legal actions brought against cruise companies for the

20

illegal dumping of garbage and hazardous wastewater, some resulting in fines of more than $100
million (Brida & Zapata, 2009; Dickinson & Vladimir, 2008).
Tourism Planning and Stakeholder Engagement
Tourism planning and stakeholder engagement generally increases the likelihood that the
positive impacts of tourism development will be evenly distributed across stakeholder groups
and helps address possible negative impacts before they become an issue (Nunkoo &
Ramkissoon, 2011). Planning for tourism is one method of proactively seeking input from
community stakeholders and gaining support of local residents, business owners, government
agencies, and non-governmental organizations, and ultimately creating a more sustainable
system in any given community. A recent positive movement toward self regulation has resulted
in many tourism development and operation organizations undertaking sustainable practices and
planning exercises that actively seek input from local individuals and organizations (Ayuso,
2007; Rivera, 2002). Despite this positive movement, internal standards and regulations are
generally not enforceable by external organizations if they are not met (Bramwell & Lane, 2010).
There are a variety of barriers to cruise tourism planning, and as such, a great deal of
development occurs with little input from varying stakeholder groups (Lester & Weeden, 2004).
None of the major cruise companies operating in the Caribbean are owned by Caribbean
residents or companies (Dickinson & Vladimir, 2008; Garin, 2005). Power relationships between
cruise companies, Caribbean governments, and communities are often such that the cruise
companies can dictate development terms or simply relocate development elsewhere, mirroring
cruise development power relationships elsewhere in the world (Brida & Zapata, 2010; Jordan,
Vogt, Kruger, & Grewe, 2013; Pattullo, 1996). Even when planning for cruise tourism does take
place, opposing stakeholder groups can slow the process and ultimately create additional

21

tensions within planning processes and communities (Jordan et al., 2013; Jordan, 2014). In most
cases, undertaking tourism planning with meaningful stakeholder input and avenues of recourse
through legal action is preferable to tourism development with little or no input from local
community stakeholders. However, tourism development with the Caribbean is more often than
not conducted with little planning or stakeholder engagement.
Stress
The various impacts of cruise tourism development can create stress for individuals living
in host communities, especially in instances where there is little chance for resident and other
stakeholder input into the development process through tourism planning. The modern concept
of stress dates to the 17th century, when engineers sought to understand the maximum physical
stress under which their man-made structures would function (Hinkle, 1974). In the early 1900s,
neurologists adapted engineer’s definition of stress to the brain. Soldiers returning from the
trenches of World War I were thought to have suffered from physical brain damage as a result of
‘shell shock’ from exploding artillery shells (Myers, 1915). In the second half of the 20th century,
stress began to be perceived as a cognitive psychological phenomenon rather than neurological
issue, and this paradigm has persisted until today (Lazarus, 1993). In this way, stress can be
considered the emotional or psychological load on an individuals’ cognitive processes; if the
load exceeds an individuals’ capacity, breakdowns can occur in a variety of ways (Thoits, 2010).
There are two types of stressors that have received a great deal of attention in stress
research: daily hassles and major life events. Daily hassles are the every day irritants that are
experienced as inconvenient or harassing (Kohn, Hay, & Legere, 1994; McIntosh, Gillanders, &
Rodgers, 2010). Major life events are occurrences that require significant change or
readjustment, and are experienced subjectively by the individual (Holmes & Rahe, 1967;

22

McIntosh et al., 2010). An increasing body of evidence suggests that daily hassles exhibit the
strongest relationship with negative health outcomes, and researchers have posited that the stress
from major life events are experienced as daily hassles (Eckenrode, 1984; Kanner, Coyne,
Schaefer, & Lazarus, 1981). The daily hassles experienced by individuals lead to the detrimental
overload of the physiological system and causes a variety of mental and physical health
symptoms like increased blood pressure, decreased immune system function, impaired memory
function, or increased aggression (DeLongis, Coyne, Dakof, Folkman, & Lazarus, 1982; Het,
Ramlow, & Wolf, 2005; Platje et al., 2013; Rainforth et al., 2007; Segerstrom & Miller, 2004).
The experience of daily hassles and negative health outcomes can create additional stressors for
individuals. For example, if an individual avoids the downtown area of their community on a
busy tourism day, they may be unable to pick up groceries for the family, leading to an argument
with a spouse and creating an additional stressor.
The experience of stress is subjective, and what may act as a stressor for one individual
can have no effect on another (Ljungberg & Neely, 2007). While one individual may find
crowding of their community by tourists stressful, another may see it as an opportunity to
interact with individuals of differing cultural backgrounds or make money by providing goods or
services to tourists. Similarly, two individuals who find crowding by tourists stressful may
experience stress in different ways. One individual may avoid town areas on crowded days,
while another may drive into town, only to sit in tour bus traffic. In both instances, the quality of
life of the individual under stress will likely decrease at least for the short period of time when
they are experiencing a daily hassle. Emotional and psychological well being is only one element
of an individual’s overall quality of life, however, and some individuals may experience a net

23

gain in quality of life from other benefits of tourism development (i.e. a new job) despite
experiencing stress (Andereck, Valentine, Vogt, & Knopf, 2007; Kim et al., 2013).
Based on this literature, three questions were crafted to address the research problem:
Research Question 1: To what extent did the development and operation of a new cruise port
bring about stress within the community of Falmouth?
Research Question 2: What were the major sources of stress for Falmouth residents?
Research Question3: How did residents experience stress?

Method
Study Site Background
Falmouth, Jamaica was chosen as a study site for this first exploration of stress resulting
from tourism development for several reasons. First, the community had little experience with
tourism prior to the development of a new cruise port. Second, the scale of tourism development
was very large in relation to the size of the community, increasingly the likelihood that most
community residents were aware of development. Third, the development of a new cruise port
occurred recently, increasing the likelihood that residents could recall their individual and
community functions prior to development, and were likely aware of the changes that happened
during and after development.
Falmouth is a Trelawny parish community on the northern coast of Jamaica with a
population of almost 9,000 people. The community is approximately the midpoint between the
two larger communities of Ocho Rios and Montego Bay, two areas known to be popular tourism
destinations. Prior to the development of a cruise pier, Falmouth had seen little in the way of
tourists aside from a handful of visitors who stopped to see its classic Georgian Architecture.
Historically, Falmouth played a major role as a British port. From the late 18th century to the
24

early 19th century, sugar from more than 80 plantations worked by an estimated 30,000 slaves
flowed through Falmouth, making Jamaica the world’s largest sugar producer and exporter at
that time (Patterson, 1969; Tortello, 2003). The port in Falmouth fell out of favor in the late 19th
century due to the combination of declining world sugar prices and increasing popularity of deep
drafted steam powered ships that the Falmouth harbor could not accommodate, leading to a slow
economic decline that persists today.
The rest of Jamaica has not fared much better than Falmouth in the 20th century; job
losses in the sugar and banana industries were not replaced entirely by the new tourism based
service economy, leading many Jamaicans to emigrate elsewhere. Over the course of the 20th
century, remittances from abroad accounted for an increasing percentage of Jamaican GDP; in
2009, more than 15 percent of Jamaica’s GDP was remittances (World Bank, 2011). The
downturn in the global economy has caused a drop in remittances since 2009, and many
Jamaicans have been searching for other income sources (Morrison, 2011). The Jamaican
government has attempted to compensate for a slow economy and drop in remittances through
several large scale infrastructure projects (such as the development of the cruise port in
Falmouth) aimed at creating jobs (Morrison, 2011; Planning Institute of Jamaica, 2010).
According to the Social Development Commission (SDC) of Jamaica, “on November 7,
2008, Prime Minister Bruce Golding signed a $224 million contract with [A major cruise
company] to modernize the cruise shipping pier in Falmouth, Jamaica….In his presentation,
Bruce Golding commented that the project is a part of a larger strategic development to expand
tourism” (Social Development Commission, 2011). The majority of the money invested by the
Jamaican government was spent on dredging the harbor to accommodate deep drafted cruise
ships. The port was constructed on land reclaimed in the harbor through dredging and imported

25

soil, meaning [A major cruise company] owns both the new port facilities and the land it was
built on. To facilitate the construction of the port, a small seaside neighborhood called ‘Dump’
was relocated several miles outside of Falmouth proper in a neighborhood called ‘Hague.’ Small
homes were promised to residents who were moved, many of which were still under construction
at the time of research.
There was little opportunity for input from local stakeholder groups prior to the
development agreement. The few town hall meetings held prior to the agreement were largely
unidirectional information sessions with cruise company and government officials presenting
information about the port to residents who attended. A great deal of promotional literature about
the proposed port and the positive impacts it would have on the community of Falmouth and
Jamaica at large was distributed to stakeholder groups.
Upon agreement to build the new cruise port in Falmouth, the city of Falmouth undertook
a series of infrastructure projects aimed at sustaining the increased vehicle and pedestrian traffic
that would result from construction and operation of the new cruise port (Urban Development
Corporation & Trelawny Parish Council, 2011). A traffic pattern with an increased number of
one was streets were created to handle the increase in traffic volume from tour busses, taxis, and
other vehicles serving the port. A pedestrian only town square was created a short distance from
the port to accommodate tourists disembarking from cruise ships. The creation of a pedestrian
square necessitated the relocation of taxi stands (the form of transportation used by most
Falmouth residents) to an area outside the city center. Additionally, the cruise port was linked
into the Falmouth municipal water system to allow ships to refill water tanks during their time in
port.

26

According to the Jamaican Tourist Board, the port of Falmouth serviced 135 cruise ships
carrying 586,578 passengers, or 44.4% of total cruise passengers arriving in Jamaica, in 2012
(Jamaica Tourist Board, 2012). Falmouth is the busiest cruise port by volume in Jamaica,
servicing in excess of 100,000 more passengers than the either of the other two major ports,
Ocho Rios (393,445 passengers) and Montego Bay (338,972 passengers). The winter months are
busiest for the port of Falmouth, with more than 60,000 passengers arriving each month from
December – March in 2011/2012. Many of the ships that dock in Falmouth had previously
docked in Ocho Rios, with passenger arrivals at that port decreasing by more than 40% upon the
opening of the new Falmouth port.
Procedure
Data for this research were collected in a cross-sectional study of residents of Falmouth
from February to March 2013. A paper survey instrument was administered face-to-face to a
systematic random sample of 363 Falmouth residents over the age of eighteen. To ensure sample
randomness, each Falmouth residence was counted and mapped by the research team in the two
weeks prior to data collection. Researchers counted a total of 3,515 households in Falmouth
proper and surrounding neighborhoods. According to SDC estimates, an average of three
individuals live in each household, 66% of whom are over eighteen years of age (Silvera &
Johnson, 2010). These estimates put the over eighteen population of Falmouth at 7,424
individuals, resulting in a sample size of approximately five percent (5%). Over a period of four
weeks, researchers approached 599 individuals to administer a paper survey. Eighty nine (89)
residents declined to participate in the study, and 102 residents indicated they experienced no
stress from the new cruise port, resulting in an overall response rate of 60%. In many cases,
researchers aided survey participants in the completion of the survey.

27

The survey instrument consisted of open-ended questions about stress and batteries of
seven point likert-scale questions about personality, social support, stress appraisal, and coping.
To allow survey participants an opportunity to express stressors as they experienced them, they
were first asked the question: “Have you experienced stress as a result of the development or
operation of the new cruise port?” If the survey participant answered yes, they were asked to
explain what stresses they had experienced. Participants were allowed space to describe as many
or as few stressors as they wished. The survey instrument was distributed to the research
coordinator for the SDC in Falmouth prior to use to ensure questions would be understood,
culturally sensitive, and to allow for change or addition to wording on questions.
Basic descriptive statistics were estimated using the SPSS statistical analysis package.
Open-ended responses to the question, “List the situation(s) in which the development or
operation of the new cruise port in Falmouth has caused you stress,” were thematically analyzed
using the NVivo10 software suite. Statements were initially coded using a word frequency query.
A single researcher coded statements including ambiguous keywords individually. Stressors
were allowed to be coded into more than one theme. After the initial thematic coding process,
each stressor coding was reviewed by a second researcher to ensure accuracy and consistency. A
brief content analysis of materials distributed to the community of Falmouth prior to port
construction was also conducted.

Results
Survey Participant Profile
Forty-three (43%) percent of study participants were male and 57% were female. The
mean age of participants was 40 years old. Three percent (3%) of participants reported having
either quite a bit or a great deal of contact with cruise passengers, 4% reported having some
28

contact with cruise passengers, and 93% reported having very little or no contact with cruise
passengers. Two percent of study participants reported they personally benefitted from cruise
tourism quite a bit or a great deal, 2% reported benefitting some, 9% reported benefitting a little
bit, and 86% reported no benefit from cruise tourism. Five percent (5%) of study participants
reported they were currently employed in the cruise tourism industry, 8% reported being
employed in other areas of the tourism industry, 33% were not currently employed in the tourism
industry but had been previously, and 54% indicated they had never worked in the tourism
industry. Self- reported monthly incomes of survey participants are reported in Table 1.
Table 1 - Self reported monthly income of survey participants

No formal income
Less than 16,280 JMD ($164 USD)
16,281-32,499 JMD ($164-$328 USD)
32,500-43,499 JMD ($328-$439 USD)
$43,500-$86,499 JMD ($439-$872 USD)
$86,500 JMD or more ($872 USD or more)
Prefer not to answer

n
105
21
28
24
27
15
140

%
29%
6%
8%
7%
8%
4%
38%

When asked what the highest level of education they had attained, the largest portion
(32%) of survey participants reported having completed secondary school (Grade 11 – The
equivalent of high school in the United States). Two percent (2%) of participants reported having
completed pre-primary school (kindergarten), 3% reported having completed primary school
(grades 1-6), and 12% reported having completed all age/junior high (grades 7-9). An additional
2% of survey participants reported having completed elementary school (up to grade 11 in the
old Jamaican education system), 18% reported attending vocational school (often training for
work in the tourism sector), and 1% reported attaining a post-secondary certificate (to help gain
entrance to university or college). Finally, 13% of survey participants reported attending other

29

tertiary institutions (i.e. teachers college or other colleges offering associates degrees) and 18%
reported attending a university.
Stressors
Overall, 78% of Falmouth residents who agreed to participate in this study indicated they
had experienced stress as a result of the development and operation of the new cruise port. The
maximum number of stressors listed by any individual was three. Forty-four percent (44%) of
survey respondents listed one stressor, 35% of respondents listed two stressors, and 21% of
respondents listed three stressors.
Five major themes of stressors emerged from thematic analysis of stressors listed by
study participants, they were: (1) unmet expectations, (2) overtaxed infrastructure/crowding, (3)
increased cost of living, (4) pollution (air, water, noise, etc), and (5) police harassment. The
frequency of instances in which survey participants indicated each of these stressors occurred is
listed in Table 2.
Table 2 - Stressor themes and frequencies

Stressor
Unmet expectations
Overtaxed infrastructure/crowding
Increase in cost of living
Pollution (air, water, noise, etc.
Police harassment

n
292
162
40
25
19

%
80%
44%
11%
7%
5%

*Open ended question, multiple responses allowed

Aside from ‘unmet expectations’, this appears to be a simple list of impacts commonly
found in locations that have undergone tourism development. Upon closer examination, the way
these impacts were discussed by study participants expands their understanding, giving
researchers a deeper understanding of how and why each of these elements caused stress. While
some stressors likely existed in the community long before tourism development occurred, it is
possible that tourism either increased their frequency or intensified their effects. In many

30

instances, study participants revealed the ‘impacts’ of tourism caused daily hassles or
exacerbated other common daily stresses, creating a level of stress that could be difficult for
residents to cope with.
The unmet expectations theme is comprised of several elements that reveal a gap between
the expectations of Falmouth residents and the reality of the operation of the new cruise port in
their community. Eighty percent (80%) of survey participants indicated that unmet expectations
about the development or operation of the new cruise port caused them stress. The overall sense
from many survey participants was that promises were made to the community prior to the
construction and operation of the port, and those promises were not being upheld. The lack of
benefits perceived by residents led to stress that compounded daily hassles that likely already
existed for Falmouth residents. Survey participants said:
“[The cruise company] said there would be benefits from the port and we're not
seeing them.”
“People have to be paying rent and we are not benefitting from the port.”
There were four sub-themes of unmet expectations: no tourists, no jobs, no money, and
no access. The first, no tourists, emphasizes that, despite cruise ships disembarking several
thousand passengers three to four days per week, tourists were not visiting the town of Falmouth.
Just over 45% survey participants indicated that the lack of cruise passengers actually entering
the town of Falmouth caused them stress. Many survey participants held the belief that
passengers were being booked on excursions outside the town before they disembarked the ship,
leaving little chance that they would enter Falmouth on their own. Survey participants said:
“Tourists are not traveling to Falmouth, they are being booked from the ship.”
“The tourists are being taken out of Falmouth to Montego Bay or Ocho Rios.”

