Gender and family income role in coping with academic difficulties. Romanian adolescent’s perspective

Abstract

Background. The coping styles are often studied in relation with health. In our research we compare the avoidant coping with the active one in adolescents under academic stress. The coping styles are analyzed together with few mental health variables, with gender and family income. Methods: Participants were 900 adolescents with age between 14 and 17 years old (M=15.59), 342 boys and 558 girls. Regarding the monthly income of each adolescent‘s family, 269 had below average salary of 1.500 lei and the others 631, above this level. Correlations and regressions were used to evaluate different correlates and predictors of coping methods in this group. Findings: The association between types of coping and dispositional optimism, neuroticism and depressive symptoms are of a different strength in girls and in boys. The active coping is positive correlated with dispositional optimism only in the high income group not in the low income and the behavioral passivity correlate negative with optimism also in the high income group. Income is also a moderator for the association between behavioral passivity and neuroticism, which is stronger for the high income group. Discussions: Economic inequalities can help explain differences concerning cognitive and behavioral related factors of health and disease. The correlation between behavioral passivity and depressive symptoms is more pronounced in boys and in the higher income adolescents group.