Longitudinal associations between coping strategies and psychopathology in pre-adolescence

Cele E. Richardson*, Natasha R. Magson, Jasmine Fardouly, Ella L. Oar, Miriam K. Forbes, Carly J. Johnco, Ronald M. Rapee

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    40 Citations (Scopus)
    125 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Much of the literature investigating the association between coping and psychopathology is cross-sectional, or associations have been investigated in a unidirectional manner; hence, bidirectionality between coping and psychopathology remains largely untested. To address this gap, this study investigated bidirectional relations between coping and psychopathology during pre-adolescence. Participants (N = 532, 51% male) and their primary caregiver both completed questionnaires assessing pre-adolescents’ coping (i.e., avoidant, problem solving, social support seeking) and symptoms of psychopathology (i.e., generalized anxiety, social anxiety, depression, eating pathology) in Wave 1 (Mage = 11.18 years, SD = 0.56, range = 10–12) and Wave 2 (Mage = 12.18 years, SD = 0.53, range = 11–13, 52% male), one year later. Cross-lagged panel models showed child-reported avoidant coping predicted increases in symptoms of generalized and social anxiety, and eating pathology. In separate child and parent models, symptoms of depression predicted increases in avoidant coping. Greater parent-reported child depressive symptoms also predicted decreases in problem solving coping. Taken together, results suggest unique longitudinal associations between coping and psychopathology in pre-adolescence, with avoidant coping preceding increases in symptoms of anxiety and eating pathology, and depressive symptoms predicting later increases in maladaptive coping.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1189-1204
    Number of pages16
    JournalJournal of Youth and Adolescence
    Volume50
    Issue number6
    Early online date29 Oct 2020
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jun 2021

    Keywords

    • problem solving
    • avoidant coping
    • social support seeking
    • anxiety
    • depression
    • eating pathology

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