31

These quotes reveal that Falmouth residents were perhaps not blaming the tourists
themselves for their lack of interest or entrance into the community. Their stress resulted more
from their perception that excursion companies were pre-booking passengers either on the ship
itself or on the port once they disembarked. This stress was compounded by local residents
having no access to the port, leaving them unable to access not only the amenities on the port,
but, more importantly, the cruise passengers and possibility that contact with them could result in
financial gain. A brief content analysis of materials distributed to Falmouth residents prior to
port construction revealed resident access to port amenities was a point of emphasis. At the time
of data collection, researchers required special permission from port officials to access the port,
and local individuals were only able to access port if they were employed there. Five percent
(5%) of survey participants mentioned a lack of access to the port caused them stress, and some
thought poorer individuals in particular lacked access. Participants indicated:
“Locals need to be granted more access to the port.”
“The poorer classes don’t have access to the port or tourists.”
The lack of tourists in the community and lack of access to the port were stressful to a
great deal of survey participants, but many thought the lack of tourists in the community was a
supply problem or reflection of conditions in Falmouth rather than a lack of demand from
tourists or fault of excursion companies. Just over 10% of survey participants said there were a
lack of attractions and entertainment in Falmouth, and an additional 3% of participants said the
town needed to be cleaned up in order to be attractive to tourists disembarking from cruise ships.
Participants said:
“[We] need more attractions in town in order to get the tourists to stay here.”
“The business sector is not doing enough to attract tourists.”

32

“The town is too dirty for tourists to come here.”
One of the major implications of the lack of tourists in Falmouth is the second subcategory of unmet expectations stressors, no jobs. Despite a small number of locals gaining
employment on the port, 21% of survey participants commented that their inability to get a job
on or around the port caused them stress. Some residents were concerned that jobs at the port
were taken by individuals not from Falmouth. Participants mentioned:
“The port provides no employment for persons in Falmouth.”
“[I] can’t get a job on the port, no matter how qualified.”
“People from outside Falmouth are getting jobs on the port.”
The final subcategory of the unmet expectations stressor theme is the logical next
step from the series of stressors resulting from a lack of tourists visiting the community
of Falmouth. No tourists in the community and no access to the new port meant no jobs
for residents and, as a result, no money from tourists and jobs that residents expected to
come from the new cruise port. Eleven percent (11%) of survey participants indicated
their lack of financial gain from the port caused them stress. Survey participants
discussed how not making any money from the port exacerbated other stressors that
already existed in their lives. Survey participants said:
“I can’t get a job on the port so I’ve got no money.”
“There is hardly any profit made in Falmouth because the tourists are not getting
the chance to spend money in town.”
“[We are] not making any money to feed our children”
The unmet expectations thematic group of stressors was the most experienced type of
stressor by study participants, likely because it was comprised of so many elements. Those

33

stressors were a result of intangible elements within the cruise port development context. An
unmet expectation or disappointment is not easily measured and often difficult to describe. There
were, however, more tangible changes in the community that caused stress for Falmouth
residents. Stress from overtaxed infrastructure/crowding was a result of the many physical
changes that Falmouth underwent during and after construction of the cruise port. Forty-four
percent (44%) of survey participants indicated overtaxed infrastructure/crowding as a result of
the development or operation of the new cruise port caused them stress.
The system of one-way streets implemented to contend with increased traffic on ship
days created a complex routing system that many residents found stressful. Changes made to the
routing system resulted in a shift in areas where parking was allowed free of charge. Many
residents were unsure of where they were able to drive and park safely, especially on days when
cruise ships were in town and an increased number of tour busses, taxis, and foot traffic flooded
the streets of Falmouth. Fourteen percent (14%) of survey participants indicated new traffic
patterns and change in parking systems caused them stress. Survey respondents said:
“[There are] a lot of one way streets, which causes confusion.”
“Need better routing - no more one ways.”
“People have to pay for parking now and if you don’t your vehicle gets towed.”
Despite the change in traffic patterns, 11% of survey participants indicated traffic
congestion on days ships were in Falmouth caused them stress. Traffic congestion from tour
busses taking the tourists out of Falmouth likely had a compounding effect on the stress of no
tourists visiting the community. Residents had to contend with not only the stress of tourists not
visiting Falmouth or spending any money there, but also with the stress resulting from traffic that
was taking those tourists out of the community on a daily basis. Falmouth residents were also

34

concerned that the increase in traffic was causing deterioration of infrastructure and creating
unsanitary conditions in their community. Survey participants said:
“Traffic piles up – we can’t use streets when ships are in port.”
“Tour busses blocking traffic.”
“Increase in traffic, which causes a lot of dust and deterioration in the roads.”
Falmouth residents were also concerned with other basic resources like water and
electricity. Five percent (5%) of survey participants indicated unavailability of basic utilities
caused them stress. Residents who were relocated to facilitate construction of the port reported
electricity was still unavailable in their new neighborhood. The connection of cruise ships to the
Falmouth municipal water supply also created shortages on heavy usage days. In some cases,
water from taps in the community of Falmouth simply ceased to flow on days when cruise ships
were in port. Survey participants mentioned:
“Basic resources like electricity are unavailable since we were moved to build the
port.”
“Low water pressure on cruise days.”
“No water on cruise days.”
Stress was not the only cost of making the infrastructure changes that took place in
Falmouth – the money used to make those changes comes from a variety of places, some of
which includes taxes paid by local residents. Falmouth residents felt the squeeze from both taxes
and the increase in consumer good prices that often comes with major development. Eleven
percent (11%) of survey participants indicated an increase in the cost of living caused them stress.
Individuals in Falmouth were likely to be sensitive to price fluctuations, as the SDC estimated
that 28% of household heads were unemployed and 29% of survey respondents reported having

35

no formal income. The stress of increased consumer good prices exacerbates the stress brought
about by Falmouth residents not making financial gains from the new cruise port (Consider the
quotes presented previously: “[We are] not making any money to feed our children,” and
“People have to be paying rent and we are not benefitting from the port.”). Survey participants
said:
“Food prices have gone up.”
“Price of goods is going up.”
“Price increase on land and properties.”
While increasing prices of consumer goods, land, and housing was causing stress for
some Falmouth residents, others expressed concerns over the decreasing environmental quality
in their community. Seven percent (7%) of survey participants indicated pollution resulting from
the development and operation of the new cruise port caused them stress. Pollution, in this case,
is not limited to the physical environment; survey participants said there was an unpleasant odor
that came from the ships’ wastewater. Survey participants also said they experienced stress when
the ships blew their horns during their arrival and departure, which could be early in the morning
or late in the evening. Survey participants mentioned:
“The new port is destroying the beach.”
“The horn is disturbing/annoying.”
“The smell from the port waste water is terrible.”
The final theme of stressors was police harassment. Five percent of survey respondents
indicated police harassment caused them stress. Prior to the construction and operation of the
new cruise port in Falmouth, there was an informal sales system throughout the community,
which allowed those with no formal employment to meet their basic needs. In an effort to make

36

the community of Falmouth more appealing to tourists arriving on cruise ships, the community
cracked down on the informal sales of goods, especially in the immediate vicinity of the cruise
port. This is another case of one stressor compounding another, as many Falmouth residents lost
their informal sources of income due to the police enforcement, and were not able to gain
employment at any legitimate tourism businesses serving the cruise passengers.
“When the cruise port opened I was in town selling some things and the mayor
and police ran me off the road. Anywhere I go they don’t want me to sell on the
street.”
“Metropolitan police are harassing street vendors when tourists try to buy any of
their crafts.”
“Cruise passengers who come into town to buy crafts from locals are being
harassed by metropolitan police.”
Each stressor theme is important in understanding how residents experienced stress as a
result of the development and operation of a cruise port in Falmouth, Jamaica. The stresses
Falmouth residents indicated were caused by the presence of a new cruise port were
interconnected with each other and, in many cases, other daily hassles stressors.

Discussion and Conclusions
This study utilized stress theory from the psychology discipline as a framework from
which to examine how residents of Falmouth, Jamaica were affected by tourism development.
An open-ended question was used to explore the psychological notion of stress brought about by
the development and operation of a new cruise port as it was experienced by community
residents. Understanding how tourism development impacts emotional and psychological well

37

being through stress is important to the greater understanding of the affect tourism development
has on individuals’ quality of life.
Research Question 1 asked, “To what extent did tourism development and operation
bring about stress within the community?” Stress was experienced by more than three-quarters of
the Falmouth residents who agreed to participate in this research, and more than half of research
participants listed multiple ways in which the development or operation of the new cruise port
caused them stress. Research on stress does not often address populations which may or may not
be experiencing stress (research on stress brought about by a cancer diagnosis, for example, does
not often encounter individuals who say their diagnoses did not cause them stress), and the high
rate of tourism development induced stress in this community is indicative of the scope of the
problem. It is also important to mention that individuals who discussed stresses brought about by
the cruise port may or may not have been supportive of tourism development in their
community; stress should not be considered as a vote against tourism or tourism development.
Research Question 2 asked “What were the major sources of stress for Falmouth residents?”
Major stressor themes were unmet expectations, overtaxed infrastructure, increased cost of
living, pollution, and police harassment.
Research question 3 asked, “How did residents experience stress?” The language used by
survey participants in describing stressors revealed both the interconnectedness of stressors and
their relationship with other everyday stressors that may have existed prior to cruise tourism
development. Consistent with previous stress research, the stressor groups that emerged through
thematic analysis revealed stressors made everyday life difficult through an increase in daily
hassles. The pride of Falmouth residents at being an important shipping hub in the Caribbean
only served to increase expectations about the impacts the port would have on the community.

38

Results revealed those high expectations were not met, and unmet expectations, largely in the
economic arena, were the stressors most experienced by Falmouth residents. Falmouth residents
clearly expected tourists to be flooding into their community, creating jobs, new businesses, and
generating income for community members. In reality, most tourists were disembarking their
cruise ships and getting directly onto excursion busses that took them outside of Falmouth for the
day. Most survey participants indicating they had little or no contact with cruise tourists in their
day-to-day lives corroborate this finding. The unmet expectations in the economic realm were
likely aggravated by the overtaxed infrastructure/crowding, increased cost of living, pollution,
and police harassment.
Findings indicate stress theory is a suitable framework from which to examine how
individuals are emotionally and psychologically affected by tourism development. Emotional
and psychological well being falls within the greater umbrella of quality of life studies, which is
moving the tourism impacts research paradigm away from measuring attitudes toward and
support of tourism development toward the examining the real changes to everyday lives of
individuals in host communities caused by tourism development and their emotional and
behavioral responses (Andereck & Nyaupane, 2011). The stress framework is useful in
examining both the tangible and intangible stressors brought about by tourism development. It is
possible that direct observations of community events like church services and events, local
government meetings, or other organizational meetings could help inform and confirm the
context of the stress at the individual and community level.
The widespread nature of stress in Falmouth indicates the importance of this issue for
communities. Stress is one of many possible positive and negative impacts of tourism
development that can affect quality of life for host community residents. Although this research

39

and other studies have found tourism development to affect host community resident quality of
life, tourism remains an attractive development option for many areas, especially Caribbean
nations with naturally occurring tourism attractions like sand, sea and sun. Stressors discussed by
research participants indicate the process and type of tourism development played a role in
causing stress, and overtones of neo-colonialism and dependency were present in many resident
quotes. The expectations of benefits by Falmouth residents far outstripped the reality of tourism
development in their community. Regardless of whether developers and government agents
created those high expectations or Falmouth residents created them independently, a lack of bidirectional communication between residents and those responsible for development likely
exacerbated the problem.
For private tourism organizations and government agencies attempting to promote
tourism development to local residents, there exists a paradox. Without the perception that
tourism development will somehow benefit them, host community residents are unlikely to
support development and, in areas where residents have a strong voice in decision-making, may
seek to block development all together. This is especially true in areas where tax dollars are used
in development activities. However, when host community residents do perceive that tourism
will be beneficial to them and those perceptions do not align with reality, stress can result. One
solution to this problem is clear and truthful bi-directional communication between residents and
those responsible for development about exactly how development and operation of the tourism
industry will occur prior to development. Clear communication between developers and those in
the community to be developed can help prepare both parties for what to expect from each other.
This solution is only useful if power structures within the community place both groups on equal
footing, as communication without compromise will likely result additional stressors as observed

40

in this research. The inclusion of an independent mediator in tourism planning and development
processes could help ensure equity between parties.
There were several limitations to this study. Stress was only one part of the overall
research project, and research participants were given limited space to describe their stressors,
likely resulting in brief answers. Each type of tourism development is different, and stress
resulting from the development of a cruise pier is likely different than stress from development
of other tourism activities or attractions. This research took place in a small coastal Jamaican
town, and results are not likely to be generalizable to other communities, as each community is
unique. Finally, it is difficult to determine exactly what expectations Falmouth residents held
prior to development of the cruise port, as no data were collected at that time; while some
expectations can be inferred by stress statements, a measurement prior to development would
have been helpful.
This research is the beginning of a body of research that attempts to understand the
phenomenon of resident stress in the tourism context. Far too little is understood about
psychological and behavioral changes that occur in host communities as a result of tourism
development. Future research should focus on learning more about how stress and other
psychological phenomena are experienced at an individual and community level, what constructs
are related to stress, and how individuals and communities cope with stress brought about by
tourism development.

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CHAPTER 3: CONCEPTUALIZATION AND MEASUREMENT
OF A STRESS AND COPING FRAMEWORK FOR
UNDERSTANDING RESIDENTS’ RESPONSE TO CRUISE
TOURISM DEVELOPMENT
Introduction
Ideally, residents of host communities would experience minimal negative and maximal
positive impacts from tourism development. Tourism development is not always conducted
under ideal conditions, however, and a variety of negative impacts like traffic, crowding, or a
price increase on local goods and services can occur (Sharpley, 2014). Frameworks like social
exchange theory, power theory, and identity theory have been utilized to examine resident
perceptions of, support for, and responses to tourism development (Nunkoo & Gursoy, 2012;
Nunkoo & Ramkissoon, 2012). These frameworks have helped tourism scholars understand a
great deal about how tourism development affects individuals living in host communities;
however, the emotional and psychological well being of host community residents has been
largely overlooked (Berno & Ward, 2005). Emotional and psychological well being is an
important part of individuals’ overall quality of life (QOL) (Schalock, 1997). There is a growing
body of QOL literature within the tourism discipline making important strides toward
understanding how individuals’ lives are affected beyond attitudes toward and support for
tourism development (Andereck & Nyaupane, 2011; Kim et al., 2013)
This research explores the suitability of a stress and coping framework (Figure 2) for
examining psychological impacts of and behavioral and emotional responses to tourism
development. Through discussion of relevant literature on the stress and coping process and
linkages to similar concepts within tourism research, the theoretical framework is situated for use
in the tourism discipline. Psychometric testing of stress and coping measurement tools

42

administered to residents of Falmouth, Jamaica, a community that was recently the development
site for a new cruise port, provides a basis for future research examining stress and coping in a
tourism context. This research provides a framework from which future research can build
understanding of how tourism development affects one element of host community residents’
quality of life and explore their behavioral and emotional responses.
Figure 2 - Stress and coping framework (Adapted from Folkman, et al., 1986)

Residents in areas undergoing development can experience stresses resulting from daily
hassles caused or exacerbated by negative impacts of tourism development, especially when
there are expectations of positive impacts prior to development. Individuals are affected by stress
differently as a result of their personality (Connor-Smith & Flachsbart, 2007), social support
(Thoits, 1995), appraisal of stress (Jones, Rowe, & Becker, 2009), and coping actions (Thoits,
2010). Stress is defined as anything that causes an individual psychological distress.
“Psychological distress is a negative psychological response to such threats and can include a
variety of affective and cognitive states, such as anxiety, sadness, frustration, the sense of being
overwhelmed, or helpless” (Kemeny, 2003, p. 124). Stress is the root cause of myriad
43

psychosomatic illnesses (i.e., high blood pressure, behavioral disorders, or sleep loss), and
individuals who successfully cope with stress are generally affected to a lesser extent
(Antonovsky, 1981; Thoits, 2010). Stress can also disrupt personal relationships, perpetuating
itself by creating additional stressors for afflicted individuals (Lee, Keough, & Sexton, 2002).
Negative health outcomes for those under stress affect both the individual and their public health
systems, driving up the cost of care and decreasing overall service quality (van der Klink, Blonk,
Schene, & van Dijk, 2001).
Using the definition of “anything that causes an individual psychological distress,” a
variety of tourism’s negative impacts can be considered stressors. Cruise tourism development in
the Caribbean likely creates unique stressors for community residents that other types of tourism
development would not generate. Economic leakage from cruise tourism development where
local individuals have little power over external investment is a major problem, especially in the
Caribbean where external ownership of many resources creates neo-colonial or dependency
concerns for many (Dann & Potter, 2001; Jamal & Camargo, 2014; Lee et al., 2014). Cruise
tourism in the Caribbean often uses themes like “Pirates of the Caribbean” on their ships and in
ports, serving to marginalize actual host culture and prevent bi-directional acculturative actions
that could prove beneficial to both hosts and guests. In addition, these themes serve to promote
the cruise ship and port as the travel destination rather than the port host community (Klein,
2011; Lester & Weeden, 2004; Wood, 2000). The development of physical cruise tourism
resources like port facilities can create sedimentation and turbidity, affecting coral reefs, reef
based fisheries, and the fishermen who depend on them (Erftemeijer et al., 2012). Finally, the
development and operation of cruise tourism in the Caribbean can overtax local resources like
public spaces, water systems, and waste treatment facilities (Brida & Zapata, 2010).

