Coping Skill Development Across Adolescence and Subsequent Links with Psychopathology in Early Adulthood

Coping effectively with affective distress is a critical developmental task expected to support affective health over the lifespan, with parents likely shaping coping skill development. Yet, naturalistic variation in coping skill development is poorly understood and it remains unclear whether: (1) gender-specific and parental support enrich coping skill development and (2) differences in naturalistic coping skill trajectories differentiate psychopathology outcomes thereafter. Using longitudinal data from a large, nationally-representative U.S. adolescent study (n = 831), the current study applied a longitudinal multilevel modeling approach to track growth in acceptance and cognitive restructuring coping skill use over 7 years spanning adolescence through young adulthood. Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVAs and Dunn’s post-hoc tests were applied to estimate trajectory differences based on within-gender variation, between adolescent parental support, and psychosocial consequences in adulthood. Greater parental support acted as an enrichment factor for coping skill development over time, with trajectories further differentiated as by gender. Adolescent coping patterns differentiated psychosocial impairment in early adulthood, with evidence of gender-specific linkages between coping and impairment, particularly for women. Characterizing specific coping repertoires and the context in which they develop is likely support understanding of whether coping skill development contributes to psychopathology onset.