Patterns of coping strategy use and relationships with psychosocial health in adolescents with spinal cord injury.

OBJECTIVE:To investigate patterns of coping among adolescents with spinal cord injury (SCI). METHODS:Youth aged 13-18 years with SCI completed measures of participation, quality of life (QOL), mental health symptoms, and coping. A hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis using Ward's method was conducted. Subsequent analyses examined relationships between clusters and psychosocial functioning. RESULTS:199 youth were an average of 15.95 years (SD = 1.71) at interview and 11.02 years (SD = 5.45) at injury. 56% percent were male, 64% White, and 62% had paraplegia. Four groups of "copers" emerged: ineffective, active, avoidant, and cognitive. Cognitive copers reported significantly less mental health symptomatology and higher QOL, followed by avoidant, active, and ineffective copers. Active copers showed significantly greater participation relative to ineffective, avoidant, and cognitive copers. CONCLUSIONS:These results suggest that coping profiles have meaningful relationships with adjustment. Reliance on cognitive strategies, with low endorsement of other strategies, may be associated with better psychosocial health.