Coping styles as correlates of health in high school students

Purpose: To study a large, population-based sample of adolescents with the goal of expanding our knowledge base about the relationship of coping and health outcomes. Method: We examined 1769 nonclinical, high school students (48%. girls, mean age 16 years, predominantly white) using one class period to establish a link between coping styles, health problems, and health risk behaviors. Instruments employed included the Coping Response Inventory - Youth form (abbreviated version) and the juvenile Wellness and Health Survey. ANCOVAs were used to test the main effects of coping typology, gender, and their interaction on the five health domains. Results. Findings were consistent with previous research and showed that approach coping correlated negatively with indicators of health problems and health risk behaviors, while avoidance coping correlated positively with these domains. The presence of both forms of coping mitigated the negative effects of avoidance coping. Conclusion: As early as mid-adolescence, habitual coping styles appear to be associated with significant health outcomes. In screening nonclinical samples the clinician can rely on habitual coping styles as indicators of potential health problems. (C) Society for Adolescent Medicine, 2002.