The impact of accommodative coping on well-being in childhood and adolescence

Abstract

Coping research has consistently shown that accommodative coping is positively correlated with individuals’ health. Until now, however, there have been little to no studies on the prognostic impact of accommodative coping on health, and only a few studies investigating its buffering effect on the relation between stress and health in childhood and adolescence. Thus, two main research questions were tracked in two longitudinal studies: Study 1 investigated if accommodative coping is indeed a functional resource that longitudinally predicts well-being in a sample of N = 403 adolescents (aged 12–15 years at Wave 1). Study 2 examined the function of accommodative coping under stressful conditions by investigating its buffering effect on the negative impact of school-related stress on well-being in a sample of N = 86 children (aged 9–12 years at Wave 1). Study 1 revealed accommodative coping longitudinally predicting well-being, and, conversely, there was no prediction of well-being through accommodative coping over time. Study 2 revealed a significant moderating effect and gives a first indication that accommodative coping buffers the negative impact of school-related stress on well-being in childhood. The results indicate that accommodation is a functional coping resource in adolescence that diminishes the negative impact of specific stressors. All main and further results are discussed, and implications for further research are given.

Keywords

accommodative coping longitudinal study moderating effects stress well-being

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adams

(1993). Effects of a negative life event and negative perceived problem-solving alternatives on depression in adolescents: A prospective study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 34, 743–747.

Aldao

Nolen-Hoeksema

Schweizer

(2010). Emotion-regulated strategies across psychopatholgy: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 217–237.

Aldwin

C. M.

(2007). Stress, coping, and development: An integrative perspective (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Aldwin

C. M.

(2011). Stress and coping across the lifespan. In Folkman

(Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Stress, Health and Coping (pp. 15–34). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Aldrige

A. A.

Roesch

S. C.

(2007). Coping and adjustment in children with cancer: A meta-analytic study. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 30, 115–129.

Aldwin

C. A.

Skinner

E. A.

Zimmer-Gembeck

M. J.

Taylor

(2011). Coping and self-regulation across the lifespan. In Fingerman

Berg

Smith

Antonucci

(Eds.), Handbook of life-span development (pp. 563–589). New York, NY: Springer.

Augustine

A. A.

Hemenover

S. H.

(2009). On the relative effectiveness of affect regulation strategies: A meta-analysis. Cognition and Emotion, 23, 1181–1220.

Band

E. B.

Weisz

J. R.

(1990). Developmental differences in primary and secondary control coping and adjustment to juvenile diabetes. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 19, 150–158.

Baron

R. M.

Kenny

D. A.

(1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173–1182.

10.

Brandtstädter

(2006). Action perspectives on human development. In Lerner

R. M.

(Ed.), Handbook of child psychology. Theoretical Models of Human Development (6th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 516–568). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

11.

Brandtstädter

Greve

(1994). The aging self: Stabilizing and protective processes. Developmental Review, 14, 52–80.

12.

Brandtstädter

Renner

(1990). Tenacious goal pursuit and flexible goal adjustment: Explication and age-related analysis of assimilative and accommodative strategies of coping. Psychology and Aging, 5, 58–67.

13.

Brandtstädter

Rothermund

(2002). The life-course dynamics of goal pursuit and goal adjustment: A two-process framework. Developmental Review, 22, 117–150.

14.

Brandtstädter

Wentura

Greve

(1993). Adaptive resources of the aging self: Outlines of an emergent perspective. International Journal of Behavioural Development, 16, 323–349.

15.

Chung

Elias

Schneider

(1998). Patterns of individual adjustment changes during middle school transition. Journal of School Psychology, 36, 83–101.

16.

Cohen

West

S. G.

Aiken

L. S.

(2003). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

17.

Compas

B. E.

Connor-Smith

J. K.

Saltzman

Thomsen

A. H.

Wadsworth

M. E.

(2001). Coping with stress during childhood and adolescence: Problems, progress and potential in theory and research. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 87–127.

18.

Compas

B. E.

Orosan

P. G.

Grant

K. E.

(1993). Adolescent stress and coping: Implications for psychopathology during adolescence. Journal of Adolescence, 16, 331–349.

19.

Connor-Smith

J. K.

Compas

B. E.

(2004). Coping as a moderator of relations between reactivity to interpersonal stress, health status, and internalizing problems. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 28, 347–368.

20.

Connor-Smith

J. K.

Compas

B. E.

Wadsworth

M. E.

Thomsen

A. H.

Saltzman

(2000). Responses to stress in adolescence: Measurement of coping and involuntary stress responses. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68, 976–992.

21.

Curry

S. L.

Russ

S. W.

(1985). Identifying coping strategies in children. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 14, 61–69.

22.

de Boo

G. M.

Wicherts

J. M.

(2009). Assessing cognitive and behavioral coping strategies in children. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 33, 1–20.

23.

Eisenberg

Fabes

R. A.

Nyman

Bernzweig

Pinuelas

(1994). The realtions of emotionality and regulation to children’s anger-related reactions. Child Development, 65, 109–128.

24.

Fear

J. M.

Champion

J. E.

Reeslund

K. L.

Forehand

Colletti

Roberts

Compas

B. E.

(2009). Parental depression and interparental conflict: Children and adolescents’ self-blame and coping responses. Journal of Family Psychology, 23, 762–766.

25.

Fields

Prinz

R. J.

(1997). Coping and adjustment during childhood and adolescence. Clinical Psychology Review, 17, 937–976.

26.

Frydenberg

Lewis

(2000). Teaching coping to adolescents: When and to whom? American Educational Research Journal, 37, 727–745.

27.

Garnefski

Koopman

Kraaij

Cate

(2009). Cognitive emotion regulation strategies and psychological adjustment in adolescents with a chronic disease. Journal of Adolescence, 32, 449–454.

28.

Garnefski

Kraaij

Spinhoven

(2001). Negative life events, cognitive emotion regulation and emotional problems. Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 1311–1327.

29.

Garnefski

Legerstee

Kraaij

Van Den Kommer

Teerds

J. A. N.

(2002). Cognitive coping strategies and symptoms of depression and anxiety: A comparison between adolescents and adults. Journal of Adolescence, 25, 603–611.

30.

Garnefski

Rieffe

Jellesma

Meerum Terwogt

Kraaij

(2007). Cognitive emotion regulation strategies and emotional problems in 9–11-year-old children. European and Adolescent Psychiatry, 16, 1–9.

31.

Geiser

(2010). Datenanalyse mit Mplus [Data analysis with Mplus]. Wiesbaden, Germany: VS Verlag.

32.

Gonzales

N. A.

Tein

J.-Y.

Sandler

I. N.

Friedman

R. J.

(2001). On the limits of coping: Interaction between stress and coping for inner-city adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Research, 16, 372–395.

33.

Greve

Enzmann

(2003). Self-esteem maintenance among incarcerated young males: Stabilization through accommodative processes. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 27, 12–20.

34.

Greve

Enzmann

Hosser

(2001). The stabilization of self-esteem among incarcerated adolescents: Accommodative and immunizing processes. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 45, 749–768.

35.

Greve

Thomsen

(2013). Developmental conditions of adaptive self-stabilization in adolescence: An exploratory study. International Journal of Developmental Science, 7, 119–131.

36.

Griebel

Niesel

(2004). Transitionen. Fähigkeit von Kindern in Tageseinrichtungen fördern, Veränderungen erfolgreich zu bewältigen [Transitions. Promoting the ability to cope with changes in children in day care facilities]. Weinheim, Germany: Beltz.

37.

Gross

J. J.

(1998a). Antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation: Divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 224–237.

38.

Gross

J. J.

(1998b). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2, 271–299.

39.

Gross

J. J.

John

O. P.

(2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 348–362.

40.

Haase

C. M.

Heckhausen

Wrosch

(2013). Developmental regulation across the life span: Toward a new synthesis. Developmental Psychology, 49, 964–972.

41.

Hampel

Petermann

(2005). Age and gender effects on coping in children and adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 34, 73–83.

42.

Hampel

Petermann

(2006). Perceived stress, coping, and adjustment in adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 38, 409–415.

43.

Harter

(1999). The construction of the self. A developmental perspective. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

44.

Heckhausen

Wrosch

Schulz

(2010). A motivational theory of life-span development. Psychological Review, 117, 32–60.

45.

Hsieh

Stright

A. D.

(2012). Adolescents’ emotion regulation strategies, self-concept, and internalizing problems. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 32, 876–901.

46.

Kenny

D. A.

(1975). Cross-lagged panel correlation: A test for spuriousness. Psychological Bulletin, 82, 887–903.

47.

Kliewer

(1991). Coping in middle childhood: Relations to competence, type A behavior, monitoring, blunting and locus of control. Developmental Psychology, 27, 689–697.

48.

Kline

R. B.

(2011). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

49.

Kraaij

Garnefski

de Wilde

E. J.

Dijkstra

Gebhardt

Maes

ter Doest

(2003). Negative life events and depressive symptoms in late adolescence: Bonding and cognitive coping as vulnerability factors? Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 32, 185–193.

50.

Legerstee

J. S.

Garnefski

Verhulst

F. C.

Utens

E. M. W. J.

(2011). Cognitive coping in anxiety-disordered adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 34, 319–326.

51.

Lewinsohn

P. M.

Roberts

R. E.

Seeley

J. R.

Rohde

Gotlib

I. H.

Hops

(1994). Adolescent psychopathology: II. Psychosocial risk factors for depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103, 302–315.

52.

Losoya

Eisenberg

Fabes

R. A.

(1998). Developmental issues in the study of coping. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 22, 287–313.

53.

Muthén

L. K.

Muthén

B. O.

(2010). MPlus User’s Guide (6th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.

