Coping strategies of counselors and school-age mothers.

Abstract

The direct and indirect coping styles of 61 school-age mothers and 28 counselors working with school-age mothers were examined in this study. Subjects rated the helpfulness of 6 coping strategies (asseerting oneself negotiating demanding avoiding the situation changing the meaning and calming) for each of 18 vignettes representing 4 types of stressful situations: criticism from others offensive behavior of others requests by others and personal upset. Analysis revealed school-age mothers preferred indirect coping methods strategies that are highly associated with distress. Counselors perceived the direct coping strategies of assertion negotiation and demanding as more helpful. Differneces in choice of coping strategy occurred within types of situation and between counselors and high distress adolescents. More than counselors school-age mothers recommend dealing with situations involving criticism by avoidance strategies and by demanding change in the critics behavior. Counselors prefer keeping calm negotiating and asserting oneself. Changing the meaning of the event was not highly preferred by either group. 13-21 year old mothers preferred dealing with a stressful situation due to offensive behavior by changing the meaning of the event and demanding an end to the offensive behavior. Again counselors preferred negotiation and assertion. Findings indicate that counselors must make careful assessments to determine the coping strategies appropriate for each client group. Racial preferences for coping strategies contribute to differences between counselors and adolescent mothers demonstrating the need for careful consideration of cultural contributors to coping choice. The distress ameliorating function of coping strategies across situations and cultures calls for further investigation. Determining which skills are possessed by members of different cultures as well as which skills are functional by culture are important tasks for future research.