Age and Gender Effects on Coping in Children and Adolescents

The aim of this study was to investigate age and gender effects of childrens and adolescents coping with common stressors in 3 age groups (late childhood, early, and middle adolescence). Furthermore, age and developmental differences in situation-specific coping with 2 stress domains were examined. N = 1,123 participants (ages 8 to 13 years) were asked to complete the German Coping Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (Hampel et al., 2001) in response to both an interpersonal and an academic stressor. Adolescent boys and girls, as well as girls from all age ranges scored lower on adaptive and higher on maladaptive coping strategies. With regard to interaction effects, female early adolescents coped maladaptively with common stressors, showing a decreased employment of adaptive (e.g., distraction, positive self-instructions) and an enhanced use of maladaptive coping strategies (e.g., rumination, aggression). Situation-specific coping did not differ consistently with age and gender. Implications of the findings for mental health care and developing clinical treatment of children and adolescents are discussed.Professor of Rehabilitation Psychology, Center of Clinical Psychology and Rehabilitation, University of Bremen, Germany. Received her PhD from the Free University of Berlin in 1994. Major research interests are stress, coping, and stress management in children and adolescents.Professor of Psychology, Center of Clinical Psychology and Rehabilitation, University of Bremen, Germany. Received his PhD from the University of Bonn in 1977. Major research interests are diagnostics, clinical child psychology, and rehabilitation research.     

Coping Strategies in Young Male Prisoners

The general aim of this study is to analyze diverse aspects relating to the use of coping strategies among prison inmates. The specific objectives are (a) to analyze which type of coping strategies predominate among prisoners, considering both the focus and the method; (b) to relate the use of coping strategies with variables related to the prison environment: time spent in prison, previous convictions (first-time vs. repeat offenders) and custodial status (remand vs. convicted inmates); (c) to relate the coping strategies with the appraisal of the stressing situation previously described by the prisoners; and (d) to relate the cognitive level to the strategies used. The sample is composed of 107 males between 18 and 25 years of age in the Centre Penitenciari de Joves de Barcelona (Spain). The coping strategies were analyzed by means of the Coping Responses Inventory Adult Form (CRI-Adult; Moos, R.H. (1993). Coping Responses Inventory. CRI-Adult Form. Manual. Psychological Assessment, Resources, Inc., Odessa, FL.). The data indicate that the predominant strategies are those of cognitive approach. Likewise, it was found that there was a certain relationship between the appraisal of the problem described and the strategies used. The variables time spent in prison and previous convictions influenced the use of specific coping strategies. No connection between coping strategies and the intellectual level was found.     

Developmental and Cross-Situational Differences in Adolescents' Coping Strategies

In this study, we investigated developmental and cross-situational differences in strategies adolescents use to cope with family, school, and peer stressors. We also examined the relation between adolescents' use of coping strategies and two indices of adjustment (self perceptions of their adjustment as a result of coping with the specific stressor and state anxiety). The sample included 148 seventh graders, 124 ninth graders, and 103 twelfth graders (n = 375). Approach coping increased across the three grade levels, especially in relation to family and peer stressors. Adolescents used more avoidance than approach coping strategies for family stressors, and more approach than avoidance strategies for school and peer stressors. Across stressors, approach coping predicted more favorable outcomes and avoidance coping predicted less favorable outcomes. Coping strategies in response to a specific stressor were more strongly predictive of stressor-specific adjustment than state anxiety, suggesting the need to include both stressor-specific and global measures of adjustment in assessing the relation between coping and adjustment.     

Preadolescents’ and Parents’ Dietary Coping Efficacy During Behavioral Family-Based Weight Control Treatment

Developmentally relevant high-risk dietary situations (e.g., parties where tempting foods are available) may influence overweight youth’s weight control, as they increase risk for overeating. Better self-efficacy for coping with these situations—which preadolescents may learn from their parents—could foster successful weight control. Overweight preadolescents (N = 204) ages 7–12 years (67% female), each with one parent, separately completed the Hypothetical High-Risk Situation Inventory (HHRSI) pre- and post-weight loss treatment. The HHRSI assesses temptation to overeat and confidence in refraining from overeating in response to four high-risk dietary scenarios. Participants generated coping strategies for each scenario. Coping strategies and confidence increased and temptation decreased from pre- to post-weight loss treatment. Parents’ increase in confidence from pre- to post-treatment was associated with preadolescents’ and parents’ weight loss. Tailoring treatments to enhance parents’ coping skills (e.g., building strategies, targeting high temptation/low confidence scenarios) may maximize preadolescents’ weight control.     

