Coping style and mental health on high school students

doi:10.4236/health.2013.52023

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Vol.5, No.2, 170-174 (2013) Health

http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/health.2013.52023

Coping style and mental health on high school

students

Zhi Wang1,2

1Department of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China; [email protected]

2Center for Mental Health Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China

Received 27 November 2012; revised 26 December 2012; accepted 3 January 2013

ABSTRACT

Objective: To explore the coping style of high

school students and its relationship to mental

health. Methods: Make a survey upon 320 stu-

dents through coping style questionnaire and

MSMH. Results: High school students often re-

sort to problem solving and appeal to coping

factors. No di stinct gend er differe nc e is found in

coping style. There are different degrees of

correlation between coping style and mental

health. Remarkable grade difference is shown in

the factor of appealing in coping style and the

three factors of compulsion, anxiety and mental

imbalance in mental health. Conclusion: Rela-

tively mature coping style has come into exis-

tence among high school students, but more

guidance and assistance are in need in culti-

vating the coping style and improving the men-

t al health.

Keywords: High School Students; Coping Style;

Mental Health

1. INTRODUCTION

Coping style is the process of cognitive and behavioral

efforts made by individuals under pressure to alleviate its

negative effects. It is mentally healthy to form a proper

cognition and evaluation towards events and adopt a

positive coping style in front of pressure. Compas de-

fines coping style from the developmental angle, and

thinks that coping style is one side of stress reaction.

When individual faces stressful events and environments,

individual has conscious efforts to regulate emotion,

cognition and behavior [1]. High school is a critical pe-

riod of life and students are often confronted with pres-

sure of further studies and employment as well as mental

perplex in puberty. Thus, it is of great significance to

explore the relationship between coping style and mental

health of high school students. There are preliminary

studies made by Huang Xiting, etc. towards the coping

style of middle school students, which show that the

main coping style of middle school students in China are

problem solving, appealing for help, avoidance, abreact-

ing, fantasy and endurance and that girls prefer coping

style of endurance and abreacting while boys prefer that

of fantasy when comparing girls with boys [2]. No dis-

tinct change of coping style is noticed in the age of mid-

dle school students. Liang Junlin’s study shows that

negative coping style has negative correlation with men-

tal health [3]. Jiang Qianjin’s study shows that coping

style has positive correlation with SCL-90, SDS, SAS

and scores of N scale in EPQ [4]. The study finds that

coping style is highly associated with mental health [5].

The paper delves into the characteristics of high school

student coping style and its relationship towards mental

health on the basis of previous studies, in order to pro-

vide reference to high school student mental health edu-

cation and improve their mental health.

2. PARTICIPANTS AND METHOD

2.1. Participants

320 high school students were recruited to take part in

the study. They were from Grades One, Two and Three

of Dengfeng High School, Dengfeng city, Henan pro-

vince. 284 effective questionnaires were retrieved from

155 male students and 129 female students, with 72 from

Grade One, 72 from Grade Two, 67 from Grade Three,

and 73 from Grade Three of previous year. The study

was approved by the local review board for human par-

ticipant research and each participant provided informed

consent prior to participate in the experiment.

2.2. Methods

2.2.1. Coping S ty l e Questionnaire

The questionnaire is a revised vision by Xiao Jihua

and Xu Xiufeng which is based on Folkman and Bond’s

coping and defense. There are 62 items, including 6 fac-

tors-problem solving, self-accusation, appealing for help,

fantasy, avoidance and rationalization. The factor loaded

Z. Wang / Health 5 (2013) 170-174 171

value of what constructs the items of coping style ques-

tionnaire stays above 0.35 and the re-measured related

coefficient of the six coping factors above 0.62, which

make the questionnaire a good credibility and validity

[6].

