The relationship of gender,gender identity,and coping strategies in late adolescents

The relationships among gender, gender identity, and coping in late adolescents were examined. One hundred sixty-nine late adolescents completed measures assessing their masculinity and femininity, as well as their use of coping strategies. Females endorsed greater use of emotion-focused coping strategies than males. Late adolescents who were high in masculinity endorsed higher levels of problem-focused coping strategies than those who were low in masculinity. In contrast, late adolescents who were high in femininity endorsed higher levels of emotion-focused coping strategies than those who were low in femininity. Neither the gender nor the masculinity and femininity of late adolescents were predictive of the use of avoidant coping strategies. Overall, gender identity made an important and independent contribution to the endorsement of coping strategy use. These results emphasize the importance of assessing both gender and gender identity with regard to coping in late adolescents.     

Pakistani adolescents' coping with stress: effect of loss of a parent and gender of adolescents

The present study examined the effect of parental loss and gender of adolescents on their coping with stress. Sample included those adolescents who had either of their parents died (N = 40) and those having both living parents (N = 40). It was hypothesized that adolescents with one parent alive would differ in their ways of coping with stress compared to those who have both living parents. It was also hypothesized that there would be gender differences in adolescents' coping. Coping Strategies Questionnaire (CSQ, Kausar, 1996) was used to assess adolescents' coping. Data was analysed using t-test and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Analyses showed that avoidance-focused coping was the most frequently used and active distractive coping was the least frequently used strategy by the adolescents. Adolescents with both living parents employed more active distractive and religious-focused coping compared to those with one parent alive. Girls employed significantly more strategies to cope with stress compared to boys. Results also revealed interactive effect of parental loss and gender on coping strategies used by adolescents. The findings suggest that death of either of the parents and gender of the adolescent is important determinants of the ways adolescents deal with stress.     

Adolescent vulnerability and the distress of rejection: Associations of adjustment problems and gender with control,emotions, and coping

We examined adjustment problems as risks for patterns of emotions, appraisals, and coping with rejection, and explored whether these processes could account for sex (boy/girl) differences in coping. Young adolescents (N = 669, grades 6–8) completed questionnaires, which assessed responses to peer rejection threat with two short scenarios. Using structural equation modeling to test a multivariate process model, adolescents with heightened social anxiety had the most maladaptive responses to rejection threat, including elevated emotional reactions, more self-blame, and coping using more social isolation, rumination and opposition. Adolescents reporting more depressive symptoms felt less control and anticipated using less adaptive coping (less support seeking, distraction, and negotiation), whereas aggressive adolescents responded with more anger and coped via opposition. Moreover, as anticipated, sex differences in coping, symptoms, emotions, and appraisals were found. However, coping differences between boys and girls were mostly nonsignificant after accounting for symptoms, aggression, emotional reactions, and appraisals.     

Classification des styles de coping dans une population d’anciens combattants âgés

The purpose of this study was to propose a classification of coping styles reported by veterans, 50 years after the actual events, compared with a late manifestation of the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We have evaluated the coping strategies using the French version of the situational version of the Brief COPE and PTSD using the French version of the posttraumatic checklist scale (PCLS). The subjects were 223 veterans of the Algeria war who completed these questionnaires as part of a broader investigation. Our results confirm general outcomes about coping strategies in veterans. They show a five-factor model of the 14 saturating strategies and explaining 67.5% of the total variance. Strategies have been grouped into active strategies focused on problem solving, avoidance strategies focused on emotions, active strategies focused on the sharing of emotions, avoidance of factors that affect confronting and humour. Furthermore, strategies used by veterans to cope with difficulties encountered decades ago may act as mediators of consequences of a traumatic event. Only two strategies (positive reformulation and coping restricted) show a lack of positive correlation with the recurrence of PTSD and, as such, suggest that they were most effective in responding to war experienced events. The Brief COPE could be consider as a tool for measuring adaptation to traumatic events among veterans, and more generally in the elderly reporting potentially traumatic events, witch can contribute to a suspicion of PTSD from the score 52.     

Brief report: Coping among Austrian children and adolescents

The study investigated age and gender effects on coping with common stressors among 494 Austrian children and adolescents (age 8-14 years). Participants were subdivided into subgroups of late children comprising third and fourth graders, early adolescents consisting of fifth and sixth graders, and middle adolescents including seventh graders. Middle adolescents showed a maladaptive coping pattern with decreased problem and emotion-focused coping strategies and increased passive avoidance and aggression. Females scored higher on social support and also on the maladaptive coping strategy rumination. Female middle adolescents reported higher resignation than their male contemporaries and female children. Results suggest the application of primary preventive stress management programs in late childhood and early adolescence.     

