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The Costs and Benefits of Active Coping for Adolescents Residing in Urban Poverty

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Abstract

The present study addresses the lack of specificity and diversity highlighted in recent stress literature reviews by examining active coping in relationships between exposure to violence and internalizing and externalizing symptoms in a sample of urban youth from predominantly low-income, African American and Latino backgrounds. Two hundred and forty-one youth (mean age at Time 1 = 13 years; 66 % female; 41 % African American, 28 % Latino, 14 % European American, 6 % Asian American, 7 % mixed/biracial, 1 % American Indian/native American, .5 % Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 2 % other) and their parents participated in this three-wave study. Hierarchical regression analyses tested for moderation, and a cross lag panel path analysis tested for mediation. The results provide greater support for active coping as a variable that changes the relationship between exposure to community violence and externalizing symptoms, or moderation, rather than one that explains or mediates it. Further, specificity did not emerge for type of psychological outcome but did emerge for gender, such that active coping exacerbated the association between exposure to community violence and both internalizing and externalizing symptoms for girls, but not boys. These findings highlight the importance of contextual and demographic factors in influencing stress and coping processes during adolescence.

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Acknowledgments

This study was Funded by Grants from the W. T. Grant Foundation and the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression.

Author Contribution

J. A. assisted in data analysis and interpretation, and helped to coordinate and draft the manuscript. K. C. conceived the concept for the original paper as part of her master’s thesis and helped draft the manuscript. J. C. assisted in data analysis and interpretation and helped to draft the manuscript. K. G. conceived of and conducted the larger project of which this study is a part and helped to draft the manuscript. J. T. assisted in data analysis and interpretation and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final version of this manuscript.

Conflicts of interest

The authors report no conflict of interests.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Child Mind Institute, New York, NY, USA

    Kristin J. Carothers

  2. DePaul University, 2219 N Kenmore Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60614, USA

    Jessica A. Arizaga, Jocelyn Smith Carter & Kathryn E. Grant

  3. Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, Chicago, IL, USA

    Jeremy Taylor

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  1. Kristin J. Carothers
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  2. Jessica A. Arizaga
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Correspondence to Jocelyn Smith Carter.

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Carothers, K.J., Arizaga, J.A., Carter, J.S. et al. The Costs and Benefits of Active Coping for Adolescents Residing in Urban Poverty. J Youth Adolescence 45, 1323–1337 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-016-0487-1

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