(PS10-47) The Role of Coping strategies on Real-time Emotional Responses to Social Stress

 Adolescence is characterized by increased emotional instability and higher rates of mental health disorders (Verzeletti et al., 2016). As such, coping strategies, behavioral and cognitive efforts employed to manage stressful situations (Oláh, 1995), are critical during this stage of development. While coping strategies have been explored extensively in the context of acute stress reactivity, their specific roles in predicting real-time affective responses to social stressors remain less understood particularly in community samples of adolescents (Krkovic et al., 2018). The current study aims to address this gap by examining the predictive role of coping strategies on changes in negative affect in response to a social stress test among a community sample of adolescents. Participants (n= 74; meanage=14.88, SD=.887; 46.6% female) took part in a larger clinical trial examining stress and eating behaviors of adolescents. Participants identified as 78.1% White, 11% Black, 4.1% Asian, and 8.2% Hispanic/Latinx. During an in-person research visit, participants completed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST; Kirschbaum et al., 1993), which entailed delivering a free speech and performing mental arithmetic tasks in front of an audience, inducing stress through interview-style presentations and surprise arithmetic challenges with no feedback from the interview panel. The Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (COPE; Carver et al., 1989) instrument was collected at baseline to measure engagement in various coping strategies (e.g., self-distraction, active coping, denial, self-blame, venting, emotional support). The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule Short-Form (PANAS-SF; Thompson, 2007) was used to assess negative affect immediately prior to beginning the task and immediately following the task. Linear regression models revealed that higher levels of self-blame (β= .597, p</span>=.003) and venting (β= .650, p</span>=.007) were associated with higher levels of negative affect immediately after the stressor. Additionally, higher levels of active coping were associated with lower levels of negative affect after the stressor (β= -.821, p</span>=.001). These results highlight the varied impacts of coping strategies on adolescents' emotional responses to stress. Specifically, individuals who more often engaged in self-blame or venting were more likely to experience more negative responses to social stress, while those who engaged in more active coping reported lower negative affective responses.  Strategies such as venting or self-blaming may exacerbate negative emotions by prolonging or intensifying them, and active coping may facilitate more effective and efficient management of stress. Ultimately, better understanding the effects of  coping patterns among adolescents can help inform more individualized therapeutic approaches, particularly in community settings, that aim to identify coping strategies and to better equip them with the tools needed to effectively navigate stressors.