Effects of Stress Coping Behaviors on Social Adjustment in Childhood

초록

In the past work on stress, it has long been concluded that stress is a part of everyones life in modern society and most researches in this area have examined the relation between stress coping strategies and social adjustments in adulthood. More recent studies have indicated that stress related problems are not only limited to adults but children also experience stress. However, relatively little consideration has been given to studying stress coping strategies in childhood, especially the transitional stage from late childhood and early adolescence. This study was designed to investigate the relation between stress coping behavior and social adjustments in late childhood and early adolescence in Korea. Total 657 teenagers (238 ten-year-olds, 230 twelve-year-olds, and 189 fourteen-year-olds) were participated from Inchon, Korea. 50.7% of the subjects were boys. Each child was evaluated whether they cope either (a) defensively or (b) actively in several stressful domains by completing the Stress Coping Rating Scales (Korean). Their social adjustments were measured in areas like peer relationship, family relationship, and conformity with Social Adjustment Scales (Korean). Stress Coping Rating Scales and Social Adjustment Scales were developed in Korea and the validity of the scales were tested with many Korean samples. The final examination scores were used to rate childrens Academic Achievements. Finally Korean version of Achenbachs Child Behavior Check List were completed by parents. With these data the following questions were asked. 1. Are there sex differences in childrens stress coping behavior and social adjustments? 2. Are there age differences in childrens stress coping behavior and social adjustments? 3. Are individual differences in childrens stress coping behavior related to parental variables? 4. What are the relationship between childrens stress coping behavior and social adjustment, academic achievements and problem behaviors?