A cultural and contextual model of coping

The primary purpose of this chapter is to propose a culturally responsive, Individual X Environmental coping model for racial and ethnic minorities in the United States that may guide the future work of both researchers and practitioners in the United States. It is our strong belief that to more fully understand coping, our theories must extend beyond the individual to recognize that coping behaviors do not occur in isolation but rather within the larger social and cultural context, including the United States’ sociopolitical history. Our model builds on the strengths of the existing coping literature and addresses its significant conceptual limitations. We first provide an overview of the model and subsequently illustrate its five primary domains using examples from the existing coping literature.