2.2.2. MSMH

It consists of 10 subscales formulated by Wang Ji-

sheng, namely compulsion, stubbornness, hostility, tense

and sensitive interpersonal relationship, depression, an-

xiety, study pressure, maladjustment and emotional im-

balance, amounting to a total of 60 items. It adopts a

5-level grading with each item containing a declarative

sentence. The table is proven to have a good degree of

distinction, credibility and validity [7].

3. RESULTS

3.1. Scoring Statistics of Different Coping

Styles

As is indicated in Table 1, coping styles employed by

high school students is in such an order as: problem

solving, asking for help, fantasy, rationalization, retreat

and self-blame (from more to less). It shows that high

school students tend to adopt positive and mature coping

styles such as problem solving, asking for help. Those

negative and immature coping styles such as retreat and

self-blame are less adopted.

3.2. Anal ysis on Gender Differences of

Coping Style

As is indicated in Table 2, boys’ means for coping

styles’ factors such as “problem solving”, “fantasy” is

higher than the girls’, while the girls’ is higher than boys’

in the “asking for help” factor. All coping styles’ factors

means do not show significant gender differences.

3.3. The Relevance between Senior High

School Students’ Coping Styles and

Their Mental Health Conditions

Table 3 indicates that senior high school students’

coping style—“problem solving”, is significantly nega-

tive related with each factors of mental health scale; ex-

cept hostility factor, total means in mental health scale,

“asking for help” factor is negatively related with factors

such as paranoia, interpersonal sensitivity and tension,

maladjustment and psychological imbalance factors ex-

tremely significantly or significantly. While self-blame,

fantasy factors are positively related with each factors of

middle school students’ mental health extremely signifi-

cantly.

3.4. Scoring Comparison of Different

Grades of Senior High School Students’

Coping Styles and Each Factor of

Mental Health Conditions

Table 4 indicates that: among coping styles, “asking

for help” factor show very significant grade differences,

but other factors do not; Among mental health conditions,

three factors—obsession, anxiety, psychological imbal-

ance show extremely significant grade differences.

In order to further study concrete grade differences,

LSD is applied to several factors (asking for help, obses-

sion, anxiety, and psychological imbalance) which has

significant grade differences for mean multiple compare-

son analysis. Ta ble 5 indicates that: regarding factor of

“asking for help”, the senior one and the senior two show

extremely significant or significant grade differences

with the review of senior three respectively; regarding

the factor of obsession, the senior one and senior two

show significant grade differences with each other, and

both show extremely significant ones.

Table 1. Scoring statistics of different coping styles.

Styles Mean Std. deviation Sum

Problem-solving0.6799 0.1946 193.08

Self-blame 0.3018 0.2117 85.70

Asking for help 0.4680 0.2398 132.90

Fantasy 0.4553 0.2095 129.30

Retreat 0.4081 0.1842 115.90

Rationalization 0.4130 0.1692 117.30

Table 2. Analysis on gender differences of coping style (X ± SD).

Coping styles Girls (n = 129) Boys (n = 155) Total t

Problem-solving 0.67 ± 0.19 0.70 ± 0.20 0.68 ± 0.19 −1.712

Self-blame 0.29 ± 0.23 0.31 ± 0.19 0.30 ± 0.21 −0.577

Asking for help 0.49 ± 0.23 0.45 ± 0.23 0.47 ± 0.24 1.662

Fantasy 0.44 ± 0.21 0.47 ± 0.21 0.46 ± 0.21 −1.156

Retreat 0.40 ± 0.17 0.41 ± 0.19 0.41 ± 0.18 −0.421

Rationalization 0.41 ± 0.17 0.42 ± 0.17 0.41 ± 0.17 0.268

Z. Wang / Health 5 (2013) 170-174

172

Table 3. The relevance between senior high school students’ coping styles and their mental health conditions (r).

Problem-solving Self-blame Asking for helpFantasy Retreat Rationalization

Obsession −0.233** 0.427** −0.117* 0.400** 0.151** 0.087

Paranoia −0.261** 0.420** −0.212** 0.315** 0.190** 0.227**

Hostility −0.315** 0.380** −0.044 0.357** 0.093 0.120*

Interpersonal sensitivity tension −0.307** 0.495** −0.184** 0.390** 0.227** 0.237**

Depression −0.430** 0.609** −0.120* 0.355** 0.334** 0.157**

Anxiety −0.396** 0.532** −0.152* 0.434** 0.293** 0.084

Study stress −0.379** 0.455** −0.124* 0.379** 0.355** 0.220**

Maladjustment −0.309** 0.309** −0.189** 0.275** 0.258** 0.184**

Emotion imbalance −0.340** 0.435** −0.147* 0.352* 0.229** 0.139**

Psychological imbalance −0.200** 0.379** −0.210** 0.316** 0.175** 0.093

Total average marks −0.331** 0.515* −0.114 0.440** 0.287** 0.23**

Note: *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01.

Table 4. Scoring comparison of different grades of senior high school students’ coping styles and each factor of mental health condi-

tions (M ± SD).

Senior one

(n = 72)

Senior two

(n = 72)

Senior three

(n = 67)

Review of senior there

(n = 73) F

Problem-solving 0.67 ± 0.17 0.66 ± 0.21 0.67 ± 0.23 0.72 ± 0.17 1.357

Self-blame 0.25 ± 0.17 0.32 ± 0.23 0.31 ± 0.24 0.33 ± 0.20 2.415

Asking for help 0.49 ± 0.26 0.52 ± 0.24 0.45 ± 0. 0.41 ± 0.21 2.899**

Fantasy 0.43 ± 0.19 0.48 ± 0.21 0.46 ± 0.22 0.46 ± 0.21 0.805

Retreat 0.38 ± 0.17 0.42 ± 0.19 0.44 ± 0.18 0.40 ± 0.20 1.556

Rationalization 0.45 ± 0.17 0.43 ± 0.18 0.39 ± 0.16 0.38 ± 0.16 2.504

Obsession 1.99 ± 0.48 2.20 ± 0.15 2.10 ± 0.57 2.34 ± 0.65 4.747**

Paranoia 2.00 ± 0.48 2.05 ± 0.62 2.04 ± 0.58 2.23 ± 0.65 2.221

Hostility 1.98 ± 0.63 2.01 ± 0.73 1.90 ± 0.73 1.98 ± 0.65 0.327

Interpersonal tension

& sensitivity 2.14 ± 0.61 2.30 ± 0.72 2.30 ± 0.78 2.46 ± 0.73 2.470

Depression 1.20 ± 0.63 2.14 ± 0.71 2.14 ± 0.71 2.16 ± 0.65 0.895

Anxiety 2.11 ± 0.67 2.36 ± 0.82 2.47 ± 0.80 2.55 ± 0.83 4.167**

Study stress 2.35 ± 0.78 2.44 ± 0.78 2.34 ± 0.81 2.25 ± 0.69 0.720

Maladjustment 2.28 ± 0.57 2.22 ± 0.67 2.24 ± 0.61 2.25 ± 0.62 0.482

Emotion imbalance 2.40 ± 0.59 2.46 ± 0.74 2.41 ± 0.67 2.52 ± 0.62 0.482

Psychological imbalance 1.98 ± 0.49 2.14 ± 0.67 2.23 ± 0.64 2.31 ± 0.57 4.162**

Note: *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.

with the review of senior three.; regarding the factor of

anxiety, the senior one shows significant grade differ-

ences with the senior three and the review of senior three;

regarding the factor of Psychological unbalance, there

exists significant grade differences between the senior

one and senior three, and extremely significant ones be-

tween the senior one and the review of senior three.

4. DISCUSSION

It is found in the research that senior high students

tend to take positive methods (solution and consultation)

rather than negative ones (escape and self-accusation) to

deal with daily issues. And it indicates that senior high

students are able to analyze and solve problems in a rea-

sonable way and turn for other’s help with increase of

age, horizon and cognition, which is in accordance with

the research of Lan Yuping, whose findings show that the

usual coping style taken by middle school students to

deal with daily issues are solving the problem, consulta-

tion, fancy, escape, rationalization and self-accusation

successively [8].

