Stress management interventions have traditionally aimed to change coping behavior with little attention to mechanisms that drive behavior change. We sought to test an integrated dual-process model, accounting for reasoned and automatic processes, for predicting problem-focused coping behavior. The study adopted a two-wave prospective correlational design with a 1-week follow-up. University students aged 17–25 (N = 272) completed survey measures online. At Time 1, participants completed self-report measures of attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, intention, behavioral automaticity, and past problem-focused coping behavior. At Time 2, participants completed follow-up measures of behavioral automaticity and problem-focused coping behavior. Structural equation modelling testing the hypothesized dual-process model exhibited a good fit to the data, accounting for 50.0% and 45.4% of the variance in intentions and problem-focused coping behavior, respectively. Attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and past behavior directly predicted intention. Intention, past behavior, and behavioral automaticity directly predicted problem-focused coping behavior. Past behavior also indirectly predicted problem-focused coping behavior via behavioral automaticity. Results suggest that problem-focused coping behavior tends to be regulated by reasoned psychological processes, and more strongly by automatic psychological processes. Future research aiming to increase problem-focused coping should utilize behavior change methods known to influence these processes.

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