Australian university student coping profiles and psychosocial distress: a latent profile analysis

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of participants.

Sample characteristics	n	%
Gender
Female	258	68.6
Male	104	27.7
Non-binary/gender diverse	12	3.2
Prefer not to say	2	0.5
Ethnicity
Southeast Asian	37	9.8
East Asian	83	22.1
South Asian	33	8.8
White/European	174	46.3
Other/not specified/multiple responses	49	13.0
Year level
First year	125	33.3
Second year	96	25.5
Third year	74	19.7
Fourth year or higher	81	21.6
Postgraduate student	188	50.0
International student	140	37.2

Table 2. Coping strategy use, mean coping scores and mean psychosocial distress levels.

Coping strategies	n	%	M	SD
Listen to music	352	93.6
Coping score			4.40	1.27
Rest, nap, or sleep	341	90.7
Coping score			4.03	1.42
Evaluate/analyse the situation	356	94.7
Coping score			3.96	1.21
Engage in stress management (e.g. get organised, plan ahead, make lists)	336	89.4
Coping score			3.93	1.42
Exercise	308	81.9
Coping Score			3.92	1.65
Be alone	355	94.4
Coping score			3.84	1.32
Put feelings in perspective	342	91.0
Coping score			3.84	1.32
Tend to jobs around the house	323	85.9
Coping score			3.76	1.46
Avoid the person or thing causing the mood	328	87.2
Coping score			3.54	1.43
Change location (e.g. go for a drive or go outside)	298	79.3
Coping score			3.54	1.54
Try to control thoughts	334	88.8
Coping score			3.37	1.29
Use relaxation techniques (e.g. deep breathing, muscle relaxation, mindfulness)	273	72.6
Coping score			3.21	1.64
Change eating habits (eat more or less, or different food)	254	67.6
Coping score			2.84	1.54
Religious activity	121	32.1
Coping score			1.95	1.55
Psychosocial distress
Psychosocial distress levels			0.01	0.98

Note: Psychosocial distress levels are standardised and range from −2.08 to 2.67.

Effectiveness scores range from 1 to 6.

Figure 1. Coping profiles identified through latent profile analysis of the total sample (n = 376).

Table 3. Demographic characteristics of coping profiles and p-values from demographic profile comparison analyses

Characteristics	NEC n = 113	PFC n = 146	EFC n = 23	EFC-R n = 94	Profile comparison
	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)	p-value
Age	25.98 (8.76)	28.08 (9.99)	33.58 (11.76)	27.99 (11.06)	0.011
	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)	p-value
Gender					0.236
Female	73 (64.6)	98 (67.1)	19 (82.6)	68 (72.3)
Male	37 (32.7)	40 (27.4)	2 (8.7)	25 (26.6)
Non-binary/gender diverse	2 (1.8)	7 (4.8)	2 (8.7)	1 (1.1)
Prefer not to say	1 (0.9)	1 (0.7)	0 (0)	0 (0)
Ethnicity					0.017
Southeast Asian	10 (8.9)	14 (9.6)	2 (8.7)	11 (11.7)
East Asian	29 (25.6)	27 (18.5)	3 (13.0)	24 (25.5)
South Asian	12 (10.6)	7 (4.8)	0 (0)	14 (14.9)
White/European	50 (44.3)	77 (52.7)	17 (73.9)	30 (31.9)
Other/not specified	12 (10.6)	21 (14.4)	1 (4.4)	15 (16.0)
Year level					0.838
First year	39 (34.5)	47 (32.2)	7 (30.4)	32 (34.0)
Second year	29 (25.7)	38 (26.0)	7 (30.4)	22 (23.4)
Third year	17 (15.0)	31 (21.2)	3 (13.0)	23 (24.5)
Fourth year or higher	28 (24.8)	30 (20.6)	6 (26.1)	17 (18.1)
Postgraduate student	49 (43.4)	77 (52.7)	12 (52.2)	50 (53.2)	0.414
International student	43 (38.1)	50 (34.4)	5 (21.7)	42 (44.7)	0.159
Live alone	31 (27.4)	34 (23.4)	5 (21.7)	27 (28.7)	0.739

Note: EFC, emotion-focused coping; EFC-R, emotion-focused religion-dominant coping; NEC, no effective/no coping; PFC, problem-focused coping.

Figure 2. Mean psychosocial distress levels compared between the four coping profiles.

Note: NEC = No effective/no coping, PFC = Problem-focused coping, EFC = Emotion-focused coping, EFC-R = Emotion-focused religion-dominant coping. * p < .05, ** p < .01 and *** p < .001.

Table 4. Post-hoc comparisons of psychosocial distress levels between coping profiles.

Profiles		Mean Difference	SE	t	Cohen's d	Ptukey
NEC	PFC	0.65	0.12	5.51	0.67	<.001***
	EFC	0.41	0.22	1.88	0.44	0.239
	EFC-R	0.29	0.13	2.16	0.29	0.135
PFC	EFC	−0.25	0.21	−1.16	0.29	0.653
	EFC-R	−0.37	0.13	−2.93	0.40	0.019*
EFC	EFC-R	−0.12	0.22	−0.55	0.14	0.947

Note: EFC, emotion-focused coping; EFC-R, emotion-focused religion-dominant coping; NEC = No effective/no coping; PFC, problem-focused coping.

Significant with α = .05, * p < .05, ** p < .01 and *** p < .001.