Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
T
The transition to adulthood is a stressful period of life in which
adolescents cope with various goals and demands. Many youth
experience conflicts with peers and family members; they may
experiment with smoking, alcohol, and drugs; and they may be
faced with dietary problems, engage in sexually risky behavior,
encounter, or it can evolve in the near or distant future, posing a
threat to someone who feels incapable of matching the upcoming
demands with the coping resources at hand. For instance, critical
events at school may have occurred in the past (e.g., failing a class),
which may lead to disappointment, setbacks, or adverse emotions,
or drive recklessly. Educational and psychological interventions or they may happen in the future (e.g., upcoming college entrance
aim to prevent such risk behaviors. However, there is a difference exams), which may lead to stress, anxiety, and uncertainty. In
between prevention and promotion (e.g., Nikitin & Freund, 2008). light of the complexity of stressful episodes, coping cannot be
Coping to prevent adversity is different than coping to promote reduced to either relaxation or fight-and-flight responses. Coping
personal growth (proactive coping). Coping theory can account depends on the timing of demands and the subjective certainty
for this difference and can provide further perspectives that may of the events, among other factors. There are differences between
facilitate the design of interventions (Schwarzer & Luszczynska, reactive, anticipatory, preventive, and proactive coping. Reactive
2006). This article will differentiate proactive coping from coping refers to harm or loss experienced in the past, and anticipatory
preventive coping. It will also provide a broader scope by including coping to inevitable threats in the near future. Preventive coping
reactive and anticipatory coping. refers to uncertain threats in the distant future, whereas proactive
coping involves future challenges that are seen as self-promoting
(see Figure 5.1). In the following, we will describe these four coping
The proactive perspectives in more detail.
adolescent
strives for Reactive coping can be defined as an effort to deal with an
ongoing stressful encounter or one that has already happened.
improving life,
Moreover, it might aim at compensation for or acceptance of
school, or work harm or loss. Examples are loss of a friend, failing an exam,
and builds up having an accident, being criticized by the teacher, or having
resources that been rejected by peers. All of these events have happened in the
ensure progress past with absolute certainty; thus, the individual has to
and quality of compensate for loss or to alleviate harm. Other options might
functioning. entail readjusting goals or searching for meaning. Reactive
coping may be problem-focused, emotion-focused, or social-
relation-focused.
Anticipatory coping can be defined as an effort to deal with
imminent threat. In anticipatory coping, individuals face a critical
event that will occur in the near future. Examples are speaking
in class, a dental appointment, a scheduled job interview, moving
There is a general trend to broaden stress and coping research by
including positive strivings that formerly fell into the domains of
motivation and action theories. The recent broadening of coping FIGURE 5.1
theory might be a reaction to earlier conceptualizations of coping Four Coping Perspectives as a Function
that neglected to include such aspects as goals, purpose, and meaning of Timing and Certainty
(Schwarzer & Knoll, 2003). The notions of mastery, optimization
(Freund & Baltes, 2000), challenge and benefit (Lazarus, 1991), certain
and resource gain (Hobfoll, 1998) are in line with proactive coping
theories (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997; Greenglass, 2002; Schwarzer, reactive coping
2000). People strive for more resources, desire to maximize gains, anticipatory coping
and build up resistance factors either to ward off future crises or
to grow and cultivate their capabilities for their own sake. This proactive coping
forward time perspective helps to balance traditional coping models
that overemphasize the reactive nature of coping. past harm/losses future threats & challenges
FOUR COPING PERSPECTIVES AS
A FUNCTION OF TIMING AND CERTAINTY
preventive coping
Demands in the daily life of teens can either refer to events that
have already happened to them or to events that are about to
happen. A stressful situation can reflect an ongoing harmful uncertain