Intersecting Coping Mechanisms for Depression and Anxiety Across Age, Gender, and Occupational Groups in Bangladesh: A Mixed-Methods Approach.

Abstract

This study analyzes the intersection of age, gender, profession, coping mechanisms, and its genesis to understand patterns in how individuals cope up in the moment of depression and anxiety. Examined data reveals that, younger individuals (16–25 years) predominantly adopt social coping mechanisms like Talking to someone and reflective methods such as Meditation. Males tend to prefer action-oriented strategies, such as Exercise and Being busy, while females favor introspective methods like Prayer and Sleep. Professionally, students rely on social and spiritual coping mechanisms, whereas engineers favor practical methods like Sleep and Exercise. Teachers, in the contrary, lean toward emotional and spiritual practices such as Meditation and Prayer. Intersecting demographical data, self-discovery is the initial inspiration for adopting coping mechanisms, followed by the influence from media and peers. However, less effective strategies which are labeled dysfunctional, such as Denial and Isolation, are more prevalent among older age groups, particularly females. These study highlights the importance of tailoring mental health interventions to demographic-specific preferences and inspirations for better mental health management outcomes in context of Bangladesh.

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