Abstract
This study aims to examine the mediating effects of social problem-solving (SPS) and coping efficacy (CE), the essential internal belief sets of self-system processes, on the relationship between cumulative risk (CR) and adolescent mental health. Chinese adolescents (grades 10–11; N = 675, female = 391) completed measures assessing CR, SPS, CE, anxiety and depression, and life satisfaction at two time points. To attribute the effects of CR on mental health to the modeled processes, we applied a short-term longitudinal design to collect data on CR, the mediators, and mental health. We also used multi-group confirmatory factor analysis and multi-group structural equation modeling to test for measurement and model invariance with respect to gender before we combined and analyzed subgroup data. The results indicated that gender did not influence the strength of the associations in the models for males and females. CR predicted Time 2 anxiety and depression and life satisfaction while controlling for Time 1 mental health. Furthermore, SPS and CE and CE alone mediated the relationship between CR and prospective life satisfaction. These findings suggest that severe adversity may lead to low life satisfaction and high anxiety and depression in adolescents. Severe adversity may also lead to low life satisfaction through compromised SPS and CE. The findings provide preliminary evidence for an intervention approach targeting SPS and CE to promote adolescents’ life satisfaction.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) repository (https://doi.org/10.3886/E103760V2).
References
Achenbach, T. M. (1991). Manual for the youth self-report and 1991 profile. University of Vermont Department of Psychiatry.
An, D., & Eggum-Wilkens, N. D. (2019). Do cultural orientations moderate the relation between Chinese adolescents' shyness and depressive symptoms? It depends on their academic achievement. Social Development, 28(4), 908–926. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12365.
Antaramian, S. P., Huebner, E. S., Hills, K. J., & Valois, R. F. (2010). A dual-factor model of mental health: Toward a more comprehensive understanding of youth functioning. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 80(4), 462–472. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.2010.01049.x.
Aubeeluck, N. D., & Luximon-Ramma, A. (2020). The burdens of family caregivers of schizophrenia in Mauritius. SciMedicine Journal, 2(3), 118–131. https://doi.org/10.28991/SciMedJ-2020-0203-2.
Balázs, J., Miklósi, M., Keresztény, Á., Hoven, C. W., Carli, V., Wasserman, C., Apter, A., Bobes, J., Brunner, R., Cosman, D., Cotter, P., Haring, C., Iosue, M., Kaess, M., Kahn, J. P., Keeley, H., Marusic, D., Postuvan, V., Resch, F., et al. (2013). Adolescent subthreshold-depression and anxiety: Psychopathology, functional impairment and increased suicide risk. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 54(6), 670–677. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12016.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. Freeman and Company https://doi.org/10.1891/0889-8391.13.2.158.
Bao, Z., Li, D., Zhang, W., Wang, Y., Sun, W., & Zhao, L. (2014). Cumulative ecological risk and adolescents’ academic and social competence: The compensatory and moderating effects of sense of responsibility to parents. Chinese Journal of Psychological Development and Education, 30(5), 482–495.
Bell, A. C., & D’Zurilla, T. J. (2009). The influence of social problem-solving ability on the relationship between daily stress and adjustment. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 33, 439–448. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-009-9256-8.
Brody, G. H., Murry, V. M., Kim, S., & Brown, A. C. (2002). Longitudinal pathways to competence and psychological adjustment among African American children living in rural single-parent households. Child Development, 73(5), 1505–1516. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00486.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (2005). The bioecological theory of human development. In U. Bronfenbrenner (Ed.), Making human beings human: Bioecological perspective on human development. Sage.
Buchnan, C. M., Maccoby, E. E., & Dornbush, S. M. (1991). Caught between parents: Adolescents’ experience in divorced homes. Child Development, 62, 1008–1029. https://doi.org/10.2307/1131149.
Buehler, C., & Gerard, J. M. (2013). Cumulative family risk predicts increases in adjustment difficulties across early adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 42(6), 905–920. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-012-9806-3.
Chang, H., Shelleby, E. C., Cheong, J. W., & Shaw, D. S. (2012). Cumulative risk, negative emotionality, and emotion regulation as predictors of social competence in transition to school: A mediated moderation model. Social Development, 21(4), 780–800. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2011.00648.x.
Chen, F. F. (2007). Sensitivity of goodness of fit indices to lack of measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 14, 464–504. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705510701301834.
Cheung, G. W., & Rensvold, R. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 9(2), 233–255. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328007SEM0902_5.
Collie, R. J., Bostwick, K. C. P., & Martin, A. J. (2020). Perceived autonomy support, relatedness with students, and workplace outcomes: An investigation of differences by teacher gender. Educational Psychology, 40(3), 253–272. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2019.1663791.
Compas, B. E. (2009). Coping, regulation, and development during childhood and adolescence. In E. A. Skinner & M. J. Zimmer-Gembeck (Eds.), Coping and the development of regulation. New directions for child and adolescent development, 124, pp. 87–99. Jossey-Bass. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cd.245.
D’Zurilla, T. J., Nezu, A. M., & Maydeu-Olivares, A. (2004). Social problem solving: Theory and assessment. In E. Chang, T. D’Zurilla, & L. Sanna (Eds.), Social problem solving: Theory, research, and training (pp. 11–27). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10805-001.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. Plenum Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2271-7.
