Protective behavioral strategies mediate problem-focused coping and alcohol use in college students

This is the first study to find that protective behavioral strategies are more likely to be used by college students who endorse using a problem-focused coping style, especially if they tend to use behaviorally oriented problem-focused coping strategies. These findings extend the literature on protective behavioral strategies and indicate that students less likely to use problem-focused coping skills to deal with stress in general may need additional interventions to increase their use of protective behavioral strategies.