Citizens' communal coping strategies to unfairness in public administration domain: The effects of gender, education and trust in government

摘要

Unfairness in public administration domain could be perceived as stressors. Coping with certain community events, should be considered as communal rather than individual behaviors. Former studies have shown demographic variables, such as gender, education, and trust may have influences on citizen's communal coping strategies. We focused on four typical coping strategies out of the dual axis model of coping theory, and examined three hypotheses using data from Social Attitudes Survey of Urban-Rural Residents of China, 2010. The results obtained from T-tests and regressions found that: there was no difference in coping strategies between male and female; yet with higher level of education, citizens were much more likely to take pro-social actions (seeking social help and cautious action), whereas citizens with lower education were much more likely to turn into anti-social actions (avoidance and aggressive coping); regarding different coping strategies separately, trust in governments (local vs. central) also had different impact patterns.