Adolescent coping profiles differentiate reports of depression and anxiety symptoms

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to identify groups of adolescents based on their reported use of different coping strategies and compare levels of depression and anxiety symptoms across the groups. Tenth and eleventh grade public school students (N = 982; 51% girls; 66% Caucasian; M age =16.04, SD = .73) completed a battery of self-report measures that assessed their use of different coping strategies, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. Latent profile analysis (LPA) classified the participants into four distinct groups based on their responses on subscales of the COPE inventory (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989). Groups differed in amount of coping with participants in each group showing relative preference for engaging in certain strategies over others. Disengaged copers reported the lowest amounts of coping with a preference for avoidance strategies. Independent copers reported moderate levels of coping with relatively less use of support-seeking. Social support-seeking copers and active copers reported the highest levels of coping with a particular preference for support-seeking strategies. The independent copers reported the lowest levels of depressive symptoms compared to the three other groups. The Social Support Seeking and Active Coping Groups reported the highest levels of anxiety. Although distinct coping profiles were observed, findings showed that adolescents between the ages of 14 and 16 engage in multiple coping strategies and are more likely to vary in their amount of coping than in their use of specific strategies.

Youth mental health services in Italy: An achievable dream?

“…Physiological difficulties sometimes may hide a more severe inner-self fragility that struggles to cope with external pressures of maturation (e.g., more competitive education stages, more complex and intimate relationships, more frequent fights with parents/relatives etc.). 10,11 This mixture of inner fragility and increasing outer changes may represent fertile ground for the development of a mental disease. 12,13 Early detection of these impaired mental states represents a challenge for clinicians and may be the gold standard for prevention.…”

Desired Features of a Digital Technology Tool for Self-Management of Well-Being in a Nonclinical Sample of Young People: Qualitative Study (Preprint)

“…The adoption of emotion-focused coping techniques, especially as reflected through the use of music and videos in the present participant sample is indicative of an adaptive way of mood regulation [23,70] in young populations. Moreover, the young people's tendency for wanting to connect with others whilst gaming is indicative of support seeking, which has been recognised as an adaptive functional coping strategy that can help with mood regulation [69,71,72] and has been associated with positive mental health [26].…”

“…Distraction techniques can be adaptive in certain situations and have been associated with positive mental health outcomes in youth [26,67]. However, continual use of adaptive distraction has been associated with low levels of wellbeing and poor mental health outcomes more generally [6][7][8]16,24,68,69], perhaps because long-term distraction can hinder appropriate action responses [28] and may reinforce the persistence of avoidance-escape approaches, the latter having been linked with poor mental health outcomes [26]. The adoption of emotion-focused coping techniques, especially as reflected through the use of music and videos in the present participant sample is indicative of an adaptive way of mood regulation [23,70] in young populations.…”

“…The adoption of emotion-focused coping techniques, especially as reflected through the use of music and videos in the present participant sample is indicative of an adaptive way of mood regulation [23,70] in young populations. Moreover, the young people's tendency for wanting to connect with others whilst gaming is indicative of support seeking, which has been recognised as an adaptive functional coping strategy that can help with mood regulation [69,71,72] and has been associated with positive mental health [26].What do young people desire in an ideal digital technology tool for selfmanagement of wellbeing?Young people reported a range of content-based and feature-based elements they would desire in an ideal tool specifically designed for self-management of wellbeing. As also reflected in their current use patterns, such tools would be preferred to be implemented as applications on a mobile phone, which was the most accessible means for them.…”

Coping flexibility and eudaimonic well‐being in university students

“…Most studies have shown that certain coping profiles, particularly those that combine approach strategies, are more resilient to stress (Lee, Seo, Lee, Park & Lee, 2016), showing a negative relationship with anxious-depressive symptomatology (Herres, 2015), stress (Nielsen & Knardahl, 2014), and burnout (Martinent & Decret, 2015). However, assuming that the absence of disease does not necessarily indicate well-being (Kaplan, 2005), there is a lack of studies that truly analyze coping profiles with reference to their implications for the well-being of individuals, separate from the psychopathological paradigm.…”