Dependency,Self-Criticism,and Mothers' Responses to Adolescent Sons' Autonomy and Competence

A previous study found that dependency was associated with mothers' reacting punitively to independent behavior of their adolescent daughters and that self-criticism was associated with punitive and controlling responses to adolescent daughters. To extend these findings to mother–son relationships, the present study examined relations between personality and parenting behavior in 78 mothers of adolescent boys. Mothers completed measures of dependency and self-criticism and of baseline affect, and then were given experimentally manipulated results of the son's initial assessment of problem-solving ability (competence) and choice of discussion partner. Affect was assessed again. Mothers coached sons on computer problem-solving puzzles. Dependency was associated with mothers' giving fewer explicit commands and less negative feedback to (1) sons who were described as high in competence and who chose someone else as discussion partner and (2) sons who were described as average in competence and who chose the mother as discussion partner. It was concluded that mothers high in dependency relate to competent sons in ways that encourage independence, but relate to their less competent sons in ways that may foster dependency, by thwarting attempts at autonomy.     

Depressive symptoms and coping strategies among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong

Depressive symptoms and coping strategies of 161 Chinese adolescents were assessed and described using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ). Using the BDI cutoff scores of 9/10 and 29/30, respectively, over 64% of the adolescents would be in the depressed range, and 9% would be in the severely depressed range. For general depressive symptom level, Chinese adolescents appeared to have higher mean BDI score than U.S. adolescents and Chinese young adults. Their depressive symptom levels were found to relate to avoidant coping strategies as well as low self-es-teem and reduced social support. Implications for promoting adaptive coping, peer support network, and self-esteem enhancement were discussed.This study was supported in part by a Chinese University of Hong Kong UPGC direct grant for research.Received Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario in 1978. Research interests include self-esteem, stress, coping, health, and psychopathology.     

The Role of Parenting and Mother-Adolescent Attachment in the Intergenerational Similarity of Internalizing Symptoms

Parental depression has been identified as a risk factor for children's and adolescents' internalizing problems. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the role of maternal parenting behaviors (i.e., responsiveness and autonomy-support) and adolescents' representations of attachment to their mother (i.e., anxiety and avoidance) in the intergenerational similarity of internalizing symptoms. The sample was heterogeneous and consisted of referred (42%) and non-referred adolescents (N=238, 31% female) and their mothers. Both adolescents and mothers reported on internalizing symptoms, parenting behaviors and all adolescents reported on mother-child attachment. Results showed that parenting behaviors and mother-adolescent attachment explain at least part of the intergenerational congruence of internalizing symptoms. Moreover, there were meaningful and specific associations between dimensions of parenting and dimensions of attachment. Higher responsiveness was primarily related to lower avoidance and higher autonomy-support was primarily related to lower anxiety. The current study's results suggest that maternal depressive symptoms relate to maladaptive parenting strategies and insecure attachment representations in adolescents. Further, both attachment anxiety and avoidance seem to relate positively to adolescents' internalizing symptoms. Targeting both parenting and attachment may form a fruitful approach to prevent and treat internalizing problems in adolescence.     

Contextual,cognitive, and adolescent factors associated with parenting in adolescence

