Coping and adjustment in distressed and healthy adolescents

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Abstract

The way in which adolescents respond to stressors may be an important predictor of how successfully they adapt to the challenges of the teen years. In this article we examine coping responses in four groups of youth (healthy controls, adolescents with rheumatic disease, adolescents with conduct problems and depressed adolescents) using eight narrow-band scales hierarchically organized into broader-band domains of approach and avoidance coping. We then examine the association between coping responses and individual differences in adjustment. Adolescents in the four groups do not differ in their use of approach coping; however, depressed adolescents and adolescents with conduct disorder use more avoidance coping than rheumatic disease and healthy adolescents. Overall, adolescents who use more approach and less avoidance coping are better adjusted. The results suggest that efforts to change, manage, or positively reappraise a problematic situation actively, are important for good long-term adjustment. Adolescents who engage in more avoidance coping may be at greater risk for poorer adjustment to subsequent life stressors and crises.

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  • Cited by (0)

    This work was supported by the William T. Grant Foundation, NIMH Grant MH16744, NIAMD Grant AR20610, NIAAA Grants AA02863 and AA06699, and Veterans Affairs Medical Research Funds.

    We thank Denise Daniels for her help in formulating the overall project and Taylor Winston for assistance in data collection and analysis. Penny Brennan and John Schulenberg made helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article. Portions of this study were presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Kansas City, MO, April, 1989.

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