PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS AS PREDICTORS OF COPING IN ADOLESCENTS FROM MARGINAL BACKGROUNDS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the predictive role of personality traits on coping strategies. Participants were 595 adolescent students, 286 boys (47.5%) and 309 girls (52.5%), aged 13 to 18 years (Mage=15.8 SD=1.3), attending public and private schools from marginal high-risk metropolitan areas of México City. A cross-sectional, ex post facto, correlational design was used. The MMPI-A, the Adolescent Coping Questionnaire (ACQ) and a socio-demographic form were applied. Correlational and multivariate analyses were carried out to determine the degree of association among the variables and the predictive power of personality characteristics on coping strategies. Results show that some personality characteristics are not only related to coping strategies, but that traits such as anxiety, depression, anger, antisocial behavior, alienation, substance abuse proneness and immaturity, influence the use of dysfunctional coping strategies as rumination, avoidance, physiological responses and self-harmful behavior; while less immaturity, containment or social-control capability predict functional strategies and problem- solving. These results suggest that personality dimensions play an important role in the use of coping strategies during adolescence and are discussed in terms of the implications for the design of mental health prevention and promotion programs in marginal settings.

Keywords

• adolescence
• personality
• coping
• students