In this study, we examined predictors of parenting during adolescence from three domains: the contextual (i.e., stress, support, marital satisfaction), social-cognitive (i.e., beliefs about adolescence), and child (difficulty). Fifty-three mothers and 38 fathers of 13–18 year olds were interviewed and rated on three dimensions of parenting—involvement, autonomy support, and structure. Parents completed questionnaires assessing predictor variables. Results indicated that, for mothers, higher numbers of recent stressful events were associated with less provision of structure and more control. For fathers, relations between views of adolescence and parenting were in evidence; while for both mothers and fathers strong relations between adolescent difficulty and parenting emerged. Relations between perceived difficulty of adolescent and parenting were more apparent in conducive than nonconducive contexts. The differential results for mothers and fathers are interpreted in terms of mothers' greater involvement and less role latitude than fathers. Parents' resources, experience, and expectations are considered in understanding why predictors might be associated with parenting variables.Received Ph.D. in clinical psychology from University of Rochester. Research interests include motivational development, parenting, self- and emotion-regulation. Also investigating factors affecting parenting, especially parent involvement.Received a Master's degree from New York University. Current interests involve interpersonal processes in depression.Received a Master's degree from Clark University. Research interests include the development of self-regulation with particular interest in the effects of power, authority, and responsibility on the socialization and disciplining of young children.Received Master's of Social Work degree from Columbia University. Current interests include factors that facilitate adolescents developing connections with the community.     

Cross-gender Violence Perpetration and Victimization Among Early Adolescents and Associations with Attitudes Toward Dating Conflict

This study examined gender differences in cross-gender violence perpetration and victimization (ranging from mild, e.g., push, to severe, e.g., assault with a knife or gun) and attitudes toward dating conflict, among an urban sample of 601 early adolescents (78% African-American). Comparisons across gender groups for cross-gender (e.g., female-to-male) violence perpetration and victimization indicated higher levels of perpetration for girls and higher levels of victimization for boys. Girls also reported higher levels of verbal and physical violence toward partners with regard to attitudes toward dating conflict. A path model was specified and indicated that cross-gender violence perpetration, harsh parenting, peer deviance, low family income, and neighborhood hazards accounted for significant variation in attitudes toward dating conflict. Findings were discussed regarding the need to identify developmental precursors of dating violence in early adolescence and to focus prevention efforts on components (e.g., social skills, coping strategies) necessary to prevent the onset and escalation of adolescent dating violence.

Adolescent Problem Behavior and Depressed Mood: Risk and Protection Within and Across Social Contexts

This study examined risk and protection for adolescent problem behavior and depressive symptomatology in an average-risk sample of 11th graders. Using a socioecological perspective, we aggregated risk factors for adolescent problem behavior and depressed mood by 3 social contexts: i.e., family and peer contexts, and a context comprising the most important nonparental adult (VIP) in respondents' lives. Protective factors associated with these 3 contexts were also included in the analyses. We tested separate models (including outcome-specific risk and protective factors) for predicting problem behaviors and depressive symptoms; the models demonstrated divergent validity. Risk and protective factors accounted for 49% of the variance in problem behavior and 49% in depressive symptoms. Tests of interactions between risk-aggregates and protective factors yielded several significant cross-context buffering effects in the problem behavior model, but none in the depressive symptoms model. Parents' and VIP's perceived sanctions buffered adolescents against high risk for problem behavior emanating from the peer context. Additionally, perceived peers' sanctions buffered youths against risk emanating from each of the 3 contexts.     

Coping styles of learning disabled adolescents and their parents

The study compares coping styles of 50 learning disabled and nonlearning dis-abled adolescents and their parents. Analyses indicate that learning disabled adolescents show less ability to appraise a source of stress and seek information in the various domains with which they are expected to cope. Also, they reveal a higher level of pessimism about problems in academic-related domains. Coping patterns of parents of learning disabled adolescents do not show clear differences from parents of nonlearning disabled. Yet mothers of learning disabled adolescents tend more to seek and accept help. Learning disabled adolescents' coping is clearly related to coping or more specifically to difficulties in coping of their parents. Results are discussed in the context of the special difficulties of the learning disabled during adolescence and the role their parents play during this developmental stage.Received Ph. D. from Bar Ilan University. Research interests include developmental and family processes in normal and pathological adolescents.Received Ph.D. from University of Minnesota. Main interests are developmental and family processes in adolescence.Received M.A. in counseling from Tel Aviv University.Received M.A. in counseling from Tel Aviv University.     

