EXAMINING THE RELATION OF PARENTING TO CHILDRENS COPING WITH EVERYDAY STRESS

The relation between parenting and the coping styles of children in response to everyday stress was investigated. 60 children, 9-10 years old, and their mothers participated. Children and mothers described how they responded to stressful episodes the child had experienced within the past 2 months. Mothers completed questionnaires that assessed a variety of parenting dimensions (e.g., nurturance, directiveness, organization). Results indicated that (a) the aspects of child coping studied (e.g., perceived effectiveness, variety of coping strategies) were relatively independent, (b) children from families with high levels of maternal support and relatively low levels of family structure used the greatest variety of coping strategies, (c) children of supportive mothers used the greatest number of avoidant strategies (but only in uncontrollable situations), and (d) children from families with high levels of parental structure used fewer aggressive coping strategies.