Dietz, L. J., Marshal, M. P., Burton, C. M., Bridge, J. A., Birmaher, B., Kolko, D., Duffy, J. N., & Brent, D. A. (2014). Social problem solving among depressed adolescents is enhanced by structured psychotherapies. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 82(2), 202–211. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035718.
Doan, S. N., Fuller-Rowell, T. E., & Evans, G. W. (2012). Cumulative risk and adolescent’s internalizing and externalizing problems: The mediating roles of maternal responsiveness and self-regulation. Developmental Psychology, 48(6), 1529–1539. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027815.
Enders, C. K. (2013). Dealing with missing data in developmental research. Child Development Perspective, 7(1), 27–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12008.
Ernestus, S. M., Prelow, H. M., Ramrattan, M. E., & Wilson, S. A. (2014). Self-system processes as a mediator of school connectedness and depressive symptomatology in African American and European American adolescents. School Mental Health, 6, 175–183. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-014-9122-z.
Evans, G. W., Li, D., & Whipple, S. S. (2013). Cumulative risk and child development. Psychological Bulletin, 139(6), 1342–1396. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031808.
Forbes, G., Zhang, X., Doroszewicz, K., & Haas, K. (2009). Relationships between individualism-collectivism, gender, and direct or indirect aggression: A study in China, Poland, and the US. Aggressive Behavior, 35(1), 24–30. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20292.
Gunnar, M. R., & Quevedo, K. (2007). The neurobiology of stress and development. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 145–173. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085605.
Hsieh, H.-F., Zimmerman, M. A., Bauermeister, J. A., Caldwell, C. H., Xue, Y., Wang, Z., & Hou, Y. (2016). Cumulative risks and promotive factors for Chinese adolescent problem behaviors. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 43, 71–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2016.01.003.
Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118.
Huebner, E. S. (1991). Initial development of the students’ life satisfaction scale. School Psychology International, 12(3), 231–240. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143034391123010.
Kashima, Y., Bain, P. G., & Perfors, A. (2019). The psychology of cultural dynamics: What is it, what do we know, and what is yet to be known? Annual Review of Psychology, 70(1), 499–529. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010418-103112.
Koss, K. J., Cummings, E. M., Davies, P. T., & Cicchetti, D. (2016). Patterns of adolescent regulatory responses during family conflict and mental health trajectories. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 27(1), 229–245. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12269.
Kouros, C. D., & Garber, J. (2014). Trajectories of individual depressive symptoms in adolescents: Gender and family relationships as predictors. Developmental Psychology, 50(2), 2633–2643. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038190.
Larson, K., Russ, S. A., Crall, J. J., & Halfon, N. (2008). Influence of multiple social risks on children’s health. Pediatrics, 121(2), 337–344. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2007-0447.
Little, T. D., Rhemtulla, M., Gibson, K., & Schoemann, A. M. (2013). Why the items versus parcels controversy needn’t be one. Psychological Methods, 18(3), 285–300. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033266.
Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (2010). Cultures and selves: A cycle of mutual constitution. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(4), 420–430. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691610375557.
Marsh, H. W., Hau, K. T., & Wen, Z. (2004). In search of golden rules: Comment on hypothesis-testing approaches to setting cutoff values for fit indexes and dangers in overgeneralizing Hu and Bentler's (1999) findings. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 11(3), 320–341. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328007sem1103_2.
Masten, A. S., & Cicchetti, D. (2010). Developmental cascades. Development and Psychopathology, 22(3), 491–495. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579410000222.
Masten, A. S., & Motti-Stefanidi, F. (2020). Multisystem resilience for children and youth in disaster: Reflections in the context of COVID-19. Adversity and Resilience Science, 1, 95–106. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42844-020-00010-w.
Merrill, K. L., Smith, S. W., Cumming, M. M., & Daunic, A. P. (2017). A review of social problem-solving interventions: Past findings, current status, and future directions. Review of Educational Research, 87(1), 71–102. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654316652943.
Moos, R, & Moos, B. (1981). Family environment scale manual. Consulting Psychologists Press.
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (1998–2015). Mplus user’s guide (7th ed.). Muthén & Muthén.
Olson, D., McCubbin, H., Barnes, H., Larsen, A., Muxen, M., & Wilson, M. (1982). Family inventories: Inventories used in a National Survey of families across the family life cycle. Family social science. University of Minnesota.
Pianta, R. C. (1997). Adult-child relationship processes and early schooling. Early Education and Development, 8(1), 11–25. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15566935eed0801_2.
Podsakoff, P., MacKenzie, S., & Podsakoff, N. (2012). Sources of method bias in social science research and recommendations on how to control it. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 539–569. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100452.
Prelow, H. M., Weaver, S. R., & Swenson, R. R. (2006). Competence, self-esteem, and coping efficacy as mediators of ecological risk and depressive symptoms in urban African American and European American youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35, 507–517. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-006-9068-z.
