ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Adolescent and Young Adult Psychiatry
Coping and Behaviour as Predictors of Childhood Anxiety: An SEM-based Analysis in School-Going Children
Provisionally accepted
- 1New Sir Thutop Namgyal Memorial Hospital, Gangtok, India
- 2Sikkim Manipal Institute of Medical Sciences, Gangtok, India
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Introduction: Childhood anxiety is a growing concern in Indian school settings, yet the behavioural and coping mechanisms that shape anxiety outcomes remain insufficiently understood. This study examined how coping patterns, behavioural tendencies, prosocial characteristics, and socioeconomic factors predict anxiety among school-going children in Sikkim. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1,001 children aged 7 to 10 years in Sikkim. Standardized instruments were used, including the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale-2 (RCMAS-2), the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-P), the Coping Strategies Inventory (CSI-SF), and the 2020 Kuppuswamy Socioeconomic Scale. Analyses included descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests, correlations, regression models, and structural equation modelling. Result: Based on established RCMAS-2 thresholds, 22.5% of children screened positive for clinically elevated anxiety (21.0% moderate; 1.5% severe). In the structural model, maladaptive coping showed the strongest association with anxiety (β = 0.18, p < 0.001). Adaptive coping (β = −0.08, p = 0.057) and prosocial behaviour (β =-0.11, p = 0.035) showed small protective effects. Internalizing and externalizing behaviour showed weak direct associations with anxiety and minimal indirect effects through maladaptive coping. Overall, behavioural and coping variables exhibited low intercorrelations, indicating that anxiety symptoms were associated with coping patterns rather than broad behavioural difficulties. This is a provisional file, not the final typeset article Conclusion: A substantial proportion of primary-school children in Sikkim exhibit clinically elevated anxiety symptoms. Coping style, particularly maladaptive coping, emerged as the most salient factor associated with anxiety, whereas behavioural difficulties contributed minimally. Strengthening adaptive coping and encouraging prosocial engagement within school mental health programmes may help reduce anxiety risk during early schooling years.
Keywords: Anxiety, Behavioural regulation, child mental health, coping strategies, Emotional and Behavioural, prosocial behaviour, School children, structural equation modelling
Received: 02 Dec 2025; Accepted: 26 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Chhetri, Bhandari, Lasopa and Dutta. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Archana Chhetri
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