miters were applied to further refine the search. Articles were included if the publishing dates were between 2013 and 2019, it was published in English, and the full text was available. The inclusion criteria yielded articles on coping with the following secondary topics; mental illness, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideations, coping skills, coping mechanisms, cancer, coping strategies, mental health, age group of adolescents and young adults, and both male and female.

The first search included the term ‘coping’ and the following limiters were used to narrow the scope of the articles; students, athletes, college graduates, student undergraduates, alcohol/drinking, colleges and universities, college fraternities and sororities, college sports. This search proffered 67 articles, of the 67 articles only 39 were deemed acceptable for use in the scoping review. The second search included the term ‘coping mechanism’ and the same limiters were applied. The second search produced 53 articles, with 4 duplicates, however, only 23 were acceptable for use in the review. The third and final search used the term ‘coping with stress’ and the same limiters were applied. The third search generated 29 articles, 22 of which were duplicates, and only 4 deemed acceptable. A total of 66 articles were compiled for the scoping review.

The 66 articles on coping were then divided into eight different section topics based on the content of the articles. The topics included; substance abuse, spirituality, social media, mental health, medical, identity, grief/traumatic events, and coping strategies. Several articles were placed into more than one section if the topic of the article fit into multiple subject areas. The section of choice for this scoping review focused on five articles from the grief/traumatic events area and two articles from the mental health area.

Data Extraction