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Individual personality and social support play a significant role in how individuals
experience and appraise stress, as well as the coping strategies at their disposal (DeLongis &
Holtzman, 2005). The ‘Big Five’ personality dimensions of neuroticism, extraversion, openness,
agreeableness, and conscientiousness, have been linked to the likelihood an event will bring
stress to an individual (Bolger & Zuckerman, 1995), exposure to stress (Vollrath, 2001),
appraisal of an event as stressful (Suls & Martin, 2005), and the success or failure of coping
strategies (Gunthert, Cohen, & Armeli, 1999). Social support affects coping through social
referencing (Bandura, 1986), availability and employment of coping strategies (Thoits, 1995),
and post stress health outcomes (Lee, Suchday, & Wylie-Rosett, 2012). Though the
interrelationships within the stress appraisal and coping process are important, this research
focuses on individual elements in the process, examining their conceptualization and
measurement within in the tourism context.
The purpose of this research is to situate stress and coping theory within the tourism
literature and establish the validity of measurement instruments of personality, social support,
stress appraisal, and coping from the psychology discipline. Conceptualization and measurement
of the stress and coping process will allow future research to confidently establish relationships
between these latent constructs. Understanding stress and coping actions that effectively mitigate
stress and the role that personality and social support play in the process will provide a basis
from which stress causing development practices can be modified to limit stress, or, in cases
where stress is unavoidable, tourism practitioners can promote successful coping strategies to
residents of tourism host communities in which stress occurs.
Though uncommon, measurement of the stress and coping process are not entirely
foreign to the tourism and leisure discipline. In a departure from early efforts examining leisure

45

and tourism as a form of coping with every day stressors (Coleman & Iso-Ahola, 1993),
Schneider and Hammit (1995) sought to understand visitor responses to on-site recreation
conflict by utilizing Folkman and Lazarus’ (1980) conceptualization of stress and coping as a
theoretical framework. In a series of articles, researchers tested models including modified
appraisal and coping scales administered to outdoor recreationists (Schuster, Hammitt, Moore, et
al., 2006; Schuster et al., 2003; Schuster, Hammitt, & Moore, 2006). Their conceptualization and
psychometric evaluation of modified scales provided a starting point from which this research
expands.

Literature Review
Stress
The presence of stress and physiological response has been critical to survival of humans
for thousands of years. In the not so distant past, many stressors (i.e., an attack by a predator)
required a full physiological “fight or flight” response to avoid serious harm (Sapolsky, 2000).
When humans experience stress in their everyday interactions (i.e., a looming work deadline or a
fight with a spouse), the benefit derived from the release of stress hormones is heavily
outweighed by their affect on the mind and body. Negative health outcomes caused by stress
vary by individual and can range from minimally impactful issues to serious health conditions.
Stress related illnesses are particularly difficult to overcome as the presence of a physical or
mental health issue can often be self perpetuating; the health issue becomes another stressor for
the individual already under stress (Park & Folkman, 1997).
The physical manifestations of stress occur as a result of the release of the steroid
hormone cortisol from the adrenal gland in the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (Sturge-Apple,
Davies, Cicchetti, & Manning, 2012). Long term exposure to cortisol can cause a variety of
46

detrimental physical and mental health outcomes such as loss of cognitive ability (McEwen,
1998), impaired memory function (Het et al., 2005), elevation of blood pressure (Schnall,
Schwartz, Landsbergis, Warren, & Pickering, 1992), and decreased immune system function
(Segerstrom & Miller, 2004). Elevated cortisol levels have also been linked to behavioral
changes such as acting outside of social norms (Platje et al., 2013) and overeating (Newman,
O’Connor, & Conner, 2007).
Researchers have recently focused their attention on two types of stressors: major life
events and daily hassles. Major life events are subjectively experienced and generally require a
significant change or readjustment by the stressed individual (McIntosh et al., 2010). Daily
hassles are experienced during every day life, and cause individuals irritation or inconvenience
(Kohn et al., 1994). Recent research suggests the mechanism by which major life events affects
individuals is through an increase in the presence of daily hassles in their lives (Kanner et al.,
1981). Daily hassles have been strongly linked to negative health outcomes caused by the
detrimental overload of the physiological system by stress hormones (DeLongis et al., 1982).
Despite the prevalence of stress in the human experience and vast array of detrimental
outcomes, stress has rarely been considered as an impact of tourism development (Berno &
Ward, 2005). In the tourism discipline, impacts are generally considered social, economic, or
environmental (Pearce, 1995). While psychological impacts like stress likely fall under the
umbrella of social impacts, tourism researchers have generally measured specific impacts (i.e.
crowding) and their relationship with attitudes toward or support for tourism development
(Buckley, 2012). Doğan (1989) devised a psychologically leaning social impacts model in his
research on socio-cultural consequences of tourism development and host community resident
responses. Doğan posited that tourism development weakens host community cultural traditions,

47

disrupts interpersonal relationships, and commercializes personal interactions, all of which
contribute toward resentment of tourism by community residents. There is a small body of
literature within the tourism discipline examining stress from the perspective of tourism
employees (Houge Mackenzie & Kerr, 2013; Law, Pearce, & Woods, 1995), but little research
has examined stress on tourism host communities at large.
Personality
Personality is a characteristic that is notoriously difficult to define and understand due to
the complexity and variety of possible personality elements. Personality is defined in this
research as “the dynamic organization within the person of the psychological and physical
systems that underlie that person’s patters of actions, thoughts, and feelings” (Allport, 1961;
Carver & Connor-Smith, 2010, p. 680). Personality psychology is built upon a structure of two
seemingly conflicting truths: individuals are simultaneously the same at a very basic level and
yet exhibit complex differences (Carver & Connor-Smith, 2010). While these two principles may
seem to oppose each other, they are what make up the intricate system that determines an
individual’s personality. The sameness between individuals is ‘human nature,’ meaning the
overwhelming majority of human beings have the same biological make-up, are social in nature,
can learn, have the urge to procreate, etc. At the same time, no human being is exactly like
another; people exhibit myriad individual differences.
There are two prominent viewpoints taken on human nature that are particularly salient to
the stress appraisal and coping process: biological and goal based (Carver & Connor-Smith,
2010). Biological models of human nature are based on three principles: individuals tend to
approach things they desire, individuals tend to avoid things that are dangerous, and individuals
have the ability to regulate their approach and avoidance behaviors (Caspi & Shiner, 2007). Goal

48

based models are similar to biological models in that individuals move toward positive goals and
stay away from threats (Higgins, Shah, & Friedman, 1997). However, goal based models allow
for possibility that individuals may give up or scale back on a goal that may be unrealistic or
unattainable (Wrosch, Scheier, Miller, Schulz, & Carver, 2003), although the process of giving
up or scaling back may result in negative emotions or depression (Nesse, 2000). These two
models of human nature are complementary rather than contradictory, and help explain the
underlying structure upon which individual differences in personality are built.
The five factor model of personality traits commonly known as The Big Five has
emerged as the most prominent model of personality in the psychology domain (Digman, 1990).
The Big Five personality factors are Extraversion (E), Neuroticism (N), Agreeableness (A),
Conscientiousness (C), and Openness to Experience (O) (Also known as Imagination (I)). While
other three-factor, five-factor, and even six-factor personality models have been proposed
(Ashton et al., 2004; Zuckerman, Michael, Joireman, Teta, & Kraft, 1993), none have been tested
to a greater extent than The Big Five. The five factor structure has been found to be reliable
across age groups and cultures, making it suitable for measurement of personality in new areas of
inquiry (Connor-Smith & Flachsbart, 2007; Hendriks et al., 2003; McCrae, Costa, del Pilar,
Rolland, & Parker, 1998).
Extraversion is exemplified by several types of behavior, usually assertiveness,
confidence, and dominance (Carver & Connor-Smith, 2010; Depue & Collins, 1999). It is
unclear whether sociability is a core element of extraversion or rather a byproduct of it (Cohen et
al., 2003; Lucas et al., 2000). Neuroticism is exemplified by a moodiness, depression, anxiety,
and a propensity for becoming upset or distressed (Carver & Connor-Smith, 2010).
Agreeableness is exemplified by friendliness, cooperativeness, empathy, and the ability to avoid

49

interpersonal conflict (Graziano et al., 2007, 1996; Parks & Guay, 2009). Conscientiousness can
vary greatly between measurements, but typical conscientious behaviors include responsibility,
impulse control, or taking future contingencies into account (Carver & Connor-Smith, 2010).
Finally, Openness to experience (aka Imagination) is exemplified by vivid fantasy, depth of
feeling, behavioral flexibility, curiosity, and unconventional attitudes (McCrae, 1996). Each
element of an individual’s personality plays a role not only in how stress is experienced but also
the perception of social support and availability of coping.
Researchers in the tourism discipline have focused primarily on how the personality of
tourists affects destination choice, motivation, consumer behaviors, and tourist behavior in situ
(Frew & Shaw, 1999; Lepp & Gibson, 2008; Leung & Law, 2010; Plog, 2001). This is, of course,
discounting the substantial body of research examining destination brand personality (Usakli &
Baloglu, 2011), which is applicable to destinations as a whole rather than individual human
beings. Personality of host community residents have been examined to a lesser extent, although
there is a small body of literature examining tourism and hospitality worker personalities and
their relationship with work stress, satisfaction, and burnout (Kim, Shin, & Umbreit, 2007; Ross,
1995).
Social Support
Social support is defined as “information from others that one is loved and cared for,
esteemed and valued, and part of a network of communication and mutual obligations” (Kim,
Sherman, & Taylor, 2008, p. 518). Social support plays a role in whether individuals experience
stress, the health outcomes of their stressful experiences, and the availability of coping options
for dealing with stressors (Thoits, 1995). The manifestation of social support can range from
something as simple as the number of friends an individual has to turn to in a crisis to the more

50

elusive perception of the adequacy of those friends at addressing an individual’s concerns (Zimet,
Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988). The distinction between perceived and actual social support has
perhaps not received enough attention, as the interaction between the two can result in positive or
negative experiences for individuals (Holtzman, Newth, & Delongis, 2004). In most cases the
perception or receipt of social support is positive for the individual; however, when there is a gap
between the social support an individual perceives and the actual support they receive in a time
of need, the individual in need of support can be negatively affected psychologically and
physically (Griffin, Friend, Kaell, & Bennett, 2001).
The positive impacts of social support on individuals are many. For those experiencing
stress, social support can reduce the manifestations of psychological distress such as depression
or anxiety (Cohen & Wills, 1985). Physically, the availability of social support positively affects
adjustment to stressful illnesses like cardiac disease or cancer (Helgeson & Cohen, 1996;
Holahan, Moos, Holahan, & Brennan, 1997). Social support has also been found to reduce not
only the probability of becoming ill, but also the amount of time an individual takes to recover
from illnesses when they do occur (Ouellette Kobasa, Maddi, Puccetti, & Zola, 1985). In
addition, social support positively affect mortality rates of those diagnosed with serious diseases
(Cohen, 1988). In contrast, a lack of social support can increase the physical and psychological
symptoms of needy individuals, such as those with serious illnesses (Orth-Gomér, Rosengren, &
Wilhelmsen, 1993).
The nature of social support requires that it take place in a cultural context, and social
norms vary greatly between geographic location and culture. The availability and usage of social
support can be at least partly attributed to where an individual’s cultural background and
surroundings fall along the individualist-collectivist continuum (Kim et al., 2008). In nations like

51

the United States where an individualist cultural mindset prevails, individuals are often expected
to seek out the resources they need to achieve their own individualistic goals (Earley, 1989). In
more collectivist nations like many in the Caribbean, individuals tend to view their role within
society with greater importance, placing greater emphasis on interpersonal relationships that
arise from cultural norms rather than those sought for a specific purpose (Triandis, Bontempo,
Villareal, Asai, & Lucca, 1988). While individuals from collectivist cultural backgrounds likely
have a solid social support foundation, empirical research has indicated those in collectivist
cultures tend to seek social support to a lesser extent than those in individualistic cultures
(Taylor et al., 2004). Research examining coping with daily stressors through leisure activities
have placed a great deal of emphasis on social support (Iso-Ahola & Park, 1996). Social support
has also been examined in the context of leisure constraints, attempting to understand how social
support facilitates or inhibits participation in leisure activities (Brown, Brown, Miller, & Hansen,
2001).
Stress Appraisal
Stress appraisal is an evaluative process that enables individuals to determine and
categorize the significance and controllability of stressful events (Lazarus, 1966; Peacock &
Wong, 1990). Individuals under stress generally engage in both primary and secondary appraisal.
Primary appraisal involves an assessment of how important a stressful event is to an individual’s
well being (Dewe, 1993). Secondary appraisal involves an individual determining what can be
done about the stressful event (Folkman, 1984). As defined by Peacock and Wong (1990) there
are three types of primary appraisal (threat, challenge, and centrality) and three types of
secondary appraisal (controllable by self, controllable by other, and uncontrollable). The three
types of primary appraisal all relate to how individuals anticipate a particular stressor will affect

52

them. Threat refers to the potential for harm or loss to the individual. Challenge refers to the
possibility of growth from the interaction with stress. Centrality refers to the perceived
importance or “stake” of the individual in a particular stressor or stressful situation. The three
types of secondary appraisal all relate to how an individual perceives the controllability of stress.
Stress is viewed as controllable by self (i.e., addiction), others (i.e., a spouse asking for a
divorce), or no one (i.e., natural disaster or act of god).
The manner in which an individual appraises a stressor plays an important role in their
coping responses and resultant health outcomes. When there is a disconnect between stress
appraisal and coping response (i.e., attempting to control a stressor appraised as uncontrollable),
individuals generally experience greater negative health outcomes (Forsythe & Compas, 1987).
Individuals who appraise stress as ‘challenging,’ or presenting an opportunity to grow, are more
likely to directly confront the stressor, while individuals who appraise stress as ‘threatening,’ or
potentially harmful, are more likely to attempt to control their own emotional response (Skinner
et al., 2003). Similarly, individuals who appraise stress as controllable by themselves are more
likely to attempt to control the stress, while individuals who appraise stressors as uncontrollable
generally do not (Bouchard, Guillemette, & Landry‐Léger, 2004). Examination of stress
appraisal in the tourism and leisure discipline has been limited the recent work by Schneider and
Stanis (2007) and Schuster et al. (2003). Their conceptualizations have essentially been based
upon the psychological framework of stress appraisal and modified slightly for application to
recreation conflict and constraint negotiation.
Coping
Early coping conceptualizations tended to take an ego-psychology approach to
understanding the evaluation of unconscious processes individuals utilized to defend themselves
53

against stress (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004; Vaillant, 1995). The seminal work by Lazarus
(1966) shifted the focus of coping research from defensive reactions to cognitive processes.
Today, the vast majority of coping research still examines coping as a cognitive process
including a variety of behavioral and emotional processes. Folkman and Lazarus (1980) posited
two rationally derived, theory based coping meta-categories called problem-focused coping and
emotion-focused coping. “Problem-focused coping included efforts to manage the stressor and
change the person-environment relationship causing the stress, while emotion-focused coping
was found to regulate emotional distress caused by stressors” (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980, p. 223).
Those coping with stressful situations almost always utilize both problem and emotion-focused
coping, as they cope with both the stressor and their own emotional response. The distinction
between problem and emotion-focused coping is certainly not the only conceptualization of
cognitive coping responses to stress (Skinner et al., 2003); however, it is the most utilized model
by a wide margin. Similar to stress appraisal, the conceptualization of coping in the tourism and
leisure discipline has largely been based on the framework built in the psychological discipline
(Iwasaki & Schneider, 2003; Schuster et al., 2003).
Folkman et al. (1986) derived eight coping factors comprised of a mix of problem and
emotion focused coping actions aimed at addressing stressors. Each type of problem-focused
coping generally involves actions aimed at changing the interaction between the individual and
the stressor. Two factors (confrontive coping and planful problem-solving) were generally
comprised of all problem-focused coping actions. Five factors (distancing, self-controlling,
accepting responsibility, escape-avoidance, and positive reappraisal) were generally comprised
of all emotion-focused coping actions. One factor (seeking social support) was comprised of
actions that are a mix of problem and emotion-focused coping actions. Confrontive coping

54

involves behaviors addressing the stressor head on to modify the stressor itself (i.e. express anger
at the person(s) who caused the problem). Planful problem solving involves creating a strategy to
address the stressor and acting on it (i.e., I made a plan of action and followed it). Distancing
involves mentally eliminating the importance of the stressor (i.e., Made light of the situation;
refused to get to serious about it). Self controlling involves keeping the individual’s emotional
reaction to stress from interfering in their everyday lives (i.e., I tried to keep my feelings to
myself). Accepting responsibility involves internalizing the stressor as something that was
created by the individual under stress (i.e., Realized I brought the problem on myself). Escape
avoidance involves mentally escaping the stressful situation through thoughts, behaviors, or
substances (i.e., Tried to make myself feel better by eating, drinking, smoking, using drugs or
medication). Positive reappraisal involves determining that the stressor may actually be positive
and seeking growth from it (i.e., Rediscovered what is important in life). Finally, seeking social
support involves seeking out help or information from others who may be able to address the
stressor directly (i.e., Talked to someone who could do something concrete about the problem).
Despite or perhaps because it has been utilized in myriad contexts in a variety of stressful
scenarios, the factor structure of the WoC has been found to be inconsistent, as the coping
responses utilized by individuals differ by context (Parker, Endler, & Bagby, 1993).
Based on this literature, two research questions were constructed to address the research
problem:
Research Question 1: Are psychologically based measurements of personality, social support,
and stress appraisal valid in a tourism host community context?
Research Question 2: What is the structure of coping by individuals responding to stress brought
about by tourism development?

55

Method
Study site background
Falmouth, Jamaica was chosen as a study site due to the timing, size, and scope of new
cruise port development, the collective nature of its society and the relationship researchers were
able to build with the local Social Development Commission (SDC; an organization devoted to
local social welfare). Falmouth is community on the northern coast of Jamaica with a population
of almost 9,000 people. The community is approximately the midpoint between the larger
communities of Ocho Rios and Montego Bay, two areas known to be popular tourist destinations.
Prior to the development of the cruise port, Falmouth had seen little in the way of tourists aside
from the handful of visitors who stopped to see its classic Georgian Architecture. According to
the SDC, “On November 7, 2008, Prime Minister Bruce Golding signed a $224 million contract
with [A major cruise company] to modernize the cruise shipping port in Falmouth, Jamaica.”
Work on the new cruise port started in 2009. The development of the port offered the
opportunity for many construction related jobs. When the construction was finished in March
2011, the construction jobs it provided disappeared and cruise ships started making calls in
Falmouth.
The port was designed to service a new class of mega cruise ships that can carry in
excess of 6,000 passengers and nearly 2,000 staff. When the new ships arrive in port, their total
population is almost the same as the town of Falmouth. According to the Jamaican Tourist Board,
in 2012 the port of Falmouth serviced 135 cruise ships carrying 586,578 passengers, or 44.4% of
total cruise passengers arriving in Jamaica (Jamaica Tourist Board, 2012). Falmouth is the
busiest cruise port by volume in Jamaica, servicing in excess of 100,000 more passengers than
the either of the other two major ports, Ocho Rios (393,445 passengers) and Montego Bay

56

(338,972 passengers). The winter months are busiest for the port of Falmouth, with more than
60,000 passengers arriving each month from December to March in 2011/2012. Many of the
ships that dock in Falmouth had previously docked in Ocho Rios, with passenger arrivals at that
port decreasing by more than 40% upon the opening of the new Falmouth port.
Procedure
Data for this research were collected in a cross-sectional study of residents of Falmouth,
Jamaica from February to March 2013. An eleven page, 138-question paper survey was
administered face-to-face to a systematic random sample of 363 Falmouth residents over the age
of eighteen. To ensure sample randomness, each Falmouth residence was counted and mapped
by the research team in the two weeks prior to data collection. Researchers counted a total of
3,515 households in Falmouth proper and surrounding neighborhoods. According to SDC
estimates, an average of three individuals live in each household, 66% of whom are over
eighteen years of age (Silvera & Johnson, 2010). These estimates put the over eighteen
population of Falmouth at 7,424 individuals, resulting in a sample size of approximately five
percent (5%). Over a period of four weeks, researchers attempted a survey at every tenth house,
approaching a total of 599 individuals to administer the paper survey. Eighty-nine (89) residents
declined to participate in the study, and 102 residents indicated they experienced no stress from
the new cruise port, resulting in an overall response rate of 60%. In many cases, researchers
aided survey participants in the completion of the survey. Surveys that were not completely filled
out were not used in this analysis, resulting in a total of 363 completed surveys containing no
missing data.

57

Population
In 2010, the SDC conducted a citywide survey in an effort to construct a community
profile, compiling data on demographic, social, economic, spatial, environmental, and
governance in Falmouth (Silvera & Johnson, 2010). The SDC estimated that the population of
Falmouth had increased to 8,912 residents living in 2,724 dwellings in 2010. The SDC
community profile focused on surveying household heads, and the date reported here reflect that
population. Fifty-four percent (54%) of household heads were male and 46% were female. Just
over 35% of Falmouth household heads had attained secondary (high school) education, and
25% had attained higher-level education (including post-secondary, other tertiary, and vocational
training). Only 8% of household heads had received a college diploma, and 7% had received a
vocational certification. While specific literacy rates for Falmouth were not available, UNICEF
estimates that 87% of Jamaicans are literate. The SDC Falmouth community profile estimated
that approximately 72% of household heads in Falmouth were employed, a significant portion of
which were employed in service industries (25%). Finally, though English is the official
language in Jamaica, most Jamaicans speak a Patois dialect in which the pronunciation and
vocabulary is often distinctly different than American or British English.
Participant profile
Forty-three (43%) percent of study participants were male and 57% were female. The
mean age of participants was 40 years old. Three percent (3%) of participants reported having
either quite a bit or a great deal of contact with cruise passengers, 4% reported having some
contact with cruise passengers, and 93% reported having very little or no contact with cruise
passengers. Two percent of study participants reported they personally benefitted from cruise
tourism quite a bit or a great deal, 2% reported benefitting some, 9% reported benefitting a little

58

bit, and 86% reported no benefit from cruise tourism. Five percent (5%) of study participants
reported they were currently employed in the cruise tourism industry, 8% reported being
employed in other areas of the tourism industry, 33% were not currently employed in the tourism
industry but had been previously, and 54% indicated they had never worked in the tourism
industry. Self- reported monthly incomes of survey participants are reported in Table 3.
Table 3 - Self reported monthly income of survey participants

No formal income
Less than 16,280 JMD ($164 USD)
16,281-32,499 JMD ($164-$328 USD)
32,500-43,499 JMD ($328-$439 USD)
$43,500-$86,499 JMD ($439-$872 USD)
$86,500 JMD or more ($872 USD or more)
Prefer not to answer

n
105
21
28
24
27
15
140

%
29%
6%
8%
7%
8%
4%
38%

The largest portion (32%) of survey participants reported having completed secondary
school (grade 11 – the equivalent of high school in the United States). Two percent (2%) of
participants reported having completed pre-primary school (kindergarten), 3% reported having
completed primary school (grades 1-6), and 12% reported having completed all age/junior high
(grades 7-9). An additional 2% of survey participants reported having completed elementary
school (up to grade 11 in the old Jamaican education system), 18% reported attending vocational
school (often training for work in the tourism sector), and 1% reported attaining a post-secondary
certificate (to help gain entrance to university or college). Finally, 13% of survey participants
reported attending other tertiary institutions (i.e. teachers college or other colleges offering
associates degrees) and 18% reported attending a university.
Instruments
Personality was measured using the Mini-International Personality Item Pool (MiniIPIP), a 20-item short form of the traditional 50-item International Personality Item Pool – Five

59

Factor Model (Donnellan, Oswald, Baird, & Lucas, 2006). The Mini-IPIP is a recently derived
personality scale useful for measuring the established five-factor model of personality in
conjunction with other long scale based measurements, as long questionnaires can produce
transient (i.e. fatigue related) measurement errors (Schmidt, Le, & Ilies, 2003). The Mini-IPIP
has been found to be a valid measure of the big five personality factors, although in some
instances cross loading of indicator variables has been observed (Cooper, Smillie, & Corr, 2010).
Participants responded to statements on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (very inaccurate) to 5
(very accurate) indicating how accurate each statement was in describing themselves. Eleven
(11) items within the Mini-IPIP were asked in the negative (e.g., “Don’t have a good
imagination”) and reverse coded.
Social support was measured using the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List 12- item
version (ISEL), which measures three factors: appraisal support, belonging support, and tangible
support (Cohen & Hoberman, 1983). A shortened version of an established measure of social
support was utilized to minimize the risk of transient measurement error (Schmidt et al., 2003).
The ISEL (12-item version) has been found to be a psychometrically sound measurement tool
(Hawkley, Masi, Berry, & Cacioppo, 2006). Participants responded to statements on a five-point
scale ranging from 1 (definitely false) to 5 (definitely true) indicating how accurate each
statement was in describing themselves. Six (6) items within the ISEL were asked in the negative
(e.g., “I don’t often get invited to do things with others”) and reverse coded.
Stress appraisal was measured using the Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM), a 27-item
instrument which measures three primary appraisal factors (threat, challenge, and centrality) and
three secondary appraisal factors (controllable by self, controllable by others, and uncontrollable)
(Edward J. Peacock & Wong, 1990). The SAM has been found to be internally reliable and valid

60

in a variety of study areas (Jones et al., 2009; C. L. Park, Fenster, Suresh, & Bliss, 2006).
Participants were asked to describe a stressful situation resulting from the development or
operation of the new cruise port in Falmouth, then to respond to statements about how they
viewed the stressful situation they described right now (e.g., Does this situation have important
consequences for me?) on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (extremely).
Coping was measured using the Ways of Coping Questionnaire - Revised (WoC), a 66item instrument which measures seven coping factors (i.e., confrontive coping, distancing, selfcontrolling, seeking social support, accepting responsibility, escape avoidance, planful problem
solving, and positive reappraisal) of coping (Folkman, Lazarus, Dunkel-Schetter, Gruen, et al.,
1986). The WoC has been utilized to measure coping with countless stressors in a wide variety
of contexts; though there has been some disagreement about the factor structure of the WoC
(Parker et al., 1993), many empirical studies have found it to be a reliable and valid measure of
coping (Jean, Paul, & Beatty, 1999; Lundqvist & Ahlström, 2006). Participants were asked to
indicate the frequency with which they utilized coping behaviors (e.g., I tried to analyze the
problem in order to understand it better) in response to the stressful situation they described for
the SAM portion of the survey. Participants responded on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (not
used at all) to 5 (used a great deal).
Data analysis
A series of CFAs were conducted to test the construct validity of each measurement in of
the stress, appraisal, and coping process. Each CFA was conducted using the Lavaan package
(Rosseel, 2012) in the R software environment for statistical computing and graphics. All CFA
models were estimated using maximum likelihood estimation of the sample covariance matrix.
Model fit was determined based upon a battery of widely used indices of model fit including

61

mean-adjusted minimum fit chi-square (χ2), comparative fit index (CFI), Tucker-Lewis Index
(TLI), root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), and standardized root mean square
residual (SRMR) (McDonald & Ho, 2002). The χ2 value is presented despite its sensitivity to
sample sizes greater than 200. Cutoff criteria used to determine ‘good fit’ were: CFI > .9, TLI
>.95, RMSEA <.06, and SRMR <.08 to minimize the risk of Type I and Type II error (Hu &
Bentler, 1999). Tests of data normality were conducted to meet assumptions required for
conducting CFA; cutoff values for 2.0 and 7.0 for skewness and kurtosis were used respectively
(Curran, West, & Finch, 1996). Cronbach’s alpha was estimated for each factor to determine
internal reliability. A cutoff value of .7 was utilized to determine ‘good’ reliability.

Results
Personality
Descriptive statistics for the Mini-IPIP scale are presented in Table 4. Cronbach’s alpha
for each personality scale were below acceptable levels; contentiousness and neuroticism were
particularly low. Test of skewness and kurtosis indicate univariate normality. Mean scores for
negatively worded items were substantially higher than those reported by Donnellan et al. (2006)
and Cooper et al. (2010).

62

Table 4 - Descriptive statistics for the Mini International Personality Item Pool (Mini-IPIP)

Items
Extraversion (=.561)
1. Am the life of the party
6. Don’t talk a lot*
11. Talk to a lot of different people at parties
16. Keep in the background*
Agreeableness (=.453)
2. Sympathize with other’s feelings
7. Am not interested in others’ problems*
12. Feel others’ emotions
17. Am not really interested in others*
Conscientiousness (=.269)
3. Get chores done right away
8. Often forget to put things back in their proper place*
13. Like order
18. Make a mess of things*

Mean
2.72
3.06
2.77
3.15
Mean
4.37
3.55
4.10
4.02
Mean
3.96
3.74
4.28
4.47
Mean
2.91
2.68
2.72
3.31
Mean
4.20
3.67
4.07
4.18

Neuroticism (=.030)
4. Have frequent mood swings
9. Am relaxed most of the time*
14. Get upset easily
19. Seldom feel blue*
Imagination (=.453)
5. Have a vivid imagination
10. Am not interested in abstract ideas*
15. Have difficulty understanding abstract ideas*
20. Do not have a good imagination*
* = Negatively worded

Descriptives
Std. Dev
Skewness
1.49
.188
1.40
.002
1.54
.173
1.35
-.044
Std. Dev
Skewness
.774
-.863
1.41
-.533
1.02
-1.33
1.299
-1.10
Std. Dev
Skewness
1.04
-1.46
1.28
-.624
1.14
-1.67
.884
-1.49
Std. Dev
Skewness
1.39
.042
1.37
.461
1.37
.280
1.27
-.164
Std. Dev
Skewness
1.15
-1.45
1.39
-.650
1.20
-1.07
1.28
-1.44

Kurtosis
-1.39
-1.23
-1.47
-1.12
Kurtosis
.364
-1.02
1.54
-.049
Kurtosis
3.10
-.781
1.84
1.01
Kurtosis
-1.20
-1.00
-1.09
-.982
Kurtosis
1.20
-.884
.037
.762

CFA of the five-factor MINI-IPIP produced a poor fitting model (Table 5). During the survey
process, researchers noted that negatively worded variables were particularly difficult for
participants to understand. Negatively worded variables have been noted as a common source of
method bias in behavioral research, especially when colloquialisms that may not be familiar to
research participants are used (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Jeong-Yeon Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003).
This possible method bias was addressed by estimating a bi-factor model, where negatively
worded variables within each personality trait were loaded onto an additional latent variable. Fit
statistics indicate the bi-factor model produced poor to adequate fit, with CFI and TLI scores
falling outside desired ranges.

63

Table 5 - Fit statistics of CFA models of the Mini International Personality Item Pool (Mini-IPIP)

Model
MINI-IPIP
MINI-IPIP Bi-factor model

χ2
424.07
273.90

df
160
149

Fit Statistics
CFI
TLI
.676
.616
.847
.805

RMSEA
.067
.048

SRMR
.074
.056

Social Support
Descriptive statistics for the ISEL are presented in Table 6. Cronbach’s alpha for each
type of social support were below acceptable levels, and appraisal support was particularly low.
Tests of skewness and kurtosis indicate univariate normality. Confirmatory factor analysis of the
three-factor ISEL produced a poor fitting model (Table 7). Similar to negatively worded
variables in the MINI-IPIP scales, researchers noted survey participants struggled to understand
negatively worded items. Once again, this issue was addressed by estimating a bi-factor model
that loaded negatively worded variables within each social support factor on an additional latent
variable (Figure 3). The bi-factor model produced good fit, with only TLI falling slightly outside
the desired range. Each indicator variable loaded significantly onto its latent construct with the
exception of question 7, which stated “I don’t often get invited to do things with others.” All
latent variables were significantly correlated with each other.

64

Table 6 - Descriptive statistics for the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL)

Item
Appraisal (=.594)
2. I feel that there is no one I can share my most
private worries and fears with*
4. There is someone I can turn to for advice about
handling problems with my family
6. When I need suggestions on how to deal with a
personal problem, I know someone I can turn to
11. If a family crisis arose, it would be difficult to
find someone who could give me good advice about
how to handle it*
Belonging (=.529)
1. If I wanted to go on a trip for a day, I would have
a hard time finding someone to go with me*
5. If I decide one afternoon that I would like to go
out that evening, I could easily find someone to go
with me
7. I don't often get invited to do things with others*
9. If I wanted to have lunch with someone, I could
easily find someone to join me
Tangible (=.514)
3. If I were sick, I could easily find someone to help
me with my daily chores
8. If I had to go out of town for a few weeks, it
would be difficult to find someone who would look
after my house or apartment (the plants, pets, garden,
etc.)*
10. If I was stranded 10 miles from home, there is
someone I could call who could come and get me
12. If I needed some help in moving to a new house
or apartment, I would have a hard time finding
someone to help me*
* = Negatively worded

Mean

Descriptives
Std. Dev
Skewness

2.05

.93

-1.88

3.32

4.40

.97

-1.85

2.98

3.96

1.41

1.04

-.359

3.88
Mean

1.50
Std. Dev

-.955
Skewness

-.687
Kurtosis

4.15

1.30

-1.32

.445

4.31
4.38

1.11
1.00

-1.74
-1.87

2.25
3.060

3.81
Mean

1.39
Std. Dev

-.844
Skewness

-.649
Kurtosis

4.28

1.01

-1.53

1.90

3.89

1.42

-.913

-.628

4.50

.933

-1.91

4.55

4.14

1.34

-1.36

.440

Table 7 - Fit statistics of CFA models of the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL)

Model
ISEL
ISEL Bi-factor model

χ2
218.88
78.26

df
51
45

Kurtosis

Fit Statistics
CFI
TLI
.796
.736
.960
.942

65

RMSEA
.095
.045

SRMR
.075
.044

Figure 3 - Completely standardized CFA of the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL)

Stress Appraisal
Descriptive statistics for the SAM are presented in Table 8. Cronbach’s alpha for
centrality, controllable by self, controllable by other, and uncontrollable are acceptable, while
Cronbach’s alpha for threat and challenge are below acceptable levels. Tests of skewness and
kurtosis indicate univariate normality.