Identity Processes and Coping Strategies in College Students: Short-Term Longitudinal Dynamics and the Role of Personality

Coping strategies and identity processes are hypothesized to influence one another over time. This three-wave longitudinal study (N?=?458; 84.9% women) examined, for the first time, how and to what extent identity processes (i.e., commitment making, identification with commitment, exploration in breadth, exploration in depth, and ruminative exploration) and coping strategies (i.e., problem solving, social support seeking, and avoidance) predicted one another over time. Cross-lagged analyses indicated that processes of identity exploration seemed especially to be intertwined with different coping strategies over time, suggesting that identity exploration may resemble problem-solving behavior on the pathway to an achieved identity. Commitment processes were found to be influenced by certain coping strategies, although identification with commitment also negatively influenced avoidance coping. These temporal sequences remained significant when controlling for baseline levels of Big Five personality traits. Hence, evidence was obtained for reciprocal pathways indicating that coping strategies and identity processes reinforce one another over time in college students.     

The Adjustment of Adolescents During the Transition into High School: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study

Although much research exists regarding the transition into junior high school, surprisingly few studies have focused on the move into high school. The present study employed a short-term longitudinal design to assess the adjustment of adolescents as they made the transition from junior high to high school. Changes in adolescents' sense of autonomy, perceived stressors, social support, sense of school membership, grade point average (GPA), and attendance were assessed. Coping strategies were also considered at each time point. Also, because parents who feel better about themselves may offer more support to their adolescents, parents of the adolescents in the study completed measures assessing their stressors and coping mechanisms. Results indicated that the adolescents did experience significant changes during the initial transition into high school that were related to GPA and sense of school membership. Perceived support from parents was also related to adolescents' adjustment to the transition. The study bridges a gap in the literature on school transitions by addressing the transition to high school in light of adolescent and parent variables. Implications for practices by school personnel and future research suggestions are provided.     

Eating Attitudes and Weight-Loss Attempts in Female Adolescents and Their Mothers

This study examined the relationship between mothers' eating attitudes and weight-loss attempts and their adolescent daughters' body dissatisfaction and weight-loss attempts. Two modes of transmission of mother's values to the daughter (modeling and encouragement) and two forms of weight-loss behavior (moderate and extreme) were examined. Female 10th and llth graders and their mothers completed eating attitudes and behaviors questionnaires. Daughter's moderate weight-loss attempts (e.g., dietary restraint and exercising) and its associated body dissatisfaction were significantly associated with mother's encouraging her daughter to lose weight. In contrast, daughter's more extreme weight-loss behaviors (e.g., fasting, crash dieting, and skipping meals) were predicted by mother's reports of her own body dissatisfaction and mother's use of extreme weight-loss behaviors herself. These effects were not simply an artefact of daughter's body weight. Implications for theory and prevention were noted.     

Who's the Boss? Patterns of Perceived Control in Adolescents' Friendships

This study examined the nature and correlates of different patterns of perceived control in adolescents' relationships with their best friends. Participants included firstborn adolescents (M = 14.94 years), their younger siblings (M = 12.44 years) and both their mothers and fathers in 163 families as well as a best friend of each adolescent (M = 15 years). Data were collected from family members during home visits regarding adolescents' family relationships, friendships, and psychosocial adjustment; time use data were gathered during a series of 7 nightly phone interviews. Information was obtained from best friends during a brief phone interview. We developed a typology of 3 different patterns of perceived friendship control based on the combination of adolescents' and their best friends' ratings of relational control. Patterns of control in adolescents' friendships were associated with the distribution of control in both parents' marriages and adolescents' sibling relationships. Further analyses, designed to test developmental predictions, revealed connections between friendship control and other qualities of adolescents' friendships (i.e., intimacy, conflict, perspective-taking).     

Maternal aspirations,socialization, and achievement of boys and girls in the white working class

