Method: This study has three purposes: (a) to examine gender effects on college students' dual autonomy development, coping strategies, and mental health, (b) to describe the relationships among dual autonomy, coping strategies, and mental health, and (c) to determine whether coping strategies and interpersonal fitting-harmony have moderating effects on dual autonomy and mental health. A total of 620 college students in Northern Taiwan completed Adolescent Autonomy Scale, Coping Strategies in Chinese Social Context Scale, Fitting-Harmony Scale, the Chinese Multidomain Self-esteem Scale, and the Chinese Happiness Inventory.
Results: Our findings are as follows. First, males used more antisocial coping than females across various stressful situations. Second, both males and females preferred active prosocial coping for non-interpersonal problems including academic and career planning tasks. Both males and females preferred passive prosocial coping for interpersonal problems with romantic partners, peers, or family members. Nevertheless, there was no interactive effect of sex and stressors on the use of coping strategies. Third, females reported better interpersonal fitting-harmony than males, but there was no gender difference in dual autonomy and other mental health outcomes. Forth, while dual autonomy and pro-social coping had positive correlations with mental health, passive anti-social coping showed negative correlations with mental health. It is of note that active anti-social coping were positively correlated with self-esteem. Fifth, although coping strategies did not show moderating effects on dual autonomy and mental health outcomes, interpersonal fitting-harmony functioned as a moderator between individuating autonomy and personal self-esteem, and between individuating autonomy and happiness.
Conclusion: In summary, college students appear to use different coping strategies for different stressors, and there seem to be gender differences in the choice of coping strategies. While dual autonomy and pro-social coping can predict mental health, interpersonal fitting-autonomy functions as a moderator between dual autonomy and mental health. Finally, females tend to have better interpersonal fitting-harmony than males. These findings shed insight in our understanding of college students' dual autonomy development, as well as gender differences in the use of coping strategies and interpersonal fitting-harmony. It is hoped that these results will facilitate more effective counseling programs for college students.