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Coping Styles and Sex Differences in Depressive Symptoms and Delinquent Behavior

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Abstract

Building on research that links gender to differences in well-being and differences in stress exposure and vulnerability, the current study examines how coping styles are gendered in ways that may contribute to sex differences in depressive symptoms and delinquent behavior. The study disaggregates stress measures to reflect gender differences in the experience of stress, examining whether avoidant, approach, and action coping condition the relationship between stress and well-being. Regression analyses were conducted using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Results revealed sex differences and similarities. The interaction of avoidant coping and stress helped explain why girls had more depressive symptoms than boys, action coping increased delinquent behavior for girls, while approach coping decreased delinquent behavior for boys and girls. Assisting adolescents in developing coping styles that discourage avoiding problems or taking quick action, but that encourage problem-solving, can improve well-being, regardless of sex

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Notes

  1. A multiple regression imputation was used to handle missing income cases, for which 22% of the data was missing. The imputed regression equation includes the interviewed parent’s marital status, interviewed parent’s highest level of education, highest level of education of that parent’s partner (if there was one), respondent’s race, reported ability to pay bills, and receipt of food stamps. After confirming the equation for cases not missing income by regressing income on these variables, missing income cases were replaced with the predicted value. To determine if those respondents who did not report income (i.e., missing before replacement) were systematically different than those who did, a dummy variable for those who did not report income was included in a preliminary regression analyses on outcome. The coefficient was not significant, indicating no difference, so the dummy variable was excluded from further analyses.

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Acknowledgements

This article uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by a grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524 (addhealth@unc.edu). The author wishes to thank Kimberly Tyler and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts of this article.

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Correspondence to Lisa A. Kort-Butler.

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Kort-Butler, L.A. Coping Styles and Sex Differences in Depressive Symptoms and Delinquent Behavior. J Youth Adolescence 38, 122–136 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-008-9291-x

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