This study examines whether problem-focused, emotion-focused, and avoidant coping strategies predict key outcomes in a sample of 354 high school students. The four outcomes considered are: academic achievement, life satisfaction, positive feelings towards school, and negative feelings towards school. Results demonstrate that coping incrementally predicts all four outcomes above and beyond the effects of the Big Five personality factors, vocabulary, and demographic variables. Incremental prediction is strongest for school feeling variables, where coping predicts 17.4% of the variance in positive feelings, and 15.9% of the variance in negative feelings. All three coping styles are important in predicting different outcomes: problem-focused coping predicts grades, life satisfaction, and positive feelings about school; emotion-focused coping predicts negative feelings only; and avoidant-focused coping predicts both positive and negative feelings about school. Results suggest that coping styles are an important variable for school outcomes, and that the effectiveness of different strategies differs depending on the outcome considered.
Transactional models of stress view coping as the behavioral, emotional, cognitive, or physiological processes that follow an individual's appraisal of a situation as stressful (Folkman and Lazarus, 1985, Lazarus, 1999 and Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). There are many different taxonomies of coping, but most models encompass Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) initial distinction between problem- and emotion-focused coping with stress (see Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004, for a review of coping models). A further distinction is often made between emotion-focused and avoidant coping (Endler & Parker, 1990). In the current study, we used this broad three-dimensional model of coping (problem-focused, emotion-focused, and avoidant coping). Each of these three strategies aims to reduce stress in different ways: problem-focused coping through resolving the root cause of the stressful situation; emotion-focused coping through a focus on one's emotional responses to the stressor; and avoidant coping through avoiding the stressor as much as possible. Coping strategies have been linked with personality traits, life satisfaction, academic achievement, and a range of well-being measures (e.g., Carver and Connor-Smith, 2010, Diener et al., 2006 and MacCann et al., 2011).
The current study was designed to tease apart the relative influence of personality and coping styles on a range of academic and emotional outcomes in high school students. Specifically, we examine whether students' typical coping styles incrementally predict their achievement, their satisfaction with life, and their positive and negative feelings towards school over-and-above the effects of the Big Five personality factors and cognitive ability indicators. This research is unique in examining the role of coping across such a broad range of outcomes in a high-school sample, focusing not only on grade point average (GPA), but on a broad range of emotion-related outcomes indicative of student well-being. A further strength of this design is the control for standard personality variables when estimating the influence of coping, as personality is known to relate to coping styles (Connor-Smith & Flachsbart, 2007). In the paragraphs below, we outline how the literature suggests students' coping styles will relate to academic performance and emotional well-being.
2. Coping styles and academic achievement
The utility of a particular coping style depends on the nature of the stressor: problem-focused coping may be best for controllable situations, whereas emotion-focused and avoidant coping appears more adaptive in uncontrollable situations (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Attempting to fix an uncontrollable problem is akin to banging one's head against a brick wall, and is more likely to increase stress than reduce it. However, leaving an aversive but controllable situation unresolved is clearly not an effective course of action, and may be particularly stressful if one focuses on the negative emotional reactions to the aversive situation. Research to date suggests that the goal of attaining high grades in secondary and tertiary education most resembles a controllable situation: Problem-focused coping predicts higher grades whereas avoidant-focused coping predicts lower grades (Cooper et al., 2003, Endler et al., 1994, MacCann et al., 2011 and Windle and Windle, 1996). Research on emotion-focused coping is mixed. Some studies report a positive relationship between emotion-focused coping and grades (e.g., Edwards & Trimble, 1992), others report a negative relationship (e.g., MacCann et al., 2011 and Whatley et al., 1998), while still others report no relationship (e.g., Windle & Windle, 1996). In the current study, we expected to replicate the relationships of problem-focused and avoidant coping with students' high-school grades, while al