66

Table 8 - Descriptive statistics for the Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM)

Primary Appraisal
Threat (=.403)
Mean
5. Does this situation make me feel anxious?
3.20
11. Will the outcome of this situation be negative?
2.20
20. How threatening is this situation?
3.62
28. Is this going to have a negative impact on me?
2.58
Challenge (=.290)
Mean
7. Is this going to have a positive impact on me?
2.62
8. How eager am I to tackle this problem?
3.98
10. To what extent can I become a stronger person
because of this?
2.60
19. To what extent am I excited thinking about the
outcome of this situation?
3.37
Centrality (=.773)
Mean
6. Does this situation have important consequences
for me?
3.18
9. How much will I be affected by the outcome of
this situation?
3.57
13. Does this situation have serious implications for
me?
3.11
27. Does this situation have long-term consequences
for me?
3.02
Secondary Appraisal
Controllable by Self (=.866)
Mean
12. Do I have the ability to do well in this situation?
2.96
14. Do I have what it takes to do well in this
situation?
3.06
22. Will I be able to overcome the problem?
2.82
25. Do I have the skills necessary to achieve a
successful outcome to this situation?
2.91
Controllable by Other (=.793)
Mean
4. Is there someone or some agency I can turn to for
help if I need it?
2.51
15. Is there help available for me dealing with this
problem?
2.56
17. Are there sufficient resources available to help
me in dealing with this situation?
2.28
23. Is there anyone who can help me to manage the
problem?
2.91
Uncontrollable (=.680)
Mean
1. Is this a totally hopeless situation?
2.17
3. Is the outcome of this situation beyond anyone’s
control?
1.81
18. Is it beyond anyone’s power to do anything about
this situation?
1.73
21. Is the problem unresolvable by anyone?
1.81

67

Std. Dev
1.48
1.47
1.33
1.54
Std. Dev
1.59
1.24

Skewness
-.303
.781
-.681
.353
Skewness
.320
-1.07

Kurtosis
-1.35
-.875
-.707
-1.39
Kurtosis
-1.48
.099

1.42

.285

-1.29

1.32
Std. Dev

-.424
Skewness

-.972
Kurtosis

1.39

-.232

-1.28

1.25

-.509

-.815

1.44

-.226

-1.32

1.38

-.129

-1.24

Std. Dev
1.36

Skewness
-.144

Kurtosis
-1.28

1.38
1.39

-.098
.092

-1.25
-1.27

1.42
Std. Dev

-.017
Skewness

-1.36
Kurtosis

1.39

-.863

.743

1.38

.347

-1.15

1.26

.546

-.910

1.40
Std. Dev
1.42

.056
Skewness
-.840

-1.30
Kurtosis
-.724

1.27

1.32

.344

1.23
1.29

1.55
1.39

1.07
.609

Table 9 - Fit statistics of CFA models of the Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM)

Model
SAM (Primary)
SAM (Secondary)

χ2
218.88
118.18

df
51
51

Fit Statistics
CFI
TLI
RMSEA
.796
.736
.095
.955
.942
.060

SRMR
.075
.070

Confirmatory factor analysis of primary appraisal resulted in a poorly fitting model
(Table 9). Modification indices revealed cross-loadings between items in all three latent
constructs. An EFA of the primary appraisal scale was attempted, but no solution produced an
adequate fitting model. Confirmatory factor analysis of secondary appraisal resulted in a model
with good fit (Figure 4). Each indicator variable loaded significantly onto its latent construct.
The latent variables ‘controllable by self’ and ‘controllable by other’ were significantly
positively correlated.
Figure 4 – Completely standardized CFA of the Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM)

68

Coping
CFA of the WoC resulted in a poorly fitting model. Modification indices (Lagrange
multiplier tests) revealed indicator variable cross-loadings, correlated error variances, and
correlated factors all to be sources of misfit. As the factor structure of the WoC has previously
been found to be inconsistent across stressors and study contexts (Parker et al., 1993), an
exploratory factory analysis (EFA) was conducted to determine appropriate factor structure for
individuals coping with development in a tourism context. Exploratory factor analysis was
conducted using maximum likelihood estimation with Oblimin rotation and Kaiser
Normalization. Oblique rotation was preferred over orthogonal rotation as inter-correlation was
observed in the CFA analysis in addition to being theoretically expected, as individuals are likely
to utilize several types of the myriad coping actions available to them (Fabrigar, Wegener,
MacCallum, & Strahan, 1999). EFA produced a four-factor solution using the Eigen-value > 1
and scree-plot point of inflection criteria. Descriptive statistics of the four factors produced by
EFA are presented in Table 10.

69

Table 10 - Descriptive statistics for the four-factor Ways of Coping (WoC)

Item
Problem-focused (=.791)
31. Talked to someone who could do something
about the problem
46. Stood my ground and fought for what I wanted
49. I knew what had to be done, so I doubled my
efforts to make things work
51. I made a promise to myself that things would be
better next time
Positive Outlook (=.615)
15. Looked for the silver lining, so to speak; tried to
look on the bright side of things
23. Changed or grew as a person in a good way
38. Rediscovered what is important in life
Seeking Social Support (=.749)
18. Accepted sympathy and understanding from
someone
42. I asked a relative or friend I respected for advice
45. Talked to someone about how I was feeling
63. I thought about a how a person I admire would
handle this situation and used that as a model
Wishful Thinking (=.767)
11. Hoped a miracle would happen
55. Wished that I could change what had happened
or how I felt about it
57. I daydreamed or imagined a better time or place
than the one I was in
58. Wished the situation would go away somehow or
be over with
59. Had fantasies or wishes about how things might
turn out

Mean

Descriptives
Std. Dev
Skewness

Kurtosis

2.86
1.53

1.43
1.53

.090
-.234

-1.34
-1.43

3.12

1.61

-.114

-1.59

3.42
Mean

1.28
Std. Dev

-.441
Skewness

-.830
Kurtosis

3.80
2.79
3.54
Mean

1.24
1.56
1.40
Std. Dev

-.876
.208
-.505
Skewness

-.216
-1.48
-1.08
Kurtosis

3.35
3.60
3.63

1.41
1.39
1.21

-.334
-.592
-.613

-1.18
-.965
.480

3.27
Mean
4.09

1.41
Std. Dev
1.19

-.265
Skewness
-1.16

-1.24
Kurtosis
.315

3.80

1.25

-.806

-.355

3.59

1.44

-.651

-.943

4.14

1.08

-1.21

.739

3.89

1.20

-.909

-.094

CFA was conducted on the four-factor solution produced by EFA, resulting in a model
with good fit (Figure 5). Each indicator variable loaded significantly on its latent construct. The
‘problem focused’ latent variable was significantly correlated with ‘positive outlook’ and
‘seeking social support. The ‘positive outlook’ latent variable was also positively correlated with
‘seeking social support,’ and the ‘seeking social support’ was additionally correlated with
‘wishful thinking.’ Descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, and correlation
coefficients of scales used in successfully fitted models are presented in Table 11.

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Figure 5 – Completely standardized CFA of the four-factor Ways of Coping (WoC)

71

Table 11 - Descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha coefficients, and correlation coefficients of scales in successfully fitted models

Factor (Range of scores)
1. Appraisal (4-20)
2. Belonging (4-20)
3. Tangible (4-20)
4. Controllable by self (4-20)
5. Controllable by other (4-20)
6. Uncontrollable (4-20)
7. Wishful thinking (5-25)
8. Positive outlook (3-15)
9. Seeking social support (4-20)
10. Problem focused (4-20)
*p<.05

Mean
16.68
16.65
16.82
11.74
10.26
7.52
19.51
10.13
13.84
12.65

SD
3.31
3.13
3.05
4.70
4.27
3.74
4.45
3.17
4.11
4.61

1
.59
.82*
.85*
-.07
.19*
-.26*
.02
-.16*
.11
-.18*

2
.53
.88*
-.06
.05
-.31*
.04
-.27*
.02
-.28*

72

3
.52
-.04
.12
-.21*
.00
-.19*
-.05
-.18*

4
.86
.39*
.03
-.26*
.44*
.17*
.49*

5
.79
-.07
-.05
.16*
.34*
.28*

6
.68
-.19*
.10
-.10
.15*

7
.79
.14*
.58*
.08

8
.61
.30*
.80*

9
.75
.57*

10
.76

Discussion and conclusions
The aim of this research was to explore the suitability of a stress and coping framework
for exploring psychological impacts of and behavioral and emotional responses to tourism
development. The literature review introduced the stress and coping framework and described
linkages of its individual elements to research from the tourism and leisure discipline. Research
questions were designed to explore the measurement of latent stress and coping constructs within
a tourism development context.
Research question 1 asked, “Are psychologically based measurements of personality,
social support, and stress appraisal valid in a tourism host community context?” CFAs of each
latent construct offered mixed results. The CFA of the Mini International Personality Item pool
provided little support for construct validity in the context of Falmouth, Jamaica. Similarly, the
CFA of the Stress Appraisal Measure of primary stress appraisal offered little support for
construct validity in this context. However, the CFA of the Stress Appraisal Measure of
secondary appraisal supported construct validity, with the theoretical model offering good fit
with no modification. The CFA of the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List of social support
provided some support for construct validity, as a bi-factor model was necessary to account for
the method bias introduced by reverse coded questions. Convergent and discriminant validity of
were also supported, with similar concepts (i.e., each individual type of social support) highly
correlated with each other and dissimilar concepts (i.e., controllability of stress and social
support) not highly correlated with each other. Internal reliability of successfully fitted models
was inconsistent, with some Cronbach’s alpha’s falling below the 0.7 threshold for good fit,
likely due to the negative wording method bias within several of the measurement tools.

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Research question 2 asked, “What is the structure of coping by individuals responding to
stress brought about by tourism development?” The CFA of the theoretically predicted sevenfactor Ways of Coping model provided little support for construct validity in this context. As the
factor structure of coping is known to shift based on stress, context, etc., an exploratory factor
analysis was conducted to determine the structure of coping with stresses caused or exacerbated
by tourism development. The four-factor solution produced by EFA proved to be a good fitting,
parsimonious model of coping. This finding does not indicate individuals do not necessarily
engage in other types of coping, but within this specific measurement tool in this context, these
are the types of coping responses that individuals tended to engage in.
The structure of coping in this tourism development context provides some insight into
how residents of a community that has undergone cruise tourism development with little
opportunity for input cope with resulting stresses. The most frequently used coping response to
tourism development related stressors in this case was wishful thinking. That is, individuals
engaged in emotion-focused coping most frequently, simply wishing the stressor would go away
without taking any action to make it happen. Emotion focused coping has previously been found
to be positively linked with negative stress outcomes, meaning engaging in actions like wishful
thinking is actually detrimental to health and well being (Penley et al., 2002). Individuals also
engaged in problem focused coping, keeping a positive outlook, and seeking social support. Even
within the problem-focused coping factor, only some direct action items were present (i.e., stood
my ground and fought for what I wanted), mixed with indirect action items (i.e., talked to
someone who could do something about the problem), indicating individuals were not likely
directly address their stressor, a coping response that has been linked with positive outcomes
(Morin, Rodrigue, & Ivers, 2003). The positive outlook factor was composed of items that

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involved re-framing the individual’s state of mind toward stressors and even perhaps
reappraising stress as a good thing for their wellbeing. Finally, seeking social support was
composed of information gathering items, talking to individuals who might know about the
stressful situation, asking for advice, etc. Both seeking social support and positive outlook were
composed of a mix of problem-focused and emotion-focused coping responses, and could
influence outcomes positively or negatively (Penley et al., 2002).
The stress and coping framework is a new angle from which to examine psychological
impacts and responses to tourism development. This research represents the first application of
each measurement tool within both a tourism context as well as a Caribbean island context. In
their standard form, each measurement tool had limitations in measuring the stress and coping
process. It is possible that changing negatively worded questions to the positive could result in
better performance of measurement tools. The subjective nature of stressors and coping
responses makes consistently performing quantitative measurement tools a scarce commodity. A
measurement of coping that uses scale based questions measuring use of ‘common coping
responses,’ in concert with an open ended question that allows individuals to describe other
coping efforts may be better suited for the purposes of understanding coping in a variety of
contexts. The type of tourism development and host community residents’ involvement in
decision making prior to development could play an important role in how stress is experienced
and coped with. In this case, cruise tourism was developed with little input from local residents,
likely pushing individuals toward the generally less effective emotion-focused coping responses.
A lack of power in the decision making process by local individuals also likely played a role in
the process.

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Expanding the framework of tourism impacts research to include psychological
phenomena like stress and coping is an important step toward understanding how tourism affects
host community residents’ quality of life and the host/guest relationship. As there are few
established measures within the tourism discipline with which these phenomena may be
measured, the process of testing measures derived within the psychological discipline is a logical
first step in the creation of tourism specific measurements. Future research should continue to
test measurement tools of the stress and coping process and examine the relationships between
elements within the process. Tailoring questions to apply to tourism specifically would likely
help increase validity of measurement tools from the psychology discipline. Future research
should also attempt to measure outcomes of the stress, appraisal, and coping process. The
ultimate goal of research attempting to understand this process should be to determine what
elements in the process lead to the mitigation of stress and negative outcomes. Understanding
each element of the stress, appraisal, and coping process can provide useful information for
tourism developers, individuals living in host communities, and community organizations about
how individuals are affected by tourism and the most effective ways to mitigate the negative
impacts of stress.

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CHAPTER 4: SOCIAL SUPPORT AND APPRAISAL AS
PREDICTORS OF COPING RESPONSES TO STRESS
BROUGHT ABOUT BY CRUISE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT
Introduction
The human response to stress is a behavioral and emotional process in which individuals
continually appraise and cope with the ever-changing life events and hassles they encounter in
every day life. Stress is one of many possible emotional and psychological impacts that can
result from tourism development. Although stress resulting from tourism and tourism
development has been documented, especially for those employed in the tourism industry (Law
et al., 1995), little research has attempted to understand the stress and coping process of residents
of a community developed for tourism (Berno & Ward, 2005). Residents within tourism
communities are a key component of the tourism experience, as many individuals have contact
with tourists in public spaces or as workers in the tourism system (Easterling, 2004).
Theoretical constructs like the social exchange, power theory, and Doxey’s Irridex
indicate when negative impacts of tourism outweigh positive impacts, residents tend to react
negatively (Ap & Crompton, 1993; Doǧan, 1989; Doxey, 1975; Kayat, 2002). Although
empirical evidence of extreme negative reactions like antagonistic behavior by host community
residents is lacking (Sharpley, 2014), researchers have documented how negative impacts affect
resident support for tourism and tourism development as well as the quality of life of host
community residents (Andereck, Valentine, Vogt, & Knopf, 2007; Nunkoo & Gursoy, 2012;
Nunkoo & Ramkissoon, 2012; Sirakaya, Teye, & Sönmez, 2002). Despite lack of support for
development by residents, tourism continues to be an important economic activity, particularly in
developing countries and island states where tourism is one of a handful of viable export
industries (Seetanah, 2011).

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This research utilizes stress and coping theory from the psychological discipline to
examine social support and stress appraisal as predictors of behavioral and emotional coping
responses by residents of Falmouth, Jamaica who self identified as under stress from cruise
tourism development in their community. Structural equation modeling of primary data collected
from community residents is used to accomplish this task. This research expands the notion of
responses to tourism development from attitudes toward and support for tourism development to
include emotional and behavioral responses. Successful coping with stress can help mitigate
some of the myriad negative health and psychological outcomes that affect individuals under
stress.
Cruise tourism in the Caribbean presents a number of unique issues for residents of host
communities. Economic leakage is a well documented phenomenon, and a great deal of cruise
passenger spending ends up returning to either cruise companies or other externally owned
organizations, resulting in little economic impact in the host community or country (Dann &
Potter, 2001; Duval, 2004; Marsh, 2012). Socio-culturally, fantasy themes promoted on cruises
can serve to marginalize local culture and promote the cruise ship and port as the travel
destination, rather than the host community (Klein, 2011; Wood, 2000). Physical development of
port facilities can damage reef ecosystems and the fisherman who depend on them for survival
(Erftemeijer et al., 2012). Additionally, the presence of cruise ships in small communities can
overtax public systems like roads, waste, water supply, and public spaces (Brida & Zapata, 2009).
Stress is defined as anything that causes an individual psychological distress.
“Psychological distress is a negative psychological response…and can include a variety of
affective and cognitive states, such as anxiety, sadness, frustration, the sense of being
overwhelmed, or helpless” (Kemeny, 2003, p. 124). Stressful events manifest through daily

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hassles that can often compound each other (DeLongis et al., 1982). For example, an individual
who has a stressful experience navigating traffic and crowding, while trying to buy groceries on
a day that cruise ships are in port, returns home and has an argument with their spouse, creating
an additional stressor to cope with. Prolonged exposure to stress can negatively impact an
individual’s overall health and psychological well being (Thoits, 2010). Negative stress
outcomes can range from physiological ailments like increased blood pressure (Fraser et al.,
1999) to psychological issues like decreased cognitive function (Kemeny, 2003). Negative
outcomes from stress disproportionately affect those with low income, education, and
occupational prestige (Lantz, House, Mero, & Williams, 2005), all of which are prevalent in
Falmouth (Silvera & Johnson, 2010).
Social support, stress appraisal, and coping all play important roles in how individuals are
affected by stress and the extent of negative outcomes (Antonovsky, 1981). Social support is
defined as “an exchange of resources between two individuals perceived by the provider or the
recipient to be intended to enhance the well being of the recipient” (Shumaker & Brownell, 1984,
p. 11). Individuals’ health and psychological states are generally positively affected by access to
and receipt of social support, and the availability of social support provides allows for increased
coping options for individuals under stress (Langford, Bowsher, Maloney, & Lillis, 1997b;
Thoits, 1995). Appraisal is defined as a process through which individuals evaluates if and how a
stressful event is relevant to their well being (Folkman, Lazarus, Dunkel-Schetter, DeLongis, et
al., 1986). Individuals who appraise stress as controllable generally utilize problem-focused
coping (directly addressing the stressor), while those who appraise stress as not controllable
generally utilize emotion-focused coping (adjusting their own emotional response to the stressor)
(Endler et al., 2000).

