Personality traits, stressful life events, and coping styles in early adolescence

The aim of this research is to examine the relationship between personality traits, stressful life events and coping styles in early adolescence. On a sample of 265 subjects, ranging in age from 11 to 14 years, a junior EPQ, questionnaire of coping styles and scale of subjective stress were applied. Using the path analysis, the direct and indirect effects of personality traits and perceived intensity and frequency of stressful life events (subjective stress) on three coping styles (problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping and avoidance coping) were tested. The results obtained demonstrated that extraversion has a direct positive effect on problem and emotion-focused coping style while neuroticism and psychoticism have direct positive effects on avoidance coping style. The indirect effects of personality traits on coping styles through subjective stress are low for all three coping styles. Subjective stress has statistically significant positive effects on all three coping styles and the greatest independent effect is on avoidance coping. In general, the results of this research demonstrate that the relationship between personality traits, subjective stress and coping styles in early adolescence are similar to those obtained on the samples of adult subjects and that already in early adolescence coping can be meaningfully viewed in a larger dispositional context. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.