The paper is devoted to the study of coping behavior of adults with cystic fibrosis, who manage stressful situations, and also individual and specific strategies for healing cystic fibrosis regarding subjective illness perception as either moderate or expressed threat to life and health. Cystic fibrosis is regarded as a real threat to life and health, which launches the cognitive and emotional processes of its regulation and influence on the choice of coping with the disease. We suggest that healing cystic fibrosis in adult patients will be differentiated regarding the subjective illness perception as a threat to life and health.

The research involved 86 male and female patients (mean age – 23.7 ± 4.8 years) with cystic fibrosis, with severe and moderate course, receiving inpatient or outpatient treatment. The research identified adaptive and maladaptive ways of coping with cystic fibrosis and ways of overcoming their difficult life situations. We confirmed that perceptions of cystic fibrosis as a moderate threat to life and health contributes to psychological adjustment to problem life situations and illness proper due to moderately intensive use of adaptive coping strategies and more rare reference to the maladaptive coping strategies avoidance. The perception of cystic fibrosis as expressed threat to life and health is associated with decreased psychological adjustment to problem life situations and illness caused by the rise of cystic fibrosis avoidant behaviour and suppression of optimistic illness acceptance.