Analysis onCoping Strategies during Covid-19 Pandemic among School Children of National Capital Region of India

ABSTRACT

The present study was taken toanalyse the coping strategies during the COVID 19 pandemic among school childreninthe national capital region of India.A sample of three hundred school children was randomly selected for the present study with agesranging between 14 to 18 years.Out of 300 subjects, 150 were boys, and 150 were girls.Further, all the subjects were divided into three groups, i.e. less than 15 years (50 boys and 50 girls), between 15 to 17 years (50 boys and 50 girls), above 17 years (50 boys and 50 girls), and each group had 100 subjects. All the subjects voluntarily participated in the study, and a detailed procedure was informed.Brief-COPE (Carver, 1997) 28 item self-report questionnaire was used to assess Coping strategies, i.e.self-distraction, active coping, denial, substance use, emotional support, behavioural disagreement, venting, instrumental support, positive reframing, self-blame, Planning, humour, acceptance and religion. The 2 X 2 Factorial MANOVA was used as a statistical technique, and the result of the study showed the value of Wilk's lambda=0.862, p=0.000 for gender, Wilk's lambda=0.804, p=0.000 for age group & Wilk's lambda=0.824, p=0.000 interaction gender*age group in a multivariate test which means gender and age had a significant impact on coping strategies.Further significant difference was found in gender in behavioral disagreement (F = 5.32;p <.022) venting (F = 19.69;p <.000), positive reframing (F = 7.21;p <.008) and self blame (F = 4.35;p <.038). Also age group has a statistically significant effect on active coping (F = 6.63;p <.002) planning (F = 8.44;p <.000) and religion (F = 4.19;p <.016).This table also shows interaction effect has a statistically significant effect on behavioural disagreement (F = 3.06;p <.048),positive reframing (F = 3.22;p <.041) and humour (F = 6.5;p <.002), hence null hypothesis may be rejected at 0.05 level. From the above results, it may be concluded that girls use more emotion-focused coping styles in response to stressors. Older age groups are better at using coping strategies like active coping, Planning and religion than younger age groups.The combined effect of age group and gender were seen on behavioural disagreement, positive reframing and humour.