Volume 25 Num. 2 - June 2025
Impact of Coping Styles and Perfectionism on Problematic Substance Use in Medical Students
Volume 25 Num. 2 - June 2025 - Pages 255-270
Authors:
Veda, Pendyala , Nivetha, Shanmugam
Abstract:
Volume 25, 2- June 1, 2025
Problematic substance uses in medical students presented significant concerns due to its impacts on personal well-being as well future patient care quality. Hence, to inform interventions, exploring relevant correlates is necessary. Previous literature has explored and found individual associations between coping styles, perfectionism, and substance use. We aimed to contextualise these associations in the Indian medical student context and explore a mediational model that was not previously explored, to understand how these variables function in tandem. We conducted a cross-sectional, correlational study with a sample of 360 undergraduate and postgraduate medical students aged 18-30 years (M= 20.85 years) from Tamil Nadu, India. We recruited participants through convenience and snowball sampling. The participants completed Almost Perfect Scale-Revised, Brief COPE, Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test, and Drug Use Disorder Identification Test to evaluate their perfectionism, coping, problematic alcohol use, and problematic drug use, respectively. The results showed the positive association of Avoidant emotion-focused coping with problematic substance use and that maladaptive perfectionists over other groups tended to use more avoidant emotion-focused coping. Further, Avoidant emotion-focused coping mediated the relationship between perfectionism and problematic substance use such that maladaptive and non-perfectionists relative to Adaptive Perfectionists reported more problematic substance use in the context of greater avoidant emotion-focused coping use. The present study filled important contextual gaps in literature and extended the current literature on substance use. Unequal perfectionist group sizes and self-reporting limited the study. Future research can consider further model replication and longitudinal designs to explore possible causality.
How to cite this paper:
Veda P, Nivetha S (2025). Impact of Coping Styles and Perfectionism on Problematic Substance Use in Medical Students. International Journal of Psychology & Psychological Therapy, 25, 2, 255-270.
Key words:
perfectionism, coping styles, problematic substance use, medical students
Full Article
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