The Development of Coping: Implications for Psychopathology and Resilience

Abstract

The goal of this chapter is to review conceptual and empirical progress in the study of the development of coping and to identify important ways in which this work may be useful to researchers studying the development of psychopathology and resilience. We divide the review into three sections. We first summarize perspectives that identify coping as a transactional process, reviewing theory and research on how individual differences in stress appraisals, coping, and emotional responses are linked to psychopathology and adaptive functioning. In the second section coping is described as a fundamental human adaptive process that involves the regulation of multiple subsystems (like emotion and attention) that are activated by stress. In this section, agegraded developments in multiple ways of coping are considered in order to bring structure to research on the negative and positive outcomes of coping for human adaptation, psychopathology, and resilience. In the third section, coping is considered as an integral part of developmental cascades that contribute to psychopathology and resilience. We review research on how coping is associated with temperament, attachment, and parenting to identify examples of underlying risk and protective factors. These factors likely play a role in developmental cascades that mark and contribute to psychopathology and resilience. We end with suggestions for future research and highlight some translational implications of research.

Coping materno da Síndrome de Down: identificando estressores e estratégias de enfrentamento

“…Dessa forma, o estresse passa a ser estudado por vários autores a partir de um modelo interativo (Transactional Modelo of Stress and Coping), que compreende estresse e enfrentamento a partir da interação entre organismo e seu ambiente e não como propriedade de um ou de outro (Lazarus, 1993;Skinner & Zimmer-Gembeck, 2009). Dessa interação resultam a saúde mental ou psicopatologias (Zimmer-Gembeck & Skinner, 2016). Segundo Skinner, Edge, Altman e Sherwood (2003), o enfrentamento é um construto usado para agrupar e organizar um conjunto de ações adotadas pelos indivíduos para lidar com experiências estressantes, envolvendo comportamentos, percepções e cognições.…”

Bridge Over Troubled Water: Perspective Connections between Coping and Play in Children

“…According to a developmental perspective, coping is a regulatory processes mediating the interrelation between the individual and the environment (Compas et al, 2001; Zimmer-Gembeck and Skinner, 2016), and it characterizes how children face and respond to stressors both in adaptive and maladaptive ways (Zimmer-Gembeck and Skinner, 2016). The adaptive nature of coping is fundamental for human wellbeing; as outlined by Lazarus and Launier (1978), a coping response is even more important than the stressor itself.…”

“…The adaptive nature of coping is fundamental for human wellbeing; as outlined by Lazarus and Launier (1978), a coping response is even more important than the stressor itself. Effective coping has been associated with important outcomes in childhood and adolescence, such as academic performance, social functioning, adaptation to stressful life events, internalizing and externalizing behavior, well-being, competence, and resilience (Zimmer-Gembeck and Skinner, 2011, 2016). …”

“…Coping adapts and develops as a joint function of internal traits and environmental characteristics (Skinner and Zimmer-Gembeck, 2007; Zimmer-Gembeck and Skinner, 2016). Infants engage in reflex actions mediated by their own temperament (Rueda and Rothbart, 2009), and volitional coping strategies start to emerge from early childhood (Compas et al, 2001).…”

“…In different ways, they both support mental, physical, social, and emotional well-being and the ability to adapt (Bjorklund and Pellegrini, 2002; Russ, 2004; Ginsburg, 2007; Skinner and Zimmer-Gembeck, 2007; Aldwin, 2009; Zimmer-Gembeck and Skinner, 2016). Here, we aim to highlight limits in current coping theories that obscure the importance of play and show possible future developments for integrating both constructs.…”