Coping strategies for stress used by adolescent girls

Abstract

Objectives: Secondary school girls, ages 15 – 19 yrs were surveyed to find out the coping strategies they used when stressed. Adolescents, who are affected with stress and depression early in life, suffer from depression throughout their lives especially if they are utilizing improper ways to cope with it.

Methods: A cross sectional school based survey among 1028 adolescent girls was conducted among the secondary schools in Riyadh city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Results: About 25% stated that they cry, 19% listen to music, 15% start eating a lot, 12% sit alone/isolate themselves, 11% pray/read the Quran, 10% get into a verbal argument or a fight. Only a few, 3% exercise, and 2% stated that they find someone to discuss and talk to.

Conclusion: Majority of the adolescent girls in our survey, rely on emotion related coping mechanisms rather than problem solving mechanisms. This can cause long term implications in these adolescents as there is an increased probability to develop depression later on in life. Policy makers need to implement strategies for early identification of stress and depression. Talking to friends and family can serve as an effective way to cope with stress.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12669/pjms.305.5014

How to cite this:Raheel H. Coping strategies for stress used by adolescent girls. Pak J Med Sci 2014;30(5):958-962.   doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12669/pjms.305.5014

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.