The purpose of this study is to investigate the daily life stress and coping strategies of chronic mentally ill. The subjects were 235 chronic mentally ill who were enrolled in the vacational program of the community mental health center in various nationwide settings. Data collection was done using DSI and F-COPES inventory ere carried out from 2000 Aug. to 2001 Feb. Data was analyzed by SAS-Win. The results revealed the following:
1. The higher score items of daily life stress were 'exposed to feared situation or object' 'someone spoiled your completed task', the lower were 'spoke or performed in public' 'interrupted while talking''bad weather'.
2. The coping strategies often utilized by these chronic mentally ill were 'mobilizing to acquire and accept help', 'reframing', 'seeking spiritual support' which are considered active coping strategy.
3. Daily life stress showed significant difference by psychiatric diagnosis(F=6.333, P=.000), an coping strategy showed significant difference by religion(F=8.619, P=.000), and psychiatric diagnosis(F=2.139, P=.000).
4. According to the factor analysis of DSI, four factors were identified - unfair treatment, limited capability, embarrassing situation, oppressing feeling.
5. Daily stress had no significant correlation with coping strategy.
These findings suggest that chronic mentally ill need special attention to reduce their high stress and to learn more positive - active coping strategies. Community mental health centers and mental health professionals need to develop for stress management along with social support networks.
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