Which of the following is an emotion-focused coping strategy?

• A. Planning and problem solving
• B. Time management
• C. Seeking social support to manage emotions
• D. Gathering information to change the situation

Answer: (D)

Emotion-focused coping aims to ease emotional distress rather than directly changing the stressful situation. It includes strategies like seeking social support to manage emotions, which helps regulate how you feel through comfort, empathy, and shared reassurance. The other approaches are more about changing the stressor itself: planning and problem solving involves taking concrete steps to fix the problem, time management helps organize effort to reduce pressure, and gathering information to change the situation aims at altering the external conditions. So, seeking social support to manage emotions is the emotion-focused option.