Abstract
The structural relationships among risk and protective factors were examined in a sample of 646 continuation high school students. Although depression predicted more perceived stress, it was not a unique predictor of anger coping, seeking social support, or substance use. Perceived stress increased seeking social support. Seeking social support decreased the utilization of anger coping, which suggests that it may be a means of prevention for adolescents. Anger coping behaviors were implicated as being significant in sustaining depression and perceived stress, and in increasing hard drug use over time. Moderation analysis indicated that although there was no difference in the stress–coping–depression relationship between Latinos and Caucasians, the relationship among perceived stress, anger coping, and depression was stronger for female than for male adolescents. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Aiken, L. S., Stein, J. A., and Bentler, P. M. (1994). Structural equation analyses of clinical subpopulation differences and comparative treatment outcomes: Characterizing the daily lives of drug addicts. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 62: 488–499.
Aseltine, R. H., Gore, S., and Colten, M. E. (1994). Depression and the social developmental context of adolescence. J. Pers. and Soc. Psychol. 67: 252–263.
Bentler, P. M. (2001). EQS: Structural Equations Program Manual. Multivariate Software, Inc., Encino, CA.
Bentler, P. M., and Dudgeon, P. (1996). Covariance structure analysis: Statistical practice, theory, and directions. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 47: 563–592.
Berman, A. L., and Jobes, D. A. (1991). Adolescent Suicide: Assessment and Intervention. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC.
Chou, C.-P., and Bentler, P. M. (in press). Model modification in structural equation modeling by imposing constraints. Comput. Stat. Data Anal.
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., and Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. J. Health Soc. Behav. 24: 385–396.
Cohen, S., and Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychol. Bull. 98: 310–357.
Compas, B. E., Connor-Smith, J. K., Saltzman, H., Harding Tomsen, A., and Wadsworth, M. E. (2001). Coping with stress during childhood and adolescence: Problems, progress, and potential in theory and research. Psychol. Bull. 127: 87–127.
Compas, B. E., Hinden, B. R., and Gerhardt, C. A. (1995). Adolescent development: Pathways and processes of risk and resilience. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 46: 265–93.
Compas, B. E., Oppedisano, G., Connor, J. K., Gerhardt, C. Y., Hinden, B. R., Achenbach, T. M., and Hammen, C. (1997). Gender differences in depressive symptoms in adolescence: Comparison of national samples of clinically referred and nonreferred youths. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 65: 617–626.
Cooper, M. L., Russell, M., Skinner, J. B., Frone, M. R., and Mudar, P. (1992). Stress and alcohol use: Moderating effects of gender, coping, and alcohol expectancies. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 101: 139–152.
Copeland, E. P., and Hess, R. S. (1995). Differences in young adolescents' coping strategies based on gender and ethnicity. J. Early Adolesc. 15: 203–219.
Dent, C. W., Sussman, S., and Stacy, A. (1997). The impact of a written parental consent policy on estimates from a school-based drug use survey. Eval. Rev. 21: 698–712.
Galaif, E. R., Chou, C.-P., Sussman, S., and Dent, C. W. (1998). Depression, suicidal ideation, and substance use among continuation high school students. J. Youth Adolesc. 27: 275–299.
Galaif, E. R., and Newcomb, M. D. (1999). Predictors of polydrug use among four ethnic groups: A 12-year longitudinal study. Addict. Behav. 24: 607–631.
Graham, J. W., Flay, B. R., Johnson, C. A., Hansen, W. B., Grossman, L. M., and Sobel, J. L. (1984). Reliability of self-report measures of drug use in prevention research: Evaluation of the Project SMART questionnaire via the test-retest reliability matrix. J. Drug Educ. 14: 175–193.
Harrell, A. V. (1997). The validity of self-reported drug use data: The accuracy of responses on confidential self-administered answered sheets. In Harrison, L., and Hughes, A. (Eds.), The Validity of Self-reported Drug Use: Improving the Accuracy of Survey Estimates. NIDA Research Monograph 167. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD.
Henry, B., Feehan, M., McGee, R., Stanton, W., Moffitt, T. E., and Silva, P. (1993). The importance of conduct problems and depressive symptoms in predicting adolescent substance use. J. Abnorm. Child Psychol. 21: 469–480.
Koenig, L. J., Isaacs, A. M., and Schwartz, J. A. J. (1994). Sex differences in adolescent depression and loneliness: Why are boys lonelier if girls are more depressed? J. Res. Pers. 28: 27–43.
Leadbeater, B. J., Blatt, S. J., and Quinlan, D. M. (1995). Gender-linked vulnerabilities to depressive symptoms, stress, and problem behaviors in adolescents. J. Res. Adolesc. 5(1: 1–29.
Lempers, J. D., and Clark-Lempers, D. (1990). Family economic stress, maternal and paternal support and adolescent distress. J. Adolesc. 13: 217–229.
