Socialization of coping : mothers’ suggestions and modeling influence children’s methods of coping with family stressors

Stressful family interactions are related to increased risk for mental health problems in youth (Conger and Donnellan, 2007). Children may learn how to cope with stressors by observing how their parents cope and through the coping suggestions parents give when children face stressors (Abaied and Rudolph, 2010). The proposed study will examine the relationships among parents’ coping socialization methods and children’s coping strategies in a sample of Latino middle-schoolers and their parents. Analyses will include correlations among informants’ reports of coping strategies and socialization methods, and hierarchical multiple regression analyses of associations between children’s coping strategies and parents’ coping socialization strategies. Parent modeling will be added to the regression first, followed by parent coping suggestions. Expected results and implications will be discussed.