Ethnicity and Coping: What Young People Do and What Young People Learn

Abstract

In a number of studies, using the Adolescent Coping scale as a measure of coping, we are able to see clearly that young people from different communities cope in different ways. For example, in studies of Australian, Columbian, German, Irish and Palestinian young people it was found that coping varied in the different countries, but even within the same country, such as Australia, there are variations in coping across ethnic communities. These findings are confirmed by a recent smaller scale investigation that found that a group of students who were labelled ‘Australian minority group’ (comprising of Asian, African, Pacific Islanders and Middle Eastern students) used more spiritual support and resorted to social action more than did Anglo-Australian students. Of particular note is that the Australian minority group were found to significantly decrease their use of self-blame after participating in a school-based coping skills program, while Anglo-Australian students increased their use of physical recreation. These findings collectively demonstrate the impact of ethnic identity in both the act of coping and the acquisition of coping skills.