Strategies for Coping with Problems and Determination of Their Correlates in Female Students of the Third Educational District in Shiraz in 2015

Adolescence is a vital period with new hazardous grounds requiring decision-making. In case adolescents are not equipped with coping strategies and are not able to perceive their own and others’ emotions, they will not have the ability to encounter adolescence pressures and crises. Thus, behavioral problems will be manifested through aggression, depression, and anxiety. The present study aimed to determine the coping strategies used by 8th grade female students in Shiraz and assess their relationship with some variables.
This cross-sectional study was conducted on 105 8th grade female students. The participants were selected through random cluster sampling and completed demographic and coping strategies questionnaires. Then, the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, new Mann-Whitney U, and one-way ANOVA.
The study results revealed a significant relationship between coping strategies score and father’s education level (p=0.03), mother’s education level (p=0.001), and father’s occupation (p=0.04). However, mother’s occupation, family income level, and students’ preference for spending their leisure time showed no significant association in this regard. Furthermore, the students mostly utilized “reference to others” style and used efficient and inefficient styles equally.
Although the students used the three strategies at the same time, the use of “reference to others” strategy was preferred. Therefore, the reason for using this method by the students requires further investigations.