Stress and coping in early adolescence: Relationships to substance use in urban school samples.
Abstract
Measures of stress and coping were obtained from two cohorts of urban adolescents during the seventh- to eighth-grade period and were related to indices of cigarette smoking and alcohol use. Predictions were derived from a stress coping model of substance use. Stress was indexed by measures of subjective stress, recent events, and major life events; coping was assessed by behavior-based and intention-based methods. Concurrent and prospective analyses were consistent with predictions, indicating that stress was positively related to substance use, and four coping mechanisms (behavioral coping, cognitive coping, adult social support, and relaxation) were inversely related to substance use. Two types of predicted interactions, Stress X Coping and Positive X Negative Events, were found. Measures indexing peer support, distraction coping, and aggressive coping were positively related to substance use, independent of other predictors. Implications for substance use theory and prevention research are discussed.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Alcohol consumption can serve as a maladaptive way to cope with anger or stress, particularly among individuals who rely on avoidant coping strategies.
“Alcohol consumption can serve as a maladaptive way to cope with anger or stress, particularly among individuals who rely on avoidant coping strategies (Wills 1986; Cooper et al. 1992, 1995; Leibsohn et al. 1994; Laurent et al. 1997).”
From Decoding the bidirectional links between alcohol misuse and aggression: toward a unified translational framework (2026) · cites this paper as Wills 1986
Cited by
Sorted by citations
You want to measure coping but your protocol’ too long: Consider the brief cope
Carver, C. S. (1997) · International Journal of Behavioral Medicine · doi:10.1207/s15327558ijbm0401_6 · Cited by 7,361 · see citing works
The adolescent brain and age-related behavioral manifestations
Spear, L. P. (2000) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/s0149-7634(00)00014-2 · Cited by 5,433 · see citing works
Compas, B. E., Connor-Smith, J. K., Saltzman, H., Thomsen, A. H., & Wadsworth, M. E. (2001) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.127.1.87 · Cited by 3,277 · see citing works
The impact of stress on students in secondary school and higher education
Pascoe, M. C., Hetrick, S. E., & Parker, A. G. (2020) · International Journal of Adolescence and Youth · doi:10.1080/02673843.2019.1596823 · Cited by 1,359 · see citing works
“In these students, coping strategies that included information gathering, problem solving and having a positive outlook, as well as adult social support and relaxation were inversely related to substance use (Wills, 1986).”
Sensitive periods of substance abuse: Early risk for the transition to dependence
Jordan, C. J., & Andersen, S. L. (2017) · Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2016.10.004 · Cited by 455 · see citing works
“…et al., 2008; Galvan t al., 2006), combined with hyper-reactivity of reward salience Brenhouse et al., 2008; Casey and Jones, 2010; Ernst et al., 2005; alvan, 2010; Somerville et al., 2011), habit, and stress systems Andersen and Teicher, 2008; Newcomb and Harlow, 1986; Sinha, 008; Wills, 1986).”
Longitudinal Relations among Depression, Stress, and Coping in High Risk Youth
Galaif, E. R., Sussman, S., Chou, C.-P., & Wills, T. A. (2003) · Journal of Youth and Adolescence · doi:10.1023/a:1023028809718 · Cited by 144 · see citing works
Self-citationButzer, B., LoRusso, A., Shin, S. H., & Khalsa, S. B. S. (2017) · Journal of Youth and Adolescence · doi:10.1007/s10964-016-0513-3 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
“The 7-item Anger Coping subscale of the Wills Coping Inventory measures the tendency to respond with anger in everyday situations, and was rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (‘‘never’’) to 5 (‘‘usually’’) (Wills 1986).”
Life stress in adolescence predicts early adult reward-related brain function and alcohol dependence
Casement, M. D., Shaw, D. S., Sitnick, S. L., Musselman, S. C., & Forbes, E. E. (2015) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsu061 · Cited by 82 · see citing works
Rapid anxiety assessment in medical patients: Evidence for the validity of verbal anxiety ratings
Benotsch, E. G., Lutgendorf, S. K., Watson, D., Fick, L. J., & Lang, E. V. (2000) · Annals of Behavioral Medicine · doi:10.1007/bf02895114 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Neurobiology of adolescent substance use disorders
Sharma, A., & Morrow, J. D. (2016) · Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America · doi:10.1016/j.chc.2016.02.001 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Perfectionism, Substance Use, and Mental Health in College Students: A Longitudinal Analysis
Nelsen, S. K., Kayaalp, A., & Page, K. J. (2023) · Journal of American College Health · doi:10.1080/07448481.2021.1891076 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Russell, N. M., Frier, M. D., Bortolato, M., & Mangieri, R. A. (2026) · Psychopharmacology · doi:10.1007/s00213-025-06938-0 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Wills, T. A.
- Affiliations
- Albert Einstein College of Medicine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wills, Thomas A.
- ORCID
- Wills, Thomas A.
- Venue
- Health Psychology
- Published
- 1986
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 503-529
- ISSN
- 0278-6133 (ISSN-L)
- 1930-7810
- OpenAlex
- W2036360823
- Cited by
- 455
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 4.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Health Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- American Psychological Association
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- U.S. Public Health Service (80A-23)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Student Stress and Coping
- Keywords
- stress, coping, early adolescence, substance use, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, urban adolescents, major life events, peer support, distraction coping, aggressive coping, relaxation, stress and coping model, substance use prevention
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adolescent, Alcohol Drinking, Cross-Sectional Studies, Humans, Life Change Events, New York City, Smoking, Stress, Psychological, Urban Population, Substance-Related Disorders
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
