Civilian Coping Strategies in War : A Qualitative Content Analysis of a Diary from the Siege of Breslau in 1945

Abstract: This thesis aims to investigate how civilians coped with life-threatening situations in WWII through analyzing the diary of a civilian from the siege of Breslau in 1945. There are two main issues this study attempts to address. Firstly, current Peace and Conflict Studies lack integration from theories from psychology. Furthermore, civilian experiences of war should be addressed in their historical context. Drawing from Suedfeld et al.’s Ways of Coping Scale (1997), which derives from Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) theory on psychological stress and coping, a directed, qualitative content analysis explores the coping strategies used by the diarist. The study finds that the diarist mostly uses problem-oriented coping strategies, aiming at altering the threat, consisting of escaping from bombs, analyzing, preparing for, and altering the damage caused by artillery and seeking social support. Emotion-oriented coping, aimed at regulating the emotional response to a threat, mostly shows through denying the threat to get sleep and to keep normality, and through distancing from the threat through humor, hope and a positive attitude. My findings form a base to adapt Suedfeld et al.’s Ways of Coping Scale to better assess civilian coping strategies in war.