Revisiting the factor structure of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire: United States, 2001

OBJECTIVE: The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire is a 25-item instrument developed to assess emotional and behavioral problems. The current study attempted to replicate previous European structural analyses and to describe the latent dimensions that underlie responses to the parent-reported version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for a representative sample of U.S. children and adolescents. METHOD: Parents/guardians of a national probability sample of 9,574 children and adolescents 4 to 17 years of age were administered the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire to assess emotional and behavioral problems within the past 1 month. A principal components analysis was performed for replication purposes, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed to extract the underlying factors. RESULTS: The predicted five-component structure (emotional, hyperactivity, prosocial, peer, conduct) was not entirely confirmed. Some items intended to assess conduct problems were more closely related to hyperactivity, and some items intended to assess peer problems were more strongly correlated with emotional or prosocial problems. Factor analyses revealed a stable three-factor model consisting of externalization problems, internalization problems, and a positive construal factor. CONCLUSIONS: The current analyses suggest that U.S. parents may construe conduct problems and peer problems differently than do European parents. These cultural differences may affect the assessment of psychopathology for children.     

Can differences in stress perception and coping explain sex differences in depressive symptoms in adolescents?

A four-year longitudinal study explored the different contribution of low self-esteem, different types of stressors, conflict in close relationships and avoidant coping to the explanation of depressive symptomatology in adolescents. One hundred and ninety adolescents, 101 females and 89 males, participated in four annual assessments using diverse instruments. ANOVAs repeated measurements revealed a higher stress level, more conflicts with mothers and more avoidant coping in females as compared to males at the age of 14 years. Males showed fewer depressive symptoms and higher positive self-esteem at all times. Multiple regression analysis revealed that stress and avoidant coping in early and mid-adolescence explained a significant proportion of depressive symptoms among females in late adolescence. Among males, only the level of conflicts with friends in early adolescence contributed to their level of depressive outcome in late adolescence.     

Adolescent Humor and its Relationship to Coping,Defense Strategies,Psychological Distress,and Well-Being

Objective This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) in measuring adolescent humor, including the relationship between humor and coping style, defense style, depressive symptoms, and adjustment in a non-clinical sample of adolescents. Method Humor, coping, defense strategies, depressive symptoms, and adjustment were investigated in 94 adolescents aged 12–15. Results The HSQ demonstrated adequate internal consistency. Inter-scale correlational patterns and scale means were similar for adolescents and adults. Convergent validity for the HSQ was supported by its relationship to: an adolescent-standardized humor defense scale; coping and defense strategies; and depressive symptoms and adjustment. Clinical utility of the HSQ was demonstrated by its unique contribution in predicting both depressive symptoms and adjustment above and beyond contributions from coping and defense composites. Discussion The HSQ appears to be a psychometrically sound and clinically useful measure to assess humor dimensions in adolescents.     

Sense of coherence mediates the relationship between the religious meaning system and coping styles in Polish older adults

Objectives: The links between religiousness and coping are complex, and previous research indicates that they may be mediated by coherence-related structures. The aim of this study was to examine whether sense of coherence (SOC) is a mediator in the relationships between the religious meaning system and coping styles in Polish older adults.

Method: In this study, 212 older adults (118 women and 94 men) participated. Their ages ranged from 65 to 79 years (M = 71.04; SD = 2.26). The group was a representative sample of Polish older adults in terms of social status, gender, and age. They completed three measures: the Religious Meaning System Questionnaire, the Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC-29), and the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations.

Results: Findings showed that the religious meaning system had significant relationships with SOC and three coping styles: emotion-oriented coping, avoidance-oriented coping, and social diversion. In addition, SOC mediated the relations between the religious meaning system and three coping styles: the emotion-oriented, avoidance-oriented, and social diversion.

Conclusions: The positive associations between meaning-oriented religiousness, SOC, and coping styles imply that their underlying mechanisms are based on the structures of significance and comprehension. The character of mediational relations (i.e. mediator vs. suppressor) depended on the emotional and social coping strategies used by older adults.     