Analysis of the scholastic achievement of 150 white pre-teen-age boys and girls in relation to their mothers' aspirations for them, selected socialization practices, and their social origins helps explain disparities in scholastic achievement between working class and middle class children as well as disparities in achievement within the working class. Mothers in this stratum, as a rule, do not articulate high educational and occupational aspirations for their children, especially for girls. Yet, girls exhibit significantly higher achievement than boys and their achievement is conditioned more by maternal aspirations than that of boys. Girls' greater responsiveness to their mothers' aspirations and their higher scholastic ability are due to the fact that white working class mothers engage in more early interaction and employ less coercive discipline with daughters than with sons. Boys' achievement is more responsive to variations in maternal practices than to maternal aspirations. Although not typical, mothers who interact much with their sons early in life and who do not employ coercive discipline produce high-achieving sons. Otherwise, they do not, whatever aspirations they hold for their sons. For girls, maternal aspiration is the more critical determinant of achievement. Downwardly mobile women, those working class women with middle class origins, differ from the stable women in their stratum in that they have equally high aspirations for daughters and sons. As a result of their mothers' high aspirations and more enlightened practices, the daughters of downwardly mobile women are the highest achievers in the white working class. Their sons, however, are underachievers, mainly because downward mobiles adopt the prevailing pattern of their class of destination and rely more on coercive discipline in socializing boys.This research is supported by Welfare Administration, HEW, under grants CRD-371-C2-9 and 10-P-56018/5-4.A revised and extended version of a paper given at the Society for the Study of Social Problems, August 1970, under the title, White Working Class Women and Their Families.Received Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University, New York, New York. Major present research interests are structural determinants of variations in patterns of socializing children, intergenerational changes in socialization practices and beliefs, and the effects of family structure and socialization on children in different structural contexts.     

Continuity of type a behavior during childhood,preadolescence, and adolescence

The continuity of Type A behavior during childhood, preadolescence, and adolescence was studied in 1403 randomly selected children. The subjects' Type A behavior was evaluated by their mothers and also self-rated by preadolescents and adolescents using the AFMS (Type A Behavior for the Finnish Multicenter Study) questionnaire, which is a method based on the Matthews Youth Test for Health and the Swedish version of the Jenkins Activity Survey. The results showed that when mothers' assessments were used, Type A behavior was very highly and homotypically stable during the periods studied, and there were no sex- and age-related differences. Among the different components of Type A pattern, impatience-aggression exhibited slightly greater stability than leadership-sense of responsibility. Mothers' assessments had predictive significance in the self-ratings given three years later, especially in girls, while the continuity of the self-ratings over adolescence was rather low.Received Ph.D. from University of Helsinki. Research interests: psychosomatics, behavioral medicine and social development of a child.     

The relation of ego development to sex-stereotyping in caretakers' expectations for adolescents

The investigators tested the hypothesis that the direction of the relationship between the level of ego development of adult caretakers and the degree of sex-stereotyping in their expectations for adolescents would vary as a function of the adolescents' level of ego maturity. Two groups of caretakers (counselors of an immature group of disturbed adolescents and parents of a mature group of undergraduates) participated in the study. In comparison to their conformist counterparts, the postconformist counselors were expected to make more sex-stereotyped goals for the disturbed adolescents; postconformist parents were expected to make less sex-stereotyped goals for the undergraduates. Hypotheses were confirmed for the counselors, but not for the parents. Both groups of caretakers seemed to consider developmental or life task factors in formulating goals for adolescents.Received Ph.D. from Yale University in 1977. Research interests are juvenile delinquency, adolescent coping abilities, organizational aspects of youth agencies, and young adulthood.Interests are adolescence and community psychology.Interest is residential care for adolescents.Interests are battered women and women in prisons.     

Separation from Parents in Late Adolescence: The Same for Boys and Girls?

This study examined the way late adolescents separate from their parents. Emotional independence and conflictual independence toward mother and father were assessed. Emotional independence was defined as freedom from an excessive need for emotional support from the parents and conflictual independence as absence of guilt, mistrust, and anger toward parents. Students (18–22 years; N = 190) enrolled in higher education completed two scales of Hoffmann's Psychological Separation Inventory. Results indicated that girls more than boys need emotional support from their mothers (z = –3.101, p < .002). They express this need significantly more towards their mothers than towards their fathers (z = –4.194, p < .00003). The pattern of the girls' typical items demonstrated an ambivalence between reported dependence and demand for autonomy. The two types of independence (emotional and conflictual) were moderately correlated (r _s = .40). These findings support Gilligan's argument that connectedness plays a central role in the development of female adolescents. They speak for a multidimensional approach of the psychological separation process, which takes the type of independence and the children's and parents' gender into account.