Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T05:16:22.317Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Coping skills training for adolescents at school

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2015

Amanda Cotta ,
Erica Frydenberg  and
Charles Poole
Amanda Cotta
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
Erica Frydenberg*
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
Charles Poole
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
*
Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne, PARKVILLE Victoria 3010, Phone: 03 8344 9541, Fax: 03 8344 0995, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of a coping skills program “The Best of Coping” on adolescents’ coping style and self-efficacy and highlights a model of program delivery through the collaboration of school staff and a school psychologist Eighty-eight adolescents were recruited from a Melbourne suburb and divided into treatment and control groups, with the treatment group receiving the program. All participants completed the Adolescent Coping Scale and Perceived Control of Internal States questionnaires prior to and after the program was conducted. Results showed significant decreases in nonproductive coping and increases in self-efficacy for the treatment group postprogram and a trend indicating increases in productive coping. The findings are discussed with regard to the need to implement programs that can teach adolescents optimism and problem-solving skills so that they may handle problems and stressors more effectively. With the increase in depression and suicide rates, the need to provide school based programs is discussed, with particular emphasis placed on program implementation by collaboration of the school psychologist with teachers.

Keywords

AdolescenceCopingPrevention
Type
Research Article
Information
The Educational and Developmental Psychologist , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , 2000 , pp. 103 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © Australian Psychological Society 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aspinwall, L.G., & Taylor, S.E. (1992). Modeling cognitive adaptation: A longitudinal investigation of the impact of individual differences and coping on college adjustment and performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(6), 989–1003.Google Scholar
Bailey, F.J., & Dua, J. (1999). Individualism-collectivism, coping styles, and stress in International and Anglo-Australian students: A comparative study. Australian Psychologist, 34(3), 177–182.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 54(2), 191–215.Google Scholar
Bond, L.A., & Compas, B.E. (Eds). (1989). Primary prevention and promotion in the schools. Newbury Park: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Brandon, C.M., Cunningham, E.G., & Frydenberg, E. (1999). Bright ideas. Australian Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 9(1), 147–157.Google Scholar
Burger, J.M. (1985). Desire for control and achievement-related behaviors. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48(6), 1520–1533.Google Scholar
Centre for Adolescent Health. (1996). Health of young people in Victoria. Melbourne: Doculink Google Scholar
Clarke, G.N., Hawkins, W., Murphy, M., & Sheeber, L. (1993). School-based primary prevention of depressive symptomatology in adolescents findings from two studies. Journal of Adolescent Research, 8(2), 183–204.Google Scholar
Cozzarelli, C. (1993). Personality and self-efficacy as predictors of coping with abortion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65(6), 1224–1236.Google Scholar
Cunningham, E. (1999). The development of coping resources in early adolescence within the context of whole-school curriculum: A mediational analysis of mechanisms through which a preventative intervention program achieves its outcomes. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Melbourne, Victoria.Google Scholar
Cunningham, E., & Walker, G. (1999). Screening for at-risk youth: Predicting adolescent depression from coping styles. Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 9(1), 37–46.Google Scholar
Ebata, A.T., & Moos, R.H. (1994). Personal, situational, and contextual correlates of coping in adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 4(1), 99–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fanshawe, J.P., & Burnett, P.C. (1999). Students’ and teachers’ perceptions of adolescents’ problems and coping strategies. Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 9(1), 93–107.Google Scholar
Frydenberg, E. (1999). Health, well-being, & coping? What’s that got to do with education? Australian Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 9(1), 1–18.Google Scholar
Frydenberg, E., & Brandon, C.M. (1999j. The best of coping: Developing coping skills. Unpublished manuscript, University of Melbourne, Victoria.Google Scholar
Frydenberg, E., & Lewis, R. (1993). Boys play sport and girls turn to others: Age, gender, and ethnicity as determinants of coping. Journal of Adolescence, 16, 253–266.Google Scholar
Frydenberg, E. & Lewis, R. (1999). Academic and general well-being: The relationship with coping. Australian Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 9(1), 19–36.Google Scholar
Jaycox, L.H., Reivich, K.J., Gillham, J., & Seligman, M.E.P. (1994). Prevention of depressive symptoms in school children. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 32(8), 801–816.Google Scholar
Lazarus, R.S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Matheny, K.B., Aycock, D.W., & McCarthy, C.J. (1993). Stress in school-aged children and youth. Educational Psychology Review, 5, 109–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Health and Medical Research; Clinical Practice Guidelines.(1997). Depression in young people. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Pallant, J. (1998). Perceived control of internal states. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Melbourne, Victoria.Google Scholar
Resnick, M.D., Bearman, P.S., Blum, R.W., Bauman, K.E., Harris, K.M., Jones, J., et al. (1997). Protecting adolescents from harm: Findings from the national longitudinal study on adolescent health. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 278(10), 795–878.Google Scholar
Rice, K.G., Herman, M.A., & Petersen, A.C. (1993). Coping with challenge in adolescence: A conceptual model and psycho-educational intervention. Journal of Adolescence, 16, 235–251.Google Scholar
Roberts, C.M. (1999). The prevention of depression in children and adolescents. Australian Psychologist, 34(1), 49–57.Google Scholar
Rollin, S.A., & Prevatt, F.F. (1999). Interventions for adolescents: Two programs based on a multisystemic problem-solving approach. Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 9(1), 123–132.Google Scholar
Rutter, M. (1994). Stress research: Accomplishments and tasks ahead. In Haggerty, R.J. , Sherrod, L.R., Garmezy, N., & Rutter, M. (Eds), Stress, risk, and resilience in children and adolescents: Processes, mechanisms, and interventions (pp. 354–386). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sandler, I.N., Wolchik, S.A., MacKinnon, D., Ayers, T.S., & Roosa, M.W. (1997). Developing linkages between theory and intervention in stress and coping processes. In Wolchik, S.A. & Sandler, I.N. (Eds.), Handbook of children’s coping: Linking theory and intervention (pp. 3–40). New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Scheier, M.R., Weintraub, J.K., & Carver, C.S. (1986). Coping with stress: Divergent strategies of optimists and pessimists. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1257–1264.Google Scholar
Segerstrom, S.C., Taylor, S.E., Kemeny, M.E., & Fahey, J.L. (1998). Optimism is associated with mood, coping, and immune change in response to stress. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1646–1655.Google Scholar
Shochet, I., & Osgarby, S. (1999). The resourceful adolescent project: Building psychological resilience in adolescents and their parents. The Australian Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 16(1), 46–65.Google Scholar
Skinner, E.A., & Wellborn, J.G. (1997). Children’s coping in the academic domain. In Wolchick, S.A. & Sandler, I.N. (Eds), Handbook of children’s coping: Linking theory and intervention (pp. 387–422). New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar