Moderating Role of Coping Strategies in Relationship between Household Chaos and Mental Health
Abstract
Background. Household chaos is identified with mental well-being as the level of chaos promptly
affecting the mental health of adolescents. A chaotic home situation is portrayed as when there is an elevated
degree of disturbances, noise and crowd, instability, and an absence of a schedule that may add to levels of
stress in a home environment (Bronfenbrenner & Evans, 2002). Adolescence is said to be a vulnerable period
in which an individual is involved in physical and psychosocial changes (WHO, 2004). Coping strategies are
the mechanism used by an individual to cope with stressful events (Folkman, 1984). Problem-focused coping
strategy with reference to mental health focuses on problem solving. Emotion-focused coping helps to
regulate emotions and dysfunctional coping tries to avoid stressful situations (Tolor & Fehon, 1987). The
objective of this study was to examine the role of coping strategies in a relationship with household chaos and
the mental health of adolescents.
Method. The sample was consisted of 200 adolescents (52% girls, 48% boys) between the ages of 10 and
19. The correlational research method was used to assess the relationship among variables. The convenient
sampling technique was used to collect the data. Confusion, Hubbub and Order scale (Mathen et al., 1995),
Mental Health Inventory (Ware & Veit, 1983), and Brief Cope scale (Carver, 1997) were used to measure the
study variables.
Results. The correlational analysis revealed a significant negative correlation between household chaos and
mental health. Findings showed that household chaos negatively predicted psychological wellbeing and positively predicted psychological distress while, coping strategies was positively linked with mental health. Findings further indicated that coping strategies buffered the relationship between household chaos and mental health.
Conclusion. Adolescents with high levels of chaos at home, suffer from mental health problems. In the
presence of coping strategies, the effect of household chaos on mental health decreases.
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References
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