And it is found in the research that there is no obvious

Z. Wang / Health 5 (2013) 170-174 173

Table 5. Multiple comparison of several factors with significant differences among students of different grades.

Asking for help Obsession Anxiety Psychological

F P F P F P F P

Senior two −0.031 0.441 −0.211* 0.034 −0.248 0.059 −0.160 0.109

Senior three 0.043 0.292 −0.116 0.250 −0.357** 0.008 −0.255* 0.013

Senior one

The review 0.078* 0.049 −0.359** 0.000 −0.432** 0.001 −0.334** 0.001

Senior one 0.031 0.441 0.211* 0.034 0.248 0.059 0.160 0.109

Senior three 0.073 0.071 0.095 0.346 −0.109 0.413 −0.095 0.349

Senior two

The review 0.109** 0.006 −0.148 0.133 −0.185 0.157 −0.174 0.080

Senior one −0.043 0.292 0.116 0.250 0.356** 0.008 0.255* 0.013

Senior two −0.073 0.071 −0.095 0.346 0.109 0.413 0.095 0.349

Senior three

The review 0.035 0.379 −0.243* 0.016 −0.076 0.569 −0.079 0.435

Senior one −0.078* 0.049 0.359** 0.000 0.432** 0.001 0.334** 0.001

Senior two −0.109** 0.006 0.148 0.133 0.185 0.157 0.174 0.080

The review

Senior three −0.035 0.379 0.243* 0.016 0.076 0.569 0.079 0.435

Note: *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01.

difference between different genders in coping style and

mental health, which is in accordance with findings of

research carried out by Wang Guipin [9]. However, it can

be seen from Table 2 that boys tend to solve problems

individually instead of asking for someone’s help com-

pared with girls. And it is also found that coping style is

closely related with mental health. Students with positive

coping style often possess higher mental health, which,

as a result, indicates that the education of mental health

should concentrate on students’ coping style so as to im-

prove their mental health.

Besides, senior high students from different grades

differ with each other in consultation, anxiety, obsession

and mental unbalance. And further multiple analyses

indicates that with the increase of age and the failure of

college entrance examination, students from higher grade

who possess more self-respect and stronger mental

adapting ability, tend to solve problems individually or

escape the situation instead of asking for someone’s help.

However, when they face the college entrance examina-

tion again, this so-called life-turning point pushes them

into more anxiety and burden compared other middle

school students. Because of the existence of the uncon-

trollable factor namely the college entrance examination,

their efforts do not pay back as they expect, which, as a

result, strengthen their mental unbalance and unsteadi-

ness. Thus it is of great necessity to offer special educa-

tion of mental health to this group of students.

5. CONCLUSIONS

The results of the study indicate that: 1) Senior high

students tend to take positive attitudes rather than nega-

tive ones to deal with daily issues; 2) There is no obvi-

ous difference between male and female students on the

coping methods; 3) The coping style of senior high stu-

dents is opposite to each factor of mental measure of

middle school students. And the factors of self-blame and

fantasy, however, are obviously related to each factor of

their mental health; 4) There is obvious difference on the

factor of consultation in coping style among students

from different grades, which can be easily seen in other

factors. The difference is also obvious on the obsession,

anxiety and mental unbalance among students from dif-

ferent grades in terms of mental health. Moreover, those

who once failed in the college entrance examination dif-

fer a lot in the consultation, obsession, anxiety and men-

tal unbalance with other middle school students.

6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The research was supported by the project of Southwest University

Chongqing H&SS Key Research Institute “Research on Training Strat-

egy of Adaptation for Teenagers”, the Fundamental Research Funds for

the Central University (No. swu1209415), and Education Science Plan-

ning Office in Chongqing (No. 10-GJ-0240).

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