Threat Appraisals and Coping Responses to Stressors: Links to Chinese Children’s Behavioral Problems and Social Competence

Abstract

Given the increasing societal concerns about youth’s mental health problems in the context of rapid sociocultural changes in urban China, studying the links of appraisals and coping to Chinese children’s adjustment can inform cultural adaptations of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) interventions for this population. In a school-based sample of 591 Chinese preadolescent children (53.6% girls, $\overline{X}$ age = 11.6 years, in fifth and sixth grades) in Beijing, we tested the concurrent relations between (a) children’s self-reported threat appraisals of stressors and use of coping strategies (active, avoidant, distraction, and support seeking), and (b) three domains of adjustment (externalizing and internalizing problems, and social competence) rated by parents, teachers, and children. Structural equation modeling revealed that controlling for stressors and family demographics, threat appraisals and avoidant coping were positively associated with internalizing problems. Active coping was negatively associated with externalizing problems and positively associated with social competence, and support seeking coping was negatively associated with internalizing problems. Gender did not moderate threat/coping-adjustment associations.