Psychological topics, Vol. 15 No. 1, 2006.
Original scientific paper
Students Coping with Academic and Interpersonal Stressors: Testing Cross-Situational Stability of Coping Strategies
Darko Lončarić
Abstract
Research on the cross-situational stability of coping with stress in diverse stressful situations is closely connected with a contemporary scientific debate about determining coping as a stable trait or a changeable strategy. Review of recent research indicates that different models of stress and coping cannot be equally applied as explanations of cross-situational stability of all coping strategies. Also, research carried out on children and adolescents has not included all the indicators of cross-situational stability of coping (such as factor stability of coping scales).
The main goal of this research is to construct comparable scales of coping with bad grades and interpersonal conflict and to determine the cross-situational stability of coping through analysis of the factor structure stability and through correlations of coping strategies in different stressful situations. Elementary school students (5th through 8th grade, 702 female and 761 male students) participated in all three stages of this research (pilot study, scale construction, and investigation of cross-situational stability of coping). Results showed that the factor structure of the scales changes when the scales are applied to measure coping with different stressful situations. Correlations of factor scores and raw scores indicate that intensive and inappropriate emotional reactions show the highest degree of cross-situational stability while problem solving efforts show
lowest degree of cross-situational stability. These findings are discussed in the context of previous research findings, contemporary theoretical approaches to stress and coping, and the methodological issues specific for this research.
Keywords
stress; coping; bad grade; interpersonal conflict
Hrčak ID:
11831
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2006.
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