Repercussion of stress coping strategies on Secondary Education students’ happiness

Abstract

This study aimed to describe the coping strategies that adolescents adopt in the different situations of stress that occur in their everyday lives, and how they affect their subjective happiness. It evaluated 1,402 students (711 males, 691 females) aged 12-17 years in Spanish Compulsory Secondary Education. The results show how males resort more to unproductive-type strategies, while females seek more social support. The model created for the dependent variable happiness gave a correct estimation for 92.9% of all cases (X² = 477.351; p < 0.001; R² = 0.607). The results indicated how the perception of subjective happiness was greater for those who used others-focused coping strategies. The unproductive coping results implied less subjective happiness. The main conclusions include having to work with adolescents on coping strategies with the group, dealing better with more introspective strategies, and training in and increasing the use of active coping strategies and emotional support.