Teaching Coping to Adolescents: When and to Whom?

Abstract

This paper reports on a longitudinal study of adolescent coping in. metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. During the five-year period of the investigation, 168 students were tracked firstly to document the patterns of general coping behaviour of girls and boys at grade levels 7, 9, and 11, and secondly to determine what changes were apparent in their coping responses. Young people's coping was assessed using the Adolescent Coping Scale (ACS), an 80-item checklist that identifies 17 distinct coping strategies as well as a young person's professed inability to cope. Some interesting changes over time in students' usage of a number of coping strategies were found. Both boys and girls remain relatively stable in their declared inability to cope between the ages of 12 and 14. However, while boys report much the same low level two years later, girls report significantly higher levels of an inability to cope by the time they are 16. Of the coping strategies, five (Seeking Social Support, Solving the Problem, Self-Blame, Keep to Self and Tension Reduction) remained stable for adolescents between the ages of 12 and 14 but increased significantly in the next two years. These represent a combination of what may be termed functional and dysfunctional strategies. For two of the five strategies (Self-Blame and Social Support) boys' usage diminished from age 12 to 14 years and then returned to approximately 12-year-old level by the time they were 16. In contrast, the girls' usage of these two strategies increased moderately between ages 12 to 14 years but increased dramatically between ages 14 and 16. Of the remaining strategies for which age showed a significant main effect, three (Social Action, Spiritual Support and Physical Recreation), bad a similar pattern of decrease in usage between the ages of 12 and 14, after which the usage remained relatively stable. The final strategy that varied with age was Professional Help. Reference to professionals was rated significantly lower at 14 than it was at 12 and 16, for both boys and girls. The findings highlight the fact that boys arm girls develop differentially in their patterns of coping with age and there are implications for the timing and substance of coping skills development programs that may be taught in schools.