TITLE:
Does Coping Mediate Personality and Behavioural Problems Relationship?
AUTHORS:
Daniela Sacramento Zanini, Maria Forns
KEYWORDS:
Personality, Coping, Mental Health
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.5 No.9,
July
30,
2014
ABSTRACT:
The aim
of the present study is to investigate the applicability of two models of the
influence of coping on personality and behavioral problems (the additive and
mediational one). This study investigate comparatively the
explanation models of coping and health in adolescents using the theoretical
and methological studies of Baron and Kenny (1986), Rudolph, Denning and Weisz
(1995) and Gomez (1998) of influential
models. Participants were 558 adolescents (44.3% boys and 55.7% girls) aged
between 11 to 18 years old (M = 13.92, SD = 1.45), from Barcelona (Spain). Data show significant
correlation between avoidance coping, anxiety trait and behavioral problems and
support partial mediation on their relationship. No mediation was found for
approach coping, extraversion and behavioral problems so only the additive
model was supported. In conclusion, this study indicates that: the explaining
model of personality, coping and behavioral problems can vary depending on the
coping strategies involved in the equation; avoidance coping can be described
as the way anxiety trait influences behavioral problems; personality can be
describe as a coping resource; and avoidance coping increases the influence of
personality on behavioral problems by two ways: one, by the cumulative effect;
and two, by the mediational influence that it exerts on the relationship of
anxiety trait and behavioral problems.