The aim of this study was to determine whether adolescents’ emotional problems, coping flexibility, age, and stress appraisals account for ways of coping, which include engagement and disengagement ...coping, with academic-, parent-, and peer-related stressful events. Stress appraisals were defined as perceived threats to the psychological needs of relatedness, competence, and autonomy. Models were fit at a higher order level, indicated by adolescents’ appraisals and intended ways of coping with stress in three domains (i.e., academic, parent, and peer) and tested at the lower level within each domain. Adolescents (N = 410; age 10–15; Mage = 12.5; 50% girls) reported their emotional problems (combined depressive and anxiety symptoms) and coping flexibility six months prior to completing an analogue task. The task involved viewing six short film clips portraying stressful events (e.g., obtaining a worse than expected exam grade or arguing with a parent) and reporting three stress appraisals and eight ways of coping after each stressor. The ways of coping were analyzed as four composite scores reflecting engagement coping (active coping, self-reliance) or disengagement coping (withdrawal coping, helplessness). In structural equation models, adolescents who appraised more threat reported more withdrawal coping and helplessness but also more active coping and self-reliance. Adolescents with more emotional problems appraised more threat and anticipated using less constructive ways of coping, whereas adolescents higher in coping flexibility intended to use more constructive ways of coping, with these associations sufficiently modeled at the general (across stress domains) level. Improvement in the model fit was found when appraised threat–coping associations were modeled at the lower (specific stressor domain) level, suggesting differences by stressor domain. Age was associated with more self-reliance and helplessness, with self-reliance being specific to parent stressors and helplessness specific to peer stressors.
The way that students cope with the difficulties and setbacks they encounter daily in their academic work can make a material difference to their learning, school success, and capacity to re-engage ...with challenging educational activities. Because of their potential importance to students’ everyday academic resilience, educators and researchers are interested in the development of adaptive and maladaptive ways of coping—both how they improve or deteriorate over students’ educational careers and the factors that underlie their differential development. Using information on self-reports of 5 adaptive and 6 maladaptive ways of coping, collected from 1,018 American third through sixth graders in fall and spring of the same school year, this study examined (1) the normative progression of these 11 ways of coping across fall of third to spring of sixth grade, and (2) whether developmental patterns differed for students with differing motivational resources. A generally stable profile of constructive coping was evident during Grades 3 and 4 (in which adaptive strategies were high and maladaptive responses low), followed by modest improvements across fourth to fifth grades. Marked shifts were apparent across the transition to middle school. Compared to spring of fifth grade, students in fall of sixth grade reported lower levels of all adaptive and higher levels of all maladaptive ways of coping, and this trend persisted across the first year of middle school. Although motivational resources did not produce differing developmental trends, they did seem to organize coping. Highest levels of adaptive coping were found for students high in both personal and interpersonal assets, just as the highest levels of maladaptive coping were found for students high in both personal and interpersonal liabilities. Findings suggest that both motivational and developmental approaches are needed to fully account for patterns of age-graded trends in academic coping across late elementary and early middle school.
Adolescents face many academic pressures that require good coping skills, but coping skills can also depend on social resources, such as parental support and fewer negative interactions. The aim of ...this study was to determine if parental support and parental negative interactions concurrently and longitudinally relate to adolescents’ ways of academic coping, above and beyond the impact of three types of academic stress, students’ achievement at school (i.e., grades in school), and age. Survey data were collected from 839 Australian students in grades 5 to 10 (
M
age
= 12.2,
SD
= 1.72; 50% girls). Students completed measures of support and negative interactions with parents; academic stress from workload, external pressure (teachers/parents) to achieve, and intrapsychic pressure for high achievement; and ways of academic coping that were grouped into two positive and two negative types. Hypothesized associations were tested concurrently and from one year to the next using path modeling. Beyond the numerous significant influences of academic stress and achievement on coping, and control for age and COVID-19 timing, adolescents with more parental support reported more use of engagement coping (e.g., strategizing) and comfort-seeking, whereas those who reported more negative interactions with parents reported more use of disengagement coping (e.g., concealment) and escape. In the longitudinal model, parental support predicted an increase in engagement and comfort-seeking and a decrease in disengagement coping, whereas negative interaction with parents predicted an increase in disengagement coping. Overall, the findings support the view that coping with academic stressors will continue to depend on parent-adolescent relationships even into the teen years.
A Guide to Constructs of Control Skinner, Ellen A
Journal of personality and social psychology,
09/1996, Letnik:
71, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
An integrative framework, designed to organize the heterogeneous constructs related to "control", is based on 2 fundamental distinctions: (a) objective, subjective, and experiences of control; and ...(b) agents, means, and ends of control. The framework is used to analyze more than 100 terms, such as
sense of control, proxy control,
and
primary control.
It is argued that although many terms reflect aspects of perceived control (both distinct and overlapping), some are more usefully considered aspects of objective control conditions (e.g., contingency), potential antecedents of perceived control (e.g., choice), potential consequences (e.g., secondary control), sources of motivation for control (e.g., mastery), or other sources of motivation (e.g., autonomy). Implications for theory, measurement, research, and intervention are explored.
We introduce the umbrella construct of “motivational resilience and vulnerability in school” and explain how this special section contributes to initial field building efforts aimed at integrating ...complementary work on motivational, regulatory, developmental, and social processes that foster the academic development of children and youth.
