Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze the correlations between the following variables of the orthodontic patients once the treatment was initiated: level of stress, anxiety as a state, anxiety as a trait and coping strategies.
Methods: The sample consisted of 64 patients, teenagers, who requested orthodontic treatment. Sex partition was: 41.6% male, 58.4% female. The patients’ average age was 14.23 years old and standard deviation 2.02. Patients answered the items included in the following evaluation instruments: Perceived Stress Questionnare (Levenstein et all., 1993), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1983), COPE (Carver, Scheier and Weintraub, 1989). The data of this study was processed by SPSS-PC 15.0 statistical program.
Results: We obtained some relations of reverse covariant at a statistical significance threshold (p˂.01) between:
- level of stress, anxiety as a state and active coping strategies;
- anxiety as a state and acceptance coping;
We also observed some reverse correlations (p˂.05) among:
- level of stress, anxiety as a state, planning coping strategies, restraint coping and between the level of stress and acceptance coping;
- anxiety as a trait and acceptance coping.
On the contrary, we observed some significant positive statistical correlations (p˂.05) between:
- level of stress, anxiety as a state and seeking instrumental social support and emotional social support;
- anxiety as a state and mental disengagement;
- level of stress and behavioral disengagement.
Conclusions: We concluded that patients with high levels of stress perception and anxiety as a state showed reduced preferences for active coping strategies.