Social and personal resources and adaptive and non-adaptive strategies for coping with stress in a group of socially maladjusted youths

Abstract

This article is the result of an empirical research project analysing the relationship between the resources of socially maladjusted youth and their strategies for coping with stress. The research was focused on non-formal functional support from family members and two types of personal resources – resilience and a sense of coherence – in forming tendencies to take advantage of adaptive and non-adaptive strategies for coping with stress. The research participants consisted of young, socially maladjusted people who have been directed to attendance centres, youth sociotherapy centres, and youth educational centres all over Poland (N = 468). Structural equation modelling was used to verify the basic hypotheses. The observed data confirmed most of the assumptions. The sense of family support was positively related to an adaptive strategy and, contrary to expectations, to a non-adaptive strategy. The family support experienced not only had a direct impact on intensifying adaptive and non-adaptive strategies but also influenced coping with the use of personal resources. The impact of family resources on resilience and the sense of coherence were similar, but the relationship of a sense of coherence was weaker than the relationship of resilience with an adaptive strategy. Resilience turned out to be the strongest predictor of an adaptive strategy. The relationship between resilience and a non-adaptive strategy was insignificant, but a sense of coherence worked in favour of planning, positively reinterpreting the situation and actively undertaking actions focused on the problem, and at the same time lowered the tendency to release emotions and self-blame.