Experiencing two or more stressful life events was associated with worse short- and long-term adjustment among adolescents, with coping orientations conditioning these associations such that emotion-focused coping exacerbated negative outcomes while problem-focused coping was concurrently beneficial but heightened depressive symptoms over time.
Key Findings
Results
Experiencing two or more stressful life events (compared to one or none) was associated with worse adolescent adjustment in both the short and longer term.
Sample consisted of 2323 eighth graders from 24 public middle schools in southeast Texas in 2019.
The sample was racially/ethnically diverse: Hispanic (44.1%), non-Hispanic Black (30.5%), non-Hispanic White (8.6%), and non-Hispanic Asian (16.7%); 51.1% female.
Outcomes examined were depression symptomatology and sleep adequacy.
Multivariate linear and logistic regressions were conducted while controlling for clustering in schools.
Results
Problem-focused coping was concurrently associated with better adjustment but heightened the association between aggregated stressful life events and depressive symptoms over time.
Problem-focused coping showed a short-term benefit for adjustment outcomes.
Longitudinally, problem-focused coping exacerbated the link between accumulation of stressful life events and depressive symptomatology.
This pattern suggests a nuanced role of problem-focused coping that differs by time horizon.
Results
Avoidant coping was associated with higher depressive symptoms and exacerbated the association between stressful life events and depressive symptomatology in the short term, but was not associated with adjustment longitudinally.
In the short term, avoidant coping was directly associated with higher depressive symptoms.
Avoidant coping also moderated the short-term relationship between stressful life events and depressive symptomatology, worsening that association.
No significant longitudinal association between avoidant coping and adjustment was found.
Results
Avoidant coping was associated with better odds of getting adequate sleep when no stressful life events were experienced, but conditioned the negative association between experiencing one stressful life event and worse sleep.
Sleep outcome was measured as adequate sleep (logistic regression).
Avoidant coping had a beneficial association with sleep only in the absence of stressful life events.
When one stressful life event was present, avoidant coping worsened the negative association with sleep adequacy.
Results
Emotion-focused coping was associated with poorer adjustment in both the short and longer term and exacerbated the negative association between stressful life events and short-term adjustment.
Emotion-focused coping was directly associated with worse depression symptomatology and sleep outcomes in the short term.
The negative effects of emotion-focused coping persisted longitudinally.
Emotion-focused coping also moderated the association between stressful life events and short-term adjustment, amplifying negative outcomes.
Methods
The study examined coping orientations as moderators of the relationship between stressful life events and adolescent adjustment using a diverse, school-based sample.
Three coping orientations were examined: problem-focused, avoidant, and emotion-focused coping.
Both short-term (concurrent) and longer-term (longitudinal) associations were assessed.
The study controlled for school-level clustering using multivariate linear and logistic regression models.
Data were collected in 2019 from 24 public middle schools in southeast Texas.
What This Means
This research suggests that the number of stressful life events an adolescent experiences matters: those who went through two or more stressful events in the past year had worse mental health (more depressive symptoms) and worse sleep both shortly after and over a longer period, compared to those who experienced one or none. The study followed over 2,300 racially and ethnically diverse eighth graders in Texas and looked at whether the way teenagers cope with stress changes these outcomes.
The study found that different coping strategies had different effects depending on timing and context. Trying to solve problems directly (problem-focused coping) seemed helpful in the short term but was linked to more depressive symptoms over time when teens had experienced multiple stressors. Avoiding the stress appeared to help with sleep when no stressful events occurred, but made things worse for sleep when even one stressful event had happened. Using emotion-focused coping — which may involve dwelling on feelings or ruminating — was consistently linked to worse outcomes both immediately and over time, and made the effects of stressful events even more harmful in the short term.
This research suggests that simply encouraging adolescents to cope more actively may not always be the best approach, particularly when they are dealing with accumulating stress. Practitioners working with teenagers may need to consider both the type of coping strategy being used and the stress load a young person is carrying, rather than applying a one-size-fits-all recommendation for coping with stress.
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Osborne K, Low S, Lu Y, Mytelka C, Parameswaran K, Temple J. (2026). Short- and long-term associations between recent stressful life events and adjustment among adolescents: The role of coping orientations.. Journal of research on adolescence : the official journal of the Society for Research on Adolescence. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.70183