Abstract: The present study examined the relationship between coping strategies and perceived social support as well as its gender difference in late adolescence by asking 423 university students to fill out questionnaires.The results indicated that (1) Male and female students all resorted more to active-solving problem strategies, while the attention distracting strategies were used fewer and the negative-solving problem strategies were used the fewest.(2) The level of students' perception of social support was positively correlated with active-solving problem and seeking emotional support while being negatively correlated with negative-solving problem and attention distracting coping strategies.The contribution of perceived social support was relatively higher on the seeking emotional support coping for female students while being relatively higher on the active-solving problem coping for male students.(3) The difference of studnets' coping strategies could be found not only between different gender groups, but also between groups with high-level or low-level perceived social support even within the same gender group.Male students reported using significantly more negative-solving problem and fewer seeking emotional support strategies than female.Whether male or female students, those who with higher perceived social support reported more positive-solving problem and seeking emotional support coping strategies while less negative-solving problem and attention distracting coping strategies than those who with lower perceived social support.

Key words: university students, perceived social support, coping strategies