Studies using person‐related variables to predict the nature of coping responses have had only limited success. However, besides often using measures of unknown reliability, such studies have not recognized that consistency or variability of response may itself be dispositional. Current analyses of archival, community‐based data selected only psychometrically sound indices and segregated consistent from flexible copers. Demographic predictors were found to have considerably greater explanatory power within the consistent groups, those variables tapping informational or material resources proving particularly germane to the choice between instrumental and avoidant strategies. These results suggest that person‐related influences on coping may currently be underestimated; implications for the future study of such influences are discussed.
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