Putnick, D. L., & Bornstein, M. H. (2016). Measurement invariance conventions and reporting: The state of the art and future directions for psychological research. Developmental Review, 41, 71–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2016.06.004.
Roorda, D. L., & Koomen, H. M. Y. (2021). Student–teacher relationships and students’ externalizing and internalizing behaviors: A cross-lagged study in secondary education. Child Development, 92(1), 174–188. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13394.
Sandler, I. N. (2001). Quality and ecology of adversity as common mechanisms of risk and resilience. American Journal of Community Psychology, 29(1), 19–61. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005237110505.
Santiago, C. D., Wadsworth, M. E., & Stump, J. (2011). Socioeconomic status, neighborhood disadvantage, and poverty-related stress: Prospective effects on psychological syndromes among diverse low-income families. Journal of Economic Psychology, 32(2), 218–230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2009.10.008.
Santos, H. C., Varnum, M. E. W., & Grossmann, I. (2017). Global increases in individualism. Psychological Science, 28(9), 1228–1239. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617700622.
Sarbarzeh, P. A., Karimi, S., Jalilian, M., & Mosafer, H. (2020). Depression, anxiety, stress and social isolation in hepatitis patients. SciMedicine Journal, 2(4), 225–233. https://doi.org/10.28991/SciMedJ-2020-0204-5.
Stoddard, S. A., Zimmerman, M. A., & Bauermeister, J. A. (2012). A longitudinal analysis of cumulative risks, cumulative promotive factors, and adolescent violent behavior. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 22(3), 542–555. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2012.00786.x.
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2012). Using multivariate statistics (6th ed.). Pearson.
Thompson, B. (2007). Effect sizes, confidence intervals, and confidence intervals for effect sizes. Psychology in the Schools, 44(5), 423–432 https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.20234.
Van Egmond, M. C., Navarrete Berges, A., Omarshah, T., & Benton, J. (2017). The role of intrinsic motivation and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs under conditions of severe resource scarcity. Psychological Science, 28(6), 822–828. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617698138.
Vecchio, G. M., Gerbino, M., Pastorelli, C., Del Bove, G., & Caprara, G. V. (2007). Multi-faceted self-efficacy beliefs as predictors of life satisfaction in late adolescence. Personality and Individual Differences, 43(7), 1807–1818. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2007.05.018.
Wadsworth, M. E., & Compas, B. E. (2002). Coping with family conflict and economic strain: The adolescence perspective. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 12(2), 243–274. https://doi.org/10.1111/1532-7795.00033.
Wainer, H., & Robinson, D. H. (2003). Shaping up the practice of null hypothesis significance testing. Educational Research, 32(7), 22–30. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X032007022.
Wang, J., & Wang, X. (2012). Structural equation modeling: Applications using Mplus. Higher Education Press. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118356258.
Wang, J., Li, D., & Zhang, W. (2010). Adolescence’s family financial difficulty and social adaptation: Coping efficacy of compensatory, mediation, and moderation effects. Journal of Beijing Normal University, 4, 22–32. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1002-0209.2010.04.002.
Williams, J., & MacKinnon, D. P. (2008). Resampling and distribution of the product methods for testing indirect effects in complex models. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 15(1), 23–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705510701758166.
Willroth, E. C., Atherton, O. E., & Robins, R. W. (2021). Life satisfaction trajectories during adolescence and the transition to young adulthood: Findings from a longitudinal study of Mexican-origin youth. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120(1), 192–205. https://doi.org/10.1037/PSPP0000294.
Wolchik, S. A., Tein, J.-Y., Sandler, I. N., & Ayers, T. S. (2006). Stressors, quality of the child-caregiver relationship, and children’s mental health problems after parental death: The mediating role of self-system beliefs. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 34(2), 221–238. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-005-9016-5.
Xiong, J., Hai, M., Wang, J., Li, Y., & Jiang, G. (2020). Cumulative risk and mental health in Chinese adolescents: The moderating role of psychological capital. School Psychology International, 41(5), 409–429. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143034320934524.
Yang, Y., Chen, Y., Zhou, H., & Wang, L. (2012). The influence of daily stressful life events on teenage students’ social adjustment: Social problem-solving ability as a mediator. Chinese journal of Psychological Science, 35(6), 1376–1382. https://doi.org/10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.2012.06.004.
Zhang, R., & Weng, L. (2019). Not all cultural values are created equal: Cultural change in China reexamined through Google books. International Journal of Psychology, 54(1), 144–154. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12436.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Office for Education Sciences Planning [Impact of Family Cumulative Risk on Adolescents’ Mental Health and Underlying Mechanisms; Grant No. DBA180312].
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Junmei Xiong and Man Hai. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Junmei Xiong and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. The revised manuscript was written by Junmei Xiong. All authors took part in the revision processes and read and approved the revised manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Ethics Committee of Central China Normal University (CCNU-IRB-202103-022) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The ethical permission date is 1st of March, 2021.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Conflict of Interest
On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Xiong, J., Hai, M., Su, Z. et al. Mediating effects of social problem-solving and coping efficacy on the relationship between cumulative risk and mental health in Chinese adolescents. Curr Psychol 42, 8759–8770 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02167-8
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02167-8