Social skills and hopelessness of teenagers: The function of mediator coping strategies

Introduction: Hoplessness in teenagers is one of their most important problems, which can cause dysfunction and psychological distress. This study aims to predict hopelessness in teenagers based on their social skills and coping strategies undertaken to examine the role of intervention.Method: This research is a descriptive study. The population of this study consisted of all the students aged from 12 to 19 in tehran. 625 students, which included 300 boys and 325 girls were selected by cluster sampling. The survey questionnaire instruments were; Adolescents hoplessness (Kazdin, Radgerz & Colbuse, 1983), Teenage Inventory of Social Skills (Inderbizen & Foster, 1992) and coping strategies in adolescents (Frydenberg & Lewis, 1993). The data obtained from the structural equation modeling (SEM) were analysed by using the LISERAL software.Results: Results show that social skills directly & indirectly lead to hopelessness through the mediation variable of coping strategies. Between endogenous latent variables and the indicator of social skills, the path coefficients were respectively 0/54 & 0/23 ,between endogenous latent variables and the indicators of coping strategies the path coefficients were respectively 0/55, 0/21 & 0/94 and between the latent variable of indigenous hoplessness and the indicator the path coefficients wererespectively 0/49 & 0/79. It can be said that and all the causal paths were significant.Conclusion: Considering the importance and necessity of teenager hopelessness and its effects on teenagers’ life, recognizing social skills and also getting to know the ways of which teenagers cope with these type of problems are effective in decreasing the symptoms of hoplessness and can finally lead to a deeper recognition of hoplessness in teenagers in order to prevent and present suitable therapeutic methods.