Coping styles and psychosomatic problems: Are they related?

A number of recent studies have shown avoidant coping to be related with di verse types of somatic and mental pathology, In order to investigate the re levance of coping for both psychological and somatic problems in delinquent subjects, 185 boys from juvenile correction and 96 boys from secondary sch ools in Arkhangelsk, Northern Russia, were assessed by means of the Coping Scale for Children and Youth, the Youth Self-Report and the Giessen Subject ive Complaints List - youth form, The results from the delinquent subjects partly confirmed previous findings on the dominant role of behavioural avoi dance in the relationships between coping styles and both behavior/emotiona l problems and somatic complaints. Further implications of the results are discussed, Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.