Communal coping during stressful times : stress characteristics and social network as antecedents in the extended theoretical model of communal coping

Stressors are events in one's surroundings that may generate stress. People experienced exacerbated stress, especially, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instinctively, people engaged in different coping patterns to handle threatening situations. As one of the coping mechanisms, communal coping is defined as the shared appraisal and joint action towards a stressor (Afifi et al., 2020). The benefits of communal coping have been examined in different contexts. However, few studies have tested communal coping in the context of the social network. Therefore, this study aimed to a) expand communal coping to the context of the social network, b) examine the effects of stress characteristics and social network structures on communal coping, and c) test the influences of communal coping on individuals' resilience and thriving. The results indicated that the presence of a spouse or an intimate partner and community participation played vital roles in the formation of communal coping. Moreover, communal coping at the network layer was significantly positively related to one's resilience and thriving.