Pain in Adolescent Psychiatric Patients

Background:  Little is known about the extent of pain among adolescent psychiatric patients, and the relationships with psychosocial factors and psychiatric symptoms.
Method:  A representative sample of 129 adolescent patients were assessed with measures including the Youth Self-Report, the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire, and instruments assessing self-perceptions, coping styles, stresses, sociodemographic factors, and childhood abuse.
Results:  More than half of the adolescents (54%) reported to be bothered currently by frequent pain. Frequent pain correlated with depression, self-harm, suicide attempt, and with ruminative and emotion oriented coping. Adolescents suffering from frequent pain had more often experienced childhood abuse/neglect. A stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that depression, alcohol intoxication and childhood neglect were the strongest concurrent predictors of frequent pain.
Conclusions:  Clinicians should ask child and adolescent psychiatric patients about pain, and be aware of possible connections with abuse/neglect, depression and suicidality.     

Coping strategies and behavioral/emotional problems among Chinese adolescents

This study was carried out to describe strategies used to cope with stress and to explore the association between coping strategies and behavioral/emotional problems in a community sample of adolescents from Mainland China. Participants completed a self-administered questionnaire incorporating the Chinese Trait Coping Style Questionnaire, the Chinese version of the Youth Self-Report of Child Behavior Checklist, and a number of demographic questions. Results indicated that Chinese adolescents often used multiple coping strategies when faced with stress. Principal factor analysis followed by oblique rotation revealed two dimensions of coping strategies in Chinese adolescents: active coping and avoidant coping. A series of logistic regression analyses showed that avoidant coping was significantly associated with increased risk for internalizing and externalizing problems, but active coping was associated with reduced risk, after adjustment for child's age and sex and father's occupation. These findings provide evidence of the association between coping and mental health problems in Chinese adolescents.     

Urban adolescent stress and hopelessness

This study sought to explore potential mechanisms through which uncontrollable, chronic stressors may lead to hopelessness in low-income, urban adolescents. In particular, the roles of specific coping strategies as moderators and/or mediators of the association between stressors and hopelessness were examined. Results suggest that chronic, uncontrollable stressors were significantly and positively related to hopelessness in this sample. Active coping, distraction coping, and social-support-seeking coping emerged as moderators for males, such that uncontrollable stressors were more highly associated with hopelessness for those boys who reported using more active, distraction, and social-support-seeking coping strategies. An analogous moderating effect was found for ruminative coping for girls. Ruminative coping also emerged as a mediator of the relation between uncontrollable stressors and hopelessness for girls.     

Coping with stress by children and adolescents with cancer

Children and adolescents with cancer not only have to cope with everyday stressors and developmental tasks, as do their healthy peers, but also with illness-related stressors. Thus, it can be assumed, that children and adolescents with cancer differ from healthy peers in coping. Stress reactions and adjustment have been investigated in recent studies. In contrast, coping styles have not often been in the focus of research. In this study, the coping of children and adolescents with cancer (n = 60, 8-13 years of age) was compared to the norm, measured by the German Coping Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (SVF-KJ; Hampel et al. 2001). The results indicated that the subjects with cancer used more positive and less negative coping strategies when confronted with school-related or social stressors. The results are discussed with respect to the experience with disease-related stress and the possibility of repressive coping.     

Predictors of mental distress in early adulthood: a five-year follow-up of 709 high-school students

Mental health risk factors in adolescence were examined as predictors of mental distress in early adulthood. A cohort of 709 Finnish adolescents was studied in 1990 (mean age 16.8) and in 1995. Trait anxiety, defence styles, life events, self-esteem and somatic symptoms were evaluated as predictors of high scores in the General Health Questionnaire in adulthood. Females (36%) were more likely to be distressed than males (23%). High trait anxiety and somatic symptom scores among adolescent females, and high immature defence style scores among males predicted mental distress. Males with low trait anxiety in adolescence had less distress. The results indicate trait anxiety as an important predictor of mental distress. Gender differences in other predictors suggest gender differences in coping.     

Obesity and coping in childhood

The aim of this study was to investigate everyday coping styles in obese children in comparison to healthy controls in dependence of gender. Furthermore, the correlations of eating behavior with coping styles were examined. In addition, groups with highest and lowest extremal scores in eating behavior were compared. Patients (N = 58) aged from 11 to 13 years, who took part in an in-patient education program, were asked to complete the German Coping Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (Hampel et al. 2001) and the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire for Children (Franzen u. Florin 1997). Healthy controls were matched by age and gender and were asked to fill out the SVF-KJ. No differences between coping styles of obese children and adolescents and healthy controls were found. In obese children and adolescents, emotional and external eating behavior were positively correlated with maladaptive coping strategies. In comparison to previous findings in chronically ill children, differences in obese children and adolescents and healthy controls on coping styles could not be confirmed in the present study. However, results support that the eating behavior of obese children and adolescents is influenced by coping styles.     

