The relationships between school stress, adaptive and maladaptive coping and school attachment in an adolescent sample

Abstract

Background and aims: We investigated a sample of 473 adolescents aged 10-14 their knowledge about coping strategies, the protective role of adaptive coping against perceived stress and the relationship between perceived stress and depression of the adolescents with their attitudes to school. The importance of our topic comes from the fact that adolescents perceive higher stress levels, and from the adaptive coping strategies' potentially protective role against the negative effects of stress. Method: We applied quantitative and qualitative methods at two different points in time. We measured the adolescents' perceived stress, depression, subjective health complaints and their school attachment. We investigated the knowledge about coping strategies using open-ended questions and content analysis. The relationships between variables were analysed using correlation and linear regression analysis. Results: School stress was related to depression and the perceived support from teachers. The variance of school attachment was only explained by support from teachers. School stress was in a significant negative relationship with school attachment in both cross-sectional and longitudinal settings. The most known stress management techniques in our sample were: physical activity, verbalization/crying/shouting, physical relaxation, and utilization of the techniques of the digital word. A few participants mentioned maladaptive strategies as well despite the instruction. Utilization of the maladaptive strategies correlated mostly with physical activity, using verbalization/crying/shouting and the utilization of the techniques of the digital word. The amount of adaptive stress management techniques had a weak positive correlation with stress. Conclusion: Support from teachers might have an outstandingly important role in decreasing the level of perceived stress of adolescents and in preventing their depression.