engleski

Adolescent coping with everyday stressors: A seven nation-study with youth from Central, Eastern, Southern and Northern Europe

This study focuses on the question whether adolescents from different European countries and cultures differ or resemble in their use of coping strategies in dealing with everyday stressors. Different tradition, religious beliefs, socialisation and economical systems on the one hand but increasing globalisation and Europeanization on the other hand raise the exciting question whether young people are featured more by cultural uniqueness or universal structures of thinking and acting. The data base is an overall sample of 3599 adolescents from Germany, Norway, Italy, Portugal, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. Subjects were between 12 and 20 years of age. Coping was measured by the Coping Across Situations Questionnaire (Seiffge-Krenke, 1995). Additionally to age and gender, information about parental marital status, SES and scholar achievement was gathered. Three coping styles, namely active coping, internal coping and withdrawal, were identified in all the cultures. ANOVA’ s revealed age- and gender effects in coping style, depending on type of stressor and culture. High levels of active coping were found in Western European adolescents, whereas internal coping was more characteristic for Northern Europe. Withdrawal was highest for young people from Eastern European countries. Results illustrate universal as well as culture specific elements in the coping process.

Coping; Cross-cultural

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