Relationship between stressors with emotional exhaustion and coping strategies: The mediating role of academic stress symptoms in Peruvian adolescents

The research was conducted with the aim of evaluating the direct and indirect effects of academic stress symptoms related to academic stressors, emotional exhaustion, and coping strategies in an academic context. The study had a cross-sectional predictive design, composed of 387 adolescents aged 13 to 17 years (M = 15.6, SD = 1.53, 56.8 % female) from different educational institutions in Lima, Peru. The results showed significant effects with a direct trend for each of the variables. In addition, academic stress symptoms had a stronger indirect effect on the relationship of academic stressors with emotional exhaustion (β = 0.392, p < .001), in contrast to the effect of academic stressors with coping strategies (β = 0.083, p < .05). It was also found by multigroup analysis that the proposed model was invariant as a function of sex. Therefore, it is concluded that adolescents who are exposed to greater academic stressors will perceive greater symptoms of academic stress, which in turn intensifies the occurrence of emotional exhaustion and the coping strategies. These results were equivalent in both men and women.