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Coping is defined as “cognitive and behavioral strategies used to manage stressful
situations” (Shaw et al., 2013, p. 243). The type of coping an individual employs often
determines the likelihood and severity of negative health and psychological outcomes; problemfocused coping is generally more effective at mitigating those outcomes than emotion-focused
coping (Aldwin & Revenson, 1987). There are a variety of ways for organizations to promote
increased social interaction, provide social support, and promote activities that impart a sense of
control. For instance, organization of informational meetings and planning activities aimed at
facilitating host community resident input into the tourism development process addresses both.
When stressors cannot be avoided (i.e., tourism development has already happened), coping
behaviors that are found to be effective in mitigating stress can also be taught to those under
stress (Morin et al., 2003).
The purpose of this research is to provide tourism researchers with a better understanding
of the process of resident behavioral and emotional responses to stress brought about by cruise
tourism development. Studying the stress process of residents of communities developed for
tourism is particularly important Caribbean nations like Jamaica a variety of unique impacts
occur due to the nature of small island states, rise in large scale cruise and enclave tourism
developments, and power structures that generally only allow for minimal resident input in
decision-making. In many Caribbean nations and similar areas throughout the world, tourism
development can be at least partially funded by tax dollars with little input from citizens and
little return on investment for the majority of residents.

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Literature Review
Stress
Stress is a phenomenon that has been explored extensively in the psychology discipline for more
than 60 years (Selye, 1950). The psychological conceptualization of stress derives from early
work by engineers seeking to determine the maximum load a weight bearing structure could
handle before it collapsed (Selye, 1974). In a way, psychological stress can be considered the
load that is placed on an individual, and the maximum load is the amount of stress an individual
can handle before negative health and psychological outcomes manifest. While the outright
collapse of individuals’ psychological systems is possible (known colloquially as a mental
breakdown), any number of less severe symptoms can occur along the way. Indeed, in many
cases a certain amount of stress can be a positive for human beings, especially when confronted
with mortal harm. Stress is detrimental to individuals when it is experienced over a long period
of time in response to stressors that may not merit a full response, such as pressure at work to
finish a big project or dealing with daily crowds in public places due to increased tourism
volume (Sapolsky, 2000).
Individuals experience stress through both major events (i.e., a cancer diagnoses) and
daily hassles (i.e., a poor grade on a test). Although on the surface major event stressors may
appear to be more serious, daily hassles are actually thought to negatively impact individuals to a
greater extent (De Benedittis & Lorenzetti, 1992; Kohn et al., 1994). In many cases, daily hassles
can actually be the mechanism through which major events impact the stressed individual
(Eckenrode, 1984). The experience of daily hassles on a regular basis results in the release of the
stress hormone cortisol by the adrenal gland in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis
(Burke, Davis, Otte, & Mohr, 2005). The negative health, psychological, and behavioral

81

outcomes that occur as a result of long-term exposure to cortisol are extensive. Increased blood
pressure (Schnall et al., 1992), decreased immune system function (Segerstrom & Miller, 2004),
impaired memory function (Het et al., 2005), and increased aggression or rule breaking behavior
(Platje et al., 2013) are just a few of the many outcomes that can result from stress and cortisol
exposure.
While the term stress has not frequently been documented as an impact of tourism or
tourism development, many of the impacts examined in tourism impact studies could be
considered stressors by the definition of “anything that causes an individual psychological
distress.” Emotional and psychological well being are important elements in an individuals’
overall quality of life (QOL) (Schalock, 1997). Tourism’s impact on QOL is a growing area of
research, and the shift from attitudes toward and support for tourism development toward affect
on individuals’ life satisfaction represents an important step forward in the impact studies
research paradigm (Andereck & Nyaupane, 2011). Studies examining quality of life go beyond
simply measuring attitudes toward or support for tourism, tourism development, or tourists, and
instead measure how the lives of host community residents are changed for better or worse.
Psychological stress is one specific element on the negative spectrum of the overall quality of
life of individuals living in communities hosting tourism.
Stress is a subjective phenomenon; even if individuals experience the same exact major
stress event (i.e., a plane crash), the way that event affects the lives of each individual survivor is
different through the daily hassles they experience. One individual may be unable to fly,
necessitating long road, rail, or sea trips that can add stress to their travel experiences or
relationships with distant friends and relatives. Another individual may develop a fear of loud
noises, leading them to avoid crowded areas or other noisy events. Similarly, tourism affects

82

individuals in very different ways; in actuality, the physical development of tourism
infrastructure is not likely to cause stress for individuals. Some individuals in host communities
may experience daily hassles through their interaction with tourists, others may experience a
daily hassle at their grocery store as prices rise and they struggle to feed their family, yet others
may experience stress as a result of their expectations of tourism differing from reality
(Manuscript under review, Citation withheld to protect anonymity). In this way, exploring the
stress and coping process of residents of a host community bridges the gap between research
examining attitudes toward tourism, tourism development, and tourists in the community
(Woosnam, 2012).The subjective experience of stress can be attributed a transactional stress
process that includes factors like individual characteristics (i.e., age, gender, personality),
perception and receipt of social support, how a stressor is appraised by the individual, and how
the individual copes with a particular stressor (Folkman, Lazarus, Dunkel-Schetter, DeLongis, et
al., 1986).
Social Support
Researchers have identified several important types of social support, three of which are
central to this research: appraisal, belonging, and tangible (Langford, Bowsher, Maloney, &
Lillis, 1997). Appraisal support is the perceived availability of similar individuals that can
discuss important personal issues (Cohen & Hoberman, 1983). Belonging support is the
perception that a peer group exists that an individual can identify and socialize with (Brookings
& Bolton, 1988). Tangible support is the perceived availability of direct aid or services through
various resources, monetary or otherwise (Schaefer et al., 1981). While similar, the small
variations in types of social support allow for a comprehensive understanding of individuals’
perception of the availability of several types of social resources (Gottlieb & Bergen, 2010). It is

83

important to note that each of the three types of social support are defined by perceptions rather
than actual receipt of support. Measurement of perceived social support is often preferable in
research on stress and coping as perception can often outweigh receipt of support in predicting
coping actions and health outcomes in individuals who are coping with stress (McDowell &
Serovich, 2007; Thoits, 2011).
Social support has been found to benefit the overall well being of individuals in various
populations of healthy and ill populations (Chu, Saucier, & Hafner, 2010; Thoits, 1985). In the
stress and coping process, social support plays an important role in how stress is experienced and
how individuals cope with stress (Cohen & Wills, 1985; DeLongis & Holtzman, 2005).The
relationship between social support and coping is complex, and there are several ways social
support is thought to influence coping. One prevailing theory is that of social referencing
(Bandura, 1986). Through social referencing, individuals under stress can look to others for help
in determining the best way to cope with a particular stressor. Individuals under stress are able to
observe and interact with other individuals in their social network who may be coping with
similar stressors, providing them with guidance on the efficacy of coping actions those
individuals have employed (Zimmer-Gembeck & Skinner, 2011). Other studies have found that
individuals who are satisfied with their level of social support tend to utilize coping actions that
are more likely to reduce negative stress outcomes (Holtzman et al., 2004). In addition,
researchers have found that when individuals under stress feel supported, they tend to utilize a
greater variety of coping actions (Holtzman et al., 2004). Social support can also adversely affect
individuals’ coping options, especially for those who feel as though their social support networks
are not as helpful as they should be (Dakof & Taylor, 1990).

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Appraisal
There are two types of appraisal individual’s use in this process: primary appraisal and
secondary appraisal. Primary appraisal is essentially the “stake” an individual has in a particular
stressor or stress event. Through primary appraisal, individuals are able to determine the
centrality of the stress to their well being as well as determine whether the stress could be
harmful or beneficial to themselves or those they care about (Newton & McIntosh, 2010).
Secondary appraisal involves evaluating what the stressed individual can do about, or
controllability of, a stressor or stress event (Peacock & Wong, 1990). Individuals can secondarily
appraise stress as controllable by self, controllable by others, or uncontrollable. Although the
labels of each type of appraisal indicate the possibility of chronological order, primary appraisal
is not always conducted before secondary appraisal and the two processes are likely not
independent of one another (Lazarus, 1999).
When individuals appraise stress as controllable, they are generally more successful in
their coping responses as they are more likely to attempt to address the stress itself rather than
their own emotional response (Endler et al., 2000). Human beings are pre-disposed to appraising
events as controllable, even when they are random (e.g., gambling) (Moore & Ohtsuka, 1999).
Although in those cases the perception of control is not necessarily beneficial, evolutionarily
speaking, perception of control is considered an adaptive trait, as its positive association with
successful coping responses usually results in reduced negative health and psychological
outcomes from stress (Taylor, 1983). Individuals who appraise stress as uncontrollable are more
likely to cope by adjusting their emotional responses (i.e., disengagement, distancing, avoidance).
These coping responses are usually less helpful at mitigating stress and negative outcomes
(Compas, Jaser, Dunn, & Rodriguez, 2012). There has been less research exploring the

85

relationship between appraisal of stress as controllable by others and coping, but researchers
have theorized such appraisals will lead individuals to utilize the ‘seeking social support’ coping
response, which is a mix of both problem and emotion-focused coping (Folkman & Lazarus,
1985; Peacock & Wong, 1996).
Coping
Lazarus (1966) shifted the focus of coping research from early ego-psychology
conceptualizations of coping as unconscious processes that individuals utilized to defend
themselves from stress to a continually changing cognitive process (Folkman & Moskowitz,
2004; Vaillant, 1995). Within the coping process, individuals continually evaluate the stressor,
their coping options, and myriad other variables like their social support and appraisal of stress.
Although there are many ways of classifying coping responses (see Skinner, Edge, Altman, &
Sherwood, 2003 for a review), perhaps the most widely utilized and recognized are Folkman and
Lazarus’ (1980) meta-categories of problem-focused and emotion-focused coping. “Problemfocused coping included efforts to manage the stressor and change the person-environment
relationship causing the stress, while emotion-focused coping was found to regulate emotional
distress caused by stressors” (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980, p. 223). As previously discussed,
problem-focused coping has been found to be more effective at mitigating stress and related
health and psychological outcomes than emotion-focused coping across varying populations and
stressor types (Penley et al., 2002).
Folkman et al. (1986) utilized exploratory factor analysis to derive eight specific factors
comprising problem-focused (confrontive coping and planful problem solving) and emotionfocused (distancing, self controlling, accepting responsibility, escape-avoidance, and positive
reappraisal) coping responses as well as one factor comprised of both (seeking social support).

86

Confrontive coping involves aggressive or hostile efforts to change the stressful situation (i.e., I
stood my ground and fought for what I wanted). Planful problem solving involves analyzing the
stressful situation and addressing it directly (i.e., I made a plan of action and followed it).
Distancing involves detaching from the stressful situation and removing importance from it (i.e.,
Made light of the situation; refused to get to serious about it). Accepting responsibility involves
admitting at least some responsibility for the stressful situation and some element of trying to
right wrongs (i.e., I apologized or did something to make up). Escape-avoidance involves mental
wishful thinking and physical avoidance of the stressful situation (i.e., wished that the situation
would go away or somehow be over with). Positive reappraisal involves focusing on positives
gained from the stressful situation (i.e., changed or grew as a person in a good way). Finally,
seeking social support involves looking for others to discuss or directly address the stressful
situation (i.e., talked to someone who could do something concrete about the problem).
Individuals do not always utilize each specific coping response, and each type of response varies
in effectiveness at mitigating stress and negative outcomes by stress type and individual (Penley
et al., 2002).
Based on relevant literature, this research seeks to answer two questions:
Research question 1: How does social support affect individual coping responses to stress
brought about by cruise tourism development?
Research question 2: How does secondary appraisal (controllability) of stress affect individual
coping responses to stress brought about by cruise tourism development?

87

Method
Study site background
Falmouth is community on the northern coast of Jamaica with a population of almost
9,000 people. The community is approximately the midpoint between the larger communities of
Ocho Rios and Montego Bay, two areas known to be popular tourist destinations. Prior to the
development of the cruise port, Falmouth had seen little in the way of tourists aside from a
handful of visitors who stopped to see its classic Georgian Architecture. According to the SDC,
“On November 7, 2008, Prime Minister Bruce Golding signed a $224 million contract with [A
major cruise company] to modernize the cruise shipping port in Falmouth, Jamaica. The
Jamaican government paid for the dredging of the harbour, while the major cruise company paid
for the construction of the port. Work on the new cruise port started in 2009. The development of
the port offered the opportunity for many construction related jobs. When the construction was
finished in March 2011, the construction jobs it provided disappeared and cruise ships started
making calls in Falmouth. The port was designed to service a new class of mega cruise ships that
can carry in excess of 6,000 passengers and nearly 2,000 staff. According to the Jamaican
Tourist Board, in 2012 the port of Falmouth serviced 135 cruise ships carrying 586,578
passengers, or 44.4% of total cruise passengers arriving in Jamaica (Jamaica Tourist Board,
2012). Falmouth is the busiest cruise port by volume in Jamaica, servicing in excess of 100,000
more passengers than the either of the other two major ports, Ocho Rios (393,445 passengers)
and Montego Bay (338,972 passengers). The winter months are busiest for the port of Falmouth,
with more than 60,000 passengers arriving each month from December – March in 2011/2012.
Many of the ships that dock in Falmouth had previously docked in Ocho Rios, with passenger

88

arrivals at that port decreasing by more than 40% upon the opening of the new modern Falmouth
port.
Procedure
Data for this research were collected in a cross-sectional study of residents of Falmouth,
Jamaica from February to March 2013. An eleven page, 138-question paper survey was
administered face-to-face to a systematic random sample of Falmouth residents over the age of
eighteen. Some individuals self administered surveys in the company of researchers, while some
individuals preferred have surveys read to them and have researchers record their responses. To
ensure sample randomness, each Falmouth residence was counted and mapped by the research
team in the two weeks prior to data collection. Researchers counted a total of 3,515 households
in Falmouth proper and surrounding neighborhoods. According to SDC estimates, an average of
three individuals live in each household, 66% of whom are over eighteen years of age (Silvera &
Johnson, 2010). These estimates put the over eighteen population of Falmouth at 7,424
individuals, resulting in a sample size of approximately five percent (5%). Over a period of four
weeks, researchers and trained local surveyors attempted a survey at every twelfth house in
Falmouth. If there were no persons of the appropriate age at home, the researcher continued to
the next house until a suitable individual was found. The qualifier question “Have you
experienced stress as a result of the development or operation of the new Falmouth Cruise port”
was asked prior to survey administration. In total, researchers approached 599 individuals to
administer the paper survey. Eighty-nine (89) residents declined to participate in the study, and
102 residents indicated they experienced no stress from the new cruise port and were not
surveyed, resulting in an overall response rate of 60%. Surveys that were not completely filled

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out were not used in this analysis, resulting in a total of 363 completed surveys containing no
missing data.
Participant profile
An overall profile of survey participants is presented in Table 12. The mean age of
participants was 40 years old. In 2010, the SDC conducted a citywide survey in an effort to
construct a community profile, compiling data on demographic, social, economic, spatial,
environmental, and governance in Falmouth (Silvera & Johnson, 2010). The SDC Falmouth
community profile estimated that approximately 72% of household heads in Falmouth were
employed, a significant portion of which were employed in service industries (25%). Though
English is the official language in Jamaica, most Jamaicans speak a Patois dialect in which the
pronunciation and vocabulary is often distinctly different than American or British English.

