Coping profiles across adulthood: findings from a 3-wave longitudinal study using latent profile transition analysis

The use of various coping strategies has important impacts on individuals' health and well-being. However, most of the coping literature continues to use variable-centred approaches that ignore unique within-person interactions among coping strategies, as well as change in these interactions over time. The present study sought to address these gaps by identifying coping profiles representing distinct interactions between a set of coping strategies and examining the stability of these profiles over time.

The study used data from a large community sample of Canadians (N = 1,372) who completed the short form for the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS-SF) scale at three time-points or waves over 5 years. Latent profile transition analysis (LPTA) was used to identify latent profiles and then examine the stability of the profiles over time.

LPTA revealed three distinct coping profiles: Engaged, Avoidance-Oriented, and Disengaged. All coping profiles showed relatively strong stability across the three waves, with Engaged coping being the most stable over time.

These findings have important implications for future coping research using a person-centred approach, including for the identification of individuals at risk for poor life outcomes due to reliance on these coping profiles.