Effects of coping strategies on acculturation-based conflict and mental health symptoms among Asian American youths

Numerous culturally specific stressors have been contributors to Asian American (AA) youth mental health problems and their functional impairments. Proper coping strategies are crucial for children to manage stresses resulting from relational conflicts, and a specific coping strategy may either facilitate engaging in adaptable responses or avoiding the conflicts. However, there is a lack of studies to determine the types of coping strategies that have been effective among AA youths to reduce conflicts with their parents and to decrease their depression and anxiety. To address these limitations, this research study aimed at exploring the types of effective coping strategies that may be related to acculturation-based parent-child conflicts and mental health problems among AA adolescents. This correlational study was composed of 127 Asian American youths (ages 13–18 years) with depressive and anxiety symptoms, and the data were collected from online Google surveys, composed of demographic/screening and the AAFCS, the DASS-21, and the CISS. Through a correlational analysis, this study found that there was a significant positive correlation between acculturation-based parent-child conflicts and AA youths’ symptoms of depression and anxiety. The results from multiple regression analysis indicated that while higher use of emotion-oriented coping styles by AA youths was a better predictor of acculturation-based parent-child conflicts compared to their use of task-oriented coping styles, higher use of task-oriented coping styles was a better predictor of parent-child conflicts compared to use of avoidance-oriented coping styles.