Stress coping differences in adolescents and adults

Band & Weisz (1988) study concludes that when in a stressful situation, adults tend to use primary control coping (trying to change the situation), secondary control (make adjustments) or relinquished control (neither change nor adjust). When they applied the same theory to children ranging in age from 9-12 years old, they found active coping mostly but as the age increased, secondary coping was more common.

Coping strategies among children, adolescents are different from how adults handle stress. Children pick up cues from their parents or guardians in everything and in coping strategies as well (Neufeld & Maté, 2011). A parent or guardian’s coping strategies may affect how a child is able to cope with a health issue. Parental monitoring is considered a major factor in nonadherence to treatment of health issues (Rapoff, 1999).This seems to have an inverse relation with age of the children and by late teenage, monitoring by parents almost ceases. Research shows that parental monitoring is the key to improving adherence to treatment. Efficacy of the treatment is one way a parent or guardian’s coping strategy can affect a child’s attitude. If parents do not believe in the effectiveness of a medication, then they may not administer it to the child. This then affects the coping mechanism of the child.

Coping strategies have a reverse effect also when a child’s coping strategies influence the parent or guardian’s coping. If children are unable to cope with the stress or health issue then that can affect the parent’s behavior in general. A child who is suffering from anxiety can be a source of stress for a parent, and if the parent is facing stress themselves then the intensity can be more. An example is of parents of children suffering from dyslexia. Alexander‐Passe (2008) found a relation between the stress faced by dyslexic children and the size of their families. The study concluded that dyslexic children who had one sibling were less stress compared to those with more siblings. The stress coming from the fact that these children suffered from dyslexia was carried to parents resulting in unfair comparisons between siblings.  Chodoff et al (1964) conducted a study with 46 parents of 27 children, who suffered from Leukemia and found that coping strategies like affect, denial and motor activity were the most common coping strategies these parents had adopted in their attitude. If the disease was prolonged then religious beliefs and faith also play a role in dealing with the stress.

References

Alexander‐Passe, N. (2008). The sources and manifestations of stress amongst school‐aged dyslexics, compared with sibling controls. Dyslexia, 14(4), 291-313.

Band, E. B., & Weisz, J. R. (1988). How to feel better when it feels bad: Children's perspectives on coping with everyday stress. Developmental Psychology, 24(2), 247.

Neufeld, G., & Maté, G. (2011). Hold on to your kids: Why parents need to matter more than peers. Random House LLC.

Rapoff, M. A. (1999). Medical nonadherence: Prevalence, consequences, and correlates.  In Adherence to pediatric medical regimens (pp. 1–22). New York, NY: Springer.