Coping Strategies in Middle Childhood: The Role of Parental Modeling

Developing effective coping strategies during middle childhood may place individuals on more adaptive developmental trajectories for coping throughout adulthood, yet little is known about how children develop these strategies. This project aims to understand the ways in which parents act as models for their children as they develop coping strategies. Participants included 65 children, aged 8-10 (M = 9.51, SD = .81; 29 females; 93.8% White), and at least one parent (65 mothers; 35 fathers). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between parents’ responses to stress and children’s responses to stress. Cross-sectionally, mothers’ engagement coping was associated with more engagement coping and less involuntary engagement coping in children. Longitudinally, mothers’ disengagement coping predicted higher levels of engagement coping and fewer involuntary responses to stress in children after a six-month follow-up. Results suggest that if adaptive coping strategies are established in parents, it has the potential to benefit children’s coping as well, thus supporting a family-wide approach in skill-building interventions for children.