Early adolescent psychological adaptation differences by stress-coping profiles: a latent transition analysis

This study sought to reveal adolescent coping profiles by focusing on the combination of help-seeking and active/passive coping styles, and to compare affective and school adaptation levels across different profiles.

One-year longitudinal data were collected from 695 Japanese secondary-school students (359 males, 330 females, and 6 unknowns) every semester. All participants reported their positive/negative affect and school adaptation. Only those who experienced any personal problem in the past month completed self-report measures including four stress-coping strategies use.

Latent transition analysis (LTA) was conducted to identify stress-coping profiles and their transitions, conducting Tukey's tests to examine the association between the profiles and psychological adaptability.

LTA suggested a seven-class solution. One of the profiles represented participants who did not report any stressor during the past month, and the other six classes were sorted by the amount of help-seeking (low, moderate, and high) and active/passive coping style. The results indicated that simultaneous use of help-seeking and active coping was important for school adaptation and affect balance. Low-adaptation profiles showed high stability during the investigation period.

Findings suggest that clinicians should assess and intervene with help-seeking and stress-coping styles before or during early adolescence.