Erica Frydenberg: Adolescent Coping: Advances in Theory, Research, and Practice

Excerpt

Raising adolescents to become the successors of our community is a significant goal and an especially challenging one. Adolescents’ growth and development can go in both positive and negative directions, and reducing the high risk of negative developmental outcomes is at the core of Erica Frydenberg’s Adolescent Coping: Advances in Theory, Research, and Practice. Her text shows how it is important for youth to be engaged actively to learn how to cope with the multitude of problems and stressors that they inevitably will encounter with respect to all aspects of their mental health. Frydenberg’s text provides a complete picture of what we know about adolescents’ coping abilities and challenges as well as the contexts in which they must cope. She emphasizes many key features of coping that have been demonstrated to increase well-being, including optimism, happiness, resiliency, and proactivity. Her unique multi-dimensional classification of stress and coping strategies allows for a comprehensive approach to the prevention of youths’ dysfunctions. …