engleski

How do European Adolescents Cope with Everyday Stress? A four Nation-Study with Youths from Germany, Croatia, Estonia and Portugal

Do adolescents from different European countries and cultures differ or resemble in their coping with minor everyday stressors? Different tradition, socialization and economical systems on the one hand but increasing globalisation and Europeanization on the other hand raise the question whether young people are featured more by cultural uniqueness or universal structures of thinking and acting when facing everyday stress. The data base is an overall sample of 1010 adolescents from Germany, Estonia, Croatia and Portugal. Subjects were between 12 and 19 years of age. Coping was measured by the Coping Across Situations Questionnaire (Seiffge-Krenke, 1995), investigating coping behaviour in seven age-specific problem domains: school, future, parents, peers, leisure time, romantic relationships and self. Additionally to age and gender, information about parental marital status and the SES was gathered. Three coping styles, namely active coping, internal coping and withdrawal, were identified in all four samples. ANOVAs revealed age- and gender effects in coping style, depending on type of stressor and culture. Whereas Croatian and Portuguese adolescents turned out to exhibit similar modes of coping, highest levels of active coping were found among German adolescents and withdrawal was more characteristic for young people from Estonia. In general however, results illustrate the more universal than culture specific character of coping behaviour in adolescence.

Adolescence; Coping behaviour; Minor stressors

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