Anxiety and its disorders, often present before adulthood, have high personal and societalcosts for men and women. This study tested a mediation model in which 3 forms ofcoping mediate the relation of 3 agentic personality characteristics (i.e., traits associatedwith the belief that people can effectively exercise control over their lives) to lower levelsof anxiety within 1 subgroup of young adults (i.e., college students). The agentic personal-ity characteristics were (a) hardiness, (b) personal growth initiative, and (c) copingself-efficacy. The forms of dispositional coping were (a) problem-focused, (b) emotion-focused, and (c) avoidant. Results suggest that agentic personality characteristics differen-tially relate to forms of coping and trait anxiety. In addition, coping appears to fullymediate the relations of the personality characteristics to anxiety. The results imply thatagentic personality characteristics and coping are important in decreasing and⁄or protect-ing against anxiety, in part because of how they relate to forms of coping, and suggest theneed for more research.