The relationship of several demographic, psychosocial, and environmental variables to the willingness to confront existential issues was examined using 218 undergraduates.  A stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed using gender, age, locus of control, cognitive structure, resourcefulness, perceived social support, and stressful events as predictors of existential openness.  Gender, cognitive flexibility, and resourceful coping were significant predictors.  Separate stepwise regressions by gender revealed that existential openness among women was related to youth, cognitive flexibility, external locus of control, resourceful coping, and little perceived social support; for men, existential openness was linked to cognitive flexibility and resourceful coping.  Results are discussed in terms of the existential perspective of human functioning and are integrated with research on coping and stress.