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Table 12 - Profile of survey participants

Variable
Gender
Contact with cruise passengers

Personal benefit from cruise tourism

Employed in tourism industry

Self reported monthly income

Highest level of education (U.S.
equivalent)

Category
Male
Female
Quite a bit or a great deal
Some
Very little or none
Quite a bit or a great deal
Some
Very little or none
Employed in cruise tourism
Employed in other tourism
Currently not employed in cruise tourism, but
once was
Never employed in cruise tourism
No formal income
Less than 16,280 JMD ($164 USD)
16,281-32,499 JMD ($164-$328 USD)
32,500-43,499 JMD ($328-$439 USD)
$43,500-$86,499 JMD ($439-$872 USD)
$86,500 JMD or more ($872 USD or more)
Prefer not to answer
Pre-primary school (Kindergarten)
Primary school (Grades 1-6)
All age/junior high (Grades 7-9)
Secondary school (High school)
Vocational school (Often tourism based)
Post-secondary certificate (To help gain entrance
to university or college)
Other tertiary institutions (i.e., Teachers college or
colleges offering associates degrees)
University

Percentage (N=363)
43%
57%
3%
4%
93%
2%
2%
94%
5%
8%
33%
54%
29%
6%
8%
7%
8%
4%
38%
2%
3%
12%
33%
18%
1%
13%
18%

Instruments
Social support was measured using the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List 12- item
version (ISEL), which measures three factors: appraisal support, belonging support, and tangible
support (Cohen & Hoberman, 1983). A shortened version of an established measure of social
support was utilized to minimize the risk of transient measurement error (Schmidt et al., 2003).
The ISEL (12-item version) has been found to be a psychometrically sound measurement tool
(Hawkley et al., 2006). Participants responded to statements on a five-point scale ranging from 1
(definitely false) to 5 (definitely true) indicating how accurate each statement was in describing

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themselves. Six (6) items within the ISEL were asked in the negative (e.g., “I don’t often get
invited to do things with others”) and reverse coded.
Stress appraisal was measured using the Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM), a 27-item
instrument which measures three primary appraisal factors (threat, challenge, and centrality) and
three secondary appraisal factors (controllable by self, controllable by others, and uncontrollable)
(Peacock & Wong, 1990). The SAM has been found to be internally reliable and valid in a
variety of study areas (Jones et al., 2009; C. L. Park et al., 2006). Participants were asked to
write or describe verbally (surveyors transcribed statements verbatim) about a stressful situation
resulting from the development or operation of the new cruise port in Falmouth, then to respond
to statements about how they viewed the stressful situation they described right now (e.g., Does
this situation have important consequences for me?) on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (not at
all) to 5 (extremely).
Coping was measured using the Ways of Coping Questionnaire - Revised (WoC), a 66item instrument which measures seven coping factors (e.g., confrontive coping, distancing, selfcontrolling, seeking social support, accepting responsibility, escape avoidance, planful problem
solving, and positive reappraisal) of coping (Folkman, Lazarus, Dunkel-Schetter, Gruen, et al.,
1986). The WoC has been utilized to measure coping with countless stressors in a wide variety
of contexts; though there has been some disagreement about the factor structure of the WoC
(Parker et al., 1993), many empirical studies have found it to be a reliable and valid measure of
coping (Jean et al., 1999; Lundqvist & Ahlström, 2006). Participants were asked to indicate the
frequency with which they utilized coping behaviors (e.g., I tried to analyze the problem in order
to understand it better) in response to the stressful situation they described for the SAM portion

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of the survey. Participants responded on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (not used at all) to 5
(used a great deal).
Stressors
Overall, 78% of Falmouth residents who agreed to participate in this study indicated they
had experienced stress as a result of the development and operation of the new cruise port.
Individuals who indicated they had not experienced stress were not surveyed. The maximum
number of stressors listed by any individual was three. Forty-four percent (44%) of survey
respondents listed one stressor, 35% of respondents listed two stressors, and 21% of respondents
listed three stressors. Five major themes of stressors emerged from thematic analysis of stressors
listed by study participants, they were: (1) unmet expectations, (2) overtaxed
infrastructure/crowding, (3) increased cost of living, (4) pollution (air, water, noise, etc), and (5)
police harassment. The frequency of instances in which survey participants indicated each of
these stressors occurred is listed in Table 13.
Table 13 - Stressor themes and frequencies

Stressor
Unmet expectations
Overtaxed infrastructure/crowding
Increase in cost of living
Pollution (air, water, noise, etc.)
Police harassment

%
80%
44%
11%
7%
5%

*Open ended question, multiple responses allowed

Despite the similarity to many impacts commonly found in locations that have undergone
tourism development, the description of impacts expands their understanding, giving researchers
a deeper understanding of how and why each of these elements caused stress. In many instances,
study participants revealed the ‘impacts’ of tourism caused daily hassles or exacerbated other
common daily stresses that may have existed prior to tourism development, creating a level of
stress that could be difficult for residents to cope with.

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Data analysis
A series of structural equation models (SEM) were estimated to test the relationships
between social support and coping as well as secondary appraisal and coping. Each SEM was
conducted using the Lavaan package (Rosseel, 2012) in the R software environment for
statistical computing and graphics. Each SEM was estimated using maximum likelihood
estimation of the sample covariance matrix. Model fit was determined based upon a battery of
widely used indices of model fit including mean-adjusted minimum fit chi-square (χ2),
comparative fit index (CFI), Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI), root mean square error of approximation
(RMSEA), and standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) (McDonald & Ho, 2002). The χ2
value is presented despite its sensitivity to sample sizes greater than 200. Cutoff criteria used to
determine ‘good’ fit were: CFI > .9, TLI >.95, RMSEA <.06, and SRMR <.08 to minimize the
risk of Type I and Type II error (Hu & Bentler, 1999). Tests of data normality were conducted to
meet assumptions required for conducting CFA; cutoff values for 2.0 and 7.0 for skewness and
kurtosis were used respectively (Curran et al., 1996). Cronbach’s alpha was estimated for each
factor to determine internal reliability. A cutoff value of 0.7 was utilized to determine ‘good’
reliability. Prior to SEM estimation, a series of confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were
conducted to test the construct validity of the entire stress and coping process including
personality, social support, appraisal, and coping.
Preliminary CFA of the three-factor ISEL produced a poor fitting model. During the
survey process, researchers noted that negatively worded variables were particularly difficult for
participants to understand. Negatively worded variables have been noted as a common source of
method bias in behavioral research, especially when colloquialisms that may not be familiar to
research participants are used (Podsakoff et al., 2003). This possible method bias was addressed

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by estimating a bi-factor model, where negatively worded variables within each personality trait
were loaded onto an additional latent variable (Table 14). CFA of secondary appraisal yielded
good fitting model. Preliminary CFA of the WoC resulted in a poorly fitting model. Modification
indices (Lagrange multiplier tests) revealed indicator variable cross loadings, correlated error
variances, and correlated factors all to be sources of misfit. As the factor structure of the WoC
has previously been found to be inconsistent across stressors and study contexts (Parker et al.,
1993), an exploratory factory analysis (EFA) was conducted to determine appropriate factor
structure for individuals coping with development in a tourism context. Exploratory factor
analysis was conducted using maximum likelihood estimation with Oblimin rotation and Kaiser
Normalization. Oblique rotation was preferred over orthogonal rotation as intercorrelation was
observed in the CFA analysis in addition to being theoretically expected, as individuals are likely
to utilize several of the many types of coping actions available to them to combat stress (Fabrigar
et al., 1999). EFA produced a four-factor solution using the eigenvalue > 1.0 and scree-plot
point of inflection criteria. Descriptive statistics for the ISEL, SAM, and WoC are presented in
Tables 15, 16, and 17 respectively.
Table 14 - Fist statistics of CFA models of the ISEL, SAM, and WoC

Model
ISEL (Bi-factor)
SAM (Secondary)
WoC (Four-factor)

2

χ

78.26
118.18
167.14

df
45
51
98

Fit Statistics
CFI
TLI
.960
.942
.955
.942
.959
.950

95

RMSEA
.045
.060
.044

SRMR
.044
.070
.051

Table 15 - Descriptive statistics for the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL)

Item
Appraisal (=.594)
2. I feel that there is no one I can share my most
private worries and fears with*
4. There is someone I can turn to for advice about
handling problems with my family
6. When I need suggestions on how to deal with a
personal problem, I know someone I can turn to
11. If a family crisis arose, it would be difficult to
find someone who could give me good advice about
how to handle it*
Belonging (=.529)
1. If I wanted to go on a trip for a day, I would have
a hard time finding someone to go with me*
5. If I decide one afternoon that I would like to go
out that evening, I could easily find someone to go
with me
7. I don't often get invited to do things with others*
9. If I wanted to have lunch with someone, I could
easily find someone to join me
Tangible (=.514)
3. If I were sick, I could easily find someone to help
me with my daily chores
8. If I had to go out of town for a few weeks, it
would be difficult to find someone who would look
after my house or apartment (the plants, pets, garden,
etc.)*
10. If I was stranded 10 miles from home, there is
someone I could call who could come and get me
12. If I needed some help in moving to a new house
or apartment, I would have a hard time finding
someone to help me*
* = Negatively worded

Mean

Descriptives
Std. Dev
Skewness

Kurtosis

2.05

.93

-1.88

3.32

4.40

.97

-1.85

2.98

3.96

1.41

1.04

-.359

3.88
Mean

1.50
Std. Dev

-.955
Skewness

-.687
Kurtosis

4.15

1.30

-1.32

.445

4.31
4.38

1.11
1.00

-1.74
-1.87

2.25
3.060

3.81
Mean

1.39
Std. Dev

-.844
Skewness

-.649
Kurtosis

4.28

1.01

-1.53

1.90

3.89

1.42

-.913

-.628

4.50

.933

-1.91

4.55

4.14

1.34

-1.36

.440

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Table 16 - Descriptive statistics for the Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM - Secondary)

Item
Controllable by Self (=.866)
12. Do I have the ability to do well in this situation?
14. Do I have what it takes to do well in this
situation?
22. Will I be able to overcome the problem?
25. Do I have the skills necessary to achieve a
successful outcome to this situation?
Controllable by Other (=.793)
4. Is there someone or some agency I can turn to for
help if I need it?
15. Is there help available for me dealing with this
problem?
17. Are there sufficient resources available to help
me in dealing with this situation?
23. Is there anyone who can help me to manage the
problem?
Uncontrollable (=.680)
1. Is this a totally hopeless situation?
3. Is the outcome of this situation beyond anyone’s
control?
18. Is it beyond anyone’s power to do anything about
this situation?
21. Is the problem unresolvable by anyone?

Mean
2.96

Descriptives
Std. Dev
Skewness
1.36
-.144

Kurtosis
-1.28

3.06
2.82

1.38
1.39

-.098
.092

-1.25
-1.27

2.91
Mean

1.42
Std. Dev

-.017
Skewness

-1.36
Kurtosis

2.51

1.39

-.863

.743

2.56

1.38

.347

-1.15

2.28

1.26

.546

-.910

2.91
Mean
2.17

1.40
Std. Dev
1.42

.056
Skewness
-.840

-1.30
Kurtosis
-.724

1.81

1.27

1.32

.344

1.73
1.81

1.23
1.29

1.55
1.39

1.07
.609

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Table 17 - Descriptive statistics for the four-factor Ways of Coping (WoC)

Item
Problem-focused (=.791)
31. Talked to someone who could do something
about the problem
46. Stood my ground and fought for what I wanted
49. I knew what had to be done, so I doubled my
efforts to make things work
51. I made a promise to myself that things would be
better next time
Positive Outlook (=.615)
15. Looked for the silver lining, so to speak; tried to
look on the bright side of things
23. Changed or grew as a person in a good way
38. Rediscovered what is important in life
Seeking Social Support (=.749)
18. Accepted sympathy and understanding from
someone
42. I asked a relative or friend I respected for advice
45. Talked to someone about how I was feeling
63. I thought about a how a person I admire would
handle this situation and used that as a model
Wishful Thinking (=.767)
11. Hoped a miracle would happen
55. Wished that I could change what had happened
or how I felt about it
57. I daydreamed or imagined a better time or place
than the one I was in
58. Wished the situation would go away somehow or
be over with
59. Had fantasies or wishes about how things might
turn out

Mean

Descriptives
Std. Dev
Skewness

Kurtosis

2.86
1.53

1.43
1.53

.090
-.234

-1.34
-1.43

3.12

1.61

-.114

-1.59

3.42
Mean

1.28
Std. Dev

-.441
Skewness

-.830
Kurtosis

3.80
2.79
3.54
Mean

1.24
1.56
1.40
Std. Dev

-.876
.208
-.505
Skewness

-.216
-1.48
-1.08
Kurtosis

3.35
3.60
3.63

1.41
1.39
1.21

-.334
-.592
-.613

-1.18
-.965
.480

3.27
Mean
4.09

1.41
Std. Dev
1.19

-.265
Skewness
-1.16

-1.24
Kurtosis
.315

3.80

1.25

-.806

-.355

3.59

1.44

-.651

-.943

4.14

1.08

-1.21

.739

3.89

1.20

-.909

-.094

Results
Social Support and Coping
A structural model was estimated to answer Research Question 1, which asked “How
does social support affect coping responses to stress brought about by cruise tourism
development?” The estimation produced a model with adequate fit (Table 18). Modification
indices (Lagrange Multipliers) revealed allowing residuals within wishful thinking coping
construct to correlate would result in a better fitting model. As a result, the items ‘I daydreamed

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or imagined a better place or time than the one I was in’ and ‘Had fantasies or wishes about how
things might turn out’ within the wishful thinking coping construct were allowed to correlate.
The estimation produced a model with good fit (Figure 6). Although the TLI fell slightly below
the 0.95 threshold for good fit, consideration of the overall battery of fit-tests indicates good fit
(Hu & Bentler, 1999).
Table 18 - Fit statistics of social support and coping structural equation models

Model
Initial Model
Final Model

2

χ

490.42
473.39

df
323
322

Fit Statistics
CFI
TLI
.936
.925
.942
.932

RMSEA
.038
.036

SRMR
.060
.060

In answer to Research Question 1, one statistically significant relationship between social
support and coping was found. Specifically, the relationship between appraisal support (the
perceived availability of similar individuals that can discuss important personal issues) and
seeking social support coping was significant and positive. Other relationships within the model
were not statistically significant.

99

Figure 6 - Completely standardized solution of social support and coping structural equation model

100

A second structural model was estimated to answer Research Question 2, which asked, “How
does secondary appraisal (controllability) of stress affect coping responses to stress brought
about by cruise tourism development?” The estimation produced a model with adequate fit
(Table 19). Modification indices (Lagrange Multipliers) revealed allowing residuals within the
controllable by self appraisal as well as the wishful thinking coping constructs to correlate would
result in a better fitting model. As a result, the items ‘Do I have the ability to do well in this
situation?’ and ‘Do I have what it takes to do well in this situation?’ within the controllable by
self appraisal construct, and the items ‘I daydreamed or imagined a better place or time than the
one I was in’ and ‘Had fantasies or wishes about how things might turn out’ within the wishful
thinking coping construct were allowed to correlate. The estimation produced a model with good
fit (Figure 7). Again, although the TLI fell slightly below the 0.95 threshold for good fit,
consideration of the overall battery of fit-tests indicates good fit (Hu & Bentler, 1999).

Table 19 - Fit statistics of secondary appraisal and coping structural equation models

Model
Initial Model
Final Model

χ2
631.37
581.22

df
329
327

Fit Statistics
CFI
TLI
.913
.900
.927
.916

RMSEA
.050
.046

SRMR
.060
.059

In answer to Research Question 2, there were four statistically significant relationships
between secondary appraisal and coping within the model. The relationship between controllable
by self and problem focused coping was significant and positive. The relationship between
controllable by self and positive outlook was significant and positive. The relationship between
controllable by self and wishful thinking was significant and negative. Finally, the relationship
between controllable by other and seeking social support was significant and positive. Other
relationships within the model were not statistically significant.

101

Figure 7 - Completely standardized solution of secondary appraisal and coping structural equation model

102

Discussion and Conclusions
This research sought to examine social support and stress appraisal as predictors of
behavioral and emotional coping responses by residents of Falmouth, Jamaica who self identified
as under stress from tourism development in their community. A majority of individuals
approached for participation in this research indicated experiencing stress from tourism and
tourism development in their community. Measures of social support, secondary appraisal, and
coping were valid in this context with some modifications. The stress and coping theoretical
framework is appropriate for measuring tourism impacts on residents of host communities as
well as behavioral and emotional coping responses. Structural equation models revealed several
important relationships between social support and coping as well as secondary appraisal and
coping.
The significant positive relationship between appraisal support and seeking social support
coping indicates those with the perception that similar individuals are available to discuss
important issues are likely to seek out those interactions. This finding supports the notion that
individuals who believe their peers are available will likely make use of them during times of
stress, and is consistent with previous research. Appraisal support as the only type of social
support that significantly predicted the seeking social support coping response is an interesting
finding. A sense of belonging to a peer group and the perception of available tangible aid or
services through various resources did not significantly predict the seeking social support coping
response highlights the importance of the approachability element within appraisal support. This
finding indicates that individuals will only seek out assistance from their social groups if they
perceive those groups to be available to discuss their stress or other important issues.

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There were several significant relationships between secondary appraisal and coping
responses. Controllable by one’s self was the only significant predictor of problem focused
coping, the type of coping consistently proven to be the most effective at mitigating stress and
negative outcomes. Controllable by one’s self was also a significant positive predictor of positive
outlook, where individuals tend to look on the bright side of the situation, and a significant
negative predictor of wishful thinking, where individuals simply hope for a reversal of fortunes.
These relationships are consistent with previous research and indicate that the perception stress
as controllable by the individual under stress is perhaps one of the most important elements in
determining coping responses to tourism related stress. Also consistent with previous research
was the significant positive relationship between controllable by others and seeking social
support, indicating that if an individual thinks someone else can help mitigate their stress, they
are likely to approach them for help.
While a great deal of tourism development and activities provide a net benefit for
residents of host communities, negative impacts are often an unavoidable byproduct for some.
This research provides insight into how social support and stress appraisal affect individuals’
coping responses to stress brought about by tourism development. This research is an early step
toward understanding the complex process of individuals’ emotional and behavioral responses to
stress, one of many possible sociocultural impacts of tourism development. In the end, a certain
amount of stress may be an inevitable consequence of tourism development. The goal of
understanding the stress and coping process is to help those under stress utilize the most effective
coping responses to mitigate the many negative outcomes from prolonged exposure to stress,
minimizing the affect of tourism on the quality of life for residents of host communities.