Lin, N. (1986). Conceptualizing social support and Modeling the effects of social support. In Lin, N., Dean, A., and Ensel, W. M. (eds.), Social Support, Life Events, and Depression. Academic Press, Orlando, pp. 17–18, 173–206.
McDonald, R. M., and Towberman, D. B. (1993). Psychosocial correlates of adolescent drug involvement. Adolescence 28: 925–936.
McFarlane, A. H., Bellissimo, A., Norman, G. R., and Lange, P. (1994). Adolescent depression in a school-based community sample: Preliminary findings on contributing social factors. J. Youth Adolesc. 23: 601–620.
Murray, D. M., Moskowitz, J. M., and Dent, C. W. (1996). Design and analysis issues in community-based drug abuse prevention. American Behavioral Scientist 39: 853–867.
Newcomb, M. D. (1997). General deviance and psychological distress: Impact of family support/bonding over 12 years from adolescence to adulthood. Crim. Behav. Ment. Health. 7: 369–400.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., and Girgus, J. S. (1994). The emergence of gender differences in depression during adolescence. Psychol. Bull. 115: 424–443.
Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Appl. Psychol. Meas. 1: 385–401.
Roberts, R. E., Roberts, C. R., and Chen, Y. R. (1997). Ethnocultural differences in prevalence of adolescent depression. Am. J. Community Psychol. 25: 95–110.
Sabogal, F., Marin, G., Otero-Sabogal, R., Marin, B. V., and Perez-Stable, E. J. (1987). Hispanic familism and acculturation: What changes and what doesn't? Hispanic J. Behav. Sci. 9: 397–412.
Shrout, P. E., and Yager, T. J. (1989). Reliability and validity of screening scales: Effect of reducing scale length. J. Clin. Epidemiol. 42: 69–78.
Sussman, S., Brannon, B. R., Dent, C. W., Hansen, W. B., Johnson, C. A., and Flay, B. R. (1993). Relations of coping effort, coping strategies, perceived stress, and cigarette smoking among adolescents. Int. J. Addict. 28: 599–612.
Sussman, S., Dent, C. W., Simon, T. R., Galaif, E. R., Hennesy, M., Moss, M., and Craig, S. (1996). The project TND main follow-up student questionnaire contents, description of the main study sample, and followup protocol. Technical Report #96-TND-01. University of Southern California, Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research, Alhambra.
Sussman, S., Dent C. W., Stacy, A., and Craig, S. (1998). One-year outcomes of Project Towards No Drug Abuse. Preventive Medicine 27: 632–642.
Sussman, S., Stacy, A. W., Dent, C. W., Simon, T. R., Galaif, E. R., Moss, M. A., Craig, S., and Johnson, C. A. (1995). Continuation high schools: Youth at risk for drug abuse. J. Drug Educ. 25: 191–209.
Swanson, J. W., Linskey, A. O., Quintero-Salinas, R., Pumariega, A. J., and Holzer, C. E. (1992). A binational school survey of depressive symptoms, drug use, and suicidal ideation. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry. 31: 669–678.
Vaccaro, D., and Wills, T. A. (1998). Stress-coping factors in adolescent substance use: Test of ethnic and gender differences in samples of urban adolescents. J. Drug Educ. 28: 257–280.
Vega, W. A., Zimmerman, R. S., Warheit, G. J., and Apospori, E. (1993). Risk factors for early adolescent drug use in four ethnic and racial groups. Am. J. Public Health 83: 185–189.
Wills, T. A. (1986). Stress and coping in early adolescence: Relationships to substance use in urban school samples. Health Psychol. 5: 503–529.
Wills, T. A., and Cleary, S. D. (1995). Stress-coping model for alcohol-tobacco interactions in adolescence. In Fertig, J., and Allen, J. (eds.), Alcohol and Tobacco: From Basic Science to Clinical Practice. (NIH Publication No. 95-3931). National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, MD.
Wills, T. A., and Hirky, A. E. (1996). Coping and substance abuse: A theoretical model and review of the evidence. In Zeidner, M., and Endler, N. S. (eds.), Handbook of Coping: Theory, Research, and Applications. Wiley, New York, pp. 279–302.
Wills, T. A., Pierce, J. P., and Eunsir, R. I. (1996). Large-scale environmental risk factors for substance use. American Behavioral Scientist 39: 808–822.
Wills, T. A., Sandy, J. M., Yaeger, A. M., Cleary, S. D., and Shinar, O. (2002). Coping dimensions, life stress, and adolescent substance use: A latent growth analysis. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 110: 309–323.
Wills, T. A., and Shiffman, S. (1985). Coping and substance use: A conceptual framework. In Shiffman, S., and Wills, T. A. (eds.), Coping and Substance Use. Academic Press, New York.
Wills, T. A., Vaccaro, D., and McNamara, G. (1992). Life events, family support, and competence in adolescent substance use. Am. J. Community Psychol. 20: 349–374.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Galaif, E.R., Sussman, S., Chou, CP. et al. Longitudinal Relations Among Depression, Stress, and Coping in High Risk Youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 32, 243–258 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023028809718
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023028809718