Stress, Coping Mechanisms, and Mental Health in Pakistani Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Depression, anxiety, and stress are mental health issues that are becoming more prevalent in adults and depend on various psychological aspects. The current research investigated the correlation between stress, coping strategies, personality, and mental health outcome among Pakistani adults. The cross-sectional correlational design was employed, and the sample of 398 adults between the ages of 18 and 60 years was studied. Mental health (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), stress, anxiety, and depression (Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21), coping mechanisms (Coping Inventory of Stressful Situations), and personality traits (Big Five Inventory-10) were measured using standardized measures. The SPSS was used to process descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis. The findings revealed that poor mental health had a strong and positive relationship with stress and became the best predictor of depressive symptoms as it explained 51.4% of the variance in mental health outcomes. Mental health was also significantly correlated with coping strategies with problem-focused coping having negative relationships with psychological distress and emotion-focused coping being positively correlated with depression, anxiety, and stress. Personality traits were also strongly correlated with mental health outcomes but unlike stress and coping mechanisms, its predictive power was lesser. The results indicate that stress is a key factor in adult mental health whereas coping mechanisms are important psychological resources that can alleviate or worsen distress. Mental health is seen to be affected by personality traits indirectly through experiences of stress and coping reaction. The findings underpin the significance of stress management and interventions based on coping-skills in enhancing mental health in Pakistani adults.