Stress mindset, coping strategies, and well-being of secondary students in Singapore during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The present study explored the association between stress mindset and well-being of students during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic. The study also sought to examine how the relationship between students’ stress-mindset and well-being can be mediated by students’ coping strategies. The study applied a cross-sectional survey design, with secondary students (N = 617) from Singapore as participants. The results of parallel mediation analyses suggest that students who endorse a stress-is-enhancing mindset also tend to apply engagement coping strategies and that the use of such coping strategies serve as a potential mediator of the relationship between the students’ stress-is-enhancing mindset and well-being. The stress-is-debilitating mindset was found to have a positive relationship with depressive symptoms; this relationship was not significantly mediated by coping. The findings suggest that endorsing a stress-is-enhancing mindset, along with the use of engagement coping, may serve as a protective factor to promote adolescents’ well-being when experiencing high stress.