Coping Strategies in Early and Mid-Adolescence: Differences According to Age and Gender in a Community Sample

The way an adolescent handles different internal and external sources of stress depends partially on coping strategies. The aim of this study is to answer the following questions: Do coping strategies vary according to age and gender? And do relationships between coping and mental health vary according to age? Participants in this study consist of a community sample (N = 140; 73 girls and 67 boys, 11 through 15 years of age) in an urban area of the French-speaking part of Switzerland. The population was divided into two groups: a subsample of 70 subjects with a mean age of 12.25 years (early adolescents) and a subsample of 70 subjects with a mean age of 13.75 years (mid-adolescents). Coping was measured by the A-COPE (Patterson & McCubbin, 1987). Findings show that there are less family-oriented coping strategies and more relaxing strategies in mid-adolescents compared to early adolescents. Girls more often use social relationships as well as ventilating feelings and self-reliance, whereas boys more often use leisure. It appears that coping strategies are more useful in mid-adolescents: The buffer hypothesis is confirmed in this latter group, but not in the early-adolescent group.