Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec;57(12):2401-2409.
doi: 10.1007/s00127-022-02341-8. Epub 2022 Jul 27.

Mediation by coping style in the association between stressful life events and depressive symptoms in young adults

Annie Pelekanakis  1   2 , Isabelle Doré  1   2   3 , Marie-Pierre Sylvestre  1   2 , Catherine M Sabiston  4 , Jennifer O'Loughlin  5   6
Affiliations

Mediation by coping style in the association between stressful life events and depressive symptoms in young adults

Annie Pelekanakis et al. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

Purpose: The association between stressful life events and depressive symptoms is well-established, but the role of coping style in this association is less clear. We examined whether problem-focused, emotion-focused or avoidant coping style mediated and/or moderated the association in young adults.

Methods: Data were drawn from a 20-year longitudinal study that included 1294 students' age 12-13 years recruited in 1999-2000 from ten high schools in Montreal, Canada. Herein we report an analysis that included 782 participants aged 24 years on average with data on covariates collected at age 20. Using VanderWeele's four-way decomposition approach, the total effect of stressful life events on depressive symptoms considering coping styles was decomposed into four components: moderation only, mediation only, mediated interaction, no mediation or moderation.

Results: We observed mediation only by emotion-focused coping ([Formula: see text](95%CI) = 0.15(0.04, 0.24)) suggestive that individuals who experienced more stressful life events also reported greater use of emotion-focused coping and higher levels of depressive symptoms. We found moderation only by problem-focused coping ([Formula: see text](95%CI) = - 1.51(- 2.40, - 0.53)) and by emotion-focused coping ([Formula: see text](95%CI) = 1.16(0.57, 1.69). These results suggest that individuals reporting more problem-focused coping experienced fewer depressive symptoms after exposure to stressful life events; those reporting more emotion-focused coping experienced more depressive symptoms. Avoidant coping did not mediate or moderate the association between stressful life events and depressive symptoms.

Conclusion: Interventions that aim to reduce depressive symptoms in young adults who experience stressful life events may need to reinforce problem-focused coping and minimize emotion-focused coping strategies.

Keywords: Coping style; Depression; Mediation; Stressful life events; Young adults.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. American College Health Association (2019) American college health association-national college health assessment II: Canadian consortium executive summary. Silver Spring, MD
    1. Hysenbegasi A, Hass S, Rowland C (2005) The impact of depression on the academic productivity of university students. J Ment Health Policy Econ 8(3):145–151 - PubMed
    1. Alonso J, Mortier P, Auerbach RP, Bruffaerts R, Vilagut G, Cuijpers P, Demyttenaere K, Ebert DD, Ennis E, Gutierrez-Garcia RA, Green JG, Hasking P, Lochner C, Nock MK, Pinder-Amaker S, Sampson NA, Zaslavsky AM, Kessler RC, Collaborators WW-I (2018) Severe role impairment associated with mental disorders: results of the WHO world mental health surveys international college student project. Depress Anxiety 35(9):802–814. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.22778 - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. Lepine JP, Briley M (2011) The increasing burden of depression. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat 7(Suppl 1):3–7. https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S19617 - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. Dyson R, Renk K (2006) Freshmen adaptation to university life: depressive symptoms, stress, and coping. J Clin Psychol 62(10):1231–1244. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20295 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources