Resumo

HERNANDEZ ALTAMIRANO, Sheila Viridiana  e  GUTIERREZ LARA, Mariana. Coping Styles in Stressful Events in Childhood. Acta de investigación psicol [online]. 2012, vol.2, n.2, pp.687-698. ISSN 2007-4719.

Coping is a mediating variable of adaptation and stressful events of daily life of an individual. In the case of infants it lets them deal with the physical, psychological, familial, social and academic changes typical of their age. The aim of this research was to identify the coping styles used by children 10 to 13 years old to stressful events. This is a descriptive study in which coping styles were assessed using the "Stress and Coping Questionnaire" (Verduzco, 2004), which is composed of 33 items describing stressful situations in school, family and social areas. The questionnaire was applied to a sample which consisted of 251 children aged 10 to 13 years ( = 11 years, SD = .74), who were in fifth and sixth grade. For each of the situations they were asked to determine: the degree of stress, description of an action, thought and / or emotion that they used to kill or deal with the stressful situation and the perceived effectiveness of the action described. The response categories were organized into three coping styles: direct control Coping, indirect control coping and abandon of control coping. The results showed that the abandon of control coping style is most often used by children in this study and that society, school and family are important determinants of stress.

Palavras-chave : Coping; Stress; Children; Styles; Adaptation.