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Theoretical Implications
This a first attempt at utilizing a stress and coping theoretical framework for
understanding the relationships between stress, social support, appraisal, and coping in a tourism
and tourism development context. Although this framework has been utilized in a handful of
studies within the leisure domain (Iwasaki & Schneider, 2003; Schneider & Hammitt, 1995;
Schneider & Stanis, 2007; Schuster, Hammitt, Moore, et al., 2006; Schuster et al., 2003; Schuster,
Hammitt, & Moore, 2006), the focus of those studies was on the recreationist rather than
residents. Measurement of responses to proposed or actual tourism development has generally
been limited to attitudes or support. This research advances the tourism impacts body of research
by examining two important relationships within the stress and coping process that adds an
emotional and behavioral element to individual responses. Social support and stress appraisal are
parallel to social exchange and power theory, which have been widely utilized to understand
tourism impacts. In many ways, the perception of controllability is analogous of perceptions of
power, as those who appraise stress as controllable generally believe they have the power to do
something about it. This research extends that relationship to coping actions and shows the
perception of controllability to influence individuals to directly address their stressors through
problem-focused coping. Similarly, this research showed individuals were only likely to seek out
social support if they felt their support group would reciprocate through discussion, parallel to
the central tenet of social exchange theory.
Management Implications
One type of social support and appraisal of stress predict types of coping that researchers
have found to be most effective at mitigating stress and negative outcomes. There are several
ways in which practitioners can affect the perception of social support and stress appraisal.

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Government agencies, NGOs, and other organizations involved in the tourism development
process facilitate citizen participation in planning and decision making, imparting a sense of
controllability or power to residents of host communities. Such events would provide the added
benefit of providing an opportunity for the perception of social support through events like
public meetings, focus groups, etc. However, there is a risk that allowing for citizen participation
could backfire if the participation is token or limited.
Realistically, some tourism development will continue to take place with little to no
citizen participation in planning and decision-making. After development has already taken place,
practitioners can still create opportunities for individuals to feel as though they have a social
support group with which they can discuss important issues by support groups or meetings for
individuals who are under stress. Such meetings would also give individuals opportunities to
create groups that may wield more power through numbers that could engage in problem focused
coping by directly addressing stressors together, rather than individually.
Limitations
A cross sectional study of stress and coping provides only a snapshot of a dynamic
process that is consistently occurring. What is stressful for an individual one day may not be
stressful the next. This research only focused on individuals who self identified as under stress,
an understanding of characteristics of individuals who did not experiences stress would be
helpful in learning why individuals experience stress in the first place. This research also did not
measure the success or failure of each coping response at mitigating stress. Negative wording of
questions resulted in some measurement error that could be avoided in the future. Finally, this
research examines only two relationships within a very complex stress process.

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Future Research
Future research should continue to test and refine measurement tools for understanding
the stress and coping process in the tourism context. High priority should be assigned to
conducting research that explores the efficacy of coping responses at mitigating stress in tourism
context. In addition, future research should attempt to understand individuals who are not under
stress. Finally, future researchers should devise measurement tools and methodologies for
measuring all elements of the stress process over a period of time to truly understand this vastly
complex phenomenon.

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CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS
This study utilized stress and coping theory from the psychology discipline as a
framework from which to examine host community resident responses to tourism development.
Three research questions guided this study:
Research question 1: How do residents of a host community experience stress from tourism
development?
Research question 2: How do established measures of the stress and coping process (Mini-IPIP,
ISEL-12, SAM, and WoC) perform in the context of tourism development in a Caribbean island
nation?
Research question 3: What are the relationships between social support, stress appraisal, and
coping responses by residents of a community developed for tourism?
Each research question was addressed in a separate article of this three-article dissertation.
Examined comprehensively, the answers to these research questions provide a great deal of
insight into the stress and coping process of individuals in a host community that recently
underwent development for cruise tourism. More than three-quarters of individuals approached
to participate in this research experienced stress as a result of tourism development and greater
than half of participants experienced more than one stressor. Unmet expectations, overtaxed
infrastructure/crowding, increased cost of living, pollution, and police harassment were all
tourism related sources of stress. While some of these stressors were likely experienced prior to
tourism development, the language used by survey participants indicated the development of
tourism within their community specifically caused these stressors.
In answer to Research Question 1, stressors were highly interconnected and often
compounded each other, with one stressor leading to additional stressors. The stressors

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experienced by Falmouth residents were a mix of tangible (i.e., overtaxed
infrastructure/crowding, pollution, police harassment, increased cost of living) and intangible
(i.e., unmet expectations). The unmet expectations stressor was not only the most commonplace,
but also the most informative. Falmouth residents were expecting a great deal of positive impacts
would result from tourism development (author’s note: whether those expectations were
reasonable considering materials distributed by government sources and developers remains in
question). It is reasonable to think the high expectations of Falmouthians were cultivated both by
circulated materials and the pride that was felt by once again being an important Caribbean port.
This disappointment in comparing expectations to reality was evident in other stressor groups
(i.e., not only were individuals unable to gain employment in the tourism industry, but they were
unable to continue making money through the informal economy due to police harassment);
almost a ‘salt in the wounds’ of other stressors.
In answer to Research Question 2, the measurement tools used to examine the stress and
coping process of Falmouth residents offered mixed results. Research results revealed weak
support for construct validity of measurements of personality and primary stress appraisal in the
context of residents of a small town in the Caribbean. Research results revealed moderate
support for construct validity of measurements of social support and coping with some
modification, and a bi-factor model and exploratory factor analysis were needed to achieve
adequate model fit respectively. Research results revealed strong support for the measure of
secondary stress appraisal with no modification. Negatively worded variables were particularly
difficult for survey participants to understand, likely resulting from the differing English dialects
of survey and participant. The factor structure of the Ways of Coping was found to be

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inconsistent with previous research, although a great deal of research has found the Ways of
Coping to be an inconsistent measurement tool.
This research represents the first application of each measurement tool within both a
tourism context, as well as a Caribbean island context. In their standard form, each measurement
tool had limitations in measuring the stress and coping process. It is possible that changing
negatively worded questions to the positive could result in better performance of measurement
tools. The subjective nature of stressors and coping responses makes consistently performing
quantitative measurement tools a scarce commodity. A measurement of coping that uses scale
based questions measuring use of ‘common coping responses,’ in concert with an open ended
question that allows individuals to describe other coping efforts may be better suited for the
purposes of understanding coping in a variety of contexts.
In answer to Research Question 3, there were several significant relationships between
social support and coping as well as secondary stress appraisal and coping. Individuals who
perceived that there were peers available to discuss important issues were likely to seek on those
interactions as a coping response. Individuals who appraised stressors as controllable were more
likely to have utilized problem focused coping and positive outlook coping. In addition,
individuals who appraised stressors as controllable were less likely to cope through wishful
thinking. This combination of significant relationships indicates that both social support and
secondary stress appraisal play an important role in determining how individuals cope with
stresses brought about by tourism development. The appraisal of stressors as controllable pushes
individuals toward coping responses that have been found to be most successful in mitigating
stress and negative health outcomes across varying populations and stressors.

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Overall, this research study provides insight into how residents of a host community
experience and respond to stress brought about by tourism development. The stressors brought
about by tourism development were both physical and emotional, with some mirroring common
impacts found in previous tourism impacts research (Allen, Long, Perdue, & Kieselbach, 1988;
Andereck et al., 2005; Brida & Zapata, 2009). While some measurement tools used to explore
the stress and coping process provided weak support for construct validity in this context, tools
that were modified or offered strong support for construct validity with no modification reveal a
great deal. The Ways of Coping five-factor structure revealed by exploratory factor analysis
indicates coping with stress brought about by tourism development in a small Caribbean island
occurs in different ways than the random sample of Americans used to derive the original Ways
of Coping factor structure. Relationships within the stress and coping process indicate social
support and secondary appraisal play an important role in coping with stress brought about by
tourism development, and that some types of social support and secondary appraisal are
significant predictors of problem-focused coping responses that previous research has found to
be effective at mitigating stress and negative outcomes.

Theoretical Implications
The research findings presented in this dissertation indicate stress and coping is a suitable
framework from which to examine how individuals respond to impacts of tourism development.
The stress and coping framework is particularly well suited to examine causes of stress and the
individual response, which were found to be the negative impacts of tourism development. Stress
and coping falls within the greater umbrella of quality of life studies, which is moving the
tourism impacts research paradigm away from measuring attitudes toward and support of tourism
development toward the examining the real changes to everyday lives of individuals in host

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communities caused by tourism development and their emotional and behavioral responses
(Andereck & Nyaupane, 2011). The stress and coping framework is useful in examining both the
tangible and intangible causes and effects of tourism development, making it particularly well
suited to examine relationships between them. Direct observation of individuals’ behaviors is an
unrealistic method of examining responses to tourism development; observation of emotional
responses would be strictly limited to the physical manifestations of such emotions. Moreover,
direct observation of stress would be limited to physical manifestations such like increased blood
pressure, which is the result of many other causes. It is possible that direct observations of
community events like church services and events, local government meetings, or other
organizational meetings could help inform and confirm the context of the stress and coping
process, especially social support.
The widespread nature of stress experienced by Falmouth residents indicates stress and
coping responses are one important element in the overall quality of life of host community
residents. However, all tourism host communities are not likely to experience the same amount
or type of stress as residents of Falmouth. The unique nature of the scale and speed of
development that occurred in Falmouth with little input from local residents likely led to a great
deal of stress for many residents. Tourists arriving in Falmouth on mega-cruise ships are likely to
be very different from local residents in a variety of ways (i.e, demographics or socioeconomic
status), possibly leading to additional stress. Additionally, the generally low socioeconomic
status of Falmouth residents likely means simply moving away to avoid the stress simply is not
an option. The significant relationships between social support, secondary stress appraisal, and
coping indicate that those portions of the theoretical model proposed by Folkman et al. (1986)
were supported. Relationships between latent constructs were consistent with previous research

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examining such relationships within the stress and coping framework. Although several
measures of individual elements within the stress and coping process were found to be
ineffective in this context, this can be attributed to measurement issues rather than viewed as an
indication that these psychological phenomena do not exist or exist in some other form in
Falmouth.

Implications for Management and Practice
This research revealed that tourism development causes stress for individuals in host
communities in a variety of ways. The widespread nature of stress in Falmouth indicates the
importance of this issue for communities. Stress is one of many possible positive and negative
impacts of tourism development that can affect quality of life for host community residents.
Although this research and other studies have found tourism development to affect host
community resident quality of life, tourism remains an attractive development option for many
areas, especially those with naturally occurring tourism attractions like sand, sea and sun.
Stressors discussed by research participants clearly indicate the process and type of tourism
development played a role in causing stress. The expectations of benefits by Falmouth residents
far outstripped the reality of tourism development in their community. Whether developers and
government agents created those high expectations or Falmouth residents created them
independently, a lack of bi-directional communication between residents and those responsible
for development likely exacerbated the problem.
For private tourism organizations and government agencies attempting to promote
tourism development to local residents, there exists a paradox. Without the perception that
tourism development will somehow benefit them, host community residents are unlikely to
support development and, in areas where residents have a strong voice in decision-making, may

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seek to block development all together. This is especially true in areas where tax dollars are used
in development activities. However, when host community residents do perceive that tourism
will be beneficial to them and those perceptions do not align with reality, stress can result. One
solution to this problem is clear and truthful bi-directional communication between residents and
those responsible for development about exactly how development and operation of the tourism
industry will occur prior to development. Clear communication between developers and those in
the community to be developed can help prepare both parties for what to expect from each other.
This solution is only useful if power structures within the community place both groups on equal
footing, as communication without compromise will likely result additional stressors as observed
in this research. The inclusion of an independent mediator in tourism planning and development
processes could help ensure equity between parties.
Additional stressors that emerged from this study reveal that a variety of tangible
stressors like overtaxed infrastructure/crowding, increased cost of living, pollution, and police
harassment also exist. Previous research has treated these stressors as ‘impacts’ with little insight
into how or why they affect host community residents’ quality of life. Quotes from survey
participants indicate these stressors are daily hassles that often compound each other and create
additional stress in the day-to-day lives and activities of individuals in host communities. The
low socioeconomic standing of much of the community of Falmouth played a significant role in
the ways individuals were affected, as many survey participants were struggling to feed their
families and the increase in cost of living or police harassment preventing them from conducting
non-licensed business put them “over the edge.” As the end goal of many development projects
is to generate wealth, these research findings indicate tourism development actually had the
opposite effect on most host community residents in this case. Local, regional, and national

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governments and private development organizations should be aware of the ways in which
tourism development may affect its constituents, especially if they are already living in less than
ideal conditions.
In many cases, large-scale development projects that benefit few, rather than many, result
in a net decline in quality of life. Diminished quality of life, combined with other negative
tourism impacts like environmental decline and economic inequity, can lead to diminished
attractiveness of such destinations for an increasingly socially and environmentally conscious
consumer base. Smaller scale tourism development that provides individuals the opportunity to
generate income would likely alleviate some of these stressors for many host community
residents. Small-scale tourism development is usually conducted to attract a smaller number of
tourists who have more disposable income and are willing to pay for ‘sustainable’ forms of
tourism. Fewer, more socially, economically, and environmentally conscious tourists would also
help diminish stressors like overtaxed infrastructure/crowding and pollution.
Realistically, some tourism development will continue to occur that results in many of the
stressors revealed by this research. In those cases, results from the structural models with the
stress and coping framework reveal how one type of social support and appraisal of stress predict
types of coping that researchers have found to be most effective at mitigating stress and negative
outcomes. Facilitating creation of groups of individuals under stress could dually serve to
provide a peer group with which individuals can discuss important issues but also create a more
powerful voice for individuals who would otherwise wield little power within the community,
thus imparting a sense of control over stressors. While shifting power structures within
communities and allowing for input in real decision making are difficult in practice, the simple
act of taking part in efforts working toward those goals could help promote more successful

115

coping responses and help assuage stress, especially in the short term. However, over the long
term, efforts that do not result in any changes could result in additional stress. There are a variety
of organizations that could facilitate such activities, like non-profit organizations, nongovernmental organizations, churches, families and governmental organizations outside the
decision-making hierarchy such as the Social Development Commission in Falmouth.

Limitations
While not all impacts of tourism are negative, the nature of stress imparts a negative
connotation to tourism development. It is conceivable that individuals could experience stress
from positive impacts (i.e., a new job that creates less family time), as well as negative impacts.
This study was limited only to individuals who had experienced stress as a result of tourism
development. Valuable information about what factors contributed to the experience of stress in
the first place likely could have been gleaned by participation of non-stressed individuals in
demographic, personality, and social support elements of the survey instrument. While efforts
were made to complete surveys in a geographic area representative of Falmouth, any individuals
who may have moved away from the community to escape tourism development were not
surveyed. Additionally, individuals who may have worked in the community but did not live
there were not surveyed. The quantitative nature of measurement tools used in this research
means individuals may have used coping responses that were not measured. Some stresses
discussed by survey participants were likely already present within the community prior to
tourism development. Throughout the survey process, researchers noticed that some survey
participants had difficulty understanding the language used in survey instruments. Finally, the
final element of the stress process, health and psychological outcomes, was not measured.

116

Information about health and psychological outcomes could ultimately reveal which coping
responses were most effective at mitigating stress in this context.

Recommendations for Future Research
The findings of this dissertation research provide a solid foundation for future research in
this area of inquiry that should help researchers and practitioners understand a previously
undocumented phenomenon that plays an important role in host community residents’ overall
quality of life. However, stress and coping is not the only framework from which to examine
how tourism development affects one or more elements of host community residents’ overall
quality of life (at the individual level), and how those residents respond. Social and
psychological theoretical frameworks such as response shift theory (Sprangers & Schwartz,
1999) at the individual level and community resilience at the community level (Norris, Stevens,
Pfefferbaum, Wyche, & Pfefferbaum, 2008) should also be explored as frameworks from which
to examine the effects of and resident responses to tourism development. It may be that coping
with stress brought about by tourism development occurs in different ways than other stressors,
but more studies of this phenomenon must occur before that assertion can be made. Further
research is needed to determine if stress is experienced and responded to in other community
types with varying types and levels of tourism development in the same way as Falmouth.
Further research will be needed to improve the validity and reliability of the
comprehensive stress and coping framework in measuring stress and coping in tourism contexts.
Efforts should be made to accurately measure each element within the stress and coping process,
including health outcomes. Accurate measurement of each construct within the process will
allow researchers to estimate all relationships within the model and comprehensively test this

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theoretical framework. Future research should work to incorporate additional elements of
individual characteristics like level of benefit or employment within the tourism industry.
Eventually, tourism specific measurements of stress and coping should be developed that
incorporate stressors and coping responses that are unique to the tourism development context.
Through continued refinement of theory and measurement of stress and coping and other
frameworks with which to understand tourism impacts and resident responses, researchers can
help understand and address this important issue. Tourism development appears set to continue
into the coming decades, and efforts should be made to minimize positive benefits and minimize
negative impacts through interface between researchers, practitioners, residents, and other
community, regional, and national level stakeholder groups.

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