Dimensions of coping and anxiety symptoms in a community sample of young children

ABSTRACT

Coping style plays an important role in children’s wellbeing. This paper describes the patterns of associations between children’s self-reported coping styles and symptoms of anxiety in order to determine whether particular dimensions are associated with better adjustment. Participants were 2566 children (1268 girls, 1298 boys) aged 7–11 years attending 15 schools in the South East of England. Results showed that aspects of coping were differentially associated with children’s self-reported anxiety. Patterns of association also varied by age and gender. Dimensions of coping were shown to form distinct adaptive and maladaptive coping styles which were also differentially associated with anxiety. Analysis of these styles indicated that it is the absence of maladaptive coping strategies, rather than the presence of adaptive strategies, that is significant in emotional wellbeing. These findings suggest that interventions designed to reduce or extinguish maladaptive coping styles may be of particular benefit in facilitating emotional wellbeing.

KEYWORDS:

• Coping
• anxiety
• wellbeing
• emotion regulation
• child
• multidimensional
• adaptive
• intervention

Acknowledgments

This research was generously supported by Policy Research Programme in the Department of Health (project number 005/0134). The views expressed are not necessarily those of the Department.

Sincere thanks to the children who kindly agreed to participate in this study. Thanks also to their parents and carers, and to the schools we visited, for their support in data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The timescale and anglicised responses were introduced to align the anxiety measure with other instruments and ensure ease of use for children. The amended versions were piloted to ensure the changes did not impact significantly on results.

2. Taken from ONS indices of deprivation – ranked from 1 (most deprived), to 354 (least deprived) http://www.communities.gov.uk/communities/neighbourhoodrenewal/deprivation/deprivation07/ .

3. Derived from ONS population estimates for mid-2007: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/product.asp?vlnk=14238 .

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Policy Research Programme in the Department of Health [project number 005/0134].

Notes on contributors

Katie Quy

Dr Katie Quy studies child behaviour and development, in particular social and emotional well-being, coping, and resilience

Jennifer Gibb

Dr Gibb’s research interests include services for children and families, with a particular focus on the mental health and emotional wellbeing of school aged and looked after children.

Louise Neil

Dr Neil studies the cognitive mechanisms underpinning common mental disorders in young people.

Charlie Owen

Charlie Owen is a researcher specialising in social research methods, primarily quantitative methods.  Research interests include early years childcare, gender in childcare, looked after children, private fostering, and mixed race issues.

Marjorie Smith

Professor Smith is Professor Emerita of Psychology of the Family and conducts mainly community-based family studies.