Age and sex differences in the use of coping and defense strategies were examined in life-span sample of 381 individuals. Participants responded to 2 self-report measures assessing mechanisms of coping and defense and measures assessing their level of cognitive complexity. Older adults used a combination of coping and defense strategies indicative of greater impulse control and the tendency to positively appraise conflict situations. Adolescents and younger adults used strategies that were outwardly aggressive and psychologically undifferentiated, indicating lower levels of impulse control and self-awareness. Women used more internalizing defenses than men and used coping strategies that flexibly integrated intra-and interpersonal aspects of conflict situations. Taken together, findings provide evidence for the age- and sex-specific use of strategies of coping and defense, suggesting that men and women may face different developmental tasks in the process toward maturity in adulthood.

This study extended earlier research on representations of serf by comparing representations across multiple targets (self, mother, father). Levels of self-and other-representation were scored within a developmental level scheme indicating movement from undifferentiated and static descriptions to ones that place an emphasis on process and transformation. The results showed a significant progression from youth to midlife, but lower scores in late adulthood. In middle adulthood, a greater proportion of individuals described themselves as dynamic, complex, and integrated rather than as simple, static, and conventional-institutional. This same pattern held true for parental targets. Thus, at midlife, parents were more likely to be understood as individuals with their own unique personalities, motivations, and histories independent of the self. Finally, self-and parent-representations showed a different pattern of correlates for younger versus older individuals and for men versus women. For women and older individuals but not for men and younger participants, coping and defense strategies predicted self-and parent-representation level.

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