Parents and Children's Coping: Building Resilience and Well-Being

• In Event: 35.079 - Conceptualizing and Researching Stress in Educational Settings

Abstract

The coping literature has been critcised by some researchers for its predominant focus on intra-individual factors (e.g., age and temperament) and paying little attention to the social context of coping to investigate areas such as family patterns of coping or making comparisons between parent and child coping styles Coping is shaped by social relationships and contexts. In particular, parents play an instrumental role in their children’s adjustment. Parents are important social partners who influence children’s coping and who introduce coping strategies to their children. They are the child’s primary socialisation agents and model, directly and indirectly, coping for their children. This multi site study draws on earlier work that identifies parents and children’s patterns of coping. It demonstrates that when parents are taught coping skills in the context of a five session parenting program and given the tools to teach their children coping skills changes in patterns of coping are reported, namely parents reduce their non productive coping strategies such as worry, self-blame and tension reduction and improve helpful strategies such as relaxation and physical recreation. This approach to parenting can provide an approach to building resilience both in parents and children.

Authors

• Erica Frydenberg, University of Melbourne

• Jan Deans, University of Melbourne