Resources loss, gain, investment, and coping in adolescents

Abstract

AbstractYear 9 students from a Melbourne metropolitan secondary school (N = 176) completed the specific version of the Adolescent Coping Scale and a Resources Questionnaire on 10 resources valued by young people. Having and valuing of the 10 resources was associated with productive coping by adolescents. Having fewer resources and greater resource loss was related to use of nonproductive coping. Girls and boys managed their resources differently as part of their coping efforts. Investing in and gaining resources was reported by girls who coped productively and focused on solving their problems, but not by productively coping boys, nonproductively coping girls, or girls who reported avoiding negative emotional states when dealing with problems. The indications are that in counseling and in designing interventions aimed to improve resilience in young people, gender may have an impact on particular resources of value to the person, and the approach taken to developing resources may similarly vary.