Objective To study the relationship between the personality characteristics and the coping styles of armed policemen in a unit. Methods The EPQ and the coping style questionnaire were used to investigate 163 soldiers selected from a unit of Armed Police. Results The personality characteristics of soldiers were stability-based while the coping styles were mainly based on problem-solving and help-seeking. Extroversion correlated negatively with retreat, self-accusation and rationalization while positively with problem-solving. Neuroticism and psychoticism correlated positively with retreat, fantasy, self-accusation, while negatively with help-seeking and problem-solving. Concealing had a negative correlation with retreat, fantasy, self-accusation and rationalization, but it had no significant correlation with help-seeking and problem-solving. Conclusions The mature coping style of the soldier has a significant negative correlation with neuroticism and psychoticism, and has a significant positive correlation with extroversion(E) .However immature coping style has a significant negative correlation with extroversion(E) and concealing, and has a significant positive correlation with neuroticism and psychoticism.