title: Family stress and coping for Mexican origin adolescents.
abstract: Family-related stressors pose special challenges for adolescents of Mexican origin, given traditional cultural norms that compel youths to get involved with family problems despite their limited ability to effect change. The current study examines the prospective effects of coping strategies (i.e., active, distraction, avoidance, support-seeking, and religious coping) on psychological symptoms in the context of family stress with a sample (N = 189) of Mexican Origin adolescents (11-14). Hypotheses on the limits of coping were partially supported. Stress-coping interaction effects were further moderated by gender. Stress-buffering effect of active coping for internalizing symptoms was only found for girls and only at low levels of family stress for boys. Support-seeking and distraction coping both increased internalizing symptoms for boys at high levels of family stress.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA. freda.liu@asu.edu
authors.forename: Freda F
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Nancy A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Gonzales
authors.forename: Aida Cristina
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Fernandez
authors.forename: Roger E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Millsap
authors.forename: Larry E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Dumka
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D057189:Checklist; D002648:Child; D054541:Family Conflict / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D017058:Mexican Americans / Q000523:psychology*; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012737:Sex Factors; D012944:Social Support; D015206:Southwestern United States; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000208:ethnology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology