Coping strategies in Hungarian school-age children

Abstract

This longitudinal study aimed to analyse what coping strategies 8- and 12-year-old children use in frustrating situations. The participants were Hungarian students and their teachers. In the first investigation, children were aged 8 (N=52), and then they were re-examined four years later (N=45). Two Likert-type questionnaires (teacher and student versions) were developed and administered in the study. The instruments proved to be highly reliable (Cronbach’s α: .84-.86). The questionnaires enabled the researchers to investigate the following behaviourally observable strategies: physical aggression, verbal aggression, resistance, venting/crying, avoidance, teacher-seeking, peer-seeking, following the norms and following teacher’s instructions. In most frustrating situations, the frequency of physical and verbal aggression and venting increased with age. Both the self and teacher reports indicated that as students grew older, they were less inclined to seek peer or teacher’s help. The correlation between the teacher and self-ratings is weak, particularly in the 12-year-old cohort (p < .05).