Emotion-focused coping strategies as mediating factor in the relationships between neuroticism and anxiety among community adolescents

Abstract

The present study attempted to explore a framework model of different emotion-focused coping strategies, in mediating the relationship between neuroticism and anxiety. While previous studies were mainly limited to clinical subjects and young adults, community adolescents were recruited in this study in view of the need of effective interventions in preventing anxiety problems of adolescents in their developmental trajectory. In the literature, there were limited and inconclusive findings available on the possible mechanisms of emotion-focused coping strategies, and the associated strength of each emotion-focused coping strategy, in the relationships between neuroticism and anxiety. In this study, it is believed that emotion-focused coping strategies could possibly mediate the relationship between neuroticism and anxiety. Given that there were different types of emotion-focused coping strategies, the role and strength of various emotion-focused coping strategies as effective mediators is also looked into. A comprehensive model with specific emotion-focused coping strategies, namely avoidance, wishful thinking, blamed self and others, count your blessings and religions, as mediators in driving the relationships between neuroticism and anxiety was hypothesized. Path analysis by structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed. A best model fit in explaining the relationships neuroticism and anxiety consists of four negative emotion-focused coping strategies, namely avoidance, wishful thinking, blamed self and others, with avoidance having the highest strength in the model. Other positive emotion-focused coping strategies of count your blessing and religiosity were found not included in the relationship between neuroticism and anxiety. This suggested that the use of emotion-focused coping strategies, under the influence of neuroticism, could precipitate anxiety problems of community adolescents, with avoidance having a relatively stronger role in the association between neuroticism and anxiety problems. It was believed that negative emotion-focused coping strategies might not be able to handle the stressors that one might be facing, and as a result, as the stressors remained unsettled, the distresses could not be removed. Although the relatively small sample size may affect the accuracy of the path analysis to a certain extent, this integrated framework model could for the first time, provide more insights for future research to explore on possible intervention programmes in enhancing more effective coping strategies among community adolescents high in neuroticism.