Adolescent coping styles and strategies: Is there functional and dysfunctional coping?

Abstract

This paper reports a brief history of the Adolescent Coping Checklist (ACC). In its current form the ACC comprises 80 items which reliably assess 18 conceptually and empirically distinct coping strategies. These allow for the measurement of adolescents' responses to both specific concerns and concerns in general. A short form of the instrument, comprising 18 items has also been developed. It has been demonstrated that this is a useful indicator of a respondent's performance on the long form of the instrument. Both the long and short form of the ACC independently provide support for conceptualising coping in terms of three styles, each comprising a number of conceptually distinct strategies. These represent both functional and dysfunctional aspects of coping behaviour. The uses of such an instrument are addressed.