Social Anxiety, Depression, Coping Self-Efficacy, and Coping Strategies Among College Students

Abstract

The transition to college and its associated social challenges could trigger social anxiety and depression among young college students. There is a paucity of literature relating coping self-efficacy, coping strategies, social anxiety and depression. The current study aims to fill this gap by finding the contributions of gender, coping self-efficacy (CSE), and coping strategies onto the levels of social anxiety and depression among college students. It also aims to find race-ethnicity differences, considering students’ level of social anxiety and depression. One hundred and fifty-eight students were recruited from the undergraduate psychology subject pool at a northeastern university. The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, Diagnostic Inventory for Depression, Coping Self-Efficacy Scale and Brief COPE were used to measure the study variables. A one-way ANOVA and simultaneous multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to examine data. There were no significant race-ethnicity differences in social anxiety, depressive symptom severity, psychosocial impairment, and quality of life. However, gender and self-blame significantly predicted social anxiety; substance use, behavioral disengagement, and self-blame significantly predicted depressive symptom severity; and social support CSE significantly predicted psychosocial impairment. Gender, dysfunctional coping strategies and social-support CSE were significantly associated with social anxiety and depression among college students. The results have important implications for treatment intervention and outreach by college counseling personnel.

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“…This indicates that the development of students' depressive symptoms depends on their use of emotion-focused coping strategies. These findings are supported by previous studies that showed coping strategies could predict depressive symptoms ( Dugyala and Poyrazli, 2021 , Faronbi et al, 2021 , Lopes and Nihei, 2021 ). Lopes & Nihei (2021) revealed that various coping strategies, including denial, substance use, behavioral disengagement and self-blame had a positive predictive effect on depressive symptoms in Brazilian students.…”

“… Faronbi et al (2021) noted that coping strategies, including religious coping, humour, behavioural disengagement and use of emotional social support were significantly associated with depressive symptoms among Nigerian nursing students. Dugyala & Poyrazli (2021) stated that coping strategies, including substance use, behavioral disengagement and self-blame significantly predicted depressive symptom among northeastern university students. It might be that using inappropriate coping strategies to deal with stressful circumstances could lead to adverse outcomes for mental health, especially depression ( Freyhofer et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Lack of self-efficacy is a significant contributor to depressive symptoms among university students ( Dugyala and Poyrazli, 2021 , Esteban et al, 2022 ). Higher self-efficacy is associated with lower depressive symptoms scores for students.…”

“…Various studies evidenced that different coping strategies predict or are associated with depressive symptoms among university students, including nursing students ( Dugyala and Poyrazli, 2021 , Faronbi et al, 2021 , Lopes and Nihei, 2021 , Miao et al, 2021 ). It has been found that there is a significant effect of levels of problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping on depressive symptoms among nursing students ( Samson, 2019 ).…”

A latent profile analysis of social anxiety, depression, and pregaming motives among heavy‐drinking college students

“…In a recent study, Kraft et al (2021) reported that cognitive mechanisms underlying depression were also associated with social anxiety among college students. Another study reported that dysfunctional coping strategies, including substance use, were associated with depression and social anxiety symptoms among college students (Dugyala & Poyrazli, 2021). A recent systematic review reported that individuals with social anxiety and alcohol use disorder most commonly reported co-occurring depression symptoms, above that of any other mental health symptoms assessed (Oliveira et al, 2018).…”