DOI: 10.6129/CJP.20150623
Chinese Journal of Psychology 2015, Vol.57, No. 4, 373-388
Adolescent Positive/Negative Thinking and Mental Health: The Moderating Roles of Proactive Coping and Procrastination Habit
Kun-Hu Chen（Department of Clinical Psychology, Fu Jen Catholic University）；Yun-An Chou（Department of Clinical Psychology, Fu Jen Catholic University）
Abstract
Traditionally, the field of psychology adopts a negative or medical viewpoint to understand adolescents’ mental
health or psychopathology. With the rise of positive psychology, researchers have started to pay more attention to the positive viewpoint. This study focused on the relation between thinking styles and mental health in adolescence; meanwhile, the study also attempted to examine whether coping styles could be moderators between thinking styles and mental health. In addition to examining the above-mentioned issues, the study tried to elucidate the functions of positive/ negative thinking styles and coping styles (i.e., proactive coping and procrastination habit) for the indices of positive/ negative mental health (i.e., life satisfaction and depression) respectively. A total of 303 junior high school students in the Taipei metropolitan area filled out questionnaires of positive/negative thinking, proactive coping, procrastination habit, life satisfaction and depression. The results showed that positive thinking could more successfully predict individual’s life satisfaction whereas negative thinking was a better predicator of individual’s depression. Moreover, proactive coping not only moderated the relation of negative thinking and life satisfaction, but also moderated the relation of negative thinking and depression. In summary, the study implied that positive/negative thinking seem to play different roles in adolescent mental health. Meanwhile, proactive coping can serve as a buffer against the harmful impact of negative thinking on mental health.
Keywords: positive/negative thinking, life satisfaction, procrastination habit, depression, proactive coping
