A STUDY ON STRESSFUL LIFE EVENTS AND STRESS COPING METHODS AMONG ADOLESCENTS

1994 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 05670335
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Public health/Health science
• Research Institution: YAMAGATA UNIVERSITY
• Principal Investigator: MORIOKA Yukiko YAMAGATA UNIVERSITY,FACULTY OF NURSING,ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, 医学部, 助教授 (70113983)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): OIJI Arata YAMAGATA UNIVERSITY,SCHOOL OF MEDICINE,LECTURER, 医学部・付属病院, 講師 (20185177)
• Project Period (FY): 1993 – 1994
• Keywords: adolescents / mental health / psychology / life events / stress-coping / neurosis / parental attitude / psychopathology

Research Abstract

Subjects and methods : The subjects were 455 (male 228, female 227) students (student's group) in a public junior high school and 50 and (male 12, female 38) out-patients(patient's group) who went to junior high school whose illness were diagnosed as neurosis in Yamagata University Hospital. They were requested to fill out a mental health questionnaire in 45 minutes. The questionnaire consisted of symptom rating test (SRT) (Kellner), check list of life events (Kanbayashi), stress-coping questionnaire (Morioka) and parental bonding instrument (PBI) (Parker)., Among the 455 students, 222 students (follow up group) who was in the 1st or 2nd grade were requested to respond to same questionnaire a year after the first survey.
Results : The mean total SRT score in the patient's group was significantly higher than that in the student's group. The mean number of highly stressful life events in the patient's group was significantly bigger than that in the student's group. As for stress-coping methods, there was no significant difference between the two groups. The mean overprotection score in the patient's group was slightly higher than that in the student's group.
In the student's group, total SRT score was correlated with number of stressuful life events, all sub-scales of stress-coping questionnaire and all scores of PBI.
Results of follow-up data suggested that experience of life events did not affect SRT score and the pattern of stress-coping methods at the time of the first survey did not affect change of SRT score.
According to our results, it may well be said that aggravation of mental health in the subjects, experience of stressful life events and change of pattern of stress-coping behavior occurred almost in parallel. Various factors including life events, parental attitude, pattern of stress-coping behavior, environmental factors in infancy and hereditary factors seemed to be woven together to cause psychopathology among adolescents.