Abstract

TORIBIO PEREZ, Lorena  and  ANDRADE PALOS, Patricia. Functional and dysfunctional coping strategies and positive mental health in university students. Rev. Costarric. Psic [online]. 2025, vol.44, n.1, e324.  Epub May 14, 2026. ISSN 1659-2913.  http://dx.doi.org/10.22544/rcps.v44i01.01.

The evidence shows that functional and dysfunctional coping strategies are relevant in the face of adverse circumstances and have a significant association with positive mental health in university students. On the one hand, functional strategies help to positively evaluate, confront and resolve adverse life situations efficiently and less use of dysfunctional strategies is associated with better positive mental health. The objective of this research was to explain to what extent functional and dysfunctional coping strategies predict the positive mental health of young Mexican university students. The sample was made up of 204 young Mexican university students between 18 and 30 years of age (M = 23, SD = 3.4). 77.9% are women (159). The instruments: Mental Health Continuum-Short Form and the Coping Scale were applied in online format. The results showed high levels of positive mental health and functional coping and lower levels of dysfunctional coping. A model was obtained with satisfactory goodness-of-fit indices (χ2 = 41.703, df = 17, χ2/df = 2.4, SRMR = 0.36, RMSEA = .085, CFI = .968, p = .001), it can be seen that functional coping directly and positively affects SMP and dysfunctional coping negatively, so it is important to take these results into account to promote functional coping strategies and encourage young people's ability to cope with adverse circumstances and maintain positive mental health and greater well-being.

Keywords : positive mental health; coping strategies; functional coping; dysfunctional coping; university students..

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