Emerging Adults’ Behavior Problems and Coping Following Hurricanes

When experiencing natural disasters, coping is important. Individuals who have behavior problems may use less effective coping, however. This study sought to better understand the relationship between emerging adults’ behavior problems and coping following hurricanes. Using a sample of 193 emerging adults, correlations suggested that emerging adults who reported more behavior problems also endorsed higher levels of avoidant coping. More specifically, multivariate analyses of variance and subsequent post hoc analyses indicated that emerging adults who were experiencing relatively low levels of both internalizing and externalizing behavior problems endorsed avoidant coping significantly less often relative to those emerging adults who were experiencing relatively high levels of internalizing behavior problems only and those who were experiencing relatively high levels of both types of behavior problems. These results suggested that those who experience behavior problems following hurricanes may benefit from interventions that could improve the coping that they utilize.