Construct validity of the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire in Finnish 13-year-old adolescents: Differences in the self-images of boys and girls

The construct validity of the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire (OSIQ) was examined among 13-year-old Finns. Questionnaires were completed by 268 pupils at school. The construct validity was studied by means of factor analysis. Factor analysis involving 130 items yielded 5 factors with different content: an anxious self, a coping self, awareness by the adolescents of their place in the world, social relationships, and sexuality. The factor solution was moderately useful; it included most of the original items (71%) and explained 31% of the total variance. Boys were more anxious and had a more negative social and sexual self-image than the girls. The OSIQ estimates adolescents' self-images in a multidimensional manner. When interpreting the scores, it is important to consider sex differences and the developmental stage of the adolescent. Despite its limitations, the OSIQ remains a moderately valid and clinically relevant method for use in the clinical assessment of adolescents.     

Coping style and psychological health among adolescent prisoners: a study of young and juvenile offenders

The current study explores the role of coping styles as a predictor of poor psychological health among adolescent offenders. It presents the first study to compare young and juvenile offenders. Two hundred and three male offenders took part: 108 young (18-21 years) and 95 juvenile (15-17 years) offenders. All completed the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) and a revised version of the Coping Styles Questionnaire (CSQ-3). Young offenders reported using emotional, avoidant and detached coping styles more than juveniles. They also reported more overall psychological distress than juveniles, with a trend to report increased depression, anxiety and insomnia. For both young and juvenile offenders, emotional coping predicted increased psychological distress. This was consistent across different symptoms (i.e. somatic, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction and severe depression). For young offenders, rational coping predicted a decrease in overall distress and was found across all symptoms. For juveniles, although detached coping predicted a decrease in overall psychological distress, across symptoms it only predicted social dysfunction. Increased rational coping was also found to predict decreased depression for juveniles. The study highlights differences between young and juvenile offenders regarding coping styles and how this relates to psychological distress. It highlights the complexities of trying to understand the coping-health relationship in a prison setting and asks if such settings are increasing the potential for adolescents to over-use coping styles that may not be the most effective.     

Stress,coping, and behavioural problems among rural and urban adolescents

Rural/urban differences were studied in self-reported stress (life events, daily hassles and conflict), coping and behavioural problems in a community sample of adolescents. Despite challenging socioeconomic conditions in rural areas, levels of stress and ways of coping were similar in rural and urban adolescents. However, urban males reported more conflict and externalizing behaviours than females and rural males. Stress, coping, and behavioural problems were interrelated but approach coping did not moderate the influence of stress on psychological functioning. Results suggest that adolescents may utilize many coping strategies that serve little benefit in terms of behavioural outcomes.     

Reconstruction of Meaning in Life: Meaning Made during the Pandemic of COVID-19

Two studies were conducted to compare the differences between the source and significance of the meaning of life amongst Chinese people before and after the pandemic of COVID-19. In study 1, we have developed a scale regarding the Chinese Sources of Meaning in Life. By using this scale, we investigated people under COVID-19, and found six main sources of meaning in life: Autonomy, Family Responsibility, Social Responsibility, Religious Beliefs, Simpler Lifestyle as well as Joy and Wealth. In Study 2, we compared the scores of the source of life’s meaning shown in the two different samples regarding the situations before and after the epidemic. The results showed that, under the COVID-19 epidemic, Chinese people pay more attention to social responsibilities and personal autonomy, as well as the concept of living a simpler life. Meanwhile, attention towards other meanings in life such as wealth, social status, religion etc. was reduced or abandoned. It can be seen that, in traumatic circumstances, people do in fact try to achieve goals in order to alleviate negative emotions and achieve psychological balance. Conflict is shown between the trauma caused by COVID- 19 and people’s original sources of meaning in life, creating an effect of impact and dispel, which urges individuals to put forward meaning-making efforts in order to improve the sense of meaning of life, change the general goal and other meaning made state, and in the end achieve psychological adaptation.