Secondary Control Critiqued Skinner, Ellen A
Psychological bulletin,
11/2007, Letnik:
133, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
In an insightful review on secondary control,
B. Morling and S. Evered (2006)
argued that the seminal article spawning the construct (
F. Rothbaum, J. R. Weisz, & S. S. Snyder, 1982
) contained the ...roots of two distinct conceptualizations focusing on "fit" and "control" and that distinguishing between them clarifies inconsistent research findings. They concluded that the best definition of
secondary control
focuses on fit. The author of the current commentary agrees with Morling and Evered's premises but draws the opposite conclusion. Herein, it is argued that (a) current control-focused definitions have more valid claims to the term
secondary control
, and (b) current incarnations that focus on "fit" are important, but they are not secondary and they are not control. Hence, fit-focused constructs should be liberated from the domain of control and studied in their own right, under their own more appropriate label, such as
accommodative processes.
Moreover, theoretical clarity and depth regarding the functions of fit-focused processes can be gained by examining these processes in relation to other underlying motives, such as belongingness or autonomy, to which they are more closely allied.
Background
Science in the Learning Gardens (henceforth, SciLG) program was designed to address two well-documented, inter-related educational problems: under-representation in science of students ...from racial and ethnic minority groups and inadequacies of curriculum and pedagogy to address their cultural and motivational needs. Funded by the National Science Foundation, SciLG is a partnership between Portland Public Schools and Portland State University. The sixth- through eighth-grade SciLG curriculum aligns with Next Generation Science Standards and uses school gardens as the milieu for learning. This provides the context to investigate factors that support success of a diverse student population using the motivational framework of self-determination theory.
Results
This study reports results from 113 students and three science teachers from two low-income urban middle schools participating in SciLG. Longitudinal data collected in spring of sixth grade in 2015 and fall of seventh grade in 2015 for the same set of students included a measure of students’ overall motivational experiences in the garden (that combined their reports of relatedness, competence, autonomy, and engagement and teacher-reports of re-engagement in garden-based learning activities) to predict four science outcomes: engagement, learning, science grades, and science identity. Findings suggest that garden-based activities show promise for supporting students’ engagement and learning in science classes and in fostering students’ interest in pursuing science long-term.
Conclusions
As concern for social justice is growing based on the underachievement of students from minority groups, resurgence of the school garden movement over the last several decades provides an opportunity to tip the scales by engaging students in authentic, real-world learning of science and cultivating their interests in science with holistic garden-based learning. This study highlights the role of students’ views of themselves as competent, related, and autonomous in the garden, as well as their engagement and re-engagement in the garden, as potential pathways by which garden-based science activities can shape science motivation, learning, and academic identity in science. Findings also suggest that the motivational model based on self-determination theory can be useful in identifying some of the “active ingredients”—in pedagogy, curriculum, and social relationships—that engage students in these garden-integrated science learning activities.
The term “contagion” has become increasingly popular as an omnibus catch-all to depict all kinds of mutual influences between people of equal status (or “peers”). We argue that some of these ...influences may qualify as “contagion,” but others denote alternative processes better described, for example, as exchange, transactions, or diffusion. To transform the term contagion from a loose metaphor to a precise and empirically useful concept, we propose that the paradigmatic case of contagious diseases can be used to identify multiple criteria that a social process must meet in order to qualify as contagion. Based on these essential elements, we describe the developmental signature of contagion, contrast contagion pathways with other temporal pathways of influence, and highlight empirical strategies needed to detect contagion. Finally, we conclude that interpretations about the nature of social influences and their labels should follow from (and not precede) empirical identification of the specific mechanisms that orchestrate transmission.
Introduction
Many adolescents are concerned about global and future crises, such as the health of the planet or terrorism/safety. Yet, adolescents can also express hope about the future. Thus, asking ...adolescents about their concern and hope could yield subgroups with different ways of coping and personal adjustment.
Method
Australian adolescents (N = 863; age 10–16) completed surveys to report their concern (worry and anger) and hope about the planet, safety, jobs, income, housing, and technology, as well as their active and avoidant coping, depression, and life satisfaction.
Results
Four distinct subgroups were identified using cluster analysis: Hopeful (low on concern and high on hope across all issues, 32%), Uninvolved (low in concern and hope; 26%), Concerned about the Planet (CP, 27%), and Concerned about Future Life (CFL, 15%). When compared (adjusting for age, sex, and COVID timing), the CP subgroup was highest in active coping (e.g., taking action) but moderate in personal adjustment. Hopeful had the most positive adjustment, whereas CFL had the poorest adjustment. Uninvolved were lowest in coping but moderate in adjustment.
Conclusions
Findings suggest ways of coping and adjustment may not always align, in that CP is connected with more active coping but also some cost to personal adjustment, whereas Hopeful is associated with optimal adjustment but perhaps at the cost of active coping. In addition, although CFL adolescents emerged as the at‐risk group, the low levels of hope and coping in Uninvolved adolescents raise the possibility that they are at risk of future problems.
Abstract We examined adjustment problems as risks for patterns of emotions, appraisals, and coping with rejection, and explored whether these processes could account for sex (boy/girl) differences in ...coping. Young adolescents ( N = 669, grades 6–8) completed questionnaires, which assessed responses to peer rejection threat with two short scenarios. Using structural equation modeling to test a multivariate process model, adolescents with heightened social anxiety had the most maladaptive responses to rejection threat, including elevated emotional reactions, more self-blame, and coping using more social isolation, rumination and opposition. Adolescents reporting more depressive symptoms felt less control and anticipated using less adaptive coping (less support seeking, distraction, and negotiation), whereas aggressive adolescents responded with more anger and coped via opposition. Moreover, as anticipated, sex differences in coping, symptoms, emotions, and appraisals were found. However, coping differences between boys and girls were mostly nonsignificant after accounting for symptoms, aggression, emotional reactions, and appraisals.
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