The Relation of Executive Functioning to Coping Strategies and Internalizing Symptoms in a Community Sample of African American Adolescents

Coping involves an individual\u27s efforts to manage specific demands that are appraised as exceeding available resources, requiring the coordination of stressor appraisal, a choice of coping strategy, and assessment of the strategy\u27s usefulness (e.g., reduced distress). Since coping requires deliberative effort to adapt to shifting environmental demands under taxing conditions, coping should involve use of executive functioning (EF). This study explored the relation of EF, appraisals, and coping to internalizing symptoms in a community sample of African American adolescents. Results indicated that higher distress appraisals were significantly associated with higher depression scores for youth who reported high scores on active coping, only for youth with clinically significant EF difficulties. These results suggest that youth with EF difficulties may not be able to successfully utilize coping strategies aimed at solving problems and ameliorating their own distress in response to stressors, perhaps leading to the development of depression over time