Psychological Distress and Coping Styles in Young Adult Women: A Community-Based Correlational Study from Pakistan

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With the increasing social, cultural and environmental demands, women are especially sensitive to psychological distress and thus, the concept of coping should be accompanied by the knowledge of how coping supports mental health and general well-being. It was a comparative cross-sectional study and aimed to establish the level of psychological distress and coping strategies among Pakistani women who were using to cope with the distress It used convenience sampling to recruit 249 women (aged 20-39 years). The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) was used to measure psychological distress, including depression, anxiety, and stress, whereas the Brief COPE measured coping strategies, including problem-focused, emotion-focused, and avoidant coping. The results showed that a significant percentage of the women had moderate to high levels of psychological distress, and extremely severe anxiety. Results further indicate that maladaptive coping styles, i.e., avoidance coping, plays a significant role in expanding psychological distress among young adult women. Boosting adaptive coping style may therefore be critical for lowering level of distress symptoms. These findings would be useful for policymakers, clinicians, and mental health practitioners to develop relevant interventions that could improve the psychological well-being of women in Pakistan.