PERCEIVED STRESS, SOCIAL SUPPORT, AND COPING

Perceived Stress, Social Support, and Coping



Abstract

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 people may utilize many coping strategies that serve little benefit in terms of behavioural outcomes.

Perceived Stress, Social Support, and Coping

Introduction

Previous studies on the relations between stress and subsequent psychological problems in young people have generally focused on parameters of stress, such as frequency, duration, and severity, and on demographic characteristics of the individual. Inter-actional theories of stress and coping emphasize the function of personality traits and coping responses in moderating the effects of stress on emotional functioning, but less is known about these processes—particularly in young people. Fewer studies have considered how environmental factors, such as economic decline in rural communities, may influence adolescent functioning. The extent to which rural and urban adolescents may differ with regard to how they appraise and respond to stress and how these processes relate to emotional and behavioural problems remains unclear. Thus, the objectives of the present study were to compare rural and urban adolescents with regard to self-rated stress, coping and behavioural problems and the moderating effects of coping on adolescent stress.

Literature Review

To cope effectively with stress, be it a conflict, daily hassle, or life event, the individual appraises both the degree of threat involved and the resources available to either deal directly with the situation or to adapt to it by regulating emotional responses. Advances in understanding the adaptive function of these coping responses in adolescents have been hampered somewhat by inconsistencies in theoretical approaches and in coping measures. Atkins, F. (1993, 149) framework is useful because it distinguishes adaptive approach coping and maladaptive avoidance coping. Approach coping includes both problem-focused coping, which has been found to be more effective in situations perceived to be controllable or amenable to change, and emotion-focused coping, which has been found to be more effective in situations perceived to be less controllable. Studies have found that in response to stressful situations, adolescents' use of approach coping strategies is associated with fewer negative outcomes than avoidance coping strategies . There may exist qualitative differences between females and males in how adolescents respond to stress. Studies have found that by mid-adolescence, females tend to report more life events and more daily hassles than males. Studies of coping have found that females, compared to males, tend to use more emotion-focused coping and more avoidance coping. However, other studies have found no sex differences in either stress or coping. Such inconsistencies between studies underscore the need for further research on whether adolescent males and females differ in how ...