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21 J. Soc. & Soc. Welfare 201 (1994)
Beyond Coping: An Empowerment Perspective on Stressful Life Events

handle is hein.journals/jrlsasw21 and id is 559 raw text is: Beyond Coping: An Empowerment Perspective on Stressful Life Events LORRAINE M. GUTItRREZ University of Washington Research on stressful life events has demonstrated their negative effects on health and mental health. The possibility of empowerment, how in- dividuals can take action to change their situations, has been largely overlooked by this research. Empowerment theory and research suggest that the outcome of stressful life events can be less debilitating when individuals are encouraged to identify with similar others, to develop specific skills, to perceive the societal or institutional components of their problems, and to engage in change on a collective level. This article de- velops this perspective by proposing how an empowerment perspective can enhance our understanding of the coping process. A large body of social science research has investigated the negative effects of stressful life experiences on health, mental health and other aspects of individual functioning. This litera- ture has focused primarily on the debilitating affects of stress and the ongoing difficulties individuals experience following a stressful event. What this research has overlooked is the recent work on empowerment: how some individuals who experience stress can respond by taking positive action to change their situ- ations in an active, outwardly focused, way. This article is a first attempt to examine theory and knowledge regarding the em- powerment and coping processes in an effort to gain a greater understanding of how individuals can respond effectively to stressful life events. This examination can contribute to both fields. The literature on coping can inform our understanding of the experiences of less powerful groups and provide insights into the psychological process of empowerment. Information on empowerment can expand our thinking about the relationship between mental health and stress to include the group and com- munity levels of analysis and suggest ways in which responses to stress can contribute to proactive change. 201

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