Life events and coping resources as predictors of stress symptoms in adolescents

This study explores the effect of coping resources and life events on psychological and physical symptoms in a sample of adolescents. Both main effects and a buffering hypothesis were tested. The sample was composed of 108 junior high school students who were administered the Coping Resources Inventory and a life events measure and were then followed up 16 weeks later with administration of the symptom measure. Overall, the data support previous findings that negative life events and coping resources are meaningful predictors of self-reported psychological and physical symptoms. Main effects were found for both coping resources and stressful life experiences and each contributed about the same degree of predictive validity; the interaction was not significant. Therefore, this study does not support the notion that coping resources mediate the stress-disease relationship. Overall, the data support current conceptions of coping resources as adaptive capacities that reduce the likelihood of stress induced disease, contributing independently of life stress to the prediction of health. The implications of the study for health and counselling psychology are discussed.