Youth coping and symptoms of anxiety and depression: associations with age, gender, and peer stress

During late childhood and early adolescence, youth experience heightened stress exposure and rates of mental health disorders, emphasizing the need to investigate how youth cope with stress as a potential mechanism of risk and/or resilience. This study examined youths’ age, gender, and peer-related stress exposure as moderators of the relationships among coping and anxious/depressed symptoms during this important developmental period. To sample participants with a broad range of internalizing psychopathology symptoms, a community sample of 120 older children and adolescents (46% female, M age = 12.28) was recruited through mental health clinics and a university-based study finder in a southeastern metropolitan area. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires assessing coping strategies, stress exposure, demographic information, and anxious/depressed symptoms in a cross-sectional study. Analyses included interactions among age, gender, and peer stress as predictors of youths’ coping strategies and anxious/depressed symptoms. There were significant associations between age, gender, coping strategies, and symptoms, where girls reported more anxiety and depression symptoms compared to boys, and primary and secondary control coping strategy use increased with age. The findings expand upon previous studies by showing gender differences in the relation among secondary control coping and internalizing problems at different ages. Additionally, findings demonstrate that degrees of peer stress exposure show associations with disengagement coping across development, which may contribute to the onset of internalizing symptoms in older girls. Findings may be used to inform interventions by promoting the use of more adaptive forms of coping to prevent internalizing disorders in youth. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.