54.

Pinquart

Silbereisen

R.-K.

Wiesner

(2005). The developing self in adolescence: Producing and reducing discrepancies between developmental goals and present states. In Greve

Rothermund

Wentura

(Eds.), The adaptive self. Personal continuity and intentional self-development (pp. 155–169). Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe.

55.

Ravens-Sieberer

Bullinger

(1998). Assessing health related quality of life in chronically ill children with the German KINDL: First psychometric and content-analytical results. Quality of life research, 7, 399–407.

56.

Ravens-Sieberer

Bullinger

(2000). Fragebogen zur Erfassung der gesundheitsbezogenen Lebensqualität bei Kindern und Jugendlichen – Revidierte Form (KINDL-R) [Questionnaire to assess health related quality of life in children and adolescents – Revised form (KINDL-R)]. Retrieved from http://kindl.org/english/manual/

57.

Robinson

M. D.

Clore

G. L.

(2002). Episodic and semantic knowledge in emotional self report: Evidence for two judgment processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 198–215.

58.

Sanchez

Y. M.

Lambert

S. F.

Cooley-Strickland

(2013). Adverse life events, coping and internalizing and externalizing behaviors in urban African American youth. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 22, 38–47.

59.

Sandler

I. N.

Tein

J.-Y.

West

S. G.

(1994). Coping, stress, and the psychological symptoms of children of divorce: A cross-sectional and longitudinal study. Child Development, 65, 1744–1763.

60.

Santiago

C. D.

Wadsworth

(2009). Coping with family conflict: What’s helpful and what’s not for low-income adolescents. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 18, 192–202.

61.

Seiffge-Krenke

(1995). Stress, coping, and relationships in adolescence. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

62.

Seiffge-Krenke

Beyers

(2005). Coping trajectories from adolescence to young adulthood: Links to attachment state of mind. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 15, 561–582.

63.

Skinner

E. A.

Edge

Altman

Sherwood

(2003). Searching for the structure of coping: A review and critique of category systems for classifying ways of coping. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 216–269.

64.

Skinner

E. A.

Zimmer-Gembeck

M. J.

(2007). The development of coping. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 119–144.

65.

Spirito

Stark

L. J.

Grace

Stamoulis

(1991). Common problems and coping strategies reported in childhood and early adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 20, 531–544.

66.

Thomsen

(2014). The development of accommodative regulation and related ways of cognitive coping and emotion regulation from middle childhood to late adolescence. Manuscript in preparation.

67.

Thomsen

Greve

(2013). Accommodative coping in early adolescence: An investigation of possible components. Journal of Adolescence, 36, 971–981.

68.

Thomsen

A. H.

Compas

B. E.

Colletti

R. B.

Stanger

Boyer

M. C.

Konik

B. S.

(2002). Parent reports of coping and stress responses in children with recurrent abdominal pain. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 27, 215–226.

69.

Thurber

C. A.

Weisz

J. R.

(1997). “You can try or you can just give up”: The impact of perceived control and coping style on childhood homesickness. Developmental Psychology, 33, 508–517.

70.

Tolan

P. H.

Gorman-Smith

Henry

Chung

Hunt

(2002). The relation of patterns of coping of inner-city youth to psychopathology symptoms. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 12, 423–449.

71.

Turner-Sack

A. M.

Menna

Setchell

S. R.

(2012). Posttraumatic growth, coping strategies, and psychological distress in adolescent survivors of cancer. Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing, 29, 70–79.

72.

Vierhaus

Lohaus

(2009). Children’s perception of relations between anger or anxiety and coping: Continuity and discontinuity of relational structures. Social Development, 8, 747–763.

73.

Vierhaus

Lohaus

Ball

(2007). Developmental changes in coping: Situational and methodological influences. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, 20, 267–282.

74.

Webb

T. L.

Miles

Sheeran

(2012). Dealing with feeling: A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation. Psychological Bulletin, 138, 775–808.

75.

Wrosch

(2011). Self-regulation of unattainable goals and pathways to quality of life. In Folkman

(Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Stress, Health and Coping (pp. 319–333). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

76.

Wrosch

Miller

G. E.

(2009). Depressive symptoms can be useful: Self-regulatory and emotional benefits of dysphoric mood in adolescence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96 (6), 1181–1190.

77.

Wrosch

Miller

G. E.

Scheier

M. F.

de Pontet

S. B.

(2007). Giving up on unattainable goals: Benefits for health? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 251–265.

78.

Wrosch

Scheier

M. F.

Miller

G. E.

Schulz

Carver

C. S.

(2003). Adaptive self-regulation of unattainable goals: Goal disengagement, goal reengagement, and subjective well-being. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 1494–1508.

79.

Zimmer-Gembeck

M. J.

Skinner

E. A.

(2011). The development of coping across childhood and adolescence: An integrative